|
At
The Center of Modern Commerce —
But Stalled and Uncertain. . .
Here’s one sure sign that your company — or your industry, for
that matter — is bogged down in an operational quagmire: You have killer
products. . .they’re in high demand. . .but it’s almost impossible to turn
these gems into a rich and reliable source of profits.
If you’re in, or sell to, the telecom community and don’t see the relevance
of this scenario — it’s time to wake up. Look around and you’ll see
collapsing, contracting, or cash-starved carriers; frustrated customers;
thousands of your comrades losing their jobs; and. . . the most dazzling
array of communications products the world has ever seen.
It doesn’t make sense.
Today, you’ll find out why, and discover how you can fix what’s broken. . .
“Communications” is one of the words used most often by pundits to
characterize the very essence of our fast-paced modern civilization.
“Communications” is also part
of our industry’s name. Telecommunications. If ever there was an
industry that should be shooting through the roof. . .it should be telecom —
and it should be happening now.
So why is it that our industry isn’t better able to turn this wonderful
confluence of circumstances — the right time, the right place, and the right
products — into stability, steady growth, and sure profit?
Who or what is to blame for our stumbling?
Blame The “Usual Suspects”. . . or Look in The
Mirror?
Is merciless competition cannibalizing telecom? Is merger-mania playing havoc
with our organizations’ infrastructures and corporate compasses? Or is it
simply that we’re just one more victim of a suffering economy that’s created
customers who aren’t buying like they once were?
Absolutely, all these “usual suspects” are guilty to some extent. But take
your search no further, and you’re missing the real, painful, but ultimately
constructive, truth: Great companies can weather external
adversities like these and still soldier on. If your company — or our industry
— isn’t up to the challenge it’s because our most debilitating problems
are internal.
Look carefully and honestly in the mirror, and you’ll see the problems that
are really keeping you back. . .
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Ineffective systems integration
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Faulty or half-hearted OSS solutions
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Outmoded, counterproductive customer-facing programs
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Missteps on the road to e-business
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Mistakes in vendor selection
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And more. . .
It’s not pretty, but it’s the truth. But if you have the will, the
fortitude, and the determination to be a winner in the current economic/industry
environment, every single one of these problems can be solved. Starting today.
Starting right here.
TRI’s new Report, Telecom OSS & E-Business Integration,
tackles every one of these issues head on. Complex issue by complex issue. .
.the Report’s nine chapters show carriers and vendors alike exactly where we
are, how we got there, and where we’re headed.
TRI has done the work for you. And what we give you is comprehensive, but not
complex. What you’ll read is clear, understandable, and actionable.
And we don’t waste a minute of your valuable time. Telecom OSS
& E-Business Integration gets the ball rolling immediately. . .
Chapter 1:
Telecom Carriers — Business & Service Trends
From the small, struggling, under-financed startup to the local exchange giants,
the first chapter of our new Report takes you on a behind-the-scenes tour of our
industry’s main players. We’ll show you how they work, why they may not be
working so well these days, and how they could work better.
Large carriers, IOCs,
Gigabit Ethernet providers, wireless carriers, big city and rural operators —
these, and more, are analyzed.
Many of our industry’s products are so potent they’re darn near addictive,
marketing has been ubiquitous, but broadband Internet deployment, for example,
was declining well before Wall Street’s slide or September 11th’s
horrors.
What gives?
According to The Wall Street Journal, a typical telecom spends about $3
on telecommunications and equipment costs for every $10 it brings in from a
dial-up customer. By contrast, it
spends about $8 for every $10 it brings in from a $50/month broadband customer.
Here, you’ll be walked through the larger operational climate that has caused
this broadband, and other, frustrations. At
this important juncture in our industry’s history — when it’s almost
unnatural to compartmentalize our members using terms like “long-distance,”
“local,” “wireless,” “cable,” or “ISP” — what are the bedrock
obstacles and opportunities carriers of all stripes are facing?
