Catalyst Program

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Catalyst Program? What is a Catalyst Project?

The TM Forum Catalyst Program was devised in October 1997 at the first Management World event, and was designed to facilitate a different way of creating standards, rather than just pure documentation. The program “catalyzed” teams to develop solutions and a combination of pragmatism and hard deadlines allows teams to arrive at solutions that really work in a short timeframe.

Facilitating meaningful collaboration among our members is at the heart of TM Forum’s mission, and nothing epitomizes collaboration more than TM Forum Catalyst projects. Catalyst projects are traditionally rapid fire proof-of-concept projects bringing together companies large and small to create innovate solutions to common challenges demonstrating how this can be achieved leveraging key TM Forum Best practices and standards ensuring scalability, reuse and reduced costs and risk.

A small number of these proof-of-concept Catalyst projects investigate new exploratory areas and their output is usually a white paper or other report to capture their key findings.

Over the past year significant progress has been made to align these Catalyst projects with the strategic ambitions of TM Forum, thereby, producing a portfolio of Catalysts which bring best practices and standards of strategic programs to life in real world scenarios ensuring the value of these assets is proven in complex partnership scenarios.

Where do Catalyst Projects fit into TM Forum’s Collaboration program?

The TM Forum Collaboration Program consists many projects and teams addressing areas from high level thought leadership to the development of frameworks, guidebooks, technical reports, interfaces, models and more. Catalysts projects are used to demonstrate real world implementations of some of the best practices and standards produced by these teams – showcasing the business benefits that can be achieved as a result of implementing standards-based solutions.

What is the purpose of a Catalyst project?

The purpose of a Catalyst Project is primarily to demonstrate the business value that can be achieved from implementing standards-based solutions, to encourage implementation of standards and best practices in real products in the market. A very useful by-product of Catalyst Projects is the validation of the state of readiness of the standards material, and Catalysts frequently produce change requests for the standards based on their findings.

Why participate?

R&D accelerator:

Both service providers and suppliers receive extensive business and technical benefits from participation in Catalyst Projects
Cost effective collaborative research and development including use of TM Forum best practices and standards
Ability to transform singular ideas into collaborative proof-of-concept projects
Close collaboration between service providers and suppliers yields high quality results

Catalyst distribution:

Business relationships grow from trust and knowledge gained during project lifecycle
Extensive marketing exposure throughout the lifecycle

What type of projects does the Catalyst program cover?

Catalyst project content can be quite varied, including:

Exploratory projects – these are best characterized as Proof of concept Catalysts or technology exploration projects. Proof-of-Concept projects explore the feasibility of an idea or concept. Results of these types of projects will be used to determine if further study is required to develop the idea into a solution. Technology Exploration projects prove out technology as a basis for future solutions. These projects have an emphasis on applying new technology.
Deployment Catalysts – these are best characterized as Specification Validation projects and Supplier Proving Ground Projects. Specification Validation projects test specifications developed by TM Forum working teams or industry bodies to see if they are implementable based on real product development and integration. Supplier Proving Ground projects prove that a service provider-chosen set of vendors can work together to build an end-to-end solution to the defined problem area.

What type of projects does the TM Forum looking for?

In this Call for Catalysts, we ask member companies to propose Catalysts that address the key industry themes we have identified for 2019’s Digital Transformation World event in Nice, which reflect the priorities of TM Forum’s Collaboration program.

See key topic themes.

What are the outputs of the Catalyst program?

The outputs of a Catalyst project range from Whitepapers, Case Studies, Best Practices, lessons learned as input to other teams through to Interface Specifications, Models, Frameworks & Reference Code.

Tell me more about the Catalyst Awards.

At the culmination of Catalyst project at TM Forum events, outstanding demonstrations are recognized with a TM Forum Catalyst Award. Awardees are selected by the TM Forum Strategy and Adoption Subcommittee. More details will be provided.

What is The TM Forum zone?

The TM Forum zones are TM Forum’s expo space at TM Forum Events and is designed to be a one-stop-shop for learning about TM Forum’s business and technical frameworks, best practices, guidelines and standards. The zones include TM Forum Theater and multiple Catalyst demonstration areas and includes live demonstrations, tours and presentations. They allow visitors to gather information on how TM Forum standards and best practices can come alive and benefit our members’ businesses.

What is TM Forum Action Week?

TM Forum Action Week is the best opportunity for all approved Catalyst teams to meet face to face to begin work on demo scenarios, agree on roles and responsibilities and meet with TM Forum’s Catalyst Program Management, Logistics and Marketing staff who will provide additional information.

