Passionate About OSS Blog | Passionate About OSS and BSS

How to revolutionise telco Customer Satisfaction via an OSS-led Mindset Shift

Just a word of warning. This article is quite long. However, it contains a message that I feel really strongly about.... as you'll see. Change is a funny thing. Sometimes we love it. Sometimes we hate it. Sometimes we're inspired by it. Sometimes we're in fear of it. Sometimes we know we desperately need to change, but still can't bring ourselves to do anything about it. The…

08/02/2023 No Comments

There are 2600+ things on our mind. What’s on your mind?

Through Passionate About OSS, we've created well over 2,600 articles that share ideas, tips, techniques and stories about the OSS industry (ie sharing what's on our mind). However, recent articles about a shortage of end-user empathy in OSS / BSS / telco have highlighted that we also don't ask enough questions about what's on your mind and other readers like you. This is particularly true of…

01/02/2023 No Comments

Uncovering Hidden Gems: How an Unexpected Technique Unlocked Surprising Insights

It's funny how you sometimes unlock powerful work techniques without intending to isn't it? So powerful that they become an important part of the way you work on future OSS/BSS projects. Or perhaps just an incisive tool that you pull out of your kit-bag in certain situations. A few years ago I was helping a client to develop a 5-year plan and associated product roadmap. We…

31/01/2023 No Comments

Telcos have 3 enduring assets. They might not be what you think. They’re almost definitely undervalued

Have you pondered what the greatest assets are for telcos with their current business models? We recently looked at their Fundamental telco differentiators but what about assets / strengths? Some may cite factors such as network infrastructure, spectrum, intellectual property (IP) or employees (and I'll always include OSS/BSS in this list naturally). These might all be assets, but I don't necessarily equate these to enduring advantages…

27/01/2023 No Comments

What changes would you implement to make the OSS/BSS industry more valuable?

How valuable is the OSS / BSS industry do you think? How would you measure it? How would the market measure it? Have you ever pondered these questions? By extension, have you also wondered how to make it more valuable? Or perhaps how to make certain players within it more valuable? If you have, would you apply a technical lens to making OSS companies more valuable?…

20/01/2023 No Comments

Is innovationism, not capitalism, driving the decline in telco?

It's a completely silly question to ask you whether you've noticed that the world of OSS is changing rapidly isn't it? Of course you've already noticed that it has and is. Do you already have plans to learn new concepts to help you adapt to those changes in 2023? If so, are you thinking about learning more about technology? Maybe a new programming language? Maybe a…

14/01/2023 No Comments

Does your Telco/OSS/BSS world feel like a Zero Sum Mental Model? There may be another way!

Do you ever get that feeling that your mental models of the telco / tech / OSS/BSS worlds are different to those of almost everyone else? Do you feel like there are the status-quo approaches that are kind of proven, but still not really as good as they could be? That there must be even better approaches? I feel deeply embedded in this industry, but due…

09/01/2023 No Comments

Fundamental telco differentiators… flipped on their heads

When you think about fundamental differentiators for telcos, what factors come to your mind? Perhaps it is one of the following (with a typical description of that differentiation factor provided): Coverage: Operators with extensive coverage (ie fixed-line footprint and/or mobile coverage) may have an advantage over those with limited coverage areas Network quality: Operators with faster, more reliable networks may be more attractive to customers Customer…

05/01/2023 No Comments

OSS User Interfaces or User Interactions? GUIs or MUIs?

The cool part of this time of year, the holiday period, is that it prompts you to look backwards and look forwards. To be honest, writing articles here on the blog prompts me to do that throughout the year too, but there does tend to be a bit more downtime for reflection around the boundary of one year closing and another just starting afresh. ChatGPT's latest…

02/01/2023 No Comments

The tree analogy – a tale of two eras of telco business models

With the holidays almost upon us in many parts of the world, I thought I'd share an analogy. Like many analogies, it's a bit oversimplified. It's also possibly a bit inflammatory in some circles. Hopefully though, it gives a different frame of reference for how the telco business model has changed over the years. More importantly, it gives a different point of reference for how telcos…

