 |
advertisement
In today's fast-changing competitive landscape, your customer
experience
needs to stand out. For that, you need a single panoramic view of your
network, service and customer.
Transform your BSS/OSS with a visionary new approach, from Amdocs --
leaders in customer experience systems innovation.
For a new view, look
here.
|
EDITOR'S PERSPECTIVE
|
America the
inscrutable
By Tim McElligott
Borrowing from Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards' 2004
stump speech, it is starting to look like we have two Americas--not
one.
Forgetting for the moment that the term "America" does not describe the
U.S. alone, the truth is, there has never been a single America.
America
has always been plural and in fact has become the poster child of
pluralism.
But the two Americas we are concerned with today are the disparate
points of view between two North American service providers regarding
business transformation. One view was presented this week at the TM
Forum's Management World Americas in Dallas by keynote speaker and CIO
of Telus,
Kevin Salvadori. The other view was provided this week in the
pages of Telephony's Guide to Business Transformation supplement
by Verizon CIO
Shadman Zafar.
Both C-level execs have embarked on the same journey. Both have the
same
prize in mind: to survive and thrive in the new world order. Both are
throwing traditional telecom operations support overboard in favor of
an
IT-based infrastructure. Both are trying to do what America has not had
much success doing -- force cultures to change. Yet to hear these men
discuss their strategies for success, you'd think you were in a UN
session without headphones.
One takes an IT approach where the capabilities inherent in this
erstwhile enterprise technology drive the transformation. The other
takes a business approach where nothing proceeds without a go-ahead
from
the finance folks. One uses a greenfield service such as interactive
television to be the model for change that the rest of the company can
follow. The other transforms his entire wireline operations a million
customers at a time.
Yet despite the semantic differences, both are doing the same thing.
They both employ IT and business approaches. They both will eventually
migrate their many millions of customers over to their new platforms.
They will both highlight new services -- and hopefully make money
providing them.
So what is the real difference? It is not between these two Americas.
It
is between these two Americas and almost everyone else. The important
difference is that these two companies (and others such as BT and
Telstra) have stopped merely talking about transformation; they have
embarked on it.
Action is what counts, no matter how many Americas or Europes or Asias
or Africas or Middle Easts we have. We already have too many words.
E-mail me at tmcelligott@telephonyonline.com.
|
Back to Top
advertisement
Break Your Wireless Backhaul Bottleneck... Not Your Operations
Budget.
Stop by the Mobile Backhaul Management Catalyst project to see how
Nakina is helping to create a blueprint for managing mobile backhaul
services for Cable MSOs.
Visit Nakina Systems at Booth #208 and see live demonstrations of the
Nakina Network OS. Or click here
for more info.
|
NEWS FROM THE SHOW FLOOR
|
MWA:
TMF president gets presidential
DALLAS--Leery of being a prognosticator in an
industry
where much of what has been prognosticated in the last ten years has
become rubbish, TM Forum president Martin Creaner nonetheless delivered
a blunt but hopeful state of the OSS union address at the forum's
Management World Americas event this week. Click
to continue.
|
MWA:
LaJoie says ahoy to TM Forum
DALLAS--In his keynote address at the TM Forum's
Management World Americas, Time Warner Cable Chief Technology Officer
Mike LaJoie said joining the TM Forum along with several other cable
providers is "an opportunity to raise all tides and float all boats." Click
to continue.
|
MWA:
CA cracks the BlackBerry management problem
DALLAS--With its business from managed services
providers such as Verizon Business, BT Business Services and Sprint
nearly doubling over the last year and momentum building from its 2006
acquisition of Wily Technology, CA expanded its managed services
portfolio with a new Mobile Device Management solution, which it
introduced this week at the TM Forum's Management World Americas. Click
to continue.
|
Back to Top
advertisement
TELEPHONY UNLOCKS THE SECRETS OF SUCCESSFUL NEW SERVICE
CREATION
In this Webcast, Telephony's executive editor Rich Karpinski
talks to Becky Watson of Stratecast (a division of Frost and Sullivan)
and Tera Ferguson and Jim Conallen of IBM to discuss the best practices
when it comes to new service creation. Learn about the technology and
platform issues to consider when building next generation service
creation platforms, how to leverage your current infrastructure and how
to evaluate the success of your new services. Watch this
Webcast now.
