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:
“Oh, bother. The telco industry and OSS markets, they’re just not what they used to be, are they? Once upon a time, there was hope, a glimmer of something exciting on the horizon. But now, well, it feels like we’re just trudging along in the mud, doesn’t it? Innovation? Oh, that seems to have wandered off somewhere, like my tail. I’m sure it’ll turn up eventually, but who knows when? Maybe someone interesting will bring it back.
The promises of digital transformation, they sounded so wonderful at the time. But here we are, stuck with legacy systems that don’t quite fit together, no matter how hard we try. And the vendors, bless them, they keep talking about the next big thing, but it all feels a bit hollow, doesn’t it? More of the same. Just more noise in the very crowded, very tired Hundred Acre Wood… I mean, telco industry.
Oh, well, I suppose if we’re being honest – sigh – it’s all just too hard, isn’t it? Telco systems, they’ve become so complicated, so tangled up in their own messes. All these grand ideas, cloudification, AI, 5G – they sounded nice once, didn’t they? But now it just seems like more work, more headaches. It’s all just so exhausting.
And customers, well, they’re more demanding than ever. They want faster, better, cheaper, and who can blame them? But it’s hard to keep up, especially when everything feels so over-hyped and disjointed. The industry’s so busy chasing the next shiny thing that it sometimes forgets about the basics, like eating thistles and keeping networks running smoothly.
Perhaps we should just stop, let it go, and accept that the dream was nice while it lasted, but we’re not getting anywhere anymore. Maybe we should just convince some youngsters to take over? If only they were interested.
Well, I suppose they would be full of energy and enthusiasm, wouldn’t they? Charging in with all their bright ideas, thinking they’ll change the world. It’s admirable, I suppose, but they don’t yet know what they’re in for. They see the glitz and glamour, but they haven’t felt the weight of the reality yet. The long hours, the endless challenges, the projects that never quite go as planned.
I should stop talking now. Thanks for noticing me.”
The Eeyore perspective seems to be so pervasive in our industry these days. The transcript above could be more or less the same as many others I’ve seen or read or heard in recent times.
I speak to salespeople who are finding it hard to sell the same products that had brought them rich commissions in the past, bemoaning that telco budgets are drying up faster than a waterhole in the desert. I hear of product designers complaining that all their competitors are just putting AI wrappers around their old products and calling them new again. I hear implementers that are caught up in the tangled mess of complexity and just can’t deliver anything useful on time or on budget – set against a backdrop of fear – with never-ending rounds of layoffs by bean-counters that need to drop costs to off-set shrinking revenues. I hear of execs who privately believe their company won’t survive the next decade, becoming centres of financial engineering to delay the inevitable.
The stream of media in Hundred Acre Wood all feels a bit morose and moribund these days!
I totally get it. Yet these sentiments are often stemming from people who were so excited about our industry earlier in their careers when the telco world was so much more dynamic. There’s no doubt that the situation is still dynamic, but most of the dynamism is being created outside and drip-imported – network virtualisation, cloudification, containerisation, the AI-ing of everything, observability and much more.
The podcast made me feel an urgent need to provide a counter-balance – it’s my responsibility to channel Tigger – to bounce into the world of OSS with boundless energy and enthusiasm! To see it as a giant playground, full of opportunities to innovate, experiment, and, most importantly, to have fun.
The world of telecommunications have never been important. We’ve never been more needed. The services we’re delivering have gone from nice-to-have to essential services in the last couple of decades. Our modern way of life is centred around our digital comms.
There are 500+ vendors in our OSS/BSS Directory and countless more built ground up and fit-for-purpose for telcos around the world. Every one of them is a technical work of art. Every one of them stems from the creativity of a collective of geniuses. Yet for as far as OSS have come, there’s still so much more that we can do to improve them.
So many new questions to ask. So many systems to integrate. So many challenges to overcome. So many new systems to design. So many new technologies to integrate and improve upon. So many new user interfaces and customer experiences to design. What revitalised business model can bring profitability and life back to the industry? Every day, every obstacle is just another exciting opportunity for OSS Tiggers to bounce us to the next level. For Tigger, the world of OSS would be a thrilling, ever-changing landscape where there’s always something new to discover.
OSS-related funding / budget is certainly difficult to get in the current environment. We need to find ways to make the benefits more compelling.
Make no mistake, next-level OSS are the basis of next-level telcos!
If we want the next generation of experts to stand on the shoulders of you, the OSS giants of today, are they going to be drawn more to the personality of an Eeyore or a Tigger?
To borrow from two of Tigger’s most iconic phrases:
“The wonderful thing about OSS is OSS are wonderful things!”
“As soon as I saw you, I knew an adventure was going to happen!”
Soooo. What’s it gonna be? Are you going to bring the energy, optimism and enthusiasm of Tigger or Eeyore to this wonderful industry of ours? I’d love to hear your story about why you’re one or the other!
“TTFN! Ta-ta for now!“
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