"Engineers like to solve problems. If there are no problems handily available, they will create their own problems." Dilbert Before embarking on the choice of an OSS, one first needs to consider the fundamental question: what problem are you trying to solve? As an OSS implementer you will undoubtedly need to prepare a compelling business case, in some cases to an audience of sponsors who aren’t…
Read More »“Everything starts with the customer.” Louis XIV It just dawned on me today that OSS requirement definition never seems to start with the customer. It always starts with the CSPs operators and their needs. That sounds logical, since they're the ones who will use it the most. But how many customers have had terrible experiences with their CSP, including the following examples: If a fault exists with…
Read More »"To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail." Abraham Maslow In the case of OSS, our hammer is the computer monitor, keyboard and mouse, which are the weapons of choice for interacting with the OSS tools. But are they the best I/O (Input / Output) devices for performing each of the different CSP operation tasks? A data entry operator…
Read More »“Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.” Oprah Winfrey Other trades have trade-shows where they can demonstrate their ability to be the best. For example, Arborists have shows with tree climbing competitions. Wouldn't it be fun to run similar competitions for OSS operators at our trade-shows? Who is the fastest to resolve a network fault that generates an alarm storm?…
Read More »"It's better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you'll drift in that direction." Warren Buffett How many gun network firefighters write OSS code? And how many gun OSS coders fix CSP networks for a living? And how many business analysts can do both? I'd hazard a guess by saying "few more than none" for…
Read More »“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” Socrates Where is the ubiquitous source of OSS information to help newbies light their fire? Books? Whilst I have seen many fantastic OSS books that fill many hundreds of pages, there is still so much left to be told. Most of these books cover technologies that will soon enough be superseded by the…
Read More »"Garbage In, Garbage Out" Computer Industry Proverb Let me ask you the following questions: Are you having data accuracy problems, particularly in your Outside Plant Network? Are your network operators and planners losing faith in the data stored in your NMS/OSS and having to adopt workarounds that cause further degradation of data integrity? Worse still, are they wasting time on lengthy audits to determine whether the live network matches…
Read More »"An elephant doesn't canter" Proverb Are the CSPs becoming too afraid to make major OSS transformations? Have they tried and failed previously? Have the seen their peers try and fail? Are their OctopOSS just too large, too complex and too unwieldy to make significant upgrades without introducing major cost, schedule, brand and reliability risks? In some cases I believe that all of the above are true.…
Read More »"63% of all statistics are made up... including this one" Dilbert A CSP I know has a detailed set of KPIs assigned to the various parts of its provisioning factory. A key customer of that CSP was given the highest priority of orders through the provisioning factory by the CSP's CEO. But after a year, almost none of the orders had made their way through the…
Read More »"It's never crowded along the extra mile." Dr. Wayne Dyer As a vendor, it's your objective to make the product easier to buy. There are usually many reviewers within a CSP. Understand the reasons why each one of them could say no. Remove the standard reasons that a company can delay. Fear of choosing the wrong product. Large capital outlay that locks into long-term commitment, Lack…
Read More »"Change is good. You go first." Dilbert If you're implementing an OSS, you're already being changed whether you like it or not, as is your organisation. The reason you're implementing an OSS project is because someone somewhere within the organisation thought the change will be for the betterment of the organisation. But it is highly likely that the are people within the organisation who don't want…
Read More »"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today" Abraham Lincoln The term "out of the box" is one that is regularly heard in vendor sales pitches. The term can be convincing to the customer, but conniving to the implementers. In my opinion, there is no such thing as "out of the box" functionality. The term gives the impression that the applications can be installed and the CSP…
Read More »"I think this job in particular allows us all to be Holmes-ian; eccentric and imaginative and creative and to think out of the box. Real life, away from work, requires us to be slightly more Dr. John Watson." Jude Law Implementing an OSS requires both of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's great characters. It requires the imaginative, the creative, the inquisitive, the analytical, the detective that is…
Read More »"An important factor regarding the adoption rate of an innovation is its compatibility with the values, beliefs, and past experiences of individuals in the social system" Everett Rogers Is your company built around being an Innovator or early adopter with regards to network technologies, service offerings, process, etc? If so, what impact does sailing the blue ocean have on your OSS strategy? Whilst OSS vendors generally try to design their…
Read More »“Be faithful to that which exists nowhere but in yourself- and thus make yourself indispensable.” André Gide CSPs have installed Network Management Systems (NMS) to manage their active network equipment, receiving near-real-time data feeds from these devices, allowing the operator to understand their current status. This allows the company to “discover” and manage network assets automatically using the NMS. However for most network operators, they have…
Read More »"If you want to be around in 10 years you've got to do something to differentiate yourself from the pack." Chris Evans In Building a Business Case we indicated examples of the business case models that can be used to build a compelling story for implementing a new OctopOSS, including: Brand security (ie being able to respond to faults expediently and avoid brand damage via major…
Read More »“KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid.” It’s an open acknowledgment of a tendency we all have: to make things much more complicated than they need to be. After all, it’s much more fun – and still leaves room for other addictions, like procrastination, perfection and control – to engage in mental masturbation. (Oh dear, did I just write that!?!? Yes, I did. Maybe it’ll boost my SEO!)"…
Read More »“Every software project that has missed its target date (every single one) is a victim of late thrashing,...The creators didn’t have the discipline to force all the thrashing at the beginning.” Seth Godin So you're starting up your OctopOSS... It's a complex beast, with many different features. It impacts many different parts of the business. It will touch the working lives of many. The many will all…
Read More »Bandwidth is ubiquitous and is becoming increasingly commoditised. So how will the CSPs of the future differentiate and build profitable services? One model is based on content. CSPs could potentially buy the rights to high-value content (eg live football games) and offer this as an exclusive service to their customers (and any new customer that desires access to the content). To take this a step further, premium content…
Read More »"The path to success is to take massive, determined action." Tony Robbins Carriers / service providers potentially have access to a massive amount of data. There is a growing need amongst a CSP's customers for real-time data that is transparent and valuable to their business needs, particularly those that are dependent on communication technologies. CSP's traditional relational databases store information in a structured, pre-defined way. But what…
Read More »To all the network rectification gurus out there, the NOC operators, the fault/assurance teams, I'd like to pose a question. Do you prefer a user interface that is graphical, point and click, has drill-down capability or do you prefer a series of hot-keys so that your quick-fire key-strokes can resolve the issue faster? I personally love the GUI, particularly circuit and network diagramming tools that allow me…
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