Dissatisfaction expressed by Equinix’s global customer base has driven the company to address inconsistent and overly-complicated interactions through a process-driven global business transformation. 

Which industries excel at customer experience, and how can we learn from them? Join Innocent to hear their top tips on customer experience management and then put your questions to our expert panel as they discuss what lessons can be transferred to any industry.

- Working with vendors, service providers and enterprises to ensure common best practice across complex value chains
- Changing focus for B2B2C models: what does that mean for processes, operations and benchmarks?
- Using data analytics from the device in place of consumer feedback to ensure the right customer experience

As digital services and M2M devices expand, so do the opportunities for fraud and attack. How serious is that threat now, and what do we need to be concerned about in the immediate future? What lessons do we need to take to heart from recent cases, and who’s doing it right?

This 90 minute workshop will invite participants to exchange (in a "Chatham House" format) experiences, generate new ideas and work together to find new business opportunity in the intelligent use of customer data. It will be divided into three sessions of approximately equal length:

- Examining the different kinds of customer data, separating the personal from the group, and categorising the information that might be obtained from analysis;

- Exploring the outlines of the "privacy settlement" between customers, operators and regulators. What might be reasonable? Are there dangers? Could operators manage customers identities, attributes and reputation?

Finding new ways to leverage structured and unstructured information can significantly improve SPs’ ability to acquire, retain and upsell customers, reduce operational costs, manage risk and make smarter product decisions. But this unrelenting torrent of data also creates huge challenges in data definition, sourcing, collection, analysis and reporting for SPs, not to mention issues around cross functional sharing, decision management processes, privacy, security, etc.

- Enabling better informed decision making throughout the organization
- Aligning strategic, operational, and tactical goals and actions for a systematic transformation of performance
- Using data analysis to create KPIs that drive results

An expert from the financial industry gives 15 minutes of top tips on data analysis and the application of results to strategic decisions. Our panel of experts then discusses the next steps for advancing big data analysis: what are we looking for, what is possible, and how do we extrapolate it?

- Choosing where to focus: what are your core business skills and where can you add value?
- Evolving established business process management systems to enable innovation and deliver on new services
- Developing best practices for digital service delivery in terms of processes and management practices

The Center for Testing, Innovation and Evaluation (CITE) is a ghost city in New Mexico, built for the express purpose of combining and exploring M2M services on an unprecedented scale and scope. Join the Senior Managing Director of the managing company to hear about lessons learned and the future of M2M system testing and application.

During this session you have the opportunity to hear from the enterprise customers themselves. What solutions are they looking for? Where do they want to partner, and where do they want end-to-end solutions? Where do they see the opportunities in the digital economy, and what is currently stopping them from taking advantage?

During this session you have the opportunity to hear from the enterprise customers themselves. What solutions are they looking for? Where do they want to partner, and where do they want end-to-end solutions? Where do they see the opportunities in the digital economy, and what is currently stopping them from taking advantage?

During this session you have the opportunity to hear from the enterprise customers themselves. What solutions are they looking for? Where do they want to partner, and where do they want end-to-end solutions? Where do they see the opportunities in the digital economy, and what is currently stopping them from taking advantage?

The topic of eHealth and the associated challenges of maximizing profit and patient benefit resonant through various industries and the medical community. A business framework that unifies processes and procedures of all involved parties in the value chain is a necessity. The “Optimizing the Virtual Housecall Catalyst” project will demonstrate how existing TM Forum methodologies can be applied both to enable revenue streams for eHealth, Telco, Cable, and OEM hardware and systems, and more importantly deliver  high patient satisfaction through efficient management of mobile workers, inventory, and information, while adhering to the secure standards required by HIPAA.

The various threats to infrastructure, the need to keep up with demand,  and the challenge to maximize revenue at the same time are a constant across industries and value chains. The Innovations for the Emerging Smart Grid Environment Catalyst demonstration will continue to show how TM Forum member companies are leveraging current TM Forum products in the Utility domain, and how utilities might benefit from these proven and tested processes and methodologies.

A look at the latest projects from the largest operators: where are they investing and why? What are they anticipating in terms of market development?

Providing digital services for B2B and enterprise is a very different approach to the traditional telco offerings, and the customer expectations are therefore harder to anticipate. Join this panel of enterprise users to hear what they want to achieve and what they look for in a provider.

As the digital services market grows rapidly and new partnership models are formed, it is increasingly vital to have a strong awareness of the cyber threat. What problems already exist and what can we expect to see over the next few years? What can and must be done in terms of partnerships and global collaboration in order to counter this security threat?

NCWIT's Aspirations in Computing program, now in its 5^th year, offers a national award and over 30 local affiliate competitions across the country to generate support and visibility for women's participation in IT communities nationwide. Join Avis Yates-Rivers, recently honoured as a White House Champion of Change in STEM, as she interviews one of the Award-winning young women now involved in the industry and understand the critical importance of women’s technical contributions and innovation.

The commercial services market has the potential to drive significant revenue growth for cable operators.  The ability for operators to successfully manage the evolution of systems, processes, technologies and organizations is key to unlocking this potential.  Explore critical factors for success in this high growth market segment with a panel of leading experts representing service providers, technology suppliers and systems integrators who have "been there and done that", and have gained valuable insight along the way.  Express your views about "industry readiness" to meet key challenges through real-time audience participation polling, and hear what the panel of experts has to say about these questions in subsequent discussion of polling results.

