Microsoft at TM Forum: The Road to Successful Cloud Partnerships

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The telecom industry is in a race.  A race to provide the latest and greatest network technologies (currently it’s LTE, but before that it was 3G).  Telecom companies spend almost 15% of their revenue each year in capital expenses for their network.  With industry revenue at $2 trillion, this equates to $300 billion in investments across the industry, and there is a widespread lack of confidence in the ROI of this $300 billion. 

Telecom operators don’t make money on Over The TOP (OTT) services traveling down their data network; for example, they don’t see revenue from the videos their customers are watching on Netflix.  At TM Forum
this week, more than 3,000 industry leaders will gather to talk about how the industry can move from communications service providers to digital service providers.  In fact, Bob De Haven, general manager of Microsoft’s worldwide communications and media team, will participate in a panel about how telecom operators can bring digital services to market. Other speaking sessions of note:

  • Building Successful Go to Market  Partnerships for Enterprise Cloud, with Tim Hynes
  • How to Achieve Multi-Cloud end to end Management for a Great User Experience, with Eric Troup

Cloud computing is a key part of providing digital services. In fact, almost all telcos are exploring the opportunity to become a cloud service provider.  They want to build a cloud that will enable them to offer new services and host customer solutions, applications, and workplaces.  Our goal is to help telecom operators tap into these cloud opportunities and drive a stronger ROI.  We bring to them the technology on which they can build their own cloud offerings.  One example of can be found in Australia, from one of our first Office 365 syndication partners. Telstra boasts one of the best-known telecommunications and information services brands in Australia. As traditional voice revenue streams decline, Telstra is developing alternate revenue sources; for example, they are complimenting existing data center services with hosting and email messaging.

Telstra’s cloud service taps into several Microsoft products designed to help telcos build a cloud that delivers services to their customers: Windows Server 2012, System Center 2012, and Office 365.  All of these products will be on display in our TM Forum booth. We have also asked several partners to join us in the booth, to showcase their cloud-based solutions. 

  • Tribold is taking advantage of our cloud platform to help telcos accelerate product innovation, launch, delivery, and refinement.
  • TechMahindra will be showcasing their Cloud Service Delivery Platform (SDP), which enables provisioning of public, private or hybrid cloud services.
  • CHR Solutions offers a cloud-based integrated billing and CRM solution.
  • Aktavara’s offerings provide cloud-based inventory and resource management capabilities.