A 2017 ICT Intuition survey of 100 communication service providers asked how many had divorced their services business from the network/capacity business. Fully two-thirds said they had, yet it wasn’t until Verizon announced that its businesses – all of its businesses – would be aligned based on its customers rather than its networks, that I… Read More »
Underlying all the tech talk about 5G, NFV/SDN, analytics and machine learning is some serious concern about services and monetization. Basically, this digital transformation stuff is expensive and given that consumers aren’t going to pay a lot more for digital capacity, how are operators going to make money? I would never minimize the importance of… Read More »
We’re all talking about strategy. Digital strategy, cloud strategy, machine learning strategy, agile development strategy and on and on. Yet, I’ve seen very little discussion about process. I know, I know – as soon as you mention the word process eyes roll and minds wander, but the truth is you won’t get anywhere without it.… Read More »
As service providers and businesses of all sizes continue on the path to becoming digital enterprises, there are a lot of new and innovative solutions coming to market. Devices, readers, platforms and software that enable digital supply chains, IoT and the means to connect anything are being rapidly developed and deployed. As buyers we get… Read More »
For all the innovation and all the talk of digital transformation, precious little seems to actually be happening. Service providers are stuck on WiFi, LTE, Gigs and data plans while over-the-top providers (and pretty much everyone else) are imagining and actually building new and mostly useful digital service offerings. Face it, these are two different… Read More »
A digital network does not make you a digital service provider and random automation does not make you a digital enterprise. In a recent ICT Intuition survey, 67% of the more than 120 communication service providers claimed to be digital service providers (DSPs), yet most sold only network services, had no partner strategies and couldn’t… Read More »
Another Mobile World Congress is in the books. Walking, meetings, walking, late nights, walking and good information shared by all. There was a sense of empowerment among the vendors and operators as they visited the booths and hiked the halls. A sense that things are starting to happen and maybe, just maybe, we’re getting closer… Read More »
As the industry’s network obsession continues unabated – 5G, NFV, IoT – take the time to lift your head up out of the trenches and take a peek outside of the data center to consider what business you’re actually in. Building networks and installing servers to deliver infrastructure are absolutely necessary pursuits, but they aren’t business… Read More »
When it comes to orchestration of digital services it seems we really don’t know what we don’t know. At the Layer 123 SDN World Congress in The Hague recently, there were numerous vendors, standards bearers and operators sharing insights and thought leadership. But even after hearing from all of those smart people, I still feel… Read More »
I recently had the privilege of attending the TM Forum InFocus Smart City conference as a guest of TM Forum, ZTE and the city of Yinchuan, China. After several days of presentations, discussions and casual conversations my sense is that cities all over the world face the same challenges, but each has its own priorities. … Read More »