• How can service providers channel the resources of innovative employees and remove barriers to creativity?
• When should a service provider focus on being an enabler and route to market for innovators?
• How to determine what services, both internally and externally should service providers be looking at investing in for future growth

•        What does our industry have to do to shed the “us versus them” mentality?
•        Who is looking to work with OTT players and how?

• Can OTT players become valuable partners/customers rather than competitors?
• Where do you decide to partner and where do you decide to create your own OTT offerings?

Security is on top everyone’s mind today.  While corporate budgets are increasing exponentially to address today’s threats, is better protection really available for purchase – or can the application of best practices substantially reduce risk?  This roundtable will take a look at Security Management best practices and solutions that can be applied to any business.

• How are providers going to address the growing need for security in all their transactions and in their management of privacy and sensitive data?
• How are suppliers stepping up to the plate and helping them address this issue?

Join this lively idea sharing session with your peers, some of the most innovative leaders in our industry, to share your thoughts on various top level topics keeping executives up at night.  You can choose from the list of topics below, determine which table you’d like to join and then jump in.  Each Brainstorming table will be overseen by a moderator who will be taking notes and in the end develop an executive summary highlighting what was discussed.  These executive summaries will then be shared with all Platinum pass attendees.  Each table is limited to 10 executives on a first come first serve basis.

Table 1: Future Predictions

-     How do you plan to continue growing when your market becomes saturated?

-     Do you see your revenues increasing or decreasing over the next five years and why?

-      Is being a dumb pipe or pure wholesaler a viable option for any network operator?

Moderator: Colin Orviss, TM Forum Ambassador; Founding Partner, Parhelion Global Communications Advisors

Table 2: Social Networks

-          What role should Service providers play in the evolution of the social networking world, or are service providers simply the network? Can we apply pure Economics to OTT and share the rewards of Social Networking?

-          Why was the GSMA’s Wholesale Applications Community (WAC) initiative not another SMS type industry showcase?  Is it a case that commercial ideas need commercial execution to succeed?

-          Now that we have transformed how do we re-ignite innovation, and out innovate the OTT? Is it a Global, Regional or Country led initiative?

-          Go forward options and  Actions:

1.    Role of CSP incubators (SingTel’s Innov8, Telefonica’s Wayar, Telstra’s Application Venture Group)

2.    Role of Standards Bodies  – TM Forum, GSMA

3.       Group and regional initiatives

Moderator: Tony Kalcina, TM Forum Ambassador, Founder & Executive Director, Clarity

Table 3: Exploiting the Potential for Growth in Latin & South America

-          How is the communications market developing in South and Latin America?

-          What are the sweet spots for suppliers to support this developing market?

Moderator:

Table 4: Accelerating the Next Generation of eHealth

-          What role are Service providers likely to play in the evolution of the eHealth world?

-          Who are the key partners that Service Providers need to establish relationships with?

-          What sorts of services and business models are likely to emerge?

Moderator: Mary Whatman, Founding Partner, Parhelion Global Communications Advisors

Table 5: Next Generation Business Assurance Programs

-     Where are BA programs heading now that they have broadened and matured, especially in the strategic areas of Customer Experience and Big Data?

-    What do you see as the greatest threat to your revenues?

-          Is revenue leakage going to explode with the launch of a vast array of new digital services? 

-          What needs to happen to plug this gap before it becomes a major problem for the industry?

Moderator: Dr. Ron Angner, Senior Vice President & Principal, Center of Operational Excellence & Business Assurance Practice Lead, TMNG 

While the communications industry has given birth to the game-changing digital world, there’s a paradox: radical change brings threats and well as opportunities and the digital world threatens the communications industry as we know it. Keith Willetts, TM Forum’s visionary Chairman, draws on much of the book’s research and thinking in his new book, Unzipping the Digital World, about how companies can thrive in the digital economy.  In this session, he discusses thorny issues such as:

• The drivers behind the digital world  and its impacts
• The emerging digital ecosystem and business models
• Where are the high growth  ‘sweet spots’ & where communications companies should focus their investments and energies

• The over-riding importance of visionary leadership and how to drive change across the company
• How  to move to a highly  innovative culture and approach
• How to develop the sustaining and profitable business partnerships that are the backbone of the digital world
• How to shift gears to become a highly customer-centric organization and deliver an outstanding customer experience
• ‘It’s the software stupid’  - how to transform from IT as a support to a highly software-centric and creative organization

• How to utilize data and usage traffic to provide customer profitability analysis, end-to-end visibility for new product rollouts
• Using real-time analysis to improve the customer experience and enhance customer loyalty
• How are Service Providers organizing themselves to address the demand of big data analytics
• What support do they need from suppliers?
• How can ‘personal data’ be turned into a new class of economic asset?

Customer-centricity is far from a new buzzword in communications, but for many years it was more about rhetoric than reality at many organizations. But in today's interconnected, on-demand competitive environment, providing a positive multi-channel customer experience isn't discretionary - it's essential to retention, market share growth and the strength of the brand.  This roundtable discusses where the industry is going with Customer Experience Management and how it needs to change.

• The rise of the CCO - making the case for a Chief Customer Officer to join the management team
• Linking customer experience to profitability: Proving that customer experience impacts the bottom line
• Creating a consistent experience across multiple channels from the top down
• Making the business case for customer experience investments