Last week we discussed a sell-side co-op business model. Today we’ll look at buy-side co-op models.
In other industries, we hear of buying groups getting great deals through aggregated buying volumes. This is a little harder to achieve with products that are as uniquely customised as OSS. It’s possible that OSS buy-side aggregation could occur for operators that are similar in nature but don’t compete (eg regional operators). Having said that, I’ve yet to see any co-ops formed to gain OSS group-purchase benefits. If you have, I’d love to hear about it.
In OSS, there are three approaches that aren’t exactly co-op buying models but do aggregate the evaluation and buying decision.
The most obvious is for corporations that run multiple carriers under one umbrella such as Telefonica (see Telefonica’s various OSS / BSS contract notifications here), SingTel (group contracts here), etisalat, etc. There would appear to benefits in standardising OSS platforms across each of the group companies.
A far less formal co-op buying model I’ve noticed is the social-proof approach. This is where one, typically large, network operator in a region goes through an extensive OSS / BSS evaluation and chooses a vendor. Then there’s a domino effect where other, typically smaller, network operators also buy from the same vendor.
Even less formal again is by using third-party organisations like Passionate About OSS to assist with a standard vendor selection methodology. The vendors selected aren’t standardised because each operator’s needs are different, but the product / vendor selection methodology builds on the learnings of past selection processes across multiple operators. The benefits comes in the evaluation and decision frameworks.