TM Forum and NetCracker Technology Join Forces to Understand Impact of Current Economic Trends on Service Provider Business Strategies
25 Leading Communications Industry Influencers and Service Providers Interviewed — Results to be Presented at Management World 2009, Nice
NICE, FRANCE — May 6, 2009 — TM Forum and NetCracker Technology announced today the results of their collaborative project to better understand the impact of the economic downturn on the communications industry. The project involved interviews and discussions with twenty-five of the top telecom industry thought leaders, influencers, and visionaries. These leaders included senior executives at major service providers and industry analysts around the world.
Participating in the survey were executives from Fixed, Mobile, Cable, and converged service providers representing all major regions of the world. Analysts from Analysys Mason, IDC, Stratecast, Yankee Group, and TM Forum also participated.
The project was initiated to clarify the issues and decisions that service providers are facing, and to spotlight the key challenges and opportunities facing the industry as a whole. The survey addressed the foremost threats and challenges to today’s business and operations, top level priorities, and views on how economic conditions are impacting spending on business and operations support systems.
“Like most industries, all of our member companies (representing more than 700 service providers, software and hardware vendors, and integrators) are struggling to better understand the implications of this downturn, not just within their own businesses, but also in terms of the long-term prospects of the communications industry itself,” said Keith Willetts, Chairman of TM Forum. “As the world’s leading industry association dedicated to enabling profitable services for service providers and their suppliers, we felt it was imperative to get a real handle on the current situation and future trends — and to address the needs of service providers through our current and upcoming programs.”
“The economic downturn has caused all service providers to rethink their business strategies and to refocus on critical success factors that will build long-term, sustainable differentiation,” said Andrew Feinberg, President and CEO of NetCracker. “We wanted to bring clarity and insight to what is important in these turbulent times. Initiating this project with our customers and TM Forum was a natural choice given our shared vision and long history of collaboration.”
Highlights of the survey include:
- Close to 60% of the respondents felt the greatest challenge over the next 18 months was revenue retention, driving efficiency, reducing costs, and customer retention. These responses were a reflection of the broader economic slowdown.
- Over 3 years, however, there was almost unanimous agreement that the economic slowdown will not be a significant issue, but managing technology change, including the adoption of new technologies and retirement of old platforms, will be a significant challenge.
- About 50% indicated that Business Agility will be a key challenge. Ability to respond to new competition, eliminating service complexity, and inflexible systems were seen as key requirements.
- Nearly all respondents agreed that addressing major threats will require undertaking major business transformations.
- Some key service provider priorities over the next 18 months are: effective technology evolution, operations agility, increased customer focus, and reducing costs.
- Most respondents indicated that the best opportunities lie in exploiting the promise of broadband and introducing new services while ensuring that there is no gap between ambition and ability.
For more information on how you can get a copy of the survey results, please contact Juliet Shavit at
jshavit@smartmarkusa.com or Geoff Devlin at
gdevlin@tmforum.org.
About NetCracker Technology
NetCracker Technology, a subsidiary of NEC Corporation, is the leading provider of Telecom Operations and Management Systems to Communications Service Providers worldwide. www.NetCracker.com.
NetCracker is a registered trademark of NetCracker Technology Corp. All other company or product names mentioned in this media alert may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
Media Contacts:About NEC Corporation
NEC Corporation is one of the world's leading providers of Internet, broadband network and enterprise business solutions dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of a diversified global base of customers. NEC delivers tailored solutions in the key fields of computer, networking and electron devices, by integrating its technical strengths in IT and Networks, and by providing advanced semiconductor solutions through NEC Electronics Corporation. The NEC Group employs more than 140,000 people worldwide. For additional information, please visit the NEC website at: http://www.nec.com.
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