Frost & Sullivan’s Stratecast Division recently released preliminary data from an in-depth research report finding drastic changes in communications service provider (CSP) buying habits for customized OSS/BSS solutions. According to Stratecast, CSPs are purchasing commercial off-the-shelf products that do not require customization. Previous Stratecast research in 2005 showed that 16 percent of CSPs questioned were implementing highly customized OSS/BSS solutions. This figure has now plunged to 2 percent.

Annual OSS/BSS spending is estimated to be 20 to 25 percent of CAPEX. Based on combined estimates, annual service provider CAPEX is expected to be $150 billion to $250 billion. This results in OSS/BSS capital spending estimates of $30 billion to $62.5 billion annually, which does not include professional services beyond those required to install the solution or managed services. More

The Ignorance of Crowds

Carr makes a number of points succinctly and eloquently, and peppers them with relevant quotes:

Opensource tends to be “extraordinarily powerful way” to improve things that exist, but tends to be “less successful at creating exciting new programs from scratch”, and as a consequence “it’s an optimisation model rather than an invention model”

He quotes University of Michigan professor Scott Page as saying “when solving problems, diversity may matter as much as, or even more than, individual ability”, and extends this theme by saying “What an unorganised, fairly random group of people provides is not just a lot of eyeballs but a lot of different ways of seeing”

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