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
When I first left uni with my freshly minted degrees, whenever I thought of salespeople, I had an image something like the one below in my head. This image might still be true if you’re on the hunt for a used clunker. However, nothing could be further from the truth for the salespeople that make […]
As you will have seen in recent articles, we’re due to release our latest report in a couple of weeks. It’s called, “AIOps of the Future.” During discussions with various people during the preparation of this report, we’ve noticed that some people believe they will get a silver bullet that will resolve most network events […]
With our latest report, “AIOps of the Future: A Definitive Guide” tentatively penciled in for launch in 2 weeks from today, I thought I’d share a concept that kept coming through loud and clear from AIOps vendors and buyers alike – Get the data right! Especially cross-domain data! This has always been true in the […]
Many of the readers of this blog veer towards the technical side of OSS (that includes me too) and therefore we could all do well to consider the old phrase, “Sell the destination, not the transportation.” The phrase originally suggests that a salesperson should highlight the incredible experiences waiting for the prospective traveler in Paris, […]
Large carriers (let’s call them T1’s) tend to approach OSS procurement projects very differently from small to medium sized carriers (let’s call them T2’s). This is mostly driven by budget, or more to the point, how the budget frames the thinking. We’ll also show you how drawing on ideas from the T2 approach can actually […]
I really enjoy the musings of Jason Fried. He blogs over here at 37signals, has written books such as “Re-work” and runs a successful (bootstrapped) software company. I enjoy his musings because they take a much more pragmatic and balanced look at the worlds of software development and business than most. Let’s look at his […]
Linda Evangelista, a supermodel back in the day, was famously quoted as saying, “I don’t get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day.” When conducting vendor selection processes with my clients, I tend to find the “OSS Linda Evangelista number” quite helpful. It’s the minimum dollar amount that a vendor will be prepared […]
Automation is an exciting ambition in the world of digital transformation. Everyone aspires to implement a lot of it. It gives you leverage, allowing you to do more with less. Who wouldn’t want that? There are two main problems with automations though: For many scenarios, the cost of automation outweighs the benefit. Either the benefit […]
There are always many ways to transform your OSS aren’t there? There are always lots of different options to analyse (which can lead to analysis paralysis, but that’s a whole other story). In most cases, there are obvious pros and cons of each different option. Therefore, there are always lots of different opinions on the […]
There’s only one way that OSS and BSS can get better – clients need to invest in them, which in turn convinces vendors to invest in product development. There’s a simple sequence of events: The demonstrable delivery of value by OSS to an organisation, which Justifies the allocation of budget to your organisation’s OSS, and […]
There’s an old parable from Earl Nightingale that I think about every day in terms of the OSS industry and the business operations of Passionate About OSS. Earl was a motivational speaker and author known for his inspiring teachings. He gained prominence in the 1950s and continued his work until his passing in 1989. One […]
Operational Support Systems (OSS) perform many business-critical functions for network operators, as shown in the diagram below. They are the connectors and the profit engine behind any communications network. As indicated above, the assurance flows help to retain revenues and customers. OSS are an insurance policy for a telco’s brand, or at least the technology […]
Our motto at Passionate About OSS is, “Removing complexity from OSS.” Sadly, we’re awash with complexity in our industry. If most OSS were represented as a board game, they’d look something like this: Image sourced from https://technabob.com Would you know how to play this game without instructions? Even if you had instructions, it could take […]
Yesterday’s release of Apple’s Vision Pro virtual reality headsets [actually, they’re not quite here like the headline says yet – apparently they’re becoming available in early 2024] provides just one more piece of evidence that our ways of interacting, communicating and working in telco are set for a transformative shift. Not just in telco, but […]
Over the last year, I’ve been assisting a consortium that includes a number of iconic brands such as Intel, RedHat, Fortinet, Keysight and TechMahindra. More importantly, those elements are underpinned by a powerful closed-loop engine formed by EnterpriseWeb and KX that stands up, observes and optimises a 5G RAN testbed. You can view the test-bed […]
Are you familiar with Geoffrey Moore’s famous, “Crossing the Chasm” concept from his book of the same name? It basically describes the large gap between early adoption of a product and getting it to mainstream utilisation. With the large amount of fragmentation in the OSS/BSS market, there are clearly many products that haven’t been able […]
In the last year, I’ve seen RFP responses worth an accumulated total of well over $1B for network services, systems and such. In almost every case, the carrier buyers have indicated that they’re seeking innovative solutions. That’s the outward-facing commentary at least. But the real, inward-facing story is that they’re just seeking cost-reductions in most […]
Have you ever heard of the concept of a project pre-mortem? Have you ever used the concept on one of your OSS projects? They can be a really useful technique to use prior to embarking on OSS projects. But what are they and how do you use them I can hear you asking. Think of […]
For all of the OSS and BSS vendors out there, I’d like to issue you a challenge. Can one person who’s not yet familiar with your solution (but has pre-requisite skills) set up your OSS / BSS product and demonstrate your product’s most essential use-cases with their own data / configurations and then demo to […]
The previous article in this series, “Telecommunications has reached its burning exchange moment,” highlighted that the current telco business model is at risk. It described how we could be experiencing an era of creative destruction of capital based on the works of Schumpeter and Marx. It also described: Poll results where nearly half of Europe’s […]
