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Enabling the Application & Content Provider: Collaboration for Innovation

Posted by: Erik Linask | November 18, 2009 12:14 AM | 0 Comments
Alcatel-Lucent's application enablement strategy, which focuses on network operators' ability to effectively develop, deliver, and monetize new applications and services relies on two distinct components: the operator's network and the relationship between the operator and the application and content provider community.
 
In the second iteration of Alcatel-Lucent's online publication, Enriching Communications, which focused on the strength of partnerships and ecosystems in today's competitive communications environment, Carrie Hydro, Senior Director for Solutions Marketing at Alcatel-Lucent, and Patricia Hargil, Head of Global Strategic Programs, focused on the latter half of the application enablement proposition. Specifically, they considered the implications of recent research by Alcatel-Lucent regarding how ACPs (application and content providers) view the opportunity to collaborate with network operators.
 
Working on the understanding that network operators are going have to rely on third-party applications and content to drive sustainable growth and revenues, it's evident that their ability to do so lies in their willingness to provide value from their networks to their existing and future partners. However, while operators are in a position to increase the pace of service innovation, to date, the single greatest obstacle has been their ability (or willingness) to deliver a winning proposition to the ACP community.
 
According to Alcatel-Lucent's research, however, the opportunity for network providers to collaborate with ACPs is very real - as long as they are willing to expose their network resources to benefit their partners. In fact, network providers were named as the second most valuable partnership opportunities by the ACP respondents, behind hosting/utility providers - and that's only because hosting providers have been a traditional resource for cost-effective, scalable capacity.
 
Network providers, however, have potential to move to the top of the list because of the potential value that rests in their networks. Their ability to leverage that value rests not in capital investment, but in accepting that allowing access to network resources, like subscriber data, Quality of Service, security, bandwidth, and more.
 
By offering their partners access to their network intelligence, network operators can foster a more trusting, more equitable relationship with ACPs, prompting them to not only develop more applications and content faster, but to tailor them to targeted subscribers, creating a more viable and predictable revenue model.
 
That's not to say that infrastructure investment will not be required - moving to what Alcatel-Lucent calls high leverage networks will enable network providers to scale effectively as they cultivate new relationships, add new subscribers, and introduce new applications and services. Alcatel-Lucent pegged the ACP market in 2008 at about $800 billion, with double-digit growth expected, so naturally, some infrastructure enhancements will be required (that much is, perhaps, self evident based