Sponsored by IBM
|
SPECIAL REPORT
|
Back to Top
CATALYST SHOWCASE (FULL-LENGTH)
|
MWA: IMS Catalyst unites the
lifecycle
By Tim McElligott
Seamless and profitable services are ideal goals for the IP Multimedia
Subsystem. And a group of TM Forum members, including service providers
from China and Taiwan, got together in one of the forum's Catalyst
projects at Management World Americas to show that the goal is
achievable.
The project--sponsored by China Unicom and Chunghwa Telecom and
including Microsoft, ZTE and Amdocs--will present the lifecycle of an
IMS-based video-telephony service (deployment, activation, charging and
management, real-time audio-visual communication) offered across a
range
of devices, including Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones and
laptops.
"Catalyst projects enable us to work together with a number of vendors
to make something real," said Cassandra Millhouse, director of product
marketing for Amdocs' OSS division. "It gives us an opportunity to
stretch the imagination of service providers to see what they really
can
achieve in a fairly straightforward manner."
It also gives operators who might otherwise not have the opportunity to
partner to do so in an intellectual way and share results in a more
collaborative environment, Millhouse said.
Microsoft's Connected Services Framework will stand as Chunghwa
Telecom's One Stop Service Manager for service activation. ZTE will
contribute its multi-network convergence solution for session control,
and Amdocs will showcase its IMS charging and mediation solution.
The goal is to provide a unique industry reference model for
transforming IMS technology into a business value. Both China Unicom
and
Chunghwa telecom will be rolling out IMS platforms to allow centralized
support for all services.
China Unicom ran a full-year IMS trial from August 2006 through July of
this year in which it verified the fundamental functions of IMS network
elements. It is now turning its sights on the OSS/BSS aspect of IMS
services.
Having come through part of that process, Zhang Zhijiang, general
manager of China Unicom's technology department said, "It is clear to
us
that next-generation OSS and BSS are crucial for monetizing IMS
services."
Lu Shyue-ching, president of Chunghwa Telecom, followed that statement
by saying the IMS platform rollout will enable the company to offer new
services more rapidly at a lower cost. "This will help us establish a
competitive edge for our future growth into emerging markets," he said.
China Unicom has more than 140 million wireless subscribers and is the
third largest mobile operator in the world. Chunghwa Telecom is the
largest multi-play provider in Taiwan, with more than 20 million
subscribers.
Lu Shyue-ching said any system that can help it achieve its goals must
be NGOSS compliant.
Amdocs will work with HP to demonstrate IMS charging for rich media
file-sharing using Amdoc's IMS Charging solution and HP's IMS
Applications Evaluation Environment. Their aim is to simplify the
extraction of key billing and real-time rating variables from an IMS
end-user transaction through simple-to-use graphical user interface
screens, resulting, if all goes well, in a new level of charging and
billing flexibility for ensuring the maximum revenue potential of an
IMS
session.
Millhouse calls this project a proof point that puts these players at
the forefront of standards for charging in IMS. "We are trying to
demonstrate how return [on investment] can be achieved in the space of
a
single project," she said.
Although this is a Phase I project, it builds on the output from last
year's One Stop for FTTx Services Catalyst project. Ultimately the
group
will propose a methodology for provisioning of IMS services using the
NGOSS framework, show how IMS-related standards such as MTOSI, SuM and
Tispan can be leveraged and apply a charging policy to future IMS
features.
|
Back to Top
|
|
|
|
You are subscribed to this newsletter as #email#
To unsubscribe from this newsletter go to: Unsubscribe
For questions concerning delivery of this newsletter, please contact
our
Customer Service Department at:
Customer Service Department
Telephony
A Penton Media publication
US Toll Free: 866-505-7173
International: 847-763-9504
Email:telephonyonline@pbinews.com
Penton Media | 249 W. 17th Street | New York, NY 10011
Copyright 2007, Penton Media. All rights reserved. This article is
protected by United States copyright and other intellectual property
laws and may not be reproduced, rewritten, distributed,
re-disseminated,
transmitted,
displayed, published or broadcast, directly or indirectly, in any
medium
without the prior written permission of Penton Media.
|
|
