"Blunt knives work the hardest" OSS, when done well, can be a powerful force of efficiency. But when done poorly, or not at all, can be a burden to an organisation. A past customer has invested heavily in OSS over the years, but the tools have become dated and cumbersome. I was amazed to find that many members of the team were attempting separate rubber band,…
Read More »"Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness" Chinese proverb. My first OSS was a massive challenge. Some may have found the project daunting. Actually, many of my colleagues did. But it never felt that way to me for some reason. There were so many things to do that no matter what I worked on, it was getting us incrementally closer to delivery. There…
Read More »"The plan isn't nearly as important as the planning" Keith Rattie in Hit the Ground Running OSS evolve too quickly to have a single authoritative plan. Planning and re-planning are the key, with the resultant plans just way-points along the journey.
Read More »"Part of the challenge of being an entrepreneur, if you're going for a really huge opportunity, is trying to find problems that aren't quite on the radar yet and try to solve those." Sean Parker One of my favourite vendor selection and requirements gathering stories relates to a tender that was run by the Air Ministry in Britain during the 1930s. The aim was to develop…
Read More »“We're just going to have more and more traffic, and more and more congestion. Regardless of whether we decide to go forward with these projects or not, one way or the other, we will pay.” Jacob Snow Okay, so your OSS/BSS can't really protect you from getting the flu, but perhaps it can ease congestion (of your network, rather than your nose). Telecommunications congestion tends to…
Read More »"Don’t try to tell the customer what he wants. If you want to be smart, be smart in the shower. Then get out, go to work and serve the customer!" Gene Buckley. As President of Sikorsky Aircraft, Gene Buckley knows a bit about servicing a specialised field with knowledgeable customers, just like the OSS industry. There are a couple of interesting side notes to his quote…
Read More »"If you’re not serving the customer, your job is to be serving someone who is." Jan Carlzon As much as we may consider CSPs to be the customers of OSS, the real customers are actually the ones using the CSP's services. There is massive change underway for almost all CSPs globally, perhaps with the exception of regulated monopoly carriers. In deregulated markets, voice and data services are…
Read More »"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." Bill Gates. I'd extend this one step further in the world of OSS and look to learn from your competitors's most unhappy customers. Chances are that they're making the same mistakes as discussed in this Toyota Five-Whys Analysis of OSS. It's better to learn from the mistakes of others than just your own because you simply don't…
Read More »"Customers will want to talk to you if they believe you can solve their problems." Jeffrey Gitomer. This article from Ericsson, indicates that CX (Customer Experience)* is key to a CSP's financial performance according to 81% of C-level executives at tier-one carriers in South-East Asia. The article goes on to say, "Nevertheless, 72 % of executives evaluated their current customer experience as being average or poor. (According to the…
Read More »"Everything feels like its on the precipice of some major transformation, whether we like it or not." Sean Lennon. OSS transformation tends to focus on the activities required to take the OSS from current state to a desired future state (naturally). An OSS Transformation is generally planned around the introduction of new tools, processes and/or functionality. It is the future state where a majority of intellectual…
Read More »“Kiss me, and you will see how important I am.” Sylvia Plath. Sylvia Plath's quote elicits a smile. Many an OSS integrator has not "kissed" the network inventory data in their managed network, so they have never had the chance to see how important it is. The raw data coming from the network shows how the network really works, how the customers utilise the network resources…
Read More »"I love when things are transparent, free and clear of all inhibition and judgement." Pharrell Williams. Free fields are often your get out of jail free cards when modelling data in an OSS. They allow you to create the linking keys between domains that would not otherwise exist, where relationships could otherwise not exist. For example, say you have multiple different vendor sub-networks within your network.…
Read More »"We all live every day in virtual environments, defined by our ideas." Michael Crichton Network inventory has always been a fundamental building block of a full-service OSS. Many of today's OSS were designed at a time when inventory was physical, whereby network devices were tangible, physical objects. This made object hierarchies relatively simple - one rack could house multiple devices, each device/chassis could hold multiple cards…
Read More »"A confused mind always says no." If you are seeking to persuade someone, it is essential for your message to be clear and fully understood. If your audience doesn't understand or is uncertain, they are likely to say no rather than being seen to make a mistake. The complexities of OSS implementations make it very easy to confuse your audience - different terminologies/jargon, different domains of…
Read More »"It’s better to be at the bottom of the ladder you want to climb than the top of the one you don’t." Stephen Kellogg. Not sure what's at the top of my ladder exactly, but I do love helping others with their OSS projects and sharing stories about wrestling OctopOSS with other experienced OSS implementers. What's at the top of your ladder?
Read More »"Did you know that 62 percent of employees believe their productivity increases when they work remotely—away from typical office distractions? Yet, only 15 percent say their companies support remote working arrangements" From Microsoft's Work Without Walls whitepaper. Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson of 37signals and co-authors of one of my favourite books, Rework, are currently working on a new book Remote: Office Not Required. I…
Read More »"Employers need to start rethinking their recruiting process, notably in using sophisticated social network search tools to go spear-fishing for high potential talent, rather than waiting for applications to come across the transom. And, managers need to look for the skills that really matter today in high potential young talent, attributes like cognitive load capacity, adaptability and social media skills. That one kid with the high…
Read More »"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional, wait until you hire an amateur" Red Adair It conservatively takes six months for a Telco or IT expert to become valuable* as an OSS implementer (as opposed to an OSS operator). If you're considering implementation of a new OSS and don't have anyone on your team who has significant OSS implementation experience, it is highly recommended…
Read More »"We can change skill levels through training, but we can’t change attitude." Herb Kelleher. Dan Schwabel on Forbes.com asks "Are technical and soft skills less important than attitude?" When it comes to OSS, technical skills are important because there are so many technology elements involved. Technical geniuses are essential for delivering remarkable products and solutions. However, OSS technologies are constantly evolving and each new project is…
Read More »"You must be honest about what you want at a core level and decide to go after it." Martha Beck Every CSP has a vastly different set of requirements from their OSS. Some have non-negotiable requirements that are not relevant to all others. When you're a vendor that services top-end telcos, there aren't many customers available. This leaves you with a dilemma when one of those…
Read More »"To create cool ideas you have to hang around cool people. Magicians and madmen inspire creative thought not pencil-pushers and bean-counters." Don The Idea Guy Snyder in his 100 Whats of Creativity My first OSS project had more "characters" (Magicians and Madmen perhaps?) than all other projects in my 15+ year career combined. Reunions with team members from that project always bring a torrent of weird…
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