Darwinian OSS

“In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” Charles Darwin. An interesting thing happened when looking up the quote for this blog. The quote I was going to use was never actually spoken/written by Charles Darwin, even though it is perhaps the quote […]

Lowering the cost point of processing

“Why do we have to end up processing packets in four or five different locations for different functions? That doesn’t make any sense at all. Connectem consolidates packet gateway functions to process each packet just once, which is much more efficient. This is going to be important as the world moves toward IoT because the […]

How can I add value to you?

Today’s blog is all about you (actually they all have you in mind collectively, but this one encourages you to voice your specific obstacles to progress). In the world of OSS (or perhaps even beyond), what value can I add that goes beyond the generalities of a blog and will help you get what you […]

Having trouble getting funding for your OSS?

“Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn.” John Wesley. In the 1990’s and early 2000’s OSS were much more sexy than they are today. As such, they were easier to find funding for than they are today. Perhaps one reason for this is the imperceptible benefits that […]

A bridge too far

“I demolish my bridges behind me – then there is no choice but forward.” Fridtjof Nansen. OSS are full of dilemmas aren’t they? We’ve spoken about many of them in the past haven’t we? Today we look at an interesting one in terms of product upgrades. For a vendor, their ideal situation is to have […]

Corning glass in OSS

l love this YouTube video by Corning. l love the future-thinking in relation to how we will interact with the spaces around us. l love the way they’ve turned a blank canvas like our sliding mirror door into an interactive panel. Did you notice the touch panel at around 2:40 into the video? Do you […]

OSS ROIC (part 4) – The technology dilemma

“In our company there’s still a bit of the ‘build and customers will come’ mentality, but those days are gone. If we build the wrong thing in the wrong place or at the wrong price, the customers won’t follow. So, rather than letting technology drive our capex decisions, we need to adopt a more commercial […]

OSS ROIC (part 3) – Four divergent solutions

“As Figure 1 (below) shows, global capex levels have soared from just over US$50 billion to about US$325 billion in real terms over the past 30 years…Yet this massive investment isn’t producing the returns the industry requires… the telecoms industry is at an inflexion point. It’s spending lots of money on new infrastructure, but it’s […]

OSS – the afterthought

“Thomas Edison devoted ten years and all of his money to developing the nickel alkaline storage battery at a time when he was almost penniless. Through that period of time, his record and film production company was supporting the storage battery effort. Then one night the terrifying cry of ‘Fire’ echoed through the film plant. […]

Left to right… or right to left?

“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!” Dr. Seuss. As OSS architects, we often find ourselves drawing network diagrams and customer service diagrams don’t we? When you draw such drawings, do you tend to draw the customer infrastructure on the […]

Over-the-horizon view of OSS

“There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.” J.R.R. Tolkien. As reported last week, my latest publication (The Changing Landscape of OSS) was launched. When approached about writing a report about next generation […]

The Changing Landscape of OSS

The Changing Landscape of Operational Support Systems (OSS): Technologies, Solutions, and Organizational Impacts I’m proud to announce that my latest publication has been released today. Click on the image (or here) to find out more about the document published in conjunction with Mind Commerce. Operational Support Systems (OSS) are the essential set of tools required […]

15 Predictive analytics campaigns

“Ideally, analytics-driven telcos must have predictive analytics embedded in all their business processes, thereby moving away from decisions based on gut feeling or intuition. [The Figure below] illustrates the four phases of a telco customer life cycle – Acquisition, Relationship, Retention and Win-back. Each phase can have several embedded analytical models, which can enhance operations considerably and provide a […]

Is the innovation engine broken?

“Consider as a marker the speed of travel. It improved dramatically through the late 19th and early 20th centuries with major innovations such as trains, automobiles, airplanes, jet engines and rockets. But the big advances came to an end in the 1970s. Movement by car now is no faster than it was then – indeed […]

Hard!

“With more success comes greater problems along with greater ability to solve them.” Mark Victor Hansen. Paul Graham’s essays are a great read. There is something unique about the way he views his subject matter (usually startups) and then has the ability to break it down into highly insightful chunks of wisdom for his readers […]

Automating the Work of Hundreds

“Today, the FBAR service [Facebook Auto-Remediation] is developed and maintained by two full time engineers, but according to the most recent metrics, it’s doing the work of approximately 200 full time system administrators. FBAR now manages more than 50% of the Facebook infrastructure and we’ve found that services have dramatic increases in reliability when they […]

Technology provides no benefits of its own

“Technology provides no benefits of its own; it is the application of technology to business opportunities that produces ROI.” Robert McDowell. Let’s have a look at the quote above in the context of CSP service offerings, technology delivery methods and customer experiences. Let’s start with POTS – Plain Old Telephony Service. The customer experience (ie […]

The flexibility of vCPE

“Virtual CPE (vCPE) is an alternative way of delivering broadband services to subscribers where most of the CPE functions are pulled in to the operator’s network and located near the service edge. In the new network architecture, the CPE acts as a simple Layer-2 forwarding device that helps a business or residential subscriber to connect […]

Network SCAMS

“Networks will be fundamentally changed by a set of SCAMS, which in turn will force an evolution in future OSS: Social Media Cloud (and Virtualisation) Analytics (and Big Data) Mobility Sensors” This quote comes from an upcoming market report that I’m preparing for release soon as a follow-up to my book, Mastering your OSS. The report […]

The evolution of OSS

“For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.” Leonardo da Vinci. Readers of this blog will notice how often I’m looking into the future of what OSS might look like into the future. Today I […]