OSS consultants provide you with the opportunity to bring a different set of ideas, insights and connections to your OctopOSS
Take a look at the image below. If you were told that the image showed where planes had taken hits in WWII before returning to base and were asked to recommend locations on the plane where armour should be strengthened, where would you choose? Would you choose to strengthen behind the cockpit and on the […]
“To become a business asset, the role of data within an organization must move from being departmentally siloed to being centrally managed. Breaking down the siloes is not necessarily a technical challenge, but an organizational one. It requires a data strategy, the correct level of ownership and corporate governance. Data-as-a-business-asset means a single definition of […]
Have you ever worked in a big telco (or any large organisation for that matter)? Have you ever noticed the disconnection in knowledge / information? On a recent project, I was brought in as an external consultant to find potential improvements to one business unit’s specific key performance indicator (KPI). As a consultant, my role […]
“A bear jumps out of a bush and starts chasing two hikers. They both start running for their lives, but then one of them stops to put on his running shoes. His friends says, “What are you doing? You can’t out-run a bear!” His friend replies, “I don’t have to out-run the bear. I only […]
When we distill it down, what are telcos selling? They’re selling connections. Whether it’s connecting with information, a group, another person, even a virtual assistant or machine-to-machine, we tend to use communications services to connect. Networks are an important component to establish those connections. OSS go a step further. They help to establish a connection […]
Over the years, I’ve dealt with (and worked with) many vendors, as I’m sure you have too. Some will bend over backwards to help their customers (or potential customers) out, finding workarounds to their own internal rules to help make something good happen. Others will persuade their customers into signing a contract before bending their […]
“In writing or in life, people who are successful focus on the input (putting in). Those who aren’t successful focus on the output (taking out).” Paraphrasing Tucker Max during a podcast with James Altucher. In the post that follows, you’ll notice that I’m putting a completely different context on Tucker’s quote above, which is a […]
One of the advantages of being a consultant is that you get to assist big corporates without being wrapped up in some of the big corporates’ mindsets. Of course this isn’t true of all employees at big corporates, but I’ve found the, “that’s somebody else’s job,” mindset to be more prevalent there. In some ways […]
“The truth is that whale-sized companies would love to do business with smaller suppliers. The relationship is more immediate in every way. Small suppliers can deliver goods more quickly than larger ones. It’s much easier to get the CEO of a small supplier on the phone for discussion of the transactions. Small suppliers are more […]
Many telcos around the world have a sometimes subtle, sometimes not, turf-war going on between networks / operations and IT groups. Virtualisation of the network potentially amplifies this because it increases the scope of possible overlap. As described in yesterday’s “Noah’s Ark of OSS success,” one of the ways of improving the success of an […]
Gartner’s magic quadrant for OSS is often used by organisations as a proxy for determining a short-list from the hundreds (thousands?) of OSS products available on the market. I’ve even heard of executives from tier-one telcos issuing directives that their short-list should consist of the top right corner of Gartner’s OSS Magic Quadrant (the Leaders […]
Amongst other consultancy activities, I help clients find the best OSS solution for their needs. This means I’m constantly analysing vendor offerings to cross-reference against client needs. Based on this perspective, there’s a question I would like to pose to vendors – Why are potential customers coming to your site? [Note: for the purpose of […]
“Calling it an experiment gives you permission to fail.” A.J. Jacobs. It’s usually really cheap to experiment with data (assuming that it’s data you’ve already collected and curated). What if you combine that “license to fail” insight with yesterday’s start of the Minimum Viable Telco (and OSS) movement? Can we use experiments to trial increased […]
For those of us in the technology consulting game, we think we’re pretty clever at predicting the next big technology trend. But with the proliferation of information over the Internet, it’s not that difficult to see potentially beneficial technologies coming over the horizon. We can all see network virtualisation, Internet-connected sensor networks, artificial intelligence, etc […]
Have you noticed a changing trend where some of the largest service providers in the world are reverting to building their own OSS / orchestration (ie writing software) rather than buying off-the-shelf? The trends pushing this cycle are software defined networks and agile development models. In the earliest days of OSS, the service providers made […]
Marc Andreessen describes platforms as “a system that can be programmed and therefore customized by outside developers — users — and in that way, adapted to countless needs and niches that the platform’s original developers could not have possibly contemplated, much less had time to accommodate.” Platform thinking is an important approach for service providers […]
Blogs from the last two days have covered the dilemma of dynamic operating procedures and why the standard operating procedures of the past are perhaps too idealistic a concept. Despite this, I still try to build repeatability into the various aspects of OSS delivery – initial installation, documentation, demonstrations, training, testing (and regression testing), etc. […]
In two recent posts, we’ve discussed the changing world order of OSS with NFV as a catalyst, and highlighted the challenges posed by maintaining legacy product offerings (the pyramid of OSS pain). These two paradigms (and others such as the touchpoint explosion) are dragging traditional service providers closer to a significant crossroad. Network virtualisation will […]
“operators that seek to implement NFV without preparing their OSS to support it are unlikely to be successful in capturing the new revenue-generating and cost-saving opportunities. OSS should not be an afterthought; it will continue to be central to the operational efficiency and agility of the service provider.” James Crawshaw in “Next-Gen OSS for Hybrid […]
“Sometimes communicating to someone that you have faith in them and believe they can succeed is all they need to actually succeed.” Keith Cameron Smith. As you might have guessed, I spend a lot of time working in and analysing the OSS industry. I’ve also worked in many countries and organisations on OSS-related projects. This […]
