Fundamental telco differentiators… flipped on their heads

When you think about fundamental differentiators for telcos, what factors come to your mind? Perhaps it is one of the following (with a typical description of that differentiation factor provided): Coverage: Operators with extensive coverage (ie fixed-line footprint and/or mobile coverage) may have an advantage over those with limited coverage areas Network quality: Operators with […]

OSS User Interfaces or User Interactions? GUIs or MUIs?

The cool part of this time of year, the holiday period, is that it prompts you to look backwards and look forwards. To be honest, writing articles here on the blog prompts me to do that throughout the year too, but there does tend to be a bit more downtime for reflection around the boundary […]

The tree analogy – a tale of two eras of telco business models

With the holidays almost upon us in many parts of the world, I thought I’d share an analogy. Like many analogies, it’s a bit oversimplified. It’s also possibly a bit inflammatory in some circles. Hopefully though, it gives a different frame of reference for how the telco business model has changed over the years. More […]

A seismic shift is happening

A seismic shift is happening that will change the world of OSS/BSS so fundamentally in the next few years that it totally blows my mind. It will be the biggest in my 20+ year career in the telco industry. The following pic is from an IA Summit Keynote by Charles Lamanna, the Corporate VP of […]

There’s no competition for OSS cookbooks making food out of soccer balls

Seth Godin recently wrote a brilliant article that describes the craziness of seeking a market with no competition. In entirety, his article goes like this: “There’s no competition for cookbooks on making food out of soccer balls and hockey pucks. There’s no competition for software that charges you to find out the temperature on Mars. There’s no […]

The most addictive drug in OSS

I’ve spent the last 22-ish years working on OSS and even longer on telco projects. Most of that time has involved way more than the typical 40 hour work week (often more than double). But the amazing thing is that it’s (almost) never felt like it. Time has almost always seemed to fly by so […]

My new book is arriving soon!

I’ve just about finished writing my next book (way later than intended due to large client project load this year). This one includes 50+ techniques to simplify Digital Transformations (mostly through the lens of OSS transformations).I’d love to get your thoughts about the 2-3 things that I absolutely MUST cover in the book! Leave us […]

Exciting week for augmented ways of working in telco

Last week was kind of exciting (and a bit manic!). As well as working on a tech due-diligence (DD) and an important client OSS/BSS roadmap, I had the chance to witness some important steps in the progression on telco Augmented Reality (AR) use-cases. On the software side, we already have many exciting use-cases lining up […]

Telecom and OSS has a talent and diversity problem. Or does it?

“The telecom industry is hurtling towards a staffing and skills precipice at a frightening pace, and truly embracing diversity and inclusion in recruitment and human resources strategies looks to be the only way to avoid a calamity, a somewhat sombre Keri Gilder [CEO of Colt Technology Services, a UK-based telco] told attendees here [at TM […]

Upcoming “Inventory of the Future” webinar

Earlier in the year, Omdia commissioned Passionate About OSS to write a report about the future of network inventory. Not just how the tools themselves are changing, but how they might be used, the new ways of working that will be centred around them, how migration strategies are changing and much more. Now in conjunction […]

Are you letting your OSS get too prescriptive?

In the early days of my career, I was the stereotypical Engineer. I’d get into a project, do the best job I possibly could from a technical perspective, and then get out to move onto the next project. Looking back, I unfortunately had blinkers on through those years. I’ve been lucky to have retained some […]

New OSS Innovation Video Recording

The \#Adtran #FibreBroadband Symposium was held in Melbourne on 3rd August 2022. This video link below shows the presentation we made at the conference: It’s designed specifically for network builders, to show the relevance that OSS and BSS have for their worlds. It also shows a very high level view of OSS past, present and future – […]

How AI and blast radii could inspire next-gen OSS designs

Artificial Intelligence is purported to be the panacea for so many high-volume factors within telco. For example, AI is being used for complex pattern recognition using diverse signal streams like churn reduction. AIOps solutions are making great strides to reducing noise within alarm / event lists, filtering and automating, to limit the number of decisions […]

Understanding where OSS POCs go wrong

We’ve regularly discussed how RFPs / PoCs are usually an inefficient way of finding new products or partners for your OSS (see this link). They’re often ineffient regardless of whether you’re a supplier, buyer or integrator. They tend to be expensive and time-consuming for all involved. The short paper shown below by Peter Willis, the […]

Re-imagining your OSS? Remarkable approaches changing the world of telco

An updated call for innovation in the OSS industry We are currently living through a revolution for the OSS/BSS industry and the customers that we serve. It’s not a question of if we need to innovate, but by how much and in what ways. Change is surrounding us and impacting us in profound ways, triggered […]

What if your career in telco were to end tomorrow?

Are you a dyed-in-the-wool telco person? Has your whole career, or a majority of it, been built around the telco industry? If your career in telco were to cease tomorrow, what would you do next?  As we mentioned in our previous article on “Burning Platforms”, the orange curve of the traditional telco business is trending […]

How to get Telco off its Burning Platform

I have a couple of really interesting videos to share with you today. I think they’re both brilliant, though perhaps I’m biased because they largely reinforce thoughts I already share with the stars of each video. Well, reinforce, but they also significantly expand the thinking with some enlightening dots that I hadn’t previously connected. Nobody […]