What level of resource commitment is required to participate?

The actual commitment required from a participant in a specific project varies and is unique to each project. Commitment is agreed upon by all of the project members and is documented in a Catalyst project charter. However, in addition to fulfilling technical duties (definition, design, implementation and testing), participants are expected to be involved in the team marketing and showcase efforts and may be asked to support one of the key project roles. Participating companies must be TM Forum members in good standing with payment of membership dues.

The project must have resources to fill the mandatory roles of:

Team Leader
Responsible for project management
End User Champion
Responsible for providing requirements and monitoring to ensure the requirements are filled
Logistics Manager
Responsible for integration & staging testing, and ensuring the equipment is shipped to the location on time
Marketing/ Product Leader
Responsible for creating & executing the team’s marketing communication plan, creating the team’s datasheet and press releases, and making sure the team takes advantage of the marketing opportunities offered by the TM Forum
Document Editor
Responsible for the creation and content of the Catalyst documentation.

What are the requirements for a Catalyst team?

A Catalyst team consists of a minimum of 4 vendors (Participants) who are willing to work together to create and demonstrate a multi-party solution to an industry problem. In addition, the team needs at least 1 end users (Champion) to provide requirements and validate findings. The most successful Catalyst projects are those with a number of committed champions clearly driving the requirements and four or more vendors. Catalysts teams are expected to fulfill all deliverables outlined in their project charter.

What is the role of the Catalyst Champion?

Project Sponsor or a Champion role is usually taken on by a Service Provider, whose responsibilities include:

Confirming that the project solves a specific industry problem and the proposed deliverable would provide value for the industry.
Providing business requirements & clarifications
Providing feedback and help with the use cases within the project
Requires One contact as the “sponsor” of the project and at least one contact for working level engagement, this can be the same person as sponsor
In charge of validating the project deliverables and overall process
Should be on calls about 50% of the time
Needs to attend flagship conference

What is the role of the Catalyst Participant?

One contact as the ultimate Go-To person for resource/escalation
At least one contact at working level

Other roles:

Overall Project Team Lead:

Ensure project is developed in line with TM Forum IPR policy
Encourage all participants to take an active role in the project and design output without bias towards any member company
Lead the design, planning and execution validation activities
Ensure sponsor and mentor are consulted on direction of catalyst
Must be present on approximately 85% of team calls
Needs to attend flagship conference

Overall Marketing /Product Lead:

Ensure all marketing deliverables are produced on time and to an appropriate marketing standard
Ensure catalyst executes its own marketing activities pre & post event leveraging participant company marketing departments
Ensure presentations and demonstrations are easily understood by different audiences and tailored appropriately
Be familiar with other TM Forum Programs

Overall Technical Lead:

Ensure alignment between catalyst project and respective collaboration project
Ensure appropriate application of all relevant best practices and standards into catalyst project
Provide technical leadership and guidance to ensure quality demonstration of integrated working solution
Ensure learnings and changes to Forum assets are captured and provided back to Collaborative team

What is the role of a TM Forum Catalyst mentor?

Each Strategic Catalyst is assigned a dedicated TM Forum staff Mentor who helps the Catalyst in an advisory capacity to ensure they stay on track, achieve their goals and contribute the most back to TM Forum’s suite of Best Practices and Guidelines. The Mentor ensures that functionally the Catalyst does what it set out to achieve. Mentor duties include:

Review and feedback on Catalyst submissions
Advice as needed and provision of suggestions or ideas for improving the Catalyst
Monitoring of relevant Community activity to keep abreast of the team’s progress
Review team presentations, marketing collateral, signs, etc. for The TM Forum Zone
Review of team’s outputs to ensure they are of a sufficient quality & merit being regarded as a contribution
Raise cross-project linkages to relevant parties where appropriate.

What are the specific requirements for a Catalyst participant?

A Catalyst participant must be a TM Forum member in good standing. This means that membership fees must be up to date at the time of application’s submission and at the time of the show exhibit.

Please contact Tania Fernandes, Catalyst Program Project Manager at [email protected] in the first instance if you are not a member.

What are the benefits of participating in a Catalyst?

