Front line responders

Whether you have a simple residential telco service or have a large organisation with a correspondingly large managed services contract, it’s most likely that the CSP’s contact centre staff are the front-line responders to any queries or concerns you have. In many cases, they’re the only staff that are responding. In the modern era of […]

Skating on thin ice

“Imagine that it’s Winter, you’re walking in the forest, and you see a frozen pond with a hundred people skating on it. Now, imagine walking past the same pond with nobody, or just one person skating on it. Would you be more likely to go skating on the pond in the first case or in […]

Strategic / contingency planning playbook

“A contingency plan is a plan devised for an outcome other than in the usual (expected) plan.” Websters dictionary. This week we’ve used the metaphors of black swans, elephants in the room and boiling frogs to highlight some of the challenges that could be faced by the OSS industry. Once you’ve gone through your own […]

Strategic planning – elephants in the room

“The ‘elephant in the room’ is something that everyone is well aware of, but they deliberately or subconsciously choose to ignore it. Sometimes we encounter clients who refuse to face the fact that their industry is declining or that something hugely impactful is about to happen.” Alan Iny. There are a number of elephants that […]

Strategic planning – wild cards

“A synonym for ‘wild cards’ in many ways is the Black Swan. We’re talking about unexpected, high impact things. We have to recognize that no matter how much data we have about trends and predictions of what’s going to happen in the future there will still be wild cards.” Alan Iny. OSS are responsible for […]

Using external advisors: Outside knowledge combined with tribal knowledge

“It is unrealistic that any organisation, regardless of size, can have all the expertise they require in constant employ. Sometimes you need expertise or advice that is a little bit niche, or maybe you only need it for a short amount of time. It is just that you don’t want people like me running your […]

OSS product overhaul

“First, explore how to doubt everything you think you know, and remember that all your ideas, even the most successful, are hypotheses within you – and not set in stone. Challenge the boxes that determine how you perceive the world, and think creatively about how you’re defining the specific problems you’re hoping to solve.” Luc […]

Omnichannel

“Omnichannel describes a coordinated, consistent strategy for engaging and interacting with your customers, and potential customers. This can take place at any and every channel touchpoint in the customer journey as shown in the graphic. These channels can include: actual and online stores; kiosks; digital signage; broadcast, electronic and print media; email; gaming consoles; online […]

OSS re-write – Benefits and Insights

This is the fifth in the Complete OSS re-write series of posts and relates to What are the tangible benefits or insights. This series is designed to pose ideas on how the OSS industry could take a Control-Alt-Delete approach to all aspects of delivering operational support, which coincides with the inflection point underway in our industry via […]

OSS re-write – Changing requirements

This is the fourth in the Complete OSS re-write series of posts and relates to Our requirements keep changing. This series is designed to pose ideas on how the OSS industry could take a Control-Alt-Delete approach to all aspects of delivering operational support, which coincides with the inflection point underway in our industry via technologies such as […]

A complete OSS re-write

“The best edit is often a complete re-write. And maybe it’s time to start writing lots of things from scratch.” Peter Thiel (actually a notes essay from Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup – Class 13 lecture). As the URL states, I’m passionate about OSS. But as passionate as I am for current-day OSS, I’m even more […]

What is your OSS worth?

“The only things we spend time and money on are things that we believe are worth more than they cost… If people aren’t buying your product, it’s not because the price is too high. It’s because we don’t believe you enough, don’t love it enough, don’t care enough.” Seth Godin on his blog here. Another […]

Wi-Fi calling OSS

“Ericsson has added the new Wi-Fi calling for multi-device functionality to the existing Ericsson Wi-Fi calling solution. The Ericsson offering comprises product support in Evolved Packet Core (EPC), IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), User Data Management (UDM) and OSS/BSS, as well as system integration services. The functionality is verified and tested end-to-end towards device brands that […]

Spinning off network ops

“Analyst predicts emergence of more shared networks, sees operators separating infrastructure from retail businesses. Major telecoms operators will in future make the decision to separate their network operations from the retail side of the business.” Mary Lennighan quoting John Strand here. Not exactly ground-breaking news, but certainly an interesting concept nonetheless. As noted here almost […]

The carrier OSS ecosystem

Last week here on PAOSS, we presented the double ecosystem OSS model, as shown via the two bands (red and blue) in the diagram below. The outer pairing (red) shows an OSS ecosystem that is provided by the CSP but enhanced by the CSP’s customers and used to run the customers’s e-businesses. Long-time readers will […]

Reaching more OSS customers

In recent weeks, we’ve followed a theme across many blogs here on PAOSS. We’ve looked at a new mode of design, delivery and approach for taking OSS to a much broader market base. The following diagrams demonstrate this new approach visually. Figure 1. above shows the current model, where an OSS vendor sells their tools […]

The OSS Christmas tree

“Digital platforms are worthless without content. They’re shiny sacks with bells and whistles, but without content, they’re empty sacks. It is not about pixels versus print. It is not about how you’re reading. It is about what you’re reading.” Maureen Dowd In a recent post, we talked about the merits of vertical vs horizontal code […]

The Engineering bias

“The engineering bias blinds people to this simple fact. The conventional thinking is that great products sell themselves; if you have great product, it will inevitably reach consumers. But nothing is further from the truth.” Peter Thiel (actually a notes essay from Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup – Class 9 lecture). Distribution is one of an […]

Dominant revenue streams

“Ask your friends what business Google is in and the answer you’ll most likely get is “search.” And they would be wrong. Google is, first and foremost, an advertising company. A full 97 percent of its revenue comes from advertising on its various properties, including YouTube, plus partner sites through its AdSense product. Sure, Google […]

Owning the OSS market

Another set of quotes from Peter Thiel below (actually a notes essay from Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup – Class 4 lecture): “For a company to own its market, it must have some combination of brand, scale cost advantages, network effects, or proprietary technology“ “Brand is a tricky concept for investors to understand and identify in […]