| Thoughts from the Conference Chair |  Last week’s Management Middle East, held in the J.W. Marriott in Dubai, was another key milestone for TM Forum in the region. The conference attracted delegates from throughout the Middle East, who came to listen, learn, discuss, debate, network and do business. Management World Middle East was an important conference for anyone involved in the management challenges of the communications industry in the region. If you weren’t able to make it, you missed a vibrant environment for business development and a series of very informative and open discussions by regional carriers on the challenges they face, their strategies for addressing them and their many lessons learned.
  During the keynote sessions on Wednesday morning, Mr Ibrahim Al-Dhobaie - CIO of Saudi Telecom, the region’s largest service provider - overviewed STC’s strategies and challenges as it expands throughout the region, and specifically focused on revenue management strategies and opportunities. The presentation demonstrated STC’s sophistication in addressing complex issues, and clearly demonstrated its status as one of the most advanced IT organizations in the region. The day also featured very detailed and thoughtful presentations on revenue assurance by Zain’s Revenue Assurance and Fraud Manager, Bareah Shankiti, and Du’s Fraud Management and Revenue Assurance Head, Santhosh Gopalan
The second day featured presentations from three regional operators. CIO Craig Humphreys of hot Saudi start-up Atheeb presented their approach to a rapid and ambitious implementation of a leading edge systems portfolio, OSS Director Abdulmajeed Al Solim of STC gave an overview of STC’s OSS Transformation Program, and Risk Management Director Amjad Ghosheh discussed the initiation of Paltel Group’s first Business Process Management program.
 Virtually every presentation during the event included a strong orientation toward improving operational excellence and customer experience, and showcased the emerging entrepreneurial spirit of many of the operators, whose expansions plans in the region are quite aggressive.
Through conferences like Management World Middle East, the TM Forum continues to set the standard for the industry, and as management steps more and more into the spotlight, be sure you stay informed by sticking close to the TM Forum. We look forward to Management World Middle East, March 4-5 in 2010.
Rob Rich
Industry Research Consultant
| | | Testimonials |  DAX has sponsored the EAS at the last 4 TM Forum events. The TM Forum staff does a superb job in setting up appointments with interested customers which results in very productive meetings and follow-up activities. We would have spent hundreds of hours if we had attempted to set-up these meeting on our own and then we would have spent multiples of the cost of the sponsorship in travel and time to meet even half the customers that we were able to meet with at this event. | |
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