Preparing for Life without the Killer App
We need to tone down our expectations for new services and applications a bit and understand that in the digital world, it’s “different strokes for different folks.”

By Rob Rich, Managing Director of TM Forum's Transformation Research Center and TM Forum Insights Group

It seems that everywhere I look these days, I see despair over the demise of the killer app, at least as it is traditionally defined. In fact, many industry observers see few, if any killer apps on the horizon. While I agree with them, I see no reason to despair over this. The fact is, killer app or not, there is still plenty of opportunity out there for the savvy service provider who can understand the structure and needs of the market and craft an appropriate set  of solutions for it.

So instead of worrying about what the next killer app will be, let’s focus on what our customers want, how they want to acquire and experience it, and how we can best monetize it.

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TM Forum News

Measure and Compare Your Business and Operational Performance
TM Forum’s Business Benchmarking Program is currently collecting data for Business Performance Studies for Broadband, Mobile and High-Speed Business Services.
 
The Broadband, Mobile and IP Services Studies are based around numerous Key Performance Indicators (23 KPIs for Broadband, 18 for Mobile, 16 for IP Services) that cover key aspects of OSS/BSS, such as Assurance, Customer Experience, Customer Management, Financial, Fulfillment, Operational Efficiency and Revenue & Margin.

To participate, data must be submitted by Dec. 31, 2008, with results available for reporting by February 2009. Service Providers who are interested in participating should contact Toni Graham.

TM Forum Teams Up with NAB Show
TM Forum’s new partnership with NAB Show will examine the opportunities and challenges content owners and communications service providers face when creating, delivering and monetizing digital services. Through the partnership, the NAB Show will support TM Forum's 'Content Encounter Phase 3,' an interactive demonstration of converged content services management.
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Early Bird Discount for TM Forum 2009 Yearbook Advertisers
TM Forum’s flagship publication, which will be distributed in March 2009, will provide thought leadership on a wide range of themes that are of fundamental significance to the industry and pertinent to the key role played by TM Forum in progressing business and service transformation and fostering best practices and standards.

Book your ad for the 2009 TM Forum Yearbook by Nov. 7 and get a 15 percent discount! Contact Mark Bradbury for more information on getting your marketing message to the heart of the communications, entertainment and information business community.

Management World Orlando News Flashes
Find out what our sponsors are planning for next month’s flagship TM Forum Event.
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Why We Joined TM Forum
“Sezmi has joined TM Forum to collaborate with its service provider partners to find optimized and cost-efficient ways of adding TV service to triple-play packages utilizing NGOSS standards. We believe TM Forum’s ‘Lean Operations’ mantra helps the content ecosystem.” 
Viroopax Mirji, VP Service Operations, Sezmi Corp.

What's Happening

Strong Growth for Management World Orlando
With a strong 32 percent growth on last year’s attendance to date, Management World Orlando is proving to be more important than ever to information, communications and entertainment service providers. The tri-summit conference and technology exchange, will be held in less than one month, from November 16-20, and we are looking forward to an exciting event that will stimulate important debates that are critical during an unstable economy.
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Management World Asia: Early Bird Deadline Oct. 26
Save up to 20 percent on your registration fees by signing up for Management World Asia before Oct. 26. Taking place Jan. 12-15, 2009 in Singapore, this pan-regional event not only brings the wealth of existing knowledge to Asia but will feature an agenda adapted to the local markets and opportunities that exist throughout Asia today and into the foreseeable future.
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Training an Integral Part of Management World
Don’t forget to include training to round out your experience at Management World Orlando next month. From our overview of key standards-based solutions including Business Process (eTOM), Information (SID) and Application (TAM) Frameworks and more, to the latest thinking and perspectives from industry thought leaders, our flagship event offers a comprehensive conference experience for all who attend.
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Management World 2009 – Call For Speakers Open Now
Submit your speaking proposal today for Management World 2009, which will bring together experts from the mobile, fixed line, cable, advertising and media/entertainment industries. The conference is structured into 5 Summits each providing unique insights.

