Leadership Blog

As the economy globalizes and emerging markets increase their participation in the global economy (and their relevance in the communications, information and digital media industries), so does TM Forum’s member structureHistorically, TM Forum membership has drawn more heavily from North America and Western Europe, however membership from other markets, such as Asia and Latin America has been increasing. TM Forum has been taking important steps in order to better serve this growing presence in emerging markets and continues to be very committed to these regions in 2009 and beyond. The Latin American market is of particular importance for TM Forum. Service provider membership in this region covers countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela. Here are just a few examples of TM Forum’s reach into this important part of the world. In October 2008, the Forum held a one-day summit at Futurecom in Brazil, which was tremendously...

By Colin Orviss, Senior Vice President, Patni Telecoms Consulting and Deputy Chairman, TM Forum It’s hardly news that we’re in a recession. The net effect on our industry is that Communications Service Providers (CSP) are planning for an expected reduction in revenues from their Customers (both consumer and enterprise) by revisiting the ROI of capital projects, making OpEx reductions and looking at other ways to remove cost from their business. I’ve been trying my best to put an upbeat spin on things and although I believe that cost containment is prudent, I’m not that convinced about the projected decline in revenues. The reason for this feeling is that I compare our industry to comfort food. During times of stress and uncertainty – which we seem to have in abundance these days – people tend to turn to food that reminds them of good times. In our case, the comfort comes from talking to and feeling close to loved ones or friends through social networking...

The power used to be in the computer. Now it’s in the communications networks that connect them together. By Phil Dance, Managing Director, Technology Exploitation, BT In today’s world of next-generation communications services like streaming video-on-demand, location-based services and more, it’s clear that the role of the communications providers—the carriers—is only going to grow. Fifteen years ago – in the pre-Internet age – computers ruled. Now, arguably, the connections between computers rule. Demand is growing at a phenomenal rate, from business and from consumers. Services like YouTube, iPlayer, Google Apps and iTunes are turning the world multimedia. Just 10 years ago, we would have thought it odd to even dream about the dramatic shift in how we watch television. But now we don’t think twice about time-shifting using a DVR or simply streaming last night’s new episode of our favorite show. We’re essentially getting broadcast...

Michele Campriani Manager, Protocol Products Group Sunrise Telecom Mobile Operators are in a time of incredible flux and transition in both the technical and business aspects of their operations. In the past, a majority of service revenue was derived from voice services, with a small amount of revenue generated from low-bandwidth data services such as phone-based Internet browsing. However, due to the development of interactive mobile applications, enhancements in access network technologies such as 3.5/3.75G and overall increased customer expectations, the demand for mobile data services has skyrocketed. Most industry insiders agree... it will be cost-effective, interactive services such as video calling, mobile gaming, presence and pod/iPhone-casting that will set operators apart in the coming years. Introducing these services is no easy task, however, as the multi-service networks required to deliver them are much more complicated than legacy voice-only networks. This new world of converged...

Venu Venugopal, VP, CA Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) as a market has been heating up for the past three years. Whether SaaS is a reincarnation of the Hosted Services (or Application Service Provider – ASP) or centralized computing – that was pioneered during the mainframe era – the trend is gaining momentum. Media coverage on this buzz is plenty, whether that is general press, specialized magazines or online portals. Examples are: Wall Street Journal talking about the SaaS as a savior, KM World Magazine listing SaaS applications as trend setters of the year, coverage on Google (GOOG) acquiring Postini to augment their expanding SaaS portfolio or Microsoft (MSFT) going against Salesforce.com for the small & medium business (SMB) market with the Live CRM product. The question one has to ask is whether this trend shakes down the Independent Software Vendors (ISV) and their long-survived grip on perpetual licensing based revenue model? Will it drive the flexibility and agility (and not to...