OSS are tools have a big part to play in modern ICT organisations. They can make the difference between effective or ineffective operations of electronic assets. The Executive Series of blogs provide information that is targeted for senior executives on how to utilise OSS to deliver better business outcomes.
I recently met with an old friend who is now a leading Engineer in mega construction projects (I’m talking multi-billion dollar projects here). He told me that most of the lead construction companies struggle to make a profit from the main contract due to underestimating or perhaps just competitive bidding to ensure a pipeline of […]
“Many of you here are working on digitalisation projects but I would urge you to think bigger. You need to think about business model change – with existing customers or into whole new sectors. It isn’t just about product innovation. It’s about company innovation.” Deborah Sherry at TM Forum Live! I really like the way […]
I was due to speak at TM Forum Live today but wasn’t able to make it across to France this year. However, the talk will still continue on, so if you’re in Nice please drop in to listen to Amrit Singh and Crispin Blackall talk about how Infosys and Telstra are using microservices to deliver […]
“In the world of OSS, the blind men are like the 6 (or more) different departments – operations, business, IT, sales, marketing, executive, etc. Each interacts with the OSS elephant and each has a different experience with it.” Yesterday’s post on Six blind men and an OSS elephant. Each of us, and each of the […]
The concept of digital transformation can be massive… or it can stem from something much smaller. In digital transformation, there’s a mantra of simplify then transform. That makes perfect sense, in alignment with, “The chess-board analogy,” but often overlooked. But there’s another simplification perspective to take. Let’s take the 6 blind men and the elephant […]
In an earlier post entitled, “Looking Forward to Jeopardy and Fall-outs,” I described a method for projecting forward to the likelihood of a design falling into a failure state and using that data to drive continual improvement. Not only that, but to drive the future of self-service telco designs, as I’ll describe today! The diagram […]
“A bear jumps out of a bush and starts chasing two hikers. They both start running for their lives, but then one of them stops to put on his running shoes. His friends says, “What are you doing? You can’t out-run a bear!” His friend replies, “I don’t have to out-run the bear. I only […]
When we distill it down, what are telcos selling? They’re selling connections. Whether it’s connecting with information, a group, another person, even a virtual assistant or machine-to-machine, we tend to use communications services to connect. Networks are an important component to establish those connections. OSS go a step further. They help to establish a connection […]
I’ve been seeing a lot of references to continual development methodologies lately (ie references to agile, DevOps, CI/CD, etc). Quotes like focus on projects rather than the mission statement, focus on products rather than projects, etc. The core principle is in chunking workload down into modular pieces that can be implemented to give flexibility and […]
Here’s a tip for you to try on your next OSS project: Instead of building a behemoth OSS with a million contributors (and a million opinions), stand up something simple (but meaningful) quickly and let word of mouth draw others in. It’s a technique I’ve helped implement in some very “democratic” decision-making environments, environments where […]
Many telcos around the world have a sometimes subtle, sometimes not, turf-war going on between networks / operations and IT groups. Virtualisation of the network potentially amplifies this because it increases the scope of possible overlap. As described in yesterday’s “Noah’s Ark of OSS success,” one of the ways of improving the success of an […]
“Don’t be involved in 50 or 100 things. That’s a Noah’s Ark way of investing – you end up with a zoo that way. Put meaningful amounts of money in a few things you know well.” Warren Buffett. There are a lot of OSS products on the market. From that list, you can probably name […]
Gartner’s magic quadrant for OSS is often used by organisations as a proxy for determining a short-list from the hundreds (thousands?) of OSS products available on the market. I’ve even heard of executives from tier-one telcos issuing directives that their short-list should consist of the top right corner of Gartner’s OSS Magic Quadrant (the Leaders […]
“Some vertical markets or segments where it’s logical for telcos to enter and compete are quickly becoming crowded. Smart homes, for example, are also drawing investment from cable TV providers, home security ?rms, mobile device manufacturers and other tech behemoths, including Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. However, telcos tend to focus too heavily on vertical […]
If you’re using an OSS/BSS and/or IVR in your role with a service provider, are you able to tell what’s causing customer contacts and why? For example, do you know which customer-facing products are leading to the highest proportion of calls into your contact centre? If so, are you able to determine why (eg recharge, […]
“Sometimes designing is very tempting; sometimes not designing is the answer. Often silence is required instead of shouting.” Karres en Brands. It’s said that when presenting a lecture, the softly spoken have more chance of reaching an audience than the classical loud extrovert. The theory goes that if a voice is barely audible, the listener […]
Success leaves footprints… and so does failure. This statement is probably true in any field but especially so in OSS. One of the reasons I follow the OSS industry so closely is because I’m always on the lookout for clues. Clues that track both sets of footprints to understand why. An organisation that consistently gets […]
Amongst other consultancy activities, I help clients find the best OSS solution for their needs. This means I’m constantly analysing vendor offerings to cross-reference against client needs. Based on this perspective, there’s a question I would like to pose to vendors – Why are potential customers coming to your site? [Note: for the purpose of […]
“When the dollar was the currency in the twentieth century, banks made a fortune by selling trust. If data is the new currency, who’s going to sell trust in the twenty-first century?” Anthony Behan on TM Forum’s Inform. Anthony also states in his blockchain-centric article, “The telco has a trusted position – even more trusted […]
… but I will because I’m alarmed. 🙂 The advent of network virtualisation, cloud-scaling and API / microservice-centric OSS means that the security attack surface changes significantly compared with old-style solutions. We now have to consider a more diverse application stack, often where parts of the stack are outside our control because they’re As A […]