21/12/2022 No Comments

A seismic shift is happening

A seismic shift is happening that will change the world of OSS/BSS so fundamentally in the next few years that it totally blows my mind. It will be the biggest in my 20+ year career in the telco industry. The following pic is from an IA Summit Keynote by Charles Lamanna, the Corporate VP of Business Apps & Platforms at Microsoft. He leads the development of…

14/12/2022 No Comments

How virtualisation has changed the rules for network inventory

Back in the days when I first started working on OSS/BSS projects (the year 2000), I fell in love first with network inventory solutions. I loved being able to pick through all the data coming from various different inventory data sources (mostly element management systems, direct from devices and east-west systems such as service order management and address / number management tools) Those were the days…

12/12/2022 No Comments

The anecdote where OSS, our new website, my new book and the cannabis industry overlaps

I can see it now. This post is going to get quite a bit off-topic before looping back around to there being an OSS moral-of-the-story. Before that, we’ll touch on a few slightly more tangential topics. Strap yourself in. The ride’s going to get a bit bumpy. As you saw in an earlier post, my next book, “Digital Transformation: Simplified” is in the final stages of…

09/12/2022 No Comments

Automation at the 5G Network Edge

Thought I’d share some information about a 5G Edge Automation project I’ve been assisting with in recent months – in collaboration with luminaries such as EnterpriseWeb (project lead), KX, Intel, Keysight, Tech Mahindra, Red Hat and Fortinet. KX has just shared a blog article, which includes the following quote that helps to summarise why I’m really excited to be helping the team (in a small way). With…

07/12/2022 No Comments

Have you figured out what questions to ask your big OSS/BSS data?

TM Forum holds an absolute treasure-trove of information about the OSS industry, contributed by many leading thinkers. With over 2,500 articles, some are widely known / discussed and others are hidden gems, it holds an amazing repository of knowledge about our industry. Today I landed on an article called, “GB979A Big Data Analytics Use Cases.” For someone as fascinated by OSS/BSS data as me, it certainly piqued…

01/12/2022 No Comments

There’s no competition for OSS cookbooks making food out of soccer balls

Seth Godin recently wrote a brilliant article that describes the craziness of seeking a market with no competition. In entirety, his article goes like this: “There’s no competition for cookbooks on making food out of soccer balls and hockey pucks. There’s no competition for software that charges you to find out the temperature on Mars. There’s no competition for a service that counts how many pairs of shoes…

23/11/2022 No Comments

The most addictive drug in OSS

I’ve spent the last 22-ish years working on OSS and even longer on telco projects. Most of that time has involved way more than the typical 40 hour work week (often more than double). But the amazing thing is that it’s (almost) never felt like it. Time has almost always seemed to fly by so quickly when I work on OSS projects. I happily perform many…

11/11/2022 No Comments

How to buy or sell an OSS/BSS (the company, not the product). Conducting Due Diligence

Co-authored with Logan Laux of Verdant Advisers. Have you ever wondered about the process of buying or selling an OSS or BSS company? Are you potentially even thinking of buying or selling an OSS/BSS / telco / tech company? It’s not an event that happens very often, but given the amount of fragmentation in the OSS/BSS industry, M&A (Mergers & Acquisitions) happen more often than you may…

10/11/2022 No Comments

My new book is arriving soon!

I've just about finished writing my next book (way later than intended due to large client project load this year). This one includes 50+ techniques to simplify Digital Transformations (mostly through the lens of OSS transformations).I'd love to get your thoughts about the 2-3 things that I absolutely MUST cover in the book! Leave us your thoughts in the comments section below.

04/11/2022 No Comments

The Football Analogy – How a kid with a ball shows telcos what to do next

Back when I was a little kid, not many of my classmates had footballs. The kid with the ball decided what game was played and who could play. They owned the key asset. The right to play. The other kids were drawn to the game because the asset was unique. These days, the balls are ubiquitous. Almost every kid has more than one. Our kids have…

27/10/2022 No Comments

Exciting week for augmented ways of working in telco

Last week was kind of exciting (and a bit manic!). As well as working on a tech due-diligence (DD) and an important client OSS/BSS roadmap, I had the chance to witness some important steps in the progression on telco Augmented Reality (AR) use-cases. On the software side, we already have many exciting use-cases lining up where AR and OSS cross-enrich each other: Field worker assist -…

24/10/2022 No Comments

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