Is your IP migration with or without migration?

Johanne Mayer Director, Alcatel-Lucent Special responsibility for representing Suppliers

While most service providers undergoing an IP transformation have a migration strategy, there are network operators who are taking a quantum leap and transforming WITHOUT doing a migration! Bold move? Absolutely! Will it cost them less? Can they do this without causing negative customer churn? The answers often depend on how the transformation is planned and managed.

If we look at all the money being spent in testing the multitude of possible combinations in migrating the traditional services such as Frame and ATM to Ethernet and IP with or without interworking functions in between, it's clear that migration costs are significant and not without risk. So should you emulate an existing service or develop an advanced service as a replacement? Should you "push" (i.e. force) or "pull" (i.e. via marketing or incentives) your customers across? Experience shows that it's key to assess a business case that considers the total cost comparisons, critical assumptions, as well as a market analysis of the assumptions and potential churn impacts.

Do you have an opinion? Drop me a line to discuss...

Johanne joined Alcatel-Lucent in 1994 through the Newbridge acquisition and Lucent merger. Currently, Johanne is director communication for the global Systems and Applications Integration services group. Johanne is the spokesperson for OSS, Applications and network management products and solutions with industry analysts and the press as well as an officer of the TM Forum. She is a frequent speaker at conferences such as Management World, BBWF, 3GSM, IQPC and TeleStrategies and represents Alcatel-Lucent at various global forums. During her 20 years in the industry, she has worked as a support engineer, a product manager and marketing director, always focused on the Carrier operations.

A graduate of the University of Ottawa, Johanne holds two Bachelor of Science degrees: an honours degree in Mathematics with Co-op, and a second degree in Computer Science. She also holds a patent on Frame Relay Congestion Management.