Multi-disciplinary insights

“[AIG’s] Science Team intentionally refrains from using the words “data” or “analytics,” as the team’s capabilities stretch far beyond these two disciplines: behavioral economists, psychologists, engineers, and change management experts work hand-in-hand with data scientists, mathematicians, and statisticians. And for good reason: this multidisciplinary approach is essential to go beyond merely generating new insights from […]

The Trillion-Dollar Treasure Chest

“Integrated operators are sitting on a veritable gold mine. Monetizing passive assets could unlock billions of dollars—enough to wipe out their [traditional telcos’s] entire debt.” Liu, Garg and Bhagat in this article on ATKearney.com. I really recommend taking a close look at the link above. Being an OSS-nerd, this report takes me to a different […]

Return on Analytics (ROA)

“Return On Investment (ROI) for analytics and business intelligence solutions is increasing and currently delivering on average $13.01 for every dollar spent, according to a new analysis by Nucleus Research. The study analyzes the actual costs and benefits of Nucleus published case studies on individual companies’ analytics deployments.” BusinessWire. Have you ever tried to quantify […]

What Telco CMOs and CTOs are thinking

“Few (28%) [Telco CTOs] are likely to involve marketing in their technology strategy or vice versa (20%).” In a report commissioned by Comptel (Executive Summary shown below) covering an equal share of CMOs and CTO/CIOs at CSPs in the Asia-Pacific, EMEA and South American regions. What Telco CMOs and CTOs / CIOs Are Thinking in […]

Vendor selection using Gartner magic quadrant

“A lawsuit filed Tuesday (ed. 5 Aug 2014) in Connecticut Superior Court accuses tech analyst firm Gartner Research of demanding kickbacks in exchange for favorable placement in the company’s famous Magic Quadrant report. NetScout, a Massachusetts-based manufacturer of network performance management products, says in court documents that companies that pay for Gartner’s consulting services are […]

OSS Skunk-works

“Executive consultant at specialist software development consultancy ThoughtWorks Leslie Barry says the skunk works division becomes a safe place for experimentation. “You do that to attract a different culture that wants to try new things, get stuff done and get it out there faster,” Barry says. “It is about attracting smart, engaged people and giving […]

What can your CFO do with an OSS?

“The CFO and his or her finance staff must be attuned to the drivers of the business, and must be able to work closely with operations management as well as with executive management to chart the financial and strategic impacts of prospective growth strategies.” CFO Research Services. As we often discuss, an OSS is no […]

Siphoning Value

“Is your company focused on creating value — or on siphoning it off from others? Capturing value from other stakeholders by manipulating the competitive market process to the company’s advantage exposes a company to reputational or legal risks. It also can undermine corporate values. Value extraction is typically easier than developing a competitive advantage through […]

Is marketing an OSS driver?

“Marketing is now a fundamental driver of IT purchasing, and that trend shows no signs of stopping –or even slowing down –any time soon. In fact, Gartner analyst Laura McLellan recently predicted that by 2017, CMOs will spend more on IT than their counterpart CIOs.” Lisa Arthur on Forbes. According to Gartner’s research: 2011 B2B […]

Digital strategist or traditional OSS?

“While customer focus is a high priority, nearly half of the CIOs in our survey–47 percent–have difficulty getting their IT staff to be more business-oriented and customer-facing.” CIO.com, in their report, “State of the CIO 2014: The Great Schism.” In CIO.com’s 13th annual survey, 25% of CIOs (Chief Information Officers) were perceived as “game-changers that […]

Business metrics

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” Albert Einstein (possibly). The B/OSS suite means a lot of things to a lot of people in a CSP’s organisation. If you are an executive at a CSP or were to put yourself at the terminal of the C-suite for […]

Ca$h is King

“The bull or optimist has no eyes for past or present, but only for the future, where streams of revenue play in his imagination.” James Buchan. As the old saying goes, “cash is king.” Or in CSP parlance, revenue is king. Does this mean that the CSP’s OSS must help generate revenue? Well, it certainly […]

I need your help. What must I do today?

“When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.” Eleanor Roosevelt. It’s a regular topic of conversation here (and elsewhere too of course), that CSP’s revenue streams are under pressure. CSPs have been in the game of selling technology-based services traditionally but just as we’ve seen in the television industry (please see earlier […]

Watch this (virtualised) space

“We all live every day in virtual environments, defined by our ideas.” Michael Crichton. Thought you might be interested in this video showing the provisioning a network in software using NSX from VMware. Further info on the NSX suite can be found here: The interesting part about the second link is that Cisco is the […]

Michelin stars

“Like a waiter in a Michelin-starred restaurant, a service provider needs to strike the right balance between neglecting customers and being overly attentive.” Executive Leadership Summit. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has a tendency of kicking in when a customer calls a CSP, equivalent to a diner calling for the waiter to complain about the service […]

Digital Signage meets OSS

“All content considerations should first be led from the brand. From there, make decisions about goals, initiatives and objectives. To do otherwise will doom a content strategy to being ineffective at best and off-message and harmful to the brand at worst.” Brian Bibler. I must admit that I’m pretty new to the world of digital […]

Where the money flows, nobody knows

“In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later.” Harold S. Geneen. In the world of Telco, there are also two coins. One is technology and one is cash. Telco and OSS engineers often get wrapped up in the righteousness of technology. […]

An SDN roadmap

“Innovation accelerates and compounds. Each point in front of you is bigger than anything that ever happened.” Marc Andreessen. Regular readers / subscribers of this blog have noticed that SDN / NFV (Software Defined Networking and Network Function Virtualisation) has been a regular topic of conversation because it has the potential to revolutionise not just […]

A Customer Experience Survey

“Every operator in the industry will argue emphatically that the experience customers have of their service is crucial to their ongoing sucess. As operators’ offerings become increasingly homogenised, and price-based competition ever more difficult to sustain, operators are embracing Customer Experience Management (CEM) as a key differentiator. But just how much of what we hear […]

Fresh Data

“Data – there sure is a lot of it and looking forward there is going to be increasingly more. The Ericsson Mobility Report found that mobile data traffic is expected to grow by 12 times between 2012 and 2018. That’s huge! So what makes data fresh? It’s the ability to use it in real time, […]