"A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them." John C. Maxwell If you work on an OctopOSS of any significant size, you will get whacked by an unexpected tentacle at some point in time. Do you and your team have a process for fixing problems when they arise? Gerald A. Michaelson suggests…
Read More »“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity” Albert Einstein There are many things that spawn my passion for OSS, but the strongest reason is brilliantly encapsulated in Einstein's quote above. There are a loooooong list of difficulties with OSS in their current form: They have many layers of complexity They are time consuming to implement They are expensive to implement They often don't deliver on desired outcomes…
Read More »"The fun stuff comes when someone is not so strict on sticking to the script. You're allowed the spontaneity, and great moments can happen." Jennifer Aniston A continual improvement exponent will tell you to "Repeat the script for things that work well. Re-write the script for things that don't." Sage advice in many situations and also demonstrated by the fact that there are many Pre-defined OSS…
Read More »“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it ... he who doesn't ... pays it.” Albert Einstein As Einstein stated, compound interest is a powerful force. I'm also a big believer that learning also compounds. The more you learn, the more you're able expand that learning and the broader connections you're then able to make. The earlier you start,…
Read More »"One man's transparency is another's humiliation." Gerry Adams Social media gives everyone's voice a loud-speaker. Sites like Wikileaks take the exposition of secrets to a new level. There is almost nowhere left to hide. But why hide? Transparency and honesty make customers and employees more comfortable and trusting in what you have to offer. The CSPs have traditionally not wanted to expose any issues effecting service…
Read More »"Screw it, let's do it" Richard Branson Whether you're representing a CSP, a vendor or an enterprise organisation, your OSS probably has some flaws that need to be beaten into shape. Or maybe you have a particular module that needs to be added or heavily modified. Many companies have tried to implement change in their OSS but have been whacked by the OctopOSS and are scared…
Read More »"I've concluded a great message at its essence packs four complementary purposes into one powerful whole: It connects with other people based on their values (C), rewards (R) them with a benefit they seek, asks for a specific action (A) to get that benefit, and sticks with us in a memorable (M) way." Katya Andresen on LinkedIn When it comes to OSS consultancy, implementation, sales, etc…
Read More »"There is so much anger, distrust, greed, and pettiness that we are losing our capacity to work well together." Margaret J. Wheatley An entrepreneur can have a level of greed - the desire to bring a new product to market and see it used by as many customers as possible, without being exploitative. There is a justified but greedy desire to churn as many users as…
Read More »"Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature's inexorable imperative." H. G. Wells The theory of evolution states not survival of the strongest, but survival of the most adaptable, like the crocodile. Most broad-featured OSS products are highly adaptable/customisable straight out of their shrink-wrapping. A CSP must be careful not to implement highly specialised customisations that reduce the amount of adaptability available. The customisations may tailor…
Read More »"The person who knows how will always have job. The person who knows why will always be his boss" Alanis Morissette The world of an OSS has many compartments. If you know how (ie you become proficient) in one of those compartments, you probably have a niche that not many people will share, reducing competition for that job. But if you have a broad enough understanding…
Read More »"The future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious." John Scully Many recent runaway success stories have built upon the co-creation model and the associated network effect. Organisations such as Twitter, Facebook, Ebay, Wikipedia and many others have not built the content, but have built platforms on which many people can contribute and create their own "customer" experiences. Like megaphones spreading their own…
Read More »"My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions." Peter Drucker. Whether working for the OSS vendor, the CSP or the enterprise, the best OSS consultants share many commonalities with innovators. In The Innovator's DNA, five “discovery skills” are identified that distinguished innovators from non-innovators. These same five traits are necessary for OSS Consultants. Innovators ask questions that challenge the…
Read More »"Employees are a company's greatest asset - they're your competitive advantage. You want to attract and retain the best; provide them with encouragement, stimulus, and make them feel that they are an integral part of the company's mission.." Anne M. Mulcahy. All great employees are effectively free because they add more value than what they cost. This is especially true in OctopOSS land. Whether you're an…
Read More »"I love the unknown. I love the discovery of what will be happening and just kind of sitting back and not knowing." Jennifer Aniston Okay, I must start by admitting that the quote above is used partly because it came from Jennifer Aniston, but don't let that detract from the point. :) Part of the thrill of the OSS industry is because it is still relatively…
Read More »"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…
Read More »"As a result of epochal shift of power in the marketplace from seller to buyer, the customer is now in charge. We now live in the age of customer capitalism. Making money and corporate survival now depend not merely on pushing products at customers but rather on delighting them so that they want to keep on buying. To prosper, firms must have knowledge workers who are…
Read More »"The apprenticeship of difficulty is one which the greatest of men have had to serve." Samuel Smiles One of the mistakes most CSPs make when implementing a new OctopOSS is underestimating the time it takes for their operators to come up to speed with their new tools, particularly if they've never had an OSS before. Some very clever, experienced telecommunications operatives take as much as twelve…
Read More »“Are these guys really Robin Hood and his Merry Men as they claim, or Genghis Khan and the Mongol hordes?” Robert Miller The concept of swarm engineering, using many capable but cheaper resources to swarm onto discrete pieces of a complex, lengthy task and deliver a faster, cheaper outcome has its merits. There are many discrete pieces of your OctopOSS that could be done by resources…
Read More »"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge." Daniel J. Boorstin Auto-discovery is a tool of great power in the OSS tool-kit. However, there are a few things to keep in mind when planning this part of your OctopOSS: You don't want auto-discovery to auto-populate your OSS database. There are too many misleading events that appear like an inventory…
Read More »"I don't believe you outsource your convictions and principles to people." Jeb Bush When there are under-developed countries generating hundreds of thousands of highly educated engineers, developers, analysts, etc each year who will deliver at a fraction of the labour rates of the developed world. This provides a massive shift of opportunity for CSPs and vendors. Some people see the advantages (relatively cheap labour to build…
Read More »"Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status." Laurence J. Peter In the past all CSPs were big and their associated OctopOSS were also big. Many million dollars big. But those projects were also complex, time consuming and often delivered little of what they originally intended. It is interesting that enterprise-grade OSS tools are increasingly being snuck in…
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