The OctopOSS is waiting for new business models itself, but also facilitates new business models for CSPs and their customers
Telco appears to be an increasingly tough industry. Demand for connectivity continues to soar, yet profitability and differentiation are becoming ever more difficult to achieve. The traditional telco playbook – built on infrastructure, scale, and one-size-fits-all services – is collapsing under the weight of commoditisation and digital disruption. Telco services have never been more essential, […]
Yesterday marked a an exciting milestone for the PAOSS business. We made our very first commission payment to an affiliate whose introduction led to a payment arriving in our account (for providing our services). This occasion is far more than a mere financial transaction; it symbolises a significant step in our journey to strengthen our […]
Your OSS is either a catalyst for innovation or a roadblock to progress for your business. The same strategies that built your OSS might now be the reason it’s slowing you down. If your OSS was built for yesterday’s challenges, the question is – will it be ready for tomorrow’s opportunities? Is it time to […]
For decades, OSS has followed the same pattern: design, then keep adding lots more “baked-in” capabilities into a complex OSS UI, process inputs, generate outputs. At incredible scale. We made them faster, (somewhat) more automated, and vastly more scalable. But we never made them think. Until now… If… (we’ll come back to the if shortly). […]
What if your OSS transformation is already outdated before your project even begins and you don’t even know it yet? There’s one overlooked step that separates forward-thinking OSS teams from those stuck in the past. It’s a step that, if not implemented, leaves teams destined to introduce insignificant, incremental changes to their OSS (at best) […]
In 2010, Cloud was a $24 Billion market. Today, it’s $600 Billion. AI is guaranteed to be even bigger. The AI infrastructure boom is building—and telcos must decide if they’re buyers or sellers. Cloud giants built their fortunes by leveraging infrastructure that telcos helped create. Yet, telcos saw only a fraction of the profits. Now, […]
Most entrepreneurs are wired to build from scratch. The idea of founding something original, of bringing a vision to life from the ground up, is deeply embedded in startup culture. But what if this isn’t the smartest way to scratch your entrepreneurial OSS-builder itch? The obsession with starting anew often overlooks a powerful alternative: acquiring […]
We recently discussed how the “Ultimate Game,” a study in behavioural psychology, might help to explain why there tends to be less initial animosity between carriers and open-source OSS vendors compared with proprietary / paid vendors. And like the rest of the buyer/seller chasm series, we also discussed the three main reasons for the lengthy “match-making […]
The great thing about the holiday period is you often get the chance to step away from business as usual (BAU) activities. As customer projects go into a brief hiatus, it clears a little space in the calendar to read and plan for what to do in the year ahead. This book “It’s Not the […]
Last year, we published a series of articles about the chasm that exists between OSS/BSS buyers and sellers. “The chasm” is best exemplified by the situation where: A buyer (eg network operator) desperately wants a new OSS to improve operational efficacy and every seller (eg a software vendor) desperately wants to sell their OSS to […]
In our “chasm” series of articles, we’ve talked about the gap that exists between OSS buyers (eg carriers or network operators) and OSS sellers (eg vendors, integrators, etc). The buyers desperately want new systems to improve their business operations and the sellers desperately want to sell the solutions they create. Why then the 18 month […]
In the last week alone, I’ve had two potent reminders that the world of OSS is simply (pun intended) too complex. This manifests in many ways, but I’ll start with the standards that underpin our industry. The standards bodies do fantastic work. I’m a huge fan. Enormous credit should go out to everyone who has […]
I’ve just finished reading the book, “Elon Musk,” by Walter Isaacson. It’s a fascinating study of a fascinating, and highly polarising engineer. Polarising, but also inspiring (inspiring what to avoid as much as inspiring what one could/should/can do). Musk’s biography cites example after example of his ability to think big, but also think very small […]
One of the things I love about my job is all the vendor demos I get to see. Product demos are one of the four important steps in the “inverted pyramid” vendor selection process we follow with our carrier and utility clients as we go about finding a best-fit new OSS and/or BSS solution for […]
Have you read the book, “The 4-hour work week” by Tim Ferris? It was one of those relatively rare books that inspired a complete mindset shift and new ways of working for me. It’s one of the many books that have nothing to do with OSS (at face value), but have so many learnings for […]
Over the years, we’ve been involved in many OSS procurement events and have seen a variety of different pricing models proposed by vendors. Being software, most vendors have quite a lot of pricing flexibility (others, not so much!). Naturally, pricing models can significantly influence a company’s decision to select one vendor over another so I’m […]
I was listening to a group of telco experts on a podcast the other day. As they were talking, I kept picturing the image of Eeyore – you know, the donkey from A.A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh” stories with an overly pessimistic outlook on life. Sources: https://getwallpapers.com The podcast was just soooo gloomy. Channeling Eeyore, I’ll paraphrase: […]
Earlier in the year, we wrote a series of articles about the chasm that exists between OSS/BSS buyers and sellers (pt1, pt2, pt3, pt4, pt5, pt6). “The chasm” is best exemplified by the situation where a buyer (eg carrier) desperately needs a new OSS and a seller (eg a software vendor) desperately wants to sell their OSS to the […]
Have you noticed that just a few people are writing about AI lately? No? None? Never seen an article about AI? Almost every article I read these days has strong undertones (or overtones) about AI. It’s almost as impossible to miss as when Sam Altman was abruptly ousted from his position by OpenAI’s board of […]
Late last week we published an article, “From Telco to HellCo: I’m the CEO of a large telco. I want to destroy it as fast as I can.” Based on all the feedback, you could say that it seemed to resonate! Using Charlie Munger’s Inversion Technique, we suggested 21 ways to kill off a large […]
Here at Passionate About OSS, we are exactly that – Passionate About OSS (Operational Support Systems). We’re also passionate about BSS, NMS, or any other names you call the tools that help to operationalise your network.
