OSS consultants provide you with the opportunity to bring a different set of ideas, insights and connections to your OctopOSS
“The second question to ask is: can existing assets be reused or recycled? In other words, can the investment be deferred? One of the most common claims used to support an investment case is that the investment is necessary because the network is congested. This is often correct; capacity upgrades are a fact of life […]
“There are two questions to ask during the capex planning process that get to the heart of the issue. First, should a particular investment be made at all? The majority of operators have a long tail of marginally profitable—or downright unprofitable—products, networks, customers, channels and segments. A request for additional investment in such assets is […]
“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 […]
“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 […]
“Are your colleagues in Marketing, IT, Networks or Finance frustrated with how your company’s capex is allocated, how that capex is controlled or the performance it delivers?” Report entitled, “We need to talk about CAPEX – Benchmarking best practice in telecom capital allocation.” In Friday’s blog, I posed a series of questions about OSS and […]
“…in a capital intensive industry like telecom, the key metric is return on capital, especially when that industry turns ex-growth. Revenue, EBITDA and cash are useful interim steps along the way, but the ultimate end-point is ROI. It’s not a clever conclusion, but it’s not the consensus conclusion either. Unfortunately, such basic principles have gotten […]
“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. […]
“Welcome those big, sticky, complicated problems. In them are your most powerful opportunities.” Ralph Marston. In previous blogs such as, “The marriage analogy” and “If people like you,” I’ve spoken about the perils of vendor lock-in. But today, I’ve decided to play out the polar opposite perspective for the purpose of curiosity. Please take a […]
“Everyone has a plan ’till they get punched in the mouth.” Mike Tyson. The great thing about Engineers is the solution is always black and white. It has to be perfect or it’s not complete. Well, I’m a qualified Engineer, but I’m not qualified to be an Engineer by these generalisations. You’re probably sick of […]
“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 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 […]
“A core component of Lean Startup methodology is the build-measure-learn feedback loop. The first step is figuring out the problem that needs to be solved and then developing a minimum viable product (MVP) to begin the process of learning as quickly as possible. Once the MVP is established, a startup can work on tuning the […]
“Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better.” Sydney J. Harris. There are many dilemmas facing the organisation that is attempting to select a new OSS vendor, including: The need to change vs the difficulties […]
“Surprisingly though, wireless providers themselves are one of the largest hurdles for advancing IoT, with many resisting adding connectivity to new devices due to fears of lower APRU metrics. CSPs must band together and embrace future innovation before competition edges them out. Perhaps creating an IoT MVNO is the transition necessary for addressing lower ARPU, […]
“You don’t need to be better. You need to be different.” Chase Jarvis. PassionateAboutOSS.com and my book came into existence due to a distinct gap in the OSS market that I’d noticed again and again whilst on customer assignments. As represented in the diagram below, there was a major disconnect between the Technology Context and […]
“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 […]
“But do you want to get better? It seems like a stupid question. Of course we want our organization, our work and our health to improve. But often, we don’t. Better means change and change means risk and risk means fear… There are countless ways to listen, to engage with users, to learn and to […]
“Start small, think big. Don’t worry about too many things at once. Take a handful of simple things to begin with, and then progress to more complex ones. Think about not just tomorrow, but the future.” Steve Jobs. This is a really interesting snapshot of Steve Jobs’ mode of thinking roughly 8-10 weeks after re-joining […]
“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 […]
“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 […]