Chapter I of TRI’s Report, Telecom Carriers & Service Providers: The
Business & Operational Climate, gives you the answers. Here are some
of the main issues our Report’s opening chapter explores. . .
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Bandwidth Grows, Traffic Falls, Mergers Never Stop: It’s an ugly and profitless sight — long-distance carriers bloodying
each other in a price war to fill their pipes with traffic. And the pace of
mergers is relentless as carriers try to further cut costs by gaining economies
of scale. But the consolidation solution has proven to be far from the panacea
many envision. A merger creates an enormous array of challenges — none of
which your customer want to know about. One of the most daunting issues is
reconciling the priorities of your IT and OSS people. Telecom Carriers
& Service Providers uses real-world case-studies to illustrate the
kind of problems consolidating companies face as they attempt to merge their
systems and decide which to keep and which to jettison.
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The CLECs: Young, Restless, Beleaguered: Think back to the distant past. Like two years ago. Our industry was
awash in a crowd of startup local exchange carriers determined to steal market
share away from the incumbent RBOCs. Today, wickedly complex operational
problems, lackluster customer demand, fierce competition, and dwindling capital
have all but snuffed out the good times. Here’s what went wrong from an OSS,
business, organizational, and ownership perspective. Also here are concrete ways
the startups could have dodged many of these painful bullets. This is very
interesting and actionable stuff — both for young carriers themselves and for
the vendors who wish to serve them.
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Rural CLECs -- Country Before it was Cool:
Not too long ago many startups figured that venture-capital financing,
lightening-fast business plans, and just plain moxie would empower them to build
national networks overnight. In no time at all, they’d be competing on equal
footing with the RBOCs in metro markets. They scoffed at the more circumspect
LECs who opted for the rural markets, figuring that’s where the RBOCs were
more vulnerable. Guess who’s laughing now? Using CenturyTel as an example,
you’ll see how marshalling resources, geographic clustering, and a prudent
expansion rate led to victory.
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DoCoMo in Cocomo? — Wireless’s Next Big Thing: The wireless industry is abuzz over the imminent arrival of mobile
Internet and next-generation wireless handsets. The i-mode standard currently
feeds 23 million hungry subscribers in Japan —
1/5th of the country’s population! American wireless
carriers look forward to stringing a similar technology from sea to shining sea,
and into all the rural space in between (including Cocomo).
This and other emerging wireless OSS issues are explored.
We’ll make sense out of the alphabet soup of wireless transmission
standards, Over the Air Activation, and explain why November 24th,
2002, should be marked on the calendar of all wireless carriers.
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The Corporate Network Buffet: Frame. . .GigaE. . .VPN: Enterprise customers have never had more telecom choices available to
them, but sorting through all the service provider hype can make your head spin.
Through a lot of patient digging, we cornered some top network experts
who helped us sort out truth from fiction.
In this Chapter you’ll see how private networks evolved and understand
the significance of metro Gigabit Ethernet.
You’ll also learn how SmartPipes has partnered with WorldCom and XO
Communications to offer IP-VPN services to corporate accounts.
Chapter 2:
Provisioning, Network Inventory,
Auto Discovery
& Field Service Delivery Systems
It has a nice ring to it, I confess, but the “Information Superhighway”
isn’t really a useful — or accurate — metaphor for today’s
telecommunications technology. Moreover, the image this expression conjures up
does the telecom industry a disservice
.
The image of an Information Superhighway makes the whole telecommunications
process seem far easier than it really is. Only telecom insiders are aware of
the battles that are fought daily with massive and old provisioning systems,
countless manual processes, and intricate business rules. All in all, ours is a
down-and-dirty, unglamorous business — not the not the seamless, streamlined
machine many outsiders imagine.
This misconception has led to many disappointments for both starry-eyed
engineers and naïve venture capitalists.
At TRI, we believe the airline industry provides a far more accurate analogy to
telecom’s challenge; both industries deliver their products — communication,
people, and cargo, respectively — using high-tech platforms, and both rely on
extremely complex systems that require considerable configuration and
integration.
