OSS are tools that help to make lives easier for CSP users and their customers. Here I present ideas for new OSS tools or innovations
“Passivity is fatal to us.” Mao Zedong. In a blog written a year ago today, we discussed some of the challenges in maintaining data synchronisation from your outside plant, your passive network, your pits, pipes and cables, because they have no programmatic interface. Without the mechanism for automated feedback via a programmatic interface, the CSP […]
“When a match has equal partners then I fear not.” Aeschylus. The major OSS of the nineties and noughties can be categorised as centralised, structured (ie built on relational databases and modelling connection-oriented services) and not-quite-realtime. I envisage the next generation will be distributed, unstructured (ie virtualised and with rapid shifts in data sources) and […]
“Today knowledge has power. It controls access to opportunity and advancement.” Peter Drucker. Permissions are an important part of an OSS, particularly in a carrier with many different operational groups. They are the mechanism that only allows a user to access the parts of the OSS, or its data sets, that are necessary for their […]
“One can envisage that future banks will run themselves general ledgers, treasury systems, product catalogues – other IT systems will be outsourced to specialized digital services providers. Most of interactions with customers, including CRM, electronic payments, sales channel support, and client reporting will form a part of external digital environment: Banks will deliver their products to […]
“The centre of gravity of the world economy is the geographic hotspot of income generation based on the distance weighted gross domestic product of 700 locations (Quah, 2011). In 1980 the hotspot was in the Atlantic Ocean midway between the economic powerhouses of Europe and the United States. However, today the hotspot is over Saudi Arabia […]
“A Self-Organizing Network (SON) is an automation technology designed to make the planning, configuration, management, optimization and healing of mobile radio access networks simpler and faster.” Wikipedia. SON has been specified with mobile networks in mind, particularly LTE (Long Term Evolution) but could form a set of objectives for all future communications networks. As stated […]
“IT as a service is a game changer. Because you now have components of the IT department existing in the cloud, you free your in-house IT staff to shift from a maintenance mode to an innovation mode. As such, your IT department can focus on achieving business goals, creating innovative solutions, and driving sales rather […]
“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” Albert Einstein. The OTT-T (Over The Top Threat) is ringing “destructive innovation” alarm bells in the ears of most global telcos. The OTT (Over The Top) play threatens to take the cream off the top, relegating CSPs to commoditised bandwidth providers whilst remaining capital intensive (it’s […]
“A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.” Oscar Wilde. As discussed yesterday, I have a dream when it comes to system interfaces. Interfaces will be able to be constructed by mere mortals, not only by […]
“Graph databases are based on graph theory. Graph databases employ nodes, properties, and edges. Nodes are very similar in nature to the objects that object-oriented programmers will be familiar with.” Wikipedia entry on Graph Databases. I believe that Graph data models represent the likely future for OSS. And I’ve long held the belief that flexible […]
“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 […]
“The Ericsson Mobility Report found that mobile data traffic is expected to grow by 12 times between 2012 and 2018.” The quote is a sub-set of yesterday’s but I thought I’d drill down on one important prediction – that mobile data traffic will grow by twelve times in six years. This indicates that as individuals, […]
“In 1900, Smithsonian Institution curator John Elfreth Watkins wrote an article for The Ladies’ Home Journal, entitled “What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years,” filled with predictions that many of his readers probably scoffed at as ridiculously improbable… But what’s more impressive is the extent to which Watkins’ vision of the future actually has […]
“You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety.” Abraham Maslow. B/OSS started out servicing only the biggest of telcos, starting with AT&T. Then they migrated to the smaller carriers, then ISPs and the march continues. As electronic business and related digital communications are increasingly built into the business models […]
“Gamification enables you to drive, measure, and reward high-value behaviors by customers or employees. Game mechanics leverage design and behavioral psychology principles inherent in today’s social games to drive and reward specific user behaviors in business environments. Smart gamification elements—such as points, achievements, levels, leaderboards, missions, and contests—can be employed to drive desired behaviors on […]
“Software-defined networking (SDN) is an approach to computer networking which abstracts the hardware of the system, the control plane and the data plane“ Wikipedia. SDN is another technology that is revolutionising OSS. It is having a dramatic effect on traditional CSPs, allowing them to move from being network-based Telcos to software-based services companies. It allows […]
“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 […]
“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 […]
“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 […]
“There was US$21.9B spent on games in the USA alone in 2012.” NewZoo infographic [Please note: I’ve since been advised that this link to the infographic may be malware] According to the infographic, $2.1B was spent on Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games and $2.4B on mobile games alone. At the moment, these games tend to […]
