Customers that bypass products

“The more you engage with customers the clearer things become and the easier it is to determine what you should be doing.” John Russell. I’ve noticed something curious with a few of the OSS products I’ve worked with. The customers use the products for one of their functions (eg as a database of records) but […]

OSS re-write – Skills shortage

This is the sixth in the Complete OSS re-write series of posts and relates to We don’t have enough skilled people. This series is designed to pose ideas on how the OSS industry could take a Control-Alt-Delete approach to all aspects of delivering operational support, which coincides with the inflection point underway in our industry […]

OSS re-write – Benefits and Insights

This is the fifth in the Complete OSS re-write series of posts and relates to What are the tangible benefits or insights. This series is designed to pose ideas on how the OSS industry could take a Control-Alt-Delete approach to all aspects of delivering operational support, which coincides with the inflection point underway in our industry via […]

OSS re-write – Changing requirements

This is the fourth in the Complete OSS re-write series of posts and relates to Our requirements keep changing. This series is designed to pose ideas on how the OSS industry could take a Control-Alt-Delete approach to all aspects of delivering operational support, which coincides with the inflection point underway in our industry via technologies such as […]

OSS re-write – Data deterioration

This is the third in the Complete OSS re-write series of posts and relates to Our data keeps deteriorating. This series is designed to pose ideas on how the OSS industry could take a Control-Alt-Delete approach to all aspects of delivering operational support, which coincides with the inflection point underway in our industry via technologies such as […]

OSS re-write – Integration tax

This is the second in the Complete OSS re-write series of posts and relates to the integration tax being too high. This series is designed to pose ideas on how the OSS industry could take a Control-Alt-Delete approach to all aspects of delivering operational support, which coincides with the inflection point underway in our industry via […]

A complete OSS re-write

“The best edit is often a complete re-write. And maybe it’s time to start writing lots of things from scratch.” Peter Thiel (actually a notes essay from Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup – Class 13 lecture). As the URL states, I’m passionate about OSS. But as passionate as I am for current-day OSS, I’m even more […]

Call something a wizard…

“The problem [with wizards] is that I think people expect magic. ” Peter Dart. Isn’t this so true? If you call any of your OSS tools “wizards” instead of just tools, users have a much higher expectation of what the tools can actually do? Call it a wizard and users expect to click one button […]

What is your OSS worth?

“The only things we spend time and money on are things that we believe are worth more than they cost… If people aren’t buying your product, it’s not because the price is too high. It’s because we don’t believe you enough, don’t love it enough, don’t care enough.” Seth Godin on his blog here. Another […]

Wi-Fi calling OSS

“Ericsson has added the new Wi-Fi calling for multi-device functionality to the existing Ericsson Wi-Fi calling solution. The Ericsson offering comprises product support in Evolved Packet Core (EPC), IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), User Data Management (UDM) and OSS/BSS, as well as system integration services. The functionality is verified and tested end-to-end towards device brands that […]

Spinning off network ops

“Analyst predicts emergence of more shared networks, sees operators separating infrastructure from retail businesses. Major telecoms operators will in future make the decision to separate their network operations from the retail side of the business.” Mary Lennighan quoting John Strand here. Not exactly ground-breaking news, but certainly an interesting concept nonetheless. As noted here almost […]

The carrier OSS ecosystem

Last week here on PAOSS, we presented the double ecosystem OSS model, as shown via the two bands (red and blue) in the diagram below. The outer pairing (red) shows an OSS ecosystem that is provided by the CSP but enhanced by the CSP’s customers and used to run the customers’s e-businesses. Long-time readers will […]

Reaching more OSS customers

In recent weeks, we’ve followed a theme across many blogs here on PAOSS. We’ve looked at a new mode of design, delivery and approach for taking OSS to a much broader market base. The following diagrams demonstrate this new approach visually. Figure 1. above shows the current model, where an OSS vendor sells their tools […]

The OSS Christmas tree

“Digital platforms are worthless without content. They’re shiny sacks with bells and whistles, but without content, they’re empty sacks. It is not about pixels versus print. It is not about how you’re reading. It is about what you’re reading.” Maureen Dowd In a recent post, we talked about the merits of vertical vs horizontal code […]

The Engineering bias

“The engineering bias blinds people to this simple fact. The conventional thinking is that great products sell themselves; if you have great product, it will inevitably reach consumers. But nothing is further from the truth.” Peter Thiel (actually a notes essay from Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup – Class 9 lecture). Distribution is one of an […]

Dominant revenue streams

“Ask your friends what business Google is in and the answer you’ll most likely get is “search.” And they would be wrong. Google is, first and foremost, an advertising company. A full 97 percent of its revenue comes from advertising on its various properties, including YouTube, plus partner sites through its AdSense product. Sure, Google […]

Owning the OSS market

Another set of quotes from Peter Thiel below (actually a notes essay from Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup – Class 4 lecture): “For a company to own its market, it must have some combination of brand, scale cost advantages, network effects, or proprietary technology“ “Brand is a tricky concept for investors to understand and identify in […]

NFV data models

“I think the data modeling associated with NFV is absolutely critical for its success. Sadly, few of the players involved in NFV say much about their approach to the models…” Tom Nolle in another great blog called, “Comparing the NFV Data-Model Strategies of Key Vendors.” Tom’s blog above articulates something that I’ve always found slightly […]

Vertical or horizontal OSS branching?

“If you embrace special orders, you’re doing something difficult, scarce and worth seeking out.” Seth Godin here. Recent post, “Long Tail Dynamics in OSS,” highlighted the different bands of customers that a CSP services and the different OSS that they use to service each band. The head (the top-X customers by revenue) tends to get […]

Long tail dynamics in OSS

The diagram above shows the head and the long tail of OSS, but also the tale of two distinct ways of thinking at some Tier-1 CSPs. The yellow band represents the head, the top-X (eg Top 100) customers, generally the major corporates, government, etc that spend massive amounts on communication services and expect a corresponding amount […]