John Q. Public appreciates — is
even awed by — the miracle of aviation but the “miracle” of transporting
voice and data is met with a yawn.
So let’s can the Information Superhighway. Telecom is a 747, not Interstate
95.
Chapter 2, Provisioning, Network Inventory, and Auto-Discovery Systems
looks at some of the key systems and technologies that allow our aircraft to
fly. . .
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Provisioning's New Role: “Revenue Generator”: Today’s long distance market is every bit as commodity-driven as the
automobile, apparel, toy, or beverage industries. And when everybody’s
products basically serve the same purpose. . .how do you differentiate yours?
Every service provider under the sun is looking for ways to offer a unique and
tempting value proposition to the customer. And fast, flexible provisioning
gives them the muscle they need. Here’s the new perspective: Don’t view
provisioning as simply a recurring engineering cost; see it for what it is — a
revenue generator. Here’s how to make it happen.
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Service Creation & Routing -- Explained: Concentrating extremely complex procedures into something you can hold
in the palm of you hand, mull over, and actually understand has
always been a hallmark of TRI’s reports. Telecom OSS & E-Business
Integration is no different. Chapter 2 helps you become familiar with
all that’s involved in provisioning a multi-vendor, multi-carrier network.
You’ll learn about “service creation,” “service definition,” and how
telecom transport using ATM crosses over with
enterprise data provisioning with IP.
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Lighting Up Bandwidth in Real-Time:
A 96 channel DWDM system has enough capacity to carry — in a single
fiber pair — the traffic of all the major U.S. long distance carriers combined.
And that fiber is the diameter of a human hair. DWDM holds great promise
for provisioning engineers, freeing them from the rigid architecture of SONET.
This fiber optic technology will allow provisioning of long-haul and
metropolitan wavelengths in real time. You should know about it and understand
it.
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Copper: It’s Dull, It’s Old, It’s Indispensable:
The copper local loop — it’s nothing but cables and legacy equipment
we’d all rather just forget about. One little problem: it’s a heck of a lot
cheaper than running broadband fiber links to every home. Local loop has become
increasing strategic as our industry has matured. TRI unravels the local loop,
revealing why it’s such a bottleneck for DSL provisioning and why it’s
becoming increasingly important to small carriers bent on expansion. You’ll
learn all about the provisioning pluses of “outside plant integration,” and
discover why Telecordia and SaskTel International are leading the local-loop
provisioning pack.
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Network Inventory -- “Know Thyself”:
Network “inventory” means different things to different carriers,
but having an accurate one is absolutely critical to the health of your OSS
ecosystem. Without one, you’ll never be able to effectively automate service
delivery. This chapter looks at the latest inventory trends — like “network
resource management” and the jolt that JAVA has given to inventory
provisioning software. You’ll
also learn why the latest capacity-based network resource systems are upstaging
the old and venerable engineering-based inventory systems like TIRKS.
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Discovering Buried Telecom Treasure:
Suppose your network could identify for you — in real time — all
those assets you think are in production. . .but really aren’t. Syndesis
maintains that the carriers using its telecom discovery solution are saving in
the range of 10% of their logical network assets.
Gain a deeper understanding of how the Syndesis solution works under the
covers and why Bell Canada is so keen on this technology that it uploads network
assets every night
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Field Service Delivery on Steroids: Today’s outside plant has fanned out from 50 central offices in a
metropolitan area to 50,000 customer premises where sophisticated modems and
facilities now reside. Performance
metrics, technician scheduling, and integrated logistics are all part of the
moden “field service delivery” process.
Here you’ll learn the benefits of ViryaNet’s wireless dispatch and
tracking system -- and why its system coordinates the work of 2,500 technicians
at Citizens Communications.
