OSS consultants provide you with the opportunity to bring a different set of ideas, insights and connections to your OctopOSS
No two OSS projects are the same. One might have a different vendor stack, another a completely different organisational structure, another a different operating model or different vendors and architecture. But they don’t need to be 100% identical to be repeatable and reusable. If 50% of the problem has appeared on one of your projects […]
Since OSS were first built, they’ve been designed around the belief that more complete information creates better operations. That belief made sense when they were designed by Engineers for Engineers. When network, service, customer, inventory, topology and assurance data was scarce, fragmented and hard to access. The organisation with the best information usually had the […]
Daniel Priestley recently highlighted something as important for business owners as telcos seeking out their next OSS or BSS solution: “If I said to you, go and build your dream house, the first thing you’d do is imagine the finished product. You’d drive around beautiful neighbourhoods, look at the ones you wish you lived in, […]
Most OSS experts focus on the implementation and post-go-live performance aspects of a transformation. That makes perfect sense, because they’re the most visible phases. But by the time implementation begins, many of the decisions that shape success or failure have already been set in place. The pre-implementation phase is often underestimated – treated as a […]
Telcos are built for resilience.But when a critical exchange burned to the ground in regional Australia, it exposed the industry’s greatest weakness and its greatest strength are one and the same: the ability to adapt. What happened to Warrnambool Exchange in 2012 wasn’t just a fire. It was a story that shattered the commonly held […]
If asked to think about telco’s most valuable assets, most people think spectrum, networks and customers. But if we think a bit more laterally, telcos have other compounding growth engines that are never discussed, to the point of being invisible. In fact, the assets that have the potential to compound fastest probably don’t even appear […]
When we’re passionate about OSS and we discuss OSS/BSS transformation, the context is almost always centred around the technology. But if technology was the real barrier, most telcos would already be running the sleek digital operations of their dreams by now. As we found in the previous article about telco world views, the real drag […]
Most carriers still rely on traditional RFP processes to select OSS/BSS vendors. These methods are seen as rigorous and comprehensive. However, they are slow, inflexible and often fail to surface the best-fit vendor. Despite consuming vast time and effort, statistically, they are only ~30% likely to find the best-fit vendor for your needs. We’ve continually […]
Telcos have tolerated lengthy OSS/BSS rollouts as a necessary evil for years, but what if those same systems are the chains holding the telco world back. Which is the chicken and which is the egg? Is it OSS/BSS and/or the market that needs a radical reboot? Which must be rebooted first? OSS and BSS are […]
You’ve already got your dragon slayers. Your team is filled with seasoned OSS professionals who’ve faced complex, high-stakes problems and lived to tell the tale. They’re reliable, sharp, and tested. But if you’re the King / Queen, the one responsible for building the team, then you need more than just experience. You need adaptability. Perspective. […]
Many OSS veterans, the people who built the OSS of today, are no longer being offered full-time roles. Clients often assume they have become obsolete or are simply too expensive. However, these same experts are still solving the toughest OSS problems, drawing on decades of hard-earned experience. They are just not doing it from inside […]
This article provides a summary of our Buyer-Seller Chasm series of articles, where we start with the guiding principle that: The buyers (carriers) desperately need better tools to transform their operations. The sellers (vendors) already have better tools, which they desperately want to sell. The problem worth solving lies in the extraordinary amount of time, […]
We love doing The Passionate About OSS Podcast, but it’s been a loooong time between episodes. Too long. We love the conversations, but the post-processing takes around 8-10 hours depending on the episode. Unfortunately (or fortunately), we’ve been so busy with client work over the last few years that the podcast has taken a […]
For decades, OSS has followed the same pattern: design, then keep adding lots more “baked-in” capabilities into a complex OSS UI, process inputs, generate outputs. At incredible scale. We made them faster, (somewhat) more automated, and vastly more scalable. But we never made them think. Until now… If… (we’ll come back to the if shortly). […]
In the telecommunications industry, Tier-2 (smaller) network operators often look up to their larger Tier-1 counterparts as models for building networks, telco standards and operational support systems (OSS). However, and the Tier-1 operators will never admit to this, but the lessons don’t always need to flow top-down from T1 to T2. In fact, the pragmatic […]
Are you about to embark on an OSS transformation? It’s a huge journey that awaits. It won’t be without risks and fears either. Like any journey, it all starts with the old cliche of starting with the first step! When helping organisations embarking on their transformation journeys, there’s typically three primary transformation models for you […]
The great thing about the holiday period is you often get the chance to step away from business as usual (BAU) activities. As customer projects go into a brief hiatus, it clears a little space in the calendar to read and plan for what to do in the year ahead. This book “It’s Not the […]
In the last week alone, I’ve had two potent reminders that the world of OSS is simply (pun intended) too complex. This manifests in many ways, but I’ll start with the standards that underpin our industry. The standards bodies do fantastic work. I’m a huge fan. Enormous credit should go out to everyone who has […]
It seems fairly obvious (to me at least) that AI is an existential threat to many traditional information-based roles like consultants and architects. I’ve already seen one wave of this happen, so the next seems inevitable too. When I first entered the field of IT and telco consulting back in 2000, our clients engaged us […]
In case you hadn’t already picked up on it, today’s title paraphrases Austin Powers, the flamboyant British spy and comedic character created by Mike Myers. What does a fictional British spy have to do with today’s article on OSS RFPs? It’s a bit of a tenuous link, but let’s give it a go anyway. Did […]
