OSS Transformation is all about managing change – organisationally, functionally and operationally during in-flight projects. This is the most commonly overlooked factor when planning OSS projects
A recent blog discussed the concept of running fire drills on your OSS to see how your organisation would handle outages. In Monday’s blog, we discussed where OSS customers are going to be and what their requirements are going to look like. The “Telcos as OTT players” model will be hyperscaled and more “transient by […]
“Whilst doing rather than planning has been a hugely successful tactic for entrepreneurs and their investors, before I go any further I want to note that as with everything you can take it too far. To get the best chance of achieving huge success, and avoid getting stuck at a local maxima, a certain amount […]
Today I’d like to share a mistake that I’ve made over and over again in my career. It’s a mistake I’m constantly trying to rectify, and succeeding, but still failing. It’s not just me either. Many of my OSS colleagues fall into the same trap, so there must be something in our nature that makes […]
Time-to-market is an important metric in the Telco vernacular. It’s important because rapid TTM allows one CSP to get an attractive new product out to customers earlier than competitors and all the benefits that go with it (ie rapid revenue turn-on, market share, brand awareness, etc). One of the primary impediments to a product’s TTM […]
“Gartner’s 2016 CIO Survey revealed five key innovation practices that deliver the highest improvement in digital performance: Crowdsourcing, Different metrics, Formal innovation management and work with Startups. Nevertheless according to the same survey, CIOs also indicated that these five innovation were the least used.” Sebastian Barros here. I suspect these CIO findings are also mirrored in the OSS industry. How many […]
“Answers to leading questions under torture naturally tell us nothing about the beliefs of the accused; but they are good evidence for the beliefs of the accusers.” C.S. Lewis. Today I’d like to share a clever strategy used by a clever OSS division head that l once worked with. The team he led was in […]
“Yes, it’s true, almost no one reads the instructions… people are so self-absorbed and hurried that they plunge first. One more reason to build something simple. But at least you can post instructions so that after they fail the first time, they have a shot at getting it right the second time.” Seth Godin. My washing […]
“Companies often see the disruptive forces affecting their industry. They frequently divert sufficient resources to participate in emerging markets. Their failure is usually an inability to truly embrace the new business models the disruptive change opens up. Kodak created a digital camera, invested in the technology, and even understood that photos would be shared online. […]
I once heard a comment from a teacher that, “Sesame Street had a lot to answer for.” Sounds strange on face value because this famous TV program has been educating children for decades. The teacher then went on to state that kids now all expect to be entertained, not just taught. Interesting perspective isn’t it? […]
“Most of us are, by default, in automation mode. We are pattern-seeking animals, and there is immense comfort in the familiar…established systems help to preserve our energy and attention. Things are easier. The cognitive (and emotional) burden of trying to figure out what needs to be done, when and by whom, is minimal, Automation is […]
As you might have noticed, I’m passionate about OSS, what they can do now, what they can do in the future and how they can help organisations prosper in this highly digital era. But one of the things I notice when speaking with the vast number of people directly involved or touched by our industry […]
The picture you see below is of a coin minted by Roman Emperor Titus. It is the visualisation of the oxymoron of Festina Lente, or hasten slowly, where dolphins were known for their speed and the anchor for its stability. In terms of OSS, this is mirrored in the dichotomy of the speed of change […]
In yesterday’s blog, we discussed how the OSS of the future will not just be Operational support systems, instead being Whole of Business support systems (WOBSS?? :)). Anyway, we also discussed that to be relevant to the whole of business, our tools will need to provide: A context that is relevant to the operator (who […]
Last week we discussed whether big OSS was losing relevance and our tools are just operational support systems (little oss). I firmly believe that the future for OSS, a future that already exists in some organisations, is for OSS to produce relevant insights and efficiency far beyond just operational teams. They need to be relevant […]
“My initial reaction to the idea that continuous improvement begets enduring success was ‘makes sense, companies need to reinvent themselves if they want to stay on top for multiple decades and continuous improvement will do that for you’, but that underplays the importance of the point. An insatiable desire for everything to be the best […]
“For the person trying to do everything alone, the game really is over. If you want to do something big, you must link up with others. One is too small a number to achieve greatness. That’s the Law of Significance.” John C Maxwell. In the past, national telcos have been able to achieve greatness alone […]
The diagram below shows what is known as The Whale Curve. It shows a graph of the relative profitability of each product in your product mix. From the book, “Waging War on Complexity Costs,” by Steven A Wilson and Andrei Perumal. You might be wondering how a profitability graph could ever peak at over 100%. […]
I was recently asked how I would go about building up an OSS from scratch. To be honest, I didn’t do a great job of explaining it at the time despite having done it at four tier-1 carriers in the past. Well, not exactly from scratch, as each of these carriers had operated from NMS […]
“…the program “The Brain,” in which Dr David Eagleman, neuroscientist, NYT bestselling author and Guggenheim Fellow shared a fascinating but little known secret…our brains are specifically designed so that we learn on the job – by doing. Dr Eagleman explained that this is why human babies do not have anywhere near the survival skills possessed […]
Jim Rohn coined the term, “The Law of Diminishing Intent,” to speak of the need to take action now rather than later, because if we wait for later it becomes likely that we won’t do it at all. In the context of OSS, The Law of Diminishing Intent is indicative of the enthusiasm an organisation […]
