Minimise the tentacles on the OctopOSS. Keep it simple
Apart from an obvious passion for OSS (is the URL a giveaway?), I also have a passion for real estate and property development. You’d think these fields are a long way removed, but today’s story ties them together. I had one multi-townhouse development that took 3.5 years in the council approval cycle. The council team […]
Today I’d like to share a mistake that I’ve made over and over again in my career. It’s a mistake I’m constantly trying to rectify, and succeeding, but still failing. It’s not just me either. Many of my OSS colleagues fall into the same trap, so there must be something in our nature that makes […]
Dell sells directly to its customers, avoiding the markups of intermediaries. Dell once diverged from this model, selling through agents, but failed and quickly reverted. The OSS market is quite clearly different from Dell’s PC and laptop market, with vastly different customer volumes and revenue per customer. However, there are some OSS companies that have […]
“Making the business case for NFV isn’t difficult in one sense; we already know that the only thing that can really drive NFV from its current point to early success is operations cost reduction through service automation. The problem for vendors is that only seven or eight vendors can actually provide the essential tools. You […]
AT&T’s ECOMP (Enhanced Control, Orchestration, Management & Policy) Architecture White Paper can be found here. It provides a reference architecture and a breakdown of the components that AT&T are using to manage their virtualised network functions. It’s an interesting take on MANO / OSS in a carrier environment, especially figure 3 that compares and contrasts […]
You all know those captcha codes online to prove you’re not a bot right (examples above)? They can be really obscure and annoying can’t they? I contemplated adding captcha codes to the comments section under each blog to prevent the barrage of spam from overwhelming legitimate comments. That thought process didn’t last long though – […]
There can be many parts that make up an operator’s provisioning factory. There can also be multiple different software packages that contribute towards getting an order through the factory. In addition to that, there are usually many different activities that need to take place, some automatic, some manual, some as external dependencies, conditional gates, etc. […]
“Global telecommunications study: navigating the road to 2020.” In the study listed above, executives at some of the world’s largest CSPs indicate that the players most likely to disrupt their industry is OTT app providers. Any thoughts on why they might be perceived to be 30x more influential than technology specialists, or 5x more influential […]
On Friday we published The Simplification Mantra. It discussed the starting perspectives for simplification and that OSS already have so much functionality that they’re difficult for users to navigate. An example that I see time and again is where OSS can achieve a requirement, let’s say designing a service for one customer, but don’t cater […]
When it comes to designing, building and configuring OSS, there is a tendency to have a functionality delivery mindset. That is, if we can get our OSS to meet each functional requirement then we tick the box and move on to the next. There is usually a long list of requirements that need to be […]
Time-to-market is an important metric in the Telco vernacular. It’s important because rapid TTM allows one CSP to get an attractive new product out to customers earlier than competitors and all the benefits that go with it (ie rapid revenue turn-on, market share, brand awareness, etc). One of the primary impediments to a product’s TTM […]
“Until now, communications service providers could not match their digital native counterparts when it came to delivering what customers want, when and where they want it. Now there is a real opportunity to close that gap through a number of interrelated, big trends that are happening in parallel. This includes transforming their infrastructure through network […]
“Perhaps the most egregious platform failure is to simply not see the platform play at all. It is also one of the hardest for traditional firms to avoid. Firms guilty of this oversight never get past the idea that they sell products when they could be building ecosystems. Sony, Hewlett Packard (HP), and Garmin all […]
“The telco’s strategy encompasses three broad categories of APIs, each of which targets a different audience: – Private, internal APIs accessible exclusively to Telstra’s developers; – External, public APIs, that are available for use by third-party developers; and – APIs intended for use by Telstra’s partners. “Each one of these has a different value to […]
“Answers to leading questions under torture naturally tell us nothing about the beliefs of the accused; but they are good evidence for the beliefs of the accusers.” C.S. Lewis. Today I’d like to share a clever strategy used by a clever OSS division head that l once worked with. The team he led was in […]
“Yes, it’s true, almost no one reads the instructions… people are so self-absorbed and hurried that they plunge first. One more reason to build something simple. But at least you can post instructions so that after they fail the first time, they have a shot at getting it right the second time.” Seth Godin. My washing […]
In the law of cascading problems, let’s say we have data sets where our data accuracy levels are as follows: Locations are 90% Pits are 95% Ducts are 90% Cables are 90% Joints are 85% Patch panels are 85% Active devices are 95% Cards are 95% Ports are 90% Bearer circuits are 85% That all sounds […]
“Companies often see the disruptive forces affecting their industry. They frequently divert sufficient resources to participate in emerging markets. Their failure is usually an inability to truly embrace the new business models the disruptive change opens up. Kodak created a digital camera, invested in the technology, and even understood that photos would be shared online. […]
“If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now.” Woodrow Wilson. Going for a run can be fun, but adding a clock/stop-watch changes the dynamic. A game of football is fun to watch […]
A very clever friend of mine made an interesting observation recently. He had noticed that one of his global markets, a developing region, tended to ask for a very different set of outcomes from his OSS than his customers in more developed regions. He has noticed that the developing regions are asking business level questions […]