Deadline for submitting speaker proposals is Nov. 28. Click here for more information.

Upcoming TM Forum Webinars

Business First, Software Later? Learn How Your Software Vendor Fits in Your BPM Transformation
Sponsored by Amdocs – Oct. 30
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Case Study: Agile Path to Service Management via the Semantic Interpretation of Existing OSS/BSS Data
Sponsored by Ontology – Nov. 6
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TM Forum Training Around the World
In-person training courses are being offered across the globe:

Oct. 27: São Paulo, Brazil (in Spanish & Portuguese)
Nov. 3-7: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Nov. 16-20: Orlando, Fla. (Management World)
Nov. 17-20: Madrid, Spain (in Spanish)
Dec. 1-5: Sydney, Australia
Dec. 8-10: London, England

TM Forum Supported Events

Managing Innovative Devices and Services (MIDAS) – Oct. 27-29, 2008 – London, England
Mobile &  NFC Payment Strategies – Nov. 24-27, 2008 – Budapest, Hungary
GSMA Mobile World Congress – Feb. 16-19, 2009 – Barcelona, Spain

See All TM Forum Supported Events

Preparing for Life without the Killer App

By Rob Rich, Managing Director of TM Forum's Transformation Research Center and TM Forum Insights Group

Is the killer application dead? We in the communications industry could certainly have reason to believe so. After all, there are few prospects on the horizon that measure up to the killer apps and platforms of the past, including the following:

Computing:

• VisiCalc - Apple II
• Lotus 1-2-3 - IBM PC
• PageMaker – Macintosh
• MS Office- Windows machines

Communications:

• Fax – fax machines
• Voice messaging- answering machines
• Mobile voice - cell phones
• SMS- cell phones for younger people
• Push to Talk- Nextel phones, SMR
• WWW / Mosaic / HTML - Internet Access/ Broadband

Video games:

• Pong-Atari
• Super Mario, Legend of Zelda- Nintendo NES
• Sonic the Hedgehog- Sega Genesis
• Tetris- Game Boy
• Halo – Xbox

It’s quite a list, but those killer apps seem to be fewer and farther between than in the past. I think there are three reasons why we in communications don’t see killer apps much anymore (and why we beat ourselves up over it).

The first reason is expectations of ubiquity. Many people in communications seem to believe that it’s not a killer app unless just about everyone has it. While this may be true of utilities such as electricity, water and basic connectivity, it’s not the case in other industries. For example, if you look at computing applications, certainly not everyone was running spreadsheets or doing electronic publishing in the early years; it was games and later the Web that eventually created a mass consumer market for PCs. Yet these early computing applications were considered “killer apps.” Similarly, while most game systems didn’t hit the mainstream until the third generation of platforms and are still largely restricted to selected segments, these games are considered “killer apps” as well.

However, in communications, it seems it’s not a ‘killer’ unless everyone is using it, a phenomenon due to the fact that the industry’s cornerstone product, voice, has been universally adopted and even subsidized by some governments. We need to tone down our expectations for new services and applications a bit and understand that in the digital world, it’s “different strokes for different folks.”

Platform evolution is another factor behind the apparent dearth of killer apps. Wikipedia defines a killer app as “an application so compelling that someone will buy the hardware or software components necessary to run it,” a definition that worked well in the age of sparse application sets, limited hardware devices and low market penetration. But since technological advances have made PCs so much more powerful, there are relatively few “new” applications that require the purchase of new hardware. And as communications devices become more flexible and powerful as well, new communications applications won’t necessarily require new hardware purchases either. Consumers will continue to demand new devices over time, but performance increases will make changing devices less essential.

Finally, there is the fact that most consumers do not go looking for killer apps, at least not in the classic definition of the term. Consumers want applications that offer simplicity and convenience, and in the age of the multi-application device, consumers will only pick up a new or additional platform if it is simpler and more convenient, or maybe “cooler” or less expensive than they had before. Any new application is going to have a much better chance of rapid adoption if it runs on a popular platform.