Chapter 3:
Customer-Facing Systems: Order Management, CRM,
& Sales Automation Systems
Let us not forget that for many decades the words “OSS” and “software”
were not mentioned in the same breath. The Bell companies had their service reps
take down service orders manually, on specialized forms. Then they’d head to
the company “library” to track down prices and Universal Service Order
Codes.
And you know something? It worked. Very few errors ever passed
through the system because there was so much checking and cross-checking. Now,
of course, the pendulum has swung to the other extreme. . .
Too many people believe that OSS is nothing but software. Plunk
down tens of millions of dollars on solutions and you’ll be all set, right?
Wrong. For small startups, especially, it’s vital to remember that an
effective OSS is first and foremost a group of trained people following a
well-thought-out process. Get a manual process humming along. . .and then
automate.
With new technology from Telcordia, one of the big Bells have taken a hybrid
approach — take a few new systems and lay them over the old. Chapter 3, Customer-Facing
Systems walks you through a Bell DSL provisioning and you’ll be
impressed at how successfully the old and new work together. This chapter also
dives into issues like. .
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Hype vs. Reality at The Call Center:
You’ve no doubt read about those spiffy “dashboards” —loaded to
the gills with enterprise systems — that are making life a snap for CSRs these
days. Ever see one? I didn’t think so. Customer-Facing
Systems shows you what life is really like for CSRs these days and why
synchronizing data for them is such a horrendous challenge. While “one and
done” — handling all customer concerns with a single call — is the dream,
poor OSS integration keeps waking us up. Outsourcing the call center is just one
of the interesting options this chapter explores.
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Is The Fate of Order Gateways Spelled “XML”?: Information flow between the ILECs and the CLECs is not what one would
call fluid. And this “electronic bonding” or “order gateway” is not
facilitated by the fact that ILECs are constantly changing the rules by which
the CLECs must play. Enter XML. Some industry analysts feel the emergence of
this data exchange protocol will eliminate the need for electronic bonding. But
hold on. Order gateways aren’t the real culprits anyway. They work quite
nicely, for example, in the trouble ticket and LD wholesale arenas because they
they’ve been coupled with good old human cooperation. Try it.
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A CRM Relationship Is Not A One-Night Stand: If you’re consistently able to give your customers the support they
want and deserve. . .pat yourself on the back for a moment. But only for a
moment — because now it’s time to get back to work. TRI gives some great
examples of ways carriers can turn brief encounters with customers into lasting,
fruitful relationships. You’ll learn how Siebel helped a major
incumbent leveraged CRM to win back corporate customers from competitors.
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Inside a Large Telco’s Sales Organization: A typical large carrier will stratify its sales force into global,
national, mid-market, and small-business accounts. While the CRM tools these
folks use may vary, they all need account management software and the ability to
plug into a database that will synchronize data with the home office. And
they’d all love access to real-time status of trouble tickets and the ability
to deliver fast, accurate quotes. Chapter 2 shows how you just might be able to
deliver the goods to your sales force.
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Extra-Strength Relief for The Sales Order Headache: With some help from Knowledge Junction, we’d like to introduce you to
the wonders of a Sales Guidance System.
It’s just what the doctor order for sales order maladies, and is particularly
effective for pain caused by today’s complex data orders. A SGS is basically
an automated checklist that takes your order from specific customer requirement.
. .through product-catalog search. . .on to price quotation. . .forward to work
order issuance. . .all the way to your emailed order confirmation. We’ll show
you how it works, giving you examples that will be as familiar as home cooking.
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How to Manage Service Partners Like A Pro: Service outsourcing to third parties is a strong trend in our industry
these days. A whole new category of software — “partner management
systems” — has been created to help you do this with utmost efficiency.
Although necessary and fruitful, partner relationships are not easily controlled
and can leave you vulnerable. Here’s how to make sure everyone is doing their
job and that your customers are being made happy.
