One sentence to make most OSS experts cringe

Let me warn you. The following sentence is going to make many OSS experts cringe, maybe even feel slightly disgusted, but take the time to read the remainder of the post and ponder how it fits within your specific OSS context/s.

“Our OSS need to help people spend money!”

Notice the word is “help” and not “coerce?” This is not a post about turning our OSS into sales tools, well, not directly anyway.

May I ask you a question – Do you ever spend time thinking about how your OSS is helping your customer’s customer (which I’ll refer to as the end-customer) to spend their money? And I mean making it easier for them to buy the stuff they want to buy in return for some form of value / utility, not trick or coerce them into buying stuff they don’t want.

Let me step you through the layers of thinking here.

The first layer for most OSS experts is their direct customer, which is usually the service provider or enterprise that buys and operates the OSS. We might think they are buying an OSS, but we’re wrong. An organisation buys an OSS, not because it wants an Operational Support System, but because it wants Operational Support.

The second layer is a distinct mindset change for most OSS experts. Following on from the first layer, OSS has the potential to be far more than just operational support. Operational support conjures up the image of being a cost-centre, or something that is a necessary evil of doing business (ie in support of other revenue-raising activities). To remain relevant and justify OSS project budgets, we have to flip the cost-centre mentality and demonstrate a clear connection with revenue chains. The more obvious the connection, the better. Are you wondering how?

That’s where the third layer comes in. We have to think hard about the end-customer and empathise with their experiences. These experiences might be a consumer to a service provider’s (your direct customer) product offerings. It might even be a buying cycle that the service provider’s products facilitate. Either way, we need to simplify their ability to buy.

So let’s work back up through those layers again:
Layer 3 – If end-customers find it easier to buy stuff, then your customer wins more revenue (and brand value)
Layer 2 – If your customer sees that its OSS / BSS has unquestionably influenced revenue increase, then more is invested on OSS projects
Layer 1 – If your customer recognises that your OSS / BSS has undeniably influenced the increased OSS project budget, you too get entrusted with a greater budget to attempt to repeat the increased end-customer buy cycle… but only if you continue to come up with ideas that make it easier for people (end-customers) to spend their money.

At what layer does your thinking stop?

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2 Responses

  1. Great food for thought! Now I have something else to think about besides the new toy πŸ™‚

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