Cloudification threatens OSS and BSS
“For companies like VM Ware and Microsoft no-one predicted that one of their biggest threats would come from an online book retailer, yet Amazon Web Services has upended the entire software industry. The challenges for VM Ware today or Apple nearly two decades ago are being repeated in many other industries as competitors appear from […]
Frenemies
“The idea of frenemies – or co-competition – isn’t new to the IT industry as we are in this period that we’ve called the tectonic shifts that are underway. All of us need to be somewhat careful about who’s our friends and who’s our enemies as we go through that period and be as nice […]
DCIM Opportunities
“The growth rate of DCIM far outstrips that for the datacenter equipment industries and for the enterprise IT segment as a whole; however, the actual numbers are still small compared with other categories of enterprise software (such as IT service management, ERP, databases or security). Nevertheless, the DCIM market is proving attractive to some big […]
DCIM – Data Centre Infrastructure Management
“It is very important to get both IT and facilities groups together before even jotting down the requirement for a DCIM solution. One needs to look at holistic solutions and not treat IT and facilities management as two different silos.” Vivek Vikram Singh. Data Centre Infrastructure Management (DCIM) shares much of its DNA with OSS, […]
The CAPEX dichotomy
“I am into selling ones and zeros and transporting them better than anybody else.” Randall L. Stephenson (CEO of AT&T) The table below (as researched on 17 July 2015) is a tale of two ages in the world of communications. The first set of five are carriers, organisations born in the industrial age that are asset-heavy and rely […]
Internet of Things is exploding
“The internet already connects everyone and it’s about to connect everything. The ubiquity of always-on connectivity, the declining price and increasing versatility of sensors, and the benefits of remote information and control is prompting a new generation of devices ranging from doorknobs to thermostats to refridgerators to lightbulbs. From the largest technology and manufacturing companies to […]
A user interface is like a joke…
“A user interface is like a joke. If you have to explain it, it’s not that good.” StartupVitamins. Very funny! I’ve seen lots of OSS interfaces that are like a joke. Some funny. Some not so funny. In general, OSS interfaces need more explaining than they should. In part that comes from interfacing with complex […]
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 […]
If big data is collected in a forest….
“If big data is collected in a forest and nobody is around to mine it, are any insights found?” Ryan Jeffery. To quote David Prior, “Big Data is Rubbish.” Click on the link to find out why. Check out slide 42 in particular. Whether you want to call it BIIIIG DATAAAAA or just data, OSS […]
OSS Supply chain – Shift No. 6
“Shift No. 6: From Mass-Market Supply to Tailored Offerings. OLD QUESTION: How should we organise our company’s operations to serve the mass market efficiently while offering customised products? NEW QUESTION: How should we organise the supply chain to serve each customer or segment uniquely and provide a tailored customer experience?” Laura Ross Kopczak and M. […]
OSS Supply chain – Shift No. 5
“Shift No. 5: From Cost Reduction to Breakthrough Business Models. OLD QUESTION: How can we reduce our company’s production and distribution costs? NEW QUESTION: What new supply-chain and marketing approach would lead to a breakthrough in customer value?” Laura Ross Kopczak and M. Eric Johnson in the “MIT Sloan Management Review.” The old and new […]
OSS Supply chain – Shift No. 4
“Shift No. 4: From Single-Company Product Design to Collaborative, Concurrent Product, Process and Supply-Chain Design. OLD QUESTION: How should or company design products to minimise product cost (our cost of materials, production and distribution)? NEW QUESTION: How should collaborators design the product, process and supply chain to minimise costs?” Laura Ross Kopczak and M. Eric […]
OSS Supply chain – Shift No. 3
“Shift No. 3: From Supply Focus to Demand Focus. OLD QUESTION: How can we improve the way we supply product in order to match supply and demand better, give the demand pattern? NEW QUESTION: How can we get earlier demand information or affect the demand pattern to match supply and demand?” Laura Ross Kopczak and […]
OSS Supply chain – Shift No. 2
“Shift No. 2: From Physical Efficiency to Market Mediation. OLD QUESTION: How do we minimise the costs our company incurs in production and distribution of our products? NEW QUESTION: How do we minimise the costs of matching supply with demand while continuing to reduce the costs of production and distribution?” Laura Ross Kopczak and M. […]
OSS Supply chain – Shift No. 1
“Shift No. 1: From Cross-Functional Integration to Cross-Enterprise too. OLD QUESTION: How do we get the various functional areas of our company to work together to supply product to our immediate customers? NEW QUESTION: How do we coordinate activities across companies as well as across internal functions to supply product to the market?” Laura Ross […]
OSS Supply-chain Management
“Supplying product to meet demand goes well beyond the question – Did we ship what the customer wanted today? It includes more strategic questions such as – How well do we work with our partners? Are we first to market with our new products? Do we embrace product variety or do we limit it because […]
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 […]
The Lego analogy
“Its supply chains were long and expensive – at one stage with 11,000 contractors Lego had more suppliers than Boeing used to build its aircraft! And its product development had become increasingly complex, with many product ranges involving such a wide range of choice – for example the Pirate figures had no less than 10 […]
Automated network design
“The smart way to optimise infrastructure is to incorporate optimality into the design.” Geoff Prince. In a recent presentation by Mike Quigley, NBN Co’s departing CEO, he mentioned that OSS/BSS gave him his biggest nightmares. One of the NBN Co’s other significant problems he mentioned was the preparation of designs to service every home in Australia […]
Google to release SDN management model
“The industry talks a lot about the network data plane and the network control plane, but it tends to hand wave over the management plane in SDN. The management plane is extremely important, however, because it defines how services and applications are orchestrated. In order to run a large infrastructure, you need abstraction. In order […]