An OSS Buyer’s Experience Journey – An Emotional Roller-coaster
I really liked this article from Guy Brunsdon called, “Using the Buyer’s Journey Model for Internal Alignment.” It’s certainly not written for the world of telco / OSS specifically, but it certainly resonated with some of the challenges we face. In Guy’s article, he states: I’ve always liked the “Buyer’s Journey” model, which describes a […]
$500M at the speed of trust – One big difference between Warren Buffett and the OSS industry
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: […]
Avoiding the “Three-Forevers” approach to vendor selection
So you’re about to embark on an OSS transformation project huh? One that involves finding the best-fit solution from the hundreds of OSS/BSS that are available on the market. You’ve already thought long and hard about the build vs buy conundrum and decided that rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, you’ll go with the […]
How a Lego challenge helps provide a new lens on OSS
Did you love to play with Lego as a kid? I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that since you’re reading a blog about OSS, then you’re probably leaning towards the technical end of the spectrum… and therefore probably did play with Lego. Perhaps you even crossed into Lego Technic that allows […]
The rise of the super-ISP and a whole-quilt OSS solution
The early 2000s (when I first started out in, and fell in love with, the OSS industry) saw many Tier-1 telcos make large OSS and BSS transformation investments. Prior to that, they’d largely run their operations from NMS level and/or using home-grown systems. Since there weren’t many existing OSS to unseat, these projects were mostly […]
Similarities and differences between airlines and telco industries
The airline industry is comprised of many regional carriers. There is no global carrier (although there are alliances). Each continent has multiple airlines. There are also local / regional airlines. Airlines of different sizes, business models and target customers. Different service offerings and different look & feel in terms of the customer experience (CX). This […]
What will you do if the telco industry dies?
Christel Heydemann, Orange’s CEO, brought to our attention at MWC 2023 that a survey of European telcos indicated that almost half of the polled CEOs do not expect their businesses to make it through another decade. That’s a pretty scary thing to think about if you’ve built your career around the telco industry and don’t […]
What’s the worst thing that could happen on an OSS transformation? (part 6)
This is the sixth of the “buyer / seller chasm” series of articles (pt1, pt2, pt3, pt4, pt5). In it, we consider how to bring Buyers and Sellers together more effectively to build better telcos. We’d previously highlighted the issues, the pain points, the sources of friction, a bunch of solutions and more. The title […]
Closing the OSS Buyer / Seller chasm – More solutions (part 5)
This is the fifth of the “buyer / seller” chasm articles (pt1, pt2, pt3, pt4). We’d previously highlighted the issues, the pain points, the sources of friction and more about getting Buyers and Sellers together to build better telcos. But in today’s article we’ll complete the solutions list that we started on in part four, […]
Closing the OSS Buyer / Seller chasm – Solutions (part 4)
This is the fourth of the “buyer / seller” chasm articles (pt1, pt2, pt3). We’ve already highlighted the issues, the pain points, the sources of friction and more about getting Buyers and Sellers together to build better telcos. But in today’s article we’ll explore some possibilities for how to overcome those challenges by building bridges […]
How can we reduce the size of the OSS buyer-seller chasm? (part 2)
Our previous post highlighted a chasm between buyers and sellers. It has sparked quite a lot of conversation, which is exactly as intended. In another earlier post about telco reaching its burning exchange moment, we wrote: In a keynote speech at Mobile World Congress (MWC), Thierry Breton, the European Union’s internal market commissioner opined, “In […]
Could it be possible? Is the telco industry’s biggest constraint a shortage of bridge builders? (part 1)
I’m currently lucky enough to be involved in a couple of vendor selection processes where we’re helping carriers (buyers) to find the best-fit OSS vendors (sellers) for their needs. Most start a vendor selection process by preparing a looooong list of requirements. This approach takes forever to write, forever to respond to and forever to […]
Revolutionising Network Operations with AIOps – Our Latest Report and Video Link
As you may have noticed, we recently launched a new report, “The Future of AIOps: A Definitive Guide.” In the rapidly evolving landscape of carrier networks, Operations was and still is, the linchpin of business stability. It’s effectively every telco’s insurance policy. With the complexity of systems and the demand for instant resolution of issues, […]
Our latest whitepaper has finally launched – AIOps of the Future: A Definitive Guide
I’m really excited to announce that a project we kicked off in collaboration with Ramandeep Bhalla, Deepak Kakadia and Rakesh Ashok, all the way back in March of 2023, has finally launched. It got a whole lot bigger than I was originally expecting. It’s nearly 100 pages long, well over 30,000 words and over 40 […]
Who are the real heroes of your OSS project? It might not be who you think!
When I first left uni with my freshly minted degrees, whenever I thought of salespeople, I had an image something like the one below in my head. This image might still be true if you’re on the hunt for a used clunker. However, nothing could be further from the truth for the salespeople that make […]
How budget and mindset shapes OSS procurement differently for T1 and T2 carriers
Large carriers (let’s call them T1’s) tend to approach OSS procurement projects very differently from small to medium sized carriers (let’s call them T2’s). This is mostly driven by budget, or more to the point, how the budget frames the thinking. We’ll also show you how drawing on ideas from the T2 approach can actually […]
What’s your OSS Linda Evangelista Number?
Linda Evangelista, a supermodel back in the day, was famously quoted as saying, “I don’t get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day.” When conducting vendor selection processes with my clients, I tend to find the “OSS Linda Evangelista number” quite helpful. It’s the minimum dollar amount that a vendor will be prepared […]
Avoiding telco black swans: Insights from the airline industry
For many of us, telco network downtime is more of a nuisance than a critical event. But for some mission critical and life-critical use-cases (like e-Health scenarios), telecommunications networks are certainly not just nice-to-have. They have to be available for every second of every day of every year. It has recently dawned on me that […]
The OSS fireplace that is running out of heat
There’s an old parable from Earl Nightingale that I think about every day in terms of the OSS industry and the business operations of Passionate About OSS. Earl was a motivational speaker and author known for his inspiring teachings. He gained prominence in the 1950s and continued his work until his passing in 1989. One […]
The next OSS breakthrough: Accessibility
Our motto at Passionate About OSS is, “Removing complexity from OSS.” Sadly, we’re awash with complexity in our industry. If most OSS were represented as a board game, they’d look something like this: Image sourced from https://technabob.com Would you know how to play this game without instructions? Even if you had instructions, it could take […]