Minimise the tentacles on the OctopOSS. Keep it simple
My “best” OSS build was my first. Unfortunately the client shut it down after just over 2 years. Why? We’ll get to that. What did I learn? We’ll get to that too. I shouldn’t say “my” OSS or “I built” because it was a massive effort from a very special team and I’m not trying […]
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 […]
One of the things I love about my job is all the vendor demos I get to see. Product demos are one of the four important steps in the “inverted pyramid” vendor selection process we follow with our carrier and utility clients as we go about finding a best-fit new OSS and/or BSS solution for […]
Have you read the book, “The 4-hour work week” by Tim Ferris? It was one of those relatively rare books that inspired a complete mindset shift and new ways of working for me. It’s one of the many books that have nothing to do with OSS (at face value), but have so many learnings for […]
Earlier this week, I was lucky enough to be introduced to a talented RAN automation expert. He’s one of Australia’s foremost, hands-on, experts on SON (Self Organising Networks), so it was a fascinating conversation about network automation and many other things. The discussions inevitably led to RAN data. As much as I’m Passionate About OSS, […]
I was listening to a group of telco experts on a podcast the other day. As they were talking, I kept picturing the image of Eeyore – you know, the donkey from A.A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh” stories with an overly pessimistic outlook on life. Sources: https://getwallpapers.com The podcast was just soooo gloomy. Channeling Eeyore, I’ll paraphrase: […]
Earlier in the year, we wrote a series of articles about the chasm that exists between OSS/BSS buyers and sellers (pt1, pt2, pt3, pt4, pt5, pt6). “The chasm” is best exemplified by the situation where a buyer (eg carrier) desperately needs a new OSS and a seller (eg a software vendor) desperately wants to sell their OSS to the […]
Actually, maybe a few related questions. As you’ve seen from recent articles such as this, I’m increasingly interested in the cross-over worlds of comms and energy. They’re becoming increasingly linked, largely due to the current energy use of generative AI (I’ve seen estimates that GenAI searches consume around 10x the energy of equivalent traditional searches). […]
I’d like to share an idea with you. I think it’s a novel idea. However, I’m still trying to work through the possible pros / cons / feasibility of it, so I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions. I’d also love to hear whether it actually is novel or whether you’ve seen something similar […]
There are many reasons why it’s hard to get an OSS transformation project off the ground. One of those reasons, a big one, is the catch-22 situation that arises when setting the budget for a project. How much does an OSS cost? How long is a piece of string? Some carriers, especially the smaller telcos […]
Athletes from around the globe will soon be descending on Paris to compete for Olympic medals in a multitude of events. Olympic champions will be determined through a variety of performance attributes – skill, strength, endurance, speed and much more – with different attributes required for any given event. That made me wonder – What […]
Late last week we published an article, “From Telco to HellCo: I’m the CEO of a large telco. I want to destroy it as fast as I can.” Based on all the feedback, you could say that it seemed to resonate! Using Charlie Munger’s Inversion Technique, we suggested 21 ways to kill off a large […]
Many of the telco industry’s fittest and finest have just returned from a week in Copenhagen at TM Forum’s flagship event, DTW24. Iain Morris of Light Reading suggests in an article that Copenhagen is an apt location for the event because many industry representatives are “in little mermaid land.” The tone of his article is […]
OSS Transformation Resourcing Questions Have you ever had to wrestle with the conundrum of organisational change when embarking on a major OSS transformation? How many people will I need? What tasks will they do? What skills will they require? Who are the best people to get involved in the transformation? How much budget needs to […]
In the highly competitive domain of Operational Support Systems (OSS) and Business Support Systems (BSS), standing out isn’t just about offering a comprehensive set of features. It’s about delivering an exceptional user interface (UI), user experience (UX), and customer experience (CX). Despite this, it seems that the prioritisation of UI / UX / CX is […]
Are you familiar with David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH) and Jason Fried, the Co-Founders of 37signals (Makers of Basecamp and other software solutions)? As far as I know, they’ve never had anything to do with telco OSS tools, but I do love the clarity of a lot of the concepts they share on the 37signals blog […]
In recent articles, we’ve discussed how Private Equity (PE) could help to reshape the struggling telecommunications business models and how OSS/BSS stacks touch almost every part of a telco business model without most people even realising it (as per the diagram below). We’ve also discussed how the pragmatism of Tier-2 telco thinking could be a […]
In recent years, we’ve seen a rise in traditional telecommunications providers selling off tranches of tower assets. These sell-offs have likely occurred for a variety of reasons – to help fund 5G roll-outs, to pay down debt, to invest in further digital transformation projects, etc. In short, capital demands / ambitions appear to often exceed […]
There’s this phrase that just keeps ringing in my head when I see OSS and BSS in action – “Made by Engineers for Engineers.” This was certainly a badge of honour. If the people who built OSS tools had network engineering experience, then there was a great likelihood that they were building solutions to solve […]
We’ve recently been talking about the chasm between OSS buyers and sellers. OSS buyers and sellers desperately need each other to improve the effectiveness of the entire telecommunications industry. The size of the chasm is harming both sides. In part 2 of the “buyer-seller chasm” series, three of the biggest contributing factors were identified as: […]