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From OSS to Merchandizing: Many telecoms (of all
sizes) are plagued by a disconnect between their financial and OSS systems. Very
few product catalogs, for example, let you store the cost components of products
and services. Link your OSS to your financials and you create a powerful data
warehouse serving corporate, marketing, and engineering. Customer-Facing
Systems shows you why this connection is just one of the customer-keeping
systems you would do well to consider.
Chapter 4:
E-Commerce, E-Business, and Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
It’s a cruel irony that telecom, surely the most “wired” of all industries
on the planet, should be a laggard in the world of e-commerce. It’s not as if
the Internet snuck up on us and caught us unprepared for its commercial
opportunities: After the military, the very first users of ARAPnet were the
telephone companies. So how did we miss the boat? Why is there no telecom
equivalent of Amazon.com?
Truth is, telecom e-commerce is simply a lot harder to implement because we sell
more than products: we sell relationships — continuous service.
Plus, we have the albatross of complex provisioning systems weighing us down.
Unlike an Amazon.com, we can’t just ship our products to whoever punches the
“Purchase Now” button. We’ve got to consider, for example, what products
are available where and which customers can access them. And service reps have
to work their way through all these thorns in order to ultimately match service
to customer. So telecom e-commerce means having the software to come up with
these answers.
Chapter 4 also considers the security issues involved with e-business, and how
the “openness” of the Internet can run counter to the mindset of those who
have been in telecom for a while. Here are some of the other topics we look at.
. .
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E-Commerce: What’s Behind. . .What’s Ahead:
TRI examines exactly where the telecom industry currently finds itself
on the climb to the e-commerce mountain top. The milestones on the journey are
typically labeled “attract,” “interact,” and “transact,” and
you’ll find out exactly at which point on the journey our industry seems to
have gotten bogged down. Now we’ve got to get unstuck. . .and continue the
climb to the top.
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Web Self-Provisioning: Your goal is to enable your customers to order services,
increase bandwidth allocation, or modify QoS parameters for themselves.
That’s called “web self-provisioning.” You’ll learn all about it, and
then find out about the more mundane — but essential — work you must do to
support it. Customer profiling and content filtering are also examined in this
Chapter.
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E-Business as Legacy Enhancer:
It’s perfectly appropriate to think of e-business as an application, much like
Microsoft Office, with word processing, email, spreadsheets, etc. But for your
application to work you must be linked to an infrastructure — a robust,
interoperable platform — that allows you to plug and play. Find out what’s
involved, learn how to transform your backend legacy into an e-business
solution, and hear how BEA helped a major incumbent consolidate its billing
systems with its e-business solution.
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Bandwidth for Resellers: Use It or Lose It: Either use that pipe for all it’s worth or you’re going to be losing
money fast. Resellers and distributors will help you with your extra capacity.
The diversity and number of these channels is nothing short of amazing. We’ll
tell you how e-business solutions can keep these customers fully informed about
the status of their pending orders. And even if service-order delays occur, the
customer’s pain will be soothed by the knowledge that he has visibility into
the process.
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Centrex is Having an E-Makeover:
Telecom carriers have been peddling Centrex services for years, but maintenance
headaches and manual updates have doomed Centrex as an unprofitable service that wasn’t worth promoting very
hard. Now, one
OSS vendor has developed a fully automated system that’s integrated
with a local provisioning and plant inventory system. Solutions like this pave
the way for the next leap — to something we’ll call “E-Centrex” and the
“smart building.” This stuff is coming right around the bend. . .learn about
it now.
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EAI — Between Hype and A Hard Place: Enterprise Application Integration was heavily hyped when it arrived a
couple of years ago, but now it’s being brought into focus by the unforgiving
glare of hard reality. Fact is, few EAI projects have yielded the results
expected by carriers. E-Commerce, E-Business, and Enterprise Application
Integration (EAI) goes into considerable detail about what is still an
exceptionally promising solution, showing you what to look for, what best fits
your particular organization, and how to select and maintain it with minimal
expense. You’ll also learn about
how Kabira has raised EAI flexibility to a new level with its “adapter
factory.”
