OSS are all about helping the customer in some way
“Google did a great job hacking the Web to create search – and then monetizing search with advertising. And Apple did a great job humanizing hardware and software so that formerly daunting computers and applications could become consumer-friendly devices – even a lifestyle brand.” Douglas Rushkoff. Okay, so OSS probably won’t become a lifestyle brand […]
“People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.” Alan Kay. Something really intrigues me… In the not too distant future, assuming a majority of organisations are hosted on service provider infrastructure (ie XaaS) rather than running in-house infrastructure, does this imply the number of customers for hardware (compute/storage/networks) will significantly reduce? […]
“You are in the business of testing your guesses, not convincing yourself that you are right.” Nathan Furr, in his book, “Nail It then Scale It” The speed of implementation of OSS projects tends to be quite lengthy (months/years on tier-one CSPs), so we’re not exactly as responsive as some other industries by example. However, […]
“A manufacturer or retailer that responds to changes in sales in hours instead of weeks is no longer at heart a product company, but a service company that has a product offering.” Bill Gates, in his book, “Business @ the Speed of Thought.” How often does an OSS vendor win a new sale? Is it […]
“The jobs-to-be-done point of view causes you to crawl into the skin of your customer and go with her as she goes about her day, always asking the question as she does something: why did she do it that way?” Clayton M. Christensen. Alex Fuller at SupplyChainCowboy.com suggests, “By focusing on the job the customer […]
“To be successful, the Chief Information Officer must be seen as a peer level thought leader, partnering with other C-level executives to visualize and drive the digital agenda for each company. They need to combine vision, strategy, technology governance and talent, to exploit digital opportunities and move the culture toward a digital business viewpoint.” Annie […]
“Smart phones and social media expand our universe. We can connect with others or collect information easier and faster than ever.” Daniel Goleman. Communication Service Providers are often not so great at communicating, especially internally. Notwithstanding the human behavioural impediments to “perfect communication” like politics, cliques, etc the communication issue is often just a case […]
“Those people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and to their lives will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future.” Brian Tracy. I often talk about the need to provide training and learning opportunities for customers […]
“Did you also attend fascinating presentations? What would be your advice to get your audience passionate?” Roland Leners of NetworkMining in response to an earlier blog about boring OSS presentations. This is a brilliant question, one that I wished I had’ve asked myself when writing the earlier blog. It gets to the root of the […]
“Sometimes you’ll be required to magically create a communication that’s perfectly aimed at two (or more) distinct audiences….The only practical answer is to write your copy to whatever aspects the audiences have in common, particularly tonally. If you put what you know about each audience in a Venn diagram, you’re writing to the middle bit […]
“A lot of people asked me if it was frustrating not having a clear specific diagnosis, but I didn’t mind, I just chose the most optimistic diagnosis.” Karen Duffy. Predictive analytics has become a bit of a cliche for the OSS industry, one which I’ve succumbed to using too (see these previous blogs as but […]
“Nobody will ever pay you to solve your problems… but they’ll line up if you can solve theirs.” Ramit Sethi. OSS were originally designed to coordinate and streamline network management processes for CSPs. OSS helped CSPs solve operational problems. They still do. Keeping Ramit Sethi’s quote in mind, if we have a customer that needs […]
“While some seem to have a knack for this sort of thing, most of us fail miserably at this most basic sales skill – explaining what we do for a living.” Sean Rosensteel. How do you describe what you do for a living? Does your audience look dazed and confused when you describe what an […]
“My goal is no longer to get more done, but rather to have less to do.” Francine Jay. A few questions for all the vendors out there. Do you know which applications within your suite that your customers actually use? Do you know which features of these applications they use? Do you know which features […]
“The more you engage with customers the clearer things become and the easier it is to determine what you should be doing.” John Russell. You must be wondering whether the heading above is a typo? It’s not. Let me explain. This is the fifth post in my Customer Experience series. The previous four have been […]
“I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies.” Larry Bossidy. In a recent post, I spoke of the challenge in getting the right balance between two scarce assets, customers and human resources. This got me […]
“To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest […]
“When you translate a dream into reality, it’s never a full implementation. It is easier to dream than to do.” Shai Agassi. After Contract Negotiations, the second post in this Customer Experience series, today’s post discusses the next step, when the project moves into the implementation phase. The customer experience during the implementation stage basically […]
“Suspicion and doubt lead to animosity and hatred.” Ralph Steadman. To expand upon the first post in this Customer Experience series, which was on Product Evaluation, today’s post relates to the next step, forming a contract between the customer and the winning bidder. The customer experience during the contract negotiation stage basically revolves around suspicion. […]
“Fear cannot be banished, but it can be calm and without panic; it can be mitigated by reason and evaluation” Vannevar Bush. In the Christmas Day blog, I indicated that I was going to begin a series on how OSS vendors / integrators can start with the customer experience and work back to improve their […]
