OSS are all about helping the customer in some way
“Listening is not understanding the words of the question asked, listening is understanding why the question was asked in the first place.” Simon Sinek author of the book, “Start with Why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action.” In his book, Simon Sinek presents the concept that individuals and organisations that start by asking […]
“It is my belief that it is not possible to invent truly original ideas if you absorb too much of that that you wish to differentiate yourself from. As I said, don’t overly study the competition. Study instead the behaviours, needs and frustrations belonging to your customers. Build a culture and environment that nurtures creativity […]
“1. What percentage of your time is spent creating something new, as opposed to working out operational details or protecting the past? 2. List five ways that you can beat your competition. How could they beat you? 3. If you were entering your industry as a startup, how would you break the mold to beat […]
“Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business.” Zig Ziglar. So, you’ve sold a new OSS and then handed over the keys to the customer. Are they ready to take over at the wheel yet? Have you […]
“Maverick: I feel the need… Maverick, Goose: …the need for speed!” Lines from the movie Top Gun. Whilst listening to an audio book recently (sorry for the lack of reference, I forget which one) the author posed an interesting insight. Can you remember what type of vehicle Maverick (Tom Cruise) uses when being chased by […]
“I decided I was sick of trying to figure out what everybody else wanted, and I should just decide what I want, and be honest, and not spend all my time guessing.” Katherine Heigl. There is so much information required to build an OSS and usually not enough time to collect it. Many OSS exponents […]
“The word “simple” has become so cliché that I try not to use it anymore, but ultimately the point is that things are pretty easy and simple until you make them hard and complicated. So we’re always trying to keep them as simple and easy as they naturally are. So if we have a big […]
“Feedback is the breakfast of champions.” Kenneth Blanchard. Many CSPs are realising the benefits, to themselves and their customers, by diversifying their customer touch points to include new channels. This includes offering self-help and “instant” customer interaction channels (ie web chat, instant messaging, social networking, etc) in addition to the traditional channels such as email, retail […]
“Where is all the knowledge we lost with information?” T. S. Eliot. We all know OSS hold lots of data. But why? What is the knowledge gained from the information? I believe there are five main types of data that are essential for true business intelligence: Operational data – the near real-time data that allows […]
“Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.” Donald Porter. I only recently heard a saying that is apparently commonplace – “No wrong doors.” It wasn’t immediately apparent what it meant. In effect, it means that if a customer asks you a question then you […]
“What revenue model should I use? = the wrong question to ask. Why will people pay me? = the right question“ The Board of Innovation. There are so many different revenue models in OSS that there are no simple apples-for-apples comparisons on price. There are perpetual licenses, annual licenses, processor-based licensing, node-based licensing, named user […]
“Reactance occurs when a person feels that someone or something is taking away his or her choices or limiting the range of alternatives.” Wikipedia. There is a tendency for an OSS vendor to arrive on site as THE expert in all things OSS and start telling the customer all about the changes it HAS TO […]
“Customer satisfaction is worthless. Customer loyalty is priceless.” Jeffrey Gitomer. Okay, so you’ve built an OSS, you’ve delivered loads of training and you’ve worked your way through UAT (User Acceptance Testing), achieving great feedback from the customer along the way. But now the customer takes over the reins. Are they ready? Are they able to […]
“Spend a lot of time talking to customers face to face. You’d be amazed how many companies don’t listen to their customers.” Ross Perot. When it comes to OSS, your answers are out with the customers rather than back in the office. Relationships, trust and true understanding of customer needs (and problems) only happens by […]
“We don’t have many rules at IDEO, but we do have some cultural values that we take seriously because we feel they make our teams more effective. We prototyped these values for a couple decades before we set them in print. One of them is to Make Others Successful. This might not seem like an […]
“…don’t ask your customers what they like or don’t like about your product. Or what they’d change if they could. That’s all about you. If you want really insightful answers, ask them about themselves instead. You can find out a ton about you by asking them about them.” Jason Fried. Let’s say you were out […]
“We need to dedicate fewer of our resources to our traditional and core products as their profitability erodes and be ready to compete hard against an unprecedented number of new competitors and disruptive elements. They face none of the infrastructure, cost and regulatory pressure we do.” Phil Jordan, Group CIO of Telefónica. The statement above […]
“Every operator needs to understand four key things about their data: What data do they have and what does it tell them about the customer? What further data can they reasonably collect and what is its value to the operator and to other players in the ecosystem? What can the operator do with it from […]
“You can use all the quantitative data you can get, but you still have to distrust it and use your own intelligence and judgment.” Alvin Toffler As an OSS vendor, how many of your customers operate in different sectors and don’t compete directly with each other? If the answer is a high percentage then you […]
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Charles Darwin What service model will be the most successful offering that OSS vendors can make to their CSPs? On-premise? Cloud-based? OSSaaS (OSS as a Service)? Other? Traditionally, on-premise was the stand-out leader. But […]
