Passionate About OSS Blog | Passionate About OSS and BSS

Are we better off waiting for OSS technology to catch up?

Yesterday's post discussed Dave Duggal's concept of 20th century OSS being all about centralizing command and control to gain efficiency through vertical integration and mass standardization, whilst 21st century OSS are about decentralization – gaining efficiency through horizontal integration of partner ecosystems and mass customization. We talked about transitioning from a telco market driven by economies of scale (the 20th century benchmark) to a "market of…

23/10/2018 No Comments

Extending the OSS beyond a customer’s locus of control

"While the 20th century was all about centralizing command and control to gain efficiency through vertical integration and mass standardization, 21st century automation is about decentralization – gaining efficiency through horizontal integration of partner ecosystems and mass customization, as in the context-aware cloud where personalized experience across channels is dynamically orchestrated. The operational challenge of our time is to coordinate these moving parts into coherent and…

22/10/2018 No Comments

OSS feature parity. A functionality arms race

OSS Vendor 1. "I have 1 million features." (Dr Evil puts finger in mouth) OSS Vendor 2. "Yeah, well I have 1,000,001 features in my OSS." This is the arms-race that we see in OSS, just like almost any other tech product. I imagine that vendors get into this arms-race because they wish to differentiate. Better to differentiate on functionality than price. If there's a feature…

19/10/2018 No Comments

Pitching an OSS? Don’t call it OSS.

""If you asked me how to sell cybersecurity, I wouldn't call it cybersecurity." The raw truth of the statement hit me like a lightning bolt between the eyes. Cybersecurity might loosely describe what we do, and we tell people it's what we're selling, but it's not what people buy. Safety. Assurance. Peace of mind. Confidence. These are the kinds of things that people buy, concepts which…

18/10/2018 No Comments

The Chessboard Analogy. An OSS Solution in its Connections

Imagine for a moment that you're sitting in front of a pristine chess board, awaiting the opportunity to make your first move. All of the pieces have been exquisitely carved from stone, polished to a sheen. The rules of the game have been established for centuries, so you know exactly which piece is able to move in which sequences. Time to make the opening move. You've…

17/10/2018 No Comments

Would an EoL be beneficial for OSS?

In the world of networking, it's common for devices to go EOL (end-of-life). Capital spend and depreciation models are based around refresh cycles of around 5-7 years. Vendors reinforce this refresh cycle by designing obsolescence into maintenance, support and part supplies. Customers tend to simply submit to the risk of having no vendor support by buying the next generation replacements. But how often do you hear…

16/10/2018 No Comments

The future of work and its impact on OSS

Many years ago, I worked on a seriously big OSS transformation for one of the region's biggest telcos. Everything was big on the project, the investment, the resources, the documentation. Everything except the outcomes. There was so much inefficiency that I often spoke about making one day of progress for every ten on site. Meetings, bureaucracy, impossible approval cycles, customer re-organisations, over-analysis, etc all added up…

15/10/2018 No Comments

OSS – like a duck on a pond

Let's start with a basic question. "What does an OSS need to do?" The basic answer is, "make operations easier." The real answer(s) is so much more nuanced than that of course. The term easier can also encapsulate other words such as faster, more accurate, more repeatable, cheaper, etc. Designing, building, operating and maintaining a sizable network is extremely challenging, despite network operators around the world,…

12/10/2018 No Comments

OSS Road-itecture. Part-roadmap, part-architecture

A post from earlier this week discussed a less risky, dependency-reduced, stepping-stone transformation approach. It contrasted with the big-bang delivery model that's often proposed on OSS projects. Taking the same train of thought, have you noticed how often architects (including myself) come up with an end-state view of what an OSS, or IT, or networks will be? Have you also noticed that they often seek to…

11/10/2018 2 Comments

OSS / BSS supplier list updated

We've just added a bunch of additional suppliers to our OSS and BSS product / vendor list. There are now over 200 entries in the table. Check it out here: https://passionateaboutoss.com/vendors-products/ Who have we missed??