This phenomenon is evident across a wide range of consumers. As Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice president of product management, stated in a blog post announcing the launch of Chrome, “We search, chat, email and collaborate…And in our spare time, we shop, bank, read news and keep in touch with friends…” Sure, he’s a geek, but doesn’t that sound like you?

So let’s forget about pursuing the next killer app. Instead, let’s recognize that there are many different classes of consumers. And while there are some common services, these consumers are not necessarily searching for the same thing or anxiously awaiting the next killer app. Instead, let’s learn to understand the needs of these segments and how they want to acquire, use and augment services. Let’s focus on flexible, open platforms so we can quickly develop and deliver these services, and let’s figure out how to monetize the services.

Additional observations from Rob are available at www.tmforuminsights.com.

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Management World Orlando News Flashes

Are You Delivering the Digital Lifestyle? Learn How Customer Experience Systems Can Help.
See OSS leader Amdocs onstage and in the exhibitor hall (booth 101) at TM Forum Management World Orlando 2008. We’ll reveal how innovations not only in OSS, but across all customer experience systems (CES) can transform your company from a utility service provider to a key player in delivering the digital lifestyle. More than 20 leading service providers have chosen Amdocs CES in 2008 to help them transform with lower risk. Accelerate time to market, monetize digital services, differentiate brand and grow customers, even in saturated, cost-conscious markets.

Spotlight on Service Quality Management
Don’t miss Amdocs in the E2E Service Quality Management (SQM) focus area.There, you’ll learn the critical enablers of end-to-end SQM and understand its role in assuring service and the customer experience, even as networks and services grow more complex. Learn how standardizing vital interfaces and metrics can create a seamless SQM ecosystem for your own and third-party applications. And see Amdocs demonstrate CRM systems at work in SQM. We’ll show how the ability to view all customer events in an integrated CRM application, regardless of source (device, network, etc.), is an important part of the quality equation.

See Amdocs Onstage
Don't miss these and other Amdocs-led sessions:

• David Jacobs, Vice President - Development, Amdocs OSS Division
  Srinivas Jamched, Senior Manager – IT, Cbeyond Communications
  Case Study: Cbeyond: Stepping Stones to Advanced Service Fulfillment for Small-Medium Businesses
  Thursday, November 20
  9:00 AM - 10:30 AM

• Tal Givoly, Chief Scientist
  How to Design and Deliver an Intentional Customer Experience
  Wednesday, November 19
  4:00 PM - 5:30 PM

• Seth Nesbitt, VP Products and Solutions Marketing (session chair)
  Customer Experience: How Well Do You Know Your Customer?
  Wednesday, November 19
  2:00 PM - 3:30 PM, 4:00 PM - 5:50 PM

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CA Announces Upgrades for Service and Performance Management Solution
On October 7, 2008, CA, Inc. announced new upgrades for CA service and performance management solution for next-generation networks, infrastructure, and applications for communication service providers.

CA Network and Systems Management (CA NSM) provides network performance, service, fault and configuration management.

• CA NSM r11.2 provides comprehensive service availability management through an integrated view of events and alerts across physical, virtualized and clustered systems.
• Enhancements to CA eHealth Network Performance Manager r6.1 (NPM) and CA SPECTRUM Network Fault Manager r9 (NFM) improve the efficiency of network management, better support business services, expand platform support and integration with CA CMDB, CA Insight Database Performance Monitor, CA Wily Introscope and IPv6 support.

CA Wily Application Performance Management (APM) provides real-time customer experience management and deep real-time performance management for Java or .Net-based OSS/BSS and SDP.

• Enhancements for CA Wily Introscope 8 and CA Wily Customer Experience Manager (CEM) 4.2 include IPv6 support, management features for monitoring large-scale complex SOA environments, and enhanced integration with CA NSM, CA Service Desk, CA Service Metric Analysis, and CA SPECTRUM NFM.
• CA Wily APM has been optimized to manage the online customer experience and the associated OSS/BSS in complex and highly distributed SOA and virtualized environments. The single, integrated solution helps customers ensure that .NET and Java™ applications meet business, customer experience and performance goals.
• The extended solution also can monitor asynchronous fast running SIP transactions, responses, and error codes from within the application execution environment

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Get on Track with HP at Management World Orlando
HP is your single source for OSS and BSS solutions in a converging world.  Stop by booth 309 at Management World Orlando to test drive our high-performance BSS and OSS solutions and strap yourself into our immersive car racing game: we won’t steer you wrong!

