“Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away”
The Beatles
I was discussing PassionateAboutOSS with a colleague this week when he said something to make me really prick up my ears.
Telecommunications is an increasingly commoditised business model. With that, profit margins are diminishing and with that salaries in the industries are likely to also attract less of a premium than they currently do. So we all have to be looking at stepping up in the value chain to command this premium.
If we take that a step further, it means the CSPs are likely to allocate less funds for major CAPEX projects like OSS implementations. This means that OSS also have to step up in the value chain. They can no longer just be cost centres for efficiently logging all events in the network or service orders. They have to be able to add tangible value to the business and deliver results that align with the CSP’s business objectives.
This might mean being faster to market with new products/services. It might mean being intertwined with new services or business models that provide a competitive advantage over others. It might mean offering functionality like APIs that support partnerships with application, content or service providers that are winning significant market share. It might mean not being an employee but creating the next app or content that goes viral.
It also means they have to become cheaper and faster to implement and then cheaper and faster to operate.
What are you and/or your business doing to step up the value chain?