Management World Transformation Talk

By Brian Kracik, Director, Product Marketing, Oracle Communications

As always, the TM Forum Management World show in Nice last month was a good opportunity to take the pulse of the industry and talk with service providers from around the world about their top IT priorities for the year.

One of the things I heard over and over was the need for providers to ensure they are providing a value-add. I think Sally Davis, CEO of BT Wholesale, might have said it best with, “We can’t cut our way to glory.”  She and other forward-looking telecom executives understand that they need to take a close look at how they can create and deliver cutting edge services and, most importantly, monetize those services. 

But first things first. To reach that end goal, transformation will be necessary. The inevitable data and video data tsunami – 80 percent of which will be digital – will require operators to add much greater flexibility into their environments as the foundation for creating tomorrow’s cutting edge services.
 
Transformation has been a big buzzword at the show for the past two years, but much of this talk has simmered due to the economic climate. However, my perception from speaking with numerous service providers is that transformations are still occurring, just in smaller and more bottom-line, business-impact areas.  Service providers realize that a transformation is an ongoing journey, so for now they are aligning with business needs to focus first on high impact projects. 

Order management is one of the hot areas that providers are focused on. The order management process is key to enhancing the customer experience, which ultimately leads to higher revenue. Order management process improvements can also help squelch order fallout, which is very costly for providers. And these improvements can provide bottom-line benefits, including reducing silos and minimizing manual workarounds that drive up IT costs.

I heard from many providers at the show that the number of systems they can support has peaked and they are now focused on implementing a distinct order management layer to cut across silos and move toward system reduction. I expect to hear much more on this in the coming year.

One closing note: Cable had a much greater presence at this year’s show with multiple cable operators and media companies attending and participating on panels. This was not a surprise to me given the growing need for standardization in the cable industry as cable operators move into wireless and become multi-play providers, making their systems more complex. Again, order management is critical in that area, as operators must have efficient and centralized order-management systems in place to manage bundles. It will be interesting to see how the cable industry’s relationship with TM Forum continues to evolve.

As a director of product marketing for Oracle Communications, Brian Kracik is responsible for establishing and executing industry and solution strategy, particularly in the order management product area.  With more than 16 years of telecommunications experience, Kracik is a frequent speaker on the subject of service delivery platforms and next-generation network technologies and is well-versed in the business and network aspects of global operators.