Having trouble getting funding for your OSS?

Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn.”
John Wesley
.

In the 1990’s and early 2000’s OSS were much more sexy than they are today. As such, they were easier to find funding for than they are today. Perhaps one reason for this is the imperceptible benefits that they provide, as opposed to the now common perception that OSS projects struggle to justify their investment, at least amongst non-tech parts of the business.

To me, this indicates two closely related concepts:

  • We need to articulate the benefits of our OSS so that they are more clearly perceptible
  • We need to evangelise and market our OSS throughout the business

The first dot-point requires a re-framing, new performance indicators that make more sense to the broader business community. There are many, many angles that we can take in this reframing exercise.

The second dot-point requires us to get out into the business and spruik these newly reframed benefits. But just as importantly we need to have open ears not just open mouths when doing so. We need to be identifying problems that our OSS can solve for other parts of the business. Afterall, our OSS / BSS touch almost every part of a service provider’s business so it makes sense that we gather stats that could be of great value to them if presented the right way.

Have you ever considered Decision Support Systems (DSS)? I see these tools as an extension to our OSS / BSS, but have the potential to add enormous business value in complex organisations where there are many moving parts.

Need some help coming up with ideas, re-framing perspectives or understanding the potential of DSS? Please send me a message. I’d love to help you spread the gospel.

Do you have any examples of surprising outcomes your OSS delivered for other parts of your business and you’d like to share with the PAOSS community?

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