Chapter 5:
Systems
Integration & OSS Project Implementation
The telecom systems integration business has changed considerably during the
past decade. Where once armies of consultants were called in to design a custom
system, off-the-shelf solutions slowly gained popularity. Of course, the
changing approach to systems integration is nothing more than a reflection of
the seismic, unpredictable shifts that have occurred in our industry as a whole.
Long-term integration planning is viewed as too risky and too rigid, so smaller
and shorter integration projects seem more sensible. And this is why some of the best and brightest from firms
like Accenture (a.k.a. Andersen Consulting) have left to start up OSS consulting
practices — that’s where the action is.
TRI’s research has found that firms like CAP Gemini Ernst & Young have
captured a nice corner of the integration market. Systems Integration
& OSS Implementation explains why the “pre-integrated” approach
these companies are taking is an excellent match for smaller and startup
carriers. The main benefit? Perhaps it’s knowing that only one company has
responsibility for your whole integration solution.
But what would our industry be without controversy and dissent? So, we’ll also
present the views of those who believe that clients who opt for
“pre-integration” do so at the expense of very valuable customization.
We’ll referee this disagreement and then dig deeply into other integration and
OSS topics that you’ll find both interesting and relevant. They include.
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Consolidating Systems? Let
History Be Your Guide: A former AT&T billing manager told us: “Consulting firms love
systems integration projects because it’s their Lifetime Employment Act.”
Yes, overly ambitious and costly projects have cost large carriers, and
have them wary. But TRI shows you how to learn from their mistakes. We’ll
explain, for example, the peril of not identifying system work-arounds. You’ll
learn how to deal with the pressure to consolidate data centers. And we’ll
illustrate why a flexible architecture and regular doses of strategic thinking
are so vital to integration’s long-term success.
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Systems Integration Opportunities: Integration vendors
have fertile selling fields in all sectors of the telecom industry. That’s
because carriers of all sizes are willingly linking themselves to
e-marketplaces, the Internet, to extranets, and to other IP utilities like ASPs,
service farms, and Internet data centers. Monitoring quality of services,
building web infrastructures, and constructing firewalls and security systems
are just a few of the tasks integrators will be called on to perform. This
chapter of TRI’s new Report gives vendors some valuable insight into how best
to position themselves and their products.
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Dodging the Project Management Bullet: I tell you this not to discourage you, but instead to stimulate your
diligence: It’s been reliably estimated that the percentage of complex OSS
projects that come in on time, within budget, and that meet functionality
expectations currently hovers around a very dismal 15%. But you can buck the
trend. In this Chapter, you’ll learn about what TMNG has identified as the ten
major causes of OSS project failure. This compendium of advice could save your
company enormous grief from integration projects gone sour.
Chapter 6:
OSS
Selection: Architectural Choices, Buying
Strategies, and Vendor Management Tips
Canned or customized? That decision is close to the top of your list when you
make the move to invest in an off-the-shelf OSS solution. The canned solution is
a natural for startups who doesn’t have many internal processes in place as
yet. And it takes much of the decision-making burden off your shoulders (because
it makes them for you). A canned solution is cheap, reliable, has few frills,
and is rigid. But its rigidity is a good thing — startups need the enforced
process flow and pre-configured calling plans these solutions deliver. Now,
canned solutions have their downside, too, and you’ll learn about them in this
Chapter.
For the larger carriers, who know precisely what you want your OSS system to do,
customized is the way to go -- and this is why custom shops like Telcordia and
Amdocs are growing handsomely.
OSS Selection explores the many very specific issues you’ll want
to consider as you make the important decision of which solution to buy, and
from whom. We’ll show you how to really evaluate the products and how to
nurture your vendors for maximum reciprocal satisfaction. Here are just a
handful of the issues this Chapter explores. . .
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Will Large Carriers Reach for The Shelf?: Large enterprises have historically believed that that their
organizations were so unique that only a custom-built solution would match their
OSS needs. But the winds are
shifting, and the prime mover is the accelerating move to an e-business
infrastructure in which smaller, faster-implemented projects are the norm.