Virtual R&D

Learn how your solution works with others in the industry in a hands-on environment
Collaborate on best practices
Podcast file available for Catalysts to share internally and externally

Rapid and Cost Effective Results

Catalyst projects take place over a set amount of time, so results are typically guaranteed in less than 6 months
Service providers get the results they want without the constraints of an RFP process and huge budgetary investments in their labs
As a result, Champions gain invaluable knowledge as to where they should make key investments

Develop Working Relationships

Champions gain exposure to a variety of vendors and can directly influence product development
Participants get real requirements first hand from end users
Formal business relationships and partnerships frequently develop due to trust built up over the project lifecycle

Marketing Exposure

Substantial exposure before and during TM Forum Live! via dedicated presentation times, show guide, signage
Extensive pre-and post-event marketing opportunities (web, Inside newsletters, press interviews, press releases, etc.)

Where can Catalyst teams promote their projects to the industry?

Catalyst Projects and participating teams are listed on the TM Forum Catalyst web page. Once a Catalyst team provides more details on the project, the information is made available on their own specific Catalyst web page. There are also multiple press releases created from Catalyst content by TM Forum that is shared with all team members to promote within their own organization.

What is the investment fee for Catalyst participation?

Catalyst pricing for this cycle is tiered based on membership band

Is there a volume discount where a vendor participates on multiple Catalysts?

Where a vendor participates on multiple Catalysts, a 25% discount is given for the 2nd and subsequent Catalysts.

What does a Catalyst team receive for their investment?

As the popularity and success of the Catalyst program grows, the benefits and exposure is also significantly increasing, including:

Virtual Showcase

Virtual soundbites

Professional studio interview & demo

Blogs, written articles and Q&As

Hosted @ Champion

Co-operation from Champion required

Virtual Showcase

Video Interview – Action Week

Short 2-3 minute overview video interview of the Catalyst, covering:

What the Catalyst is?
The problem it aims to solve?
Who is involved?

TM Forum marketing opportunities:

Interview to be hosted on the TM Forum website (approx. 95,000 monthly visits) and TM Forum Inform channel (13,000 monthly visits)
Interview video file available for Catalyst to share internally and externally
Opportunity to publish additional blogs, written interviews and articles
Interview to be included in the membership monthly newsletter (sent to approx. 67,000 readers)
Interview and blogs to be shared via TM Forum social media channels (including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

Virtual Soundbites

Podcast interview to be arranged by TM Forum, an opportunity to offer a 5-7 minute update (not limited to 1 – can do multiple throughout lifecycle) on the Catalyst progress including:

What has been achieved since Action Week?
Update on goals/status of project
Update on latest findings/hurdles etc
TM Forum marketing opportunities:
Podcast to be hosted on the TM Forum website (approx. 95,000 monthly visits) and TM Forum Inform channel (13,000 monthly visits)
Podcast file available for Catalyst to share internally and externally
Opportunity to publish additional blogs, written interviews and articles
Interview to be included in the membership monthly newsletter (sent to approx. 67,000 readers)
Podcast to be included in all relevant strategic program marketing emails
Podcast to be included in relevant newsletters (Agile IT, Customer Centricity & Open Digital)
Podcast to be shared via TM Forum social media channels (including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

Professional studio interview & demo

An opportunity to give a full 15 minute interview on the Catalyst including:
Full overview of the scope, problem, solution and participants
Industry context on why it matters
Full demo of solution
TM Forum marketing opportunities:
Interview to be hosted on the TM Forum website (approx. 95,000 monthly visits) and TM Forum Inform channel (13,000 monthly visits)
Interview to be published on partner websites
Interview to be sent to leading press and analysts for review
Video file available for Catalyst to share internally and externally
Video to be included in the membership monthly newsletter (sent to approx. 67,000 readers)
Video to be included in all relevant strategic program marketing emails
Video to be included in relevant newsletters (Agile IT, Customer Centricity & Open Digital)
Video to be shared via TM Forum social media channels (including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

Above & Beyond Marketing Exposure

Above and beyond the Marketing exposure previously outlined, there will be opportunity to applicable Catalysts for TM Forum to also provide:

A monthly Catalyst round up email to behavior lists (based on topics), an opportunity to call for more participation, update on progress, include blogs, articles and more
Arrange press and analyst meetings where possible to increase exposure
Publicize Catalysts through partnerships with media organizations, where relevant and available

Catalyst Local – Hosted@Champion

With the co-operation of the Champion of the project, these events create a unique opportunity to present proof-of-concept collaborative working to an entire workforce and invited guests.

Physical or Virtual hosted by Champion (Catalyst LOCAL)
Opportunity to showcase proof-of-concept project to organization and gain support
Opportunity to gain feedback from organization and invited guests

Typical agenda:

TM Forum program updates
Interactive workshop on key relevant topics
Catalyst presentation and demonstration with feedback

What are other costs associated with project participation?

