SOFNET 08 PREVIEW - The open model
A new services development paradigm is driving the communications industry says
John Janowiak
What exactly is Web 2.0? How relevant is it to the service provider business model going forward? The short answer: very relevant. Carriers who remain focused on traditional voice services and video are missing the larger transformational drift of the communications industry. It's no longer just about service providers inventing services and then selling them to customers; it's about platforms on which customers share communications and entertainment experiences with one another, building ever-larger communities of friends, colleagues, and customers.
If anything characterizes the Web 2.0 world - and, by extension, the new soft service provider world - it is openness. In order to interact richly with colleagues, friends, customers, and business partners, end users are pushing a model in which 1) they have a hand in developing and defining the services they themselves want, and 2) interacting with the network itself is easy and efficient. This is the end game of the network-as-software model: one in which software and applications live on the network, are accessed by the network, and indeed are created via the open-access network.
For example, at SOFNET 08 - a new conference produced by the International Engineering Consortium in April - Microsoft will discuss its Connected Services Sandbox as an example of this new paradigm. Through Sandbox, operators can open their networks to next-generation Web 2.0 applications that can be mashed together with traditional services to create new connected services. The goal is to facilitate the rapid development and market deployment of new service offerings, creating new opportunities for participants and delivering new options for consumers and
businesses.
"In the new soft service provider environment, operators will be able to offer hundreds, if not thousands, of new services that enable them to target specific customer segments, reduce ‘churn' and drive new revenues." says Michael O'Hara, general manager for the Communications Sector at Microsoft. "By embracing the principles of Web 2.0 and leveraging the significant customer relationships and assets they already have in place, operators have the opportunity to redefine the models for doing business."
Matt Bross, Group CTO for BT, in an interview recently with Light Reading, noted: "The innovation genie is out of the bottle. We need to do more mash-ups, and we need to connect together for innovation. There are major innovation possibilities by opening up collaboration opportunities. We're moving towards a real-time global innovation model, and moving from a closed to an open model. It's a big challenge."
Getting a handle on these mash-ups (that is, creating a new service by putting together two existing ones) as well as opening the network to third-party innovators, is the course forward according to Bross, who will serve as overall conference chair at SOFNET 08.
"We need to change our mindsets and focus on how we can enhance the quality of people's lives and how they do business," he said. "We need to innovate at the speed of life."
John R. Janowiak, President, International Engineering Consortium
SOFNET 08 runs from April 28th to May 1st 2008, at the Olympia National Hall, London.
www.iec.org
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