Massive, multi-year plans are not in order — the approach is more tentative
— and this mindset makes off-the-shelf solutions more attractive.
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Best-in-Breed. Or Is It?: Going for the best
off-the-shelf components for your OSS solution has always seemed the smartest
path to take. But consider this: Integrating a half dozen applications from
different vendors into a coherent whole is no piece of cake. And maintaining
that integration won’t come cheap either. Plus, each of those 6 software
vendors will be updating their products on different schedules — and that
throws you back into the integration mode again.
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Telco-in-A-Box:
Many have decided to forego
best-of-breed buying and integration in order to purchase an OSS solution
that’s already been put together for you by one vendor. This telco-in-a-box
may not give you quite the functionality of a custom job, but it removes a host
of integration worries and is perfect for startups with a small budget and a
small IT staff. Drawbacks? You’re dependent on that one software vendor to
always keep the product up-to-date.
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When in Doubt —Punt to a Service Bureau: If best-in-breed and telco-in-a-box both leave you cold, consider
handing-off the OSS integration job to a service bureau. For many this makes
sense. Our industry is shifting so much these days, that your business may
change directions six months down the road. And that will require an overhaul of
your OSS infrastructure. But if you’ve off-loaded your OSS chores to a service
bureau, you avoid this huge hassle and cost. Something to consider.
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OSS Gets Wired for ASP: The Application
Service Provider (ASP) is essentially a way to get an OSS solution delivered via
the Internet. ASPs are made possible by the IDCs (Internet Data Centers) that
sprung up during the dot com boom to service the large sites that had to be
provisioned for intense amounts of traffic. OSS Selection gives
you a crisp and intriguing glimpse into what we think will mature into a very
attractive solution to OSS integration, combining the best of all current
options.
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Make An OSS Vendor Choice You Can Live With: In these days of restricted capital and tight budgets it’s essential
that carriers do a better job of selecting OSS software than they’ve done in
the past. We’ll give you some very precise steps you can take and questions
you can ask in order to make the right choice the first time. We’ll also show
you exactly where you can find honest, unbiased opinions from those who have
used the software you’re thinking of buying.
Chapter 7:
Selling and
Marketing Telecom OSS Solutions
The telecom industry is a baffling one because of its complexity, its many
diverse players, its fast-growing list of products and services, and the incredible pace
at which it’s changing. If you think those of us in the industry have trouble
getting our arms around our professional universe, think how outsiders must
feel! And if those who want to serve our industry can’t understand
it, what does that portend for the solutions they’re designing, implementing,
and maintaining?
Chapter 7 is an outsider’s guide to telecom “written” by seasoned insiders
— a look into the psyche of the industry sponsored by the keen insights and
decades of experience of those who make our industry move. All courtesy of
TRI’s ongoing dialogue with telecom insiders at many levels and in many
operational and executive branches.
This is where ambitious OSS vendors should turn to get a leg up on their
competition. Not only for selling a product but for successfully maintaining
mutually prosperous relationships with telcos.
This is also the place where members of our own ranks can go for an interesting
perspective on the way we do business, the sometimes quirky procedures we
follow, and how we’re viewing the trends that will take us into the future.
Here’s a sample of the issues Chapter 7 looks at. . .
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Timing Is Not Everything; But It’s Close: And knowing when to present what to new entrant telecoms is a big plus
for any vendor. Remember — the vast majority of startups build their OSS piece
by piece, over time, and it’s specific needs will be determined by where they
find themselves in their growth cycle. TRI maps out what you, as a vendor,
should know about these development phases and we explain what OSS software the
carriers will be most interested in during each.
-
Looking Behind The Curtain: It’s always nice to know whether the
person to whom you’re selling something will be able to pay you. That a basic
rule of commerce, and it applies at all levels of business — from lemonade
selling to software marketing. To protect your business (and your job), it would
be useful for you to recognize the vibrations given off by a startup that’s in
financial peril. You’ll find them presented — in some detail — in Chapter
7.