The guiding principle with regard to catalyst project costs is that each member company bears its own costs. Each company’s “Own Costs” may include:

Equipment costs
(shipping, testing, integration and demonstrating)

Human resources
(marketing, development, implementation, testing, demonstrating, project management, logistics)

Transportation and hotel costs
Meeting participation costs
(TM Forum Action Weeks, as well as other team meetings as agreed to by the team)

Marketing costs
incurred promoting individual company’s participation in the Showcase.

Who is responsible for providing resources to the Catalyst teams?

The teams participating on a Catalyst project provide resources from their own companies to work through the necessary project tasks, preparation of Catalyst demos and production of deliverables. TM Forum staff will provide support in the form of marketing, technical and project management guidance, project mentorship and are available to answer any additional questions raised.

Is there a formal agreement for Catalyst participation?

A formal Catalyst contract (known as the Demonstration Program Participant Agreement) is drawn up and must be signed and returned by no later than 14 days from initial receipt of Agreement. A Catalyst participant that wishes to demonstrate a product or solution component and get public acknowledgement in marketing material must make a legal commitment by contract with the TM Forum.

The Catalyst Champion Contract is sent to End Users (including application service provider, traditional wire line or wireless operator, internet service provider, cable MSO, enterprise and/or government service provider) that commit to providing the business requirements, validating the work of the solution providers, and be publicly acknowledged in marketing materials.

Is there a way to acknowledge non-contracted teams or individual contributors to the project?

Yes, but limitations apply to non-contracted contributors. They may not present or otherwise participate in the actual demonstration on the show floor. The team may verbally recognize any person, team, or organization that contributed to the overall success of the Catalyst project during the live demonstration.

Non-contracted contributors may not have their company names and logos displayed or included in the key-participant listing on datasheets, TM Forum signage, web page or event marketing material. A special section of the datasheet can be used to publicly express gratitude for their contribution. Two common scenarios are:

Collaboration with another industry body, without a formal liaison agreement in place: The datasheet and poster displayed in the show floor may state something like, “In collaboration with Broadband Forum”.

Hardware or software donated by non-participating company: “The World Ordering Catalyst team would like to thank Sun for the donation of vital hardware and operating software to the project.

What is the sequence of events for Catalyst participation?

The general process for launching a Catalyst project begins with an open call for participation made by TM Forum to member companies. Proposals are drawn up by TM Forum members based on market needs and specific requests in the open call. Service Providers are vital for defining and or validating the business requirements. Submissions are received within an agreed timeframe and reviewed by TM Forum staff as well as the Strategy and Adoptions Subcommittee (a subcommittee of the TM Forum board). Approval to participate is granted based on the proposal meeting specific criteria including filling industry gaps and alignment to TM Forum strategic objectives. Teams involved in approved Catalysts meet face to face at TM Forum Action Week, during and after which the Catalyst team plan and implement the development, integration and testing of the solution. The results are demonstrated live during TM Forum events, both physical and virtual. The results are produced and are either published as standalone documentation or fed back to the appropriate collaborative teams for further development.

How do Catalyst teams communicate?

It is a requirement of the Catalyst program that all team communication, team discussions and any project work be performed in the online TM Forum community collaboration workspace using Confluence, in order to comply with the TM Forum’s Collaboration Operating Guide, IPR Policy and Anti-trust Guidelines. All Catalyst teams are required to sign up for their specific Catalyst online community. Discussions can be initiated using the “Discussions” area. Once a discussion thread has been started, replies can be via email. All team meetings need to be set up through the online community calendar. There is also a cross-community facility to allow posting to multiple communities at once. TM Forum can provide training on the Catalyst community environment as needed.

Where can I get more information about the Selection Process?

Checkout the Catalyst Selection Process Guidelines for more guidance on Catalyst proposal submission and project selection.

When is the next opportunity to get involved in the Catalyst program?

As we run the Catalyst program at our major conferences, there are several opportunities to get involved, either in the Call for Catalysts for the upcoming TM Forum Live! event or in the Catalyst outreach for the event planning underway. Check the Catalyst Program page for announcements of next opportunities.

How can I get involved?

Visit the TM Forum’s web site for more information about Catalyst projects. Call for Proposals and Call for Additional Participants will be announced on that page.

Contact Tania Fernandes, Catalyst Program Project Manager at [email protected].