Heavy Reading Rates Telco Readiness for Next-Gen Service DeliveryTelcos have begun transforming their internal processes to compete in the next-gen service environment, but some risk falling behind, according to Heavy ReadingPRNewswire NEW YORK, Sept. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Many of the world's largest telecom network operators are beginning to enact organizational changes that will enable them to adapt to the next-gen services environment, but progress is uneven and some operators may be at risk of falling behind their competitors, according to a major new report from Heavy Reading (http://www.heavyreading.com/), the research division of TechWeb's Light Reading (http://www.lightreading.com/). Telco Transformation: Change or Die Trying provides an evaluative framework for measuring how incumbent telcos are approaching the need for internal process transformation, their relative progress in the transformation process, and how much further they need to go in their efforts to become truly competitive providers of 21st-century services. The network operators analyzed in this report include AT&T, Bell Canada, BT, Deutsche Telekom, Orange (France Telecom), Sprint Nextel, Telefonica, TeliaSonera, Verizon, and Vodafone. The 83-page report evaluates each network operator on a series of three dozen key criteria, divided among the following six categories: -- Management commitment -- Organizational flexibility -- Partnerships -- Applications platform development -- Next-gen network infrastructure deployment -- Initial next-gen service offers Heavy Reading assigned individual weights to the criteria in each grouping, and then assigned scores to each operator reflecting our evaluation of its performance to date. The individual and aggregate ratings provide a comprehensive, independent assessment of how well these key incumbents are meeting the transformation challenge in terms of changing internal processes and functions to survive and thrive in a telecom environment vastly different from the heyday of telco incumbency. Key findings of Telco Transformation: Change or Die Trying include the following: Incumbent telcos as a group have at least begun transforming their internal processes to compete more effectively in the next-gen service environment -- at least as far as stated objectives are concerned. The executives of incumbent carriers analyzed for this report all say they are committed to investing in their organization's next-gen technology and internal infrastructure, and then communicating their direction to customers and employees. Initial next-gen services from incumbents may not be particularly inventive, but they do show a basic understanding that the environment has changed. New offerings represent the tip of a new services iceberg, leveraging the IP resources and early deployments of IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) in the network to create hybrid applications resident on both the customers' and the telco's network. While the initial focus for next-gen services is on residential users, enterprise services will remain the big prize for incumbents. Residential services gather a lot of attention because it's easy to count the large numbers of users, but enterprise services will drive the revenue and profit for telcos offering next-gen services, because they will address the increasingly untethered, work-anywhere, from-any-device employee. Incumbent telcos appear to be focusing more new investment on applications and less on transport. Leading next-gen incumbents recognize that their investments in content delivery servers, hosting, data centers, professional service expertise, and remote information and communications technology facilities will deliver the competitive differentiation they'll need to get away from transport's commodity pricing. Telco Transformation: Change or Die Trying costs $3,995 and is published in PDF format. The price includes an enterprise license covering all of the employees at the purchaser's company. For more information, or to request a free executive summary, contact: Dave Williams Sales Director, Heavy Reading 858-485-8870 dave.williams@heavyreading.com Press/analyst contact: Dennis Mendyk Managing Director, Heavy Reading 201-587-2154 mendyk@heavyreading.com About Heavy Reading Heavy Reading is an independent market research organization offering quantitative analysis of telecom technology to service providers, vendors, and investors. Its mandate is to provide the comprehensive competitive analysis needed today for the deployment of profitable networks based on next-generation hardware and software. About TechWeb TechWeb (techweb.com/aboutus), the global leader in business technology media, is an innovative business focused on serving the needs of technology decision-makers and marketers worldwide. TechWeb produces the most respected and consumed media brands in the business technology market. Today, more than 13.3 million* business technology professionals actively engage in our communities created around our global face-to-face events Interop, Web 2.0, Black Hat and VoiceCon; online resources such as the TechWeb Network, Light Reading, Intelligent Enterprise, InformationWeek.com, bMighty.com, and The Financial Technology Network; and the market leading, award-winning InformationWeek, TechNet Magazine, MSDN Magazine, Wall Street & Technology magazines. TechWeb also provides end-to-end services ranging from next-generation performance marketing, integrated media, research, and analyst services. TechWeb is a division of United Business Media, a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $2.5 billion. * 13.3 million business decision-makers: based on # of monthly connections SOURCE: Heavy Reading CONTACT: Dave Williams, Sales Director, Heavy Reading, +1-858-485-8870, Web Site: http://www.heavyreading.com/ |