Find out how you can work with HP to rapidly achieve benefits of Next Generation Business Support Systems and Operations Support Systems.  

At the show you can see our full set of BSS and OSS demonstrations including:

• BSS:   HP’s RealTime Charging, HP CentralView, 
• NGOSS Assurance:  HP TeMIP,  HP Network Manager Center featuring the all new NNMi, and HP Service Quality Management,
• NGOSS Fulfillment:  HP Service Activator and HP partner ConceptWave Order Care

Take time to hear new thought-leadership from HP in our six presentations, including a special Expo Theater (open to all attendees) presentation on SDP “The New Customer Experience” at 3pm on the 18th.

Please feel free to schedule a meeting with us to discuss your needs.

For more information or to request a meeting, go to: 
HP at Management World Orlando

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Strong Growth for Management World Orlando

With a strong 32 percent growth on last year’s attendance to date, Management World Orlando is proving to be more important than ever to information, communications and entertainment service providers. The tri-summit conference and technology exchange, will be held in less than one month, from November 16-20, and we are looking forward to an exciting event that will stimulate important debates that are critical during an unstable economy.

It will take a Management World environment, the ideal meeting ground for thousands of executives each year, to promote new solutions and relationships between service providers and other key players in the extended value chain. While the market maybe weak, many players are experiencing positive growth: Telstra’s advertising revenues across its online and mobiles sites is reporting firm growth, and Ericsson is also exposing earlier and better third quarter results.

There are many new revenue opportunities to be unleashed by telcos and cable providers as well as entertainment and media outlets. To leverage these opportunities, companies will need to understand new and emerging business models, how to manage content revenue to enable better business decisions and how to maximize the new value chain. At Management World Orlando, TM Forum is devoting an entire summit to these very topics at the Digital Commerce and Advertising Summit supported by Ad agency OgilvyOne and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show.

NAB, like other broadcasters, are looking to make every online dollar work harder for them as the models of content delivery continue to change in the digital age. "NAB recognizes that communications service providers are an important channel to market for content owners and aggregators, and TM Forum recognizes the need to work with the content world to ensure that service providers are supplying added value to content owners,” says Brad Williams, vice president at NAB. “We feel our content community can learn a great deal at TM Forum's Management World Orlando event, and are confident the TM Forum community can establish a number of content partners at the NAB Show."

The Digital Commerce & Advertising Summit is also represented by key cable speakers from Time Warner, Cablecom and Cox Communications, as well as many other executive speakers from the value chain, like Motion Picture Association, Verizon Communications, Hard Rock Cafe and Hotels, Joost (online video provider), DIRECTV and many more. 

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Don’t Forget Training at Management World Orlando

From our overview of key standards-based solutions including Business Process (eTOM), Information (SID) & Application (TAM) Frameworks and more at the training sessions to the latest thinking and perspectives from industry thought leaders, Management World Orlando offers a comprehensive conference experience for all who attend.

Training Highlights
18 in-depth training courses delivered by industry experts
Our business transformation courses including  Business Process (eTOM), Information (SID), and Applications (TAM) Frameworks will take you from What is... to How to... in these critical NGOSS technologies.

NGN, SDF, Revenue Assurance Maturity Model and Next Generation Billing & Charging Overview courses supply the tools, knowledge and insight to stay at the forefront of these important issues.

TM Forum Knowledge Certification enables you to stand out from the crowd as an expert in the field. Include the following exams in your registration:

Business Process Framework (eTOM): Wednesday, Nov.  19 - 7:30am-8:30am
Information Framework (SID): Thursday, Nov. 20 - 7:30am-8:30am

Click here for the complete schedule and all course details as well as suggested training tracks  that will enable you to make the most of your time and find the courses that best fit your needs.

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