09/10/2018 No Comments

For fear of OSS investment

Friday's post discussed three analogies about the challenges of performing an OSS pivot. The biggest challenge in initiating the transformation / replacement of any significant OSS is fear. There are many OSS out there whose "owners" want to change and need to change... but fear changing because a significant pivot would mean a "sell the farm" decision. The fear is completely understandable. These are highly complex…

08/10/2018 No Comments

Do the laws of physics prevent you from making an OSS pivot?

As you already know, the word pivot has become common in the world of business, particularly the world of start-ups. It's a euphemism for a significant change in strategic direction. In the context of today's post, I love the word pivot because it implies a rapid change in direction, something that's seemingly impossible for most of our OSS and the customers who use them. I…

05/10/2018 No Comments

Global OSS/BSS Market to surpass $50bn by 2024

Global OSS/BSS Market to surpass $50bn by 2024: predicts Global Market Insights, Inc. OSS/BSS Market share is estimated to cross USD 50 billion by 2024, according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc. The OSS/BSS market is propelled by the increasing trend of outsourcing services in the telecom industry. As telecommunication service providers grapple with the increasing amount of data, they also need…

05/10/2018 No Comments

Build an OSS and they will come… or sometimes not

Build it and they will come. This is not always true for OSS. Let me recount a few examples. The project team is disconnected from the users - The team that's building the OSS in parallel to existing operations doesn't (or isn't able to) engage with the end users of the OSS. Once it comes time for cut-over, the end users want to stick with what…

04/10/2018 No Comments

Falsely rewarding based on OSS existence rather than excellence

There's a common belief that most jobs see people rewarded for presence rather than performance. That is, they're encouraged to be on site from 9am to 5pm rather than being given free reign over their work schedules as long as key outcomes are met / exceeded. In OSS vendor / product selection there's a similar concept. Contracts are often awarded based on existence rather than excellence.…

02/10/2018 No Comments

PLDT signs with Amdocs

PLDT, AMDOCS SIGN NEW AGREEMENT TO TRANSFORM PLDT AND SMART’S IT INFRASTRUCTURE. The six-year managed IT infrastructure deal is in addition to the seven-year master transformation service agreement Amdocs signed with PLDT and Smart in Jan 2018 Leading telecommunications and digital service provider PLDT, and Amdocs, a provider of software and services to communications and media companies, announced that they are expanding their strategic partnership under…

01/10/2018 No Comments

OSS automations – just because we can, doesn’t mean we should

Automation is about using machines / algorithms to respond faster than humans can, or more efficiently than humans can, or more accurately than humans can... but only if the outcomes justify the costs. When it comes to automations, it's a case of, "just because we can, doesn't mean we should." The more complex the decision tree you're trying to automate, the higher the costs and therefore…

01/10/2018 No Comments

OSS implementation, but without the dependencies

One of the challenges with getting a new OSS or OSS transformation project completed can be the large number of dependencies that can cause momentum gridlock. If you're looking to deliver business value in one big-bang, which is a really common approach to delivering OSS projects, then you end up juggling many different activities and hoping they all align at the right times. I've noticed that…

28/09/2018 No Comments

OSS that are profitable, difficult, or important?

"Apple became the first company to be worth a trillion dollars. They did that by spending five years single-mindedly focusing on doing profitable work. They’ve consistently pushed themselves toward high margin luxury goods and avoided just about everything else. Belying their first two decades, when they focused on breakthrough work that was difficult and perhaps important, nothing they’ve done recently has been either... Profitable, difficult, or…

27/09/2018 No Comments

OSS project stalled? Cancel it

"When a project appears to be in limbo, in a permanent holding pattern, where sunk costs meet opportunity costs, where no one can figure out what to do… Cancel it. Cancel it with a week’s notice. One of two things will happen: A. A surge of support and innovation will arrive, and it won’t be stuck any more. B. You’ll follow through and cancel it, and…

26/09/2018 No Comments

OSS holds the key to network slicing

"Network slicing opens new business opportunities for operators by enabling them to provide specialized services that deliver specific performance parameters. Guaranteeing stringent KPIs enables operators to charge premium rates to customers that value such performance. The flip side is that such agreements will inevitably come with tough contractual obligations and penalties when the agreed KPIs are not met...even high numbers of slices could be managed without…

24/09/2018 No Comments

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