-
Get Inside Telecom Buyer Heads: We’ll explain to you what goes
on in the head of a telecom exec,
how you can tell if they’re new to the game, and give you a look at the
entrepreneurial mindset. You’ll also find out why teamwork at a startup is a
reliable indicator of long-term stability. Selling and Marketing Telecom
OSS Solutions reveals signs you should look for that will tip you off to
the level of teamwork at your prospect’s organization. We’ll also give you
some tips on dealing with those who push unrealistic deadlines and explain how
to get on the winning side of budget battles.
-
Sales Techniques That Work: Here’s how to tailor your message to
operations, product, and development people; each will respond to a unique pitch
and will need different kinds of reassurance. And you need to get IT to buy into
your proposal. We’ll show you how. And this is vital: Never lose your
credibility — you must always be very specific about what your software can
— and can’t do.
-
6 Steps to A Contract Win: Here’s the lowdown — given to you
from those who know telecom buying habits inside and out — on how to
PFocus on what makes you different PSell your telecom knowledge PPush interoperability PShowcase your people PPrepare a stellar presentation PNegotiate a fixed time, price, and function contract.
It’s all here.
Chapter 8:
Market Analysis
& Recommendations
In Chapter 8 we take information presented in the Report’s
other Chapters and mold it into analysis and recommendations your organization
can act on.
This is where TRI analysts take their ties off, get into a freewheeling
discussion of OSS issues, and make some predictions. Here are the main topics:
-
Surviving and Prospering in the
Telecom Ice Age -- What telecom buyers really want to hear.
-
The 8 Hottest New OSS Solutions.
. . and which vendor companies are leading the pack.
-
The 5 Hottest New OSS Business Ideas.
. . being implemented by telecom OSS and e-business vendors.
-
Telcordia & its Challengers: An
analysis of the market leader’s strengths, weaknesses, and the prospects
for competitors
-
The Cisco Kid & the Telecom World:
Our take on the progress and challenges of deploying next generation telecom
networks.
-
E-Business - How fast will it
ramp up, and where
-
Telecom Carriers and ASPs: A
blending scenario
-
The Telecom Killer App: Our
recipe for getting George Gilder to glow in the dark.
Both carriers and vendors will benefit from a 6-page table in
Chapter 8 that segments 72 solution suppliers into 25 unique vendor categories,
commenting on each one’s market strengths and future telecom direction.
Chapter
9:
Vendor
Profiles --
Understanding the Products & Strategic Direction
of Telecom OSS Vendors
If you’ve been in this industry
long enough, you’ve seen plenty of flow diagrams where the telecom network is
shown as a cloud.
Lines go in and out of the cloud, but you never know all the important things
going on in that cloud.
Well, the telecom cloud is a fitting analogy for the OSS marketplace -- before
you understand what each OSS company sells, the market looks like one big, but
fuzzy OSS cloud.
Chapter 9 clears away the fog so you can make out the details of these
companies. All told, we analyze the
businesses of 68 key solution and technology vendors in 172 single-spaced pages.
By the way, these profiles are not warmed over press releases.
This is fresh content and analysis based on structured interviews held
with key marketing and technology executives at the companies themselves.
And for better quality control, after we wrote up a company’s profile we e-mailed
it to the company so they could check it for accuracy.
It’s here in Chapter 9 where you can track the progress of your partners and
competitors whoever they are: telecom software vendors… systems integrators…
consultants… EAI software vendors… and others.
You’ll also find up-to-date vendor statistics and analyses covering:
-
Overall telecom industry revenues
-
Past, current, and planned areas
of concentration
-
Important partnerships with other
vendors
-
Product details
-
Contact information
This chapter will save much
legwork for those trying to home in on the right vendors that meet their
company’s needs. The companies
profiled are shown in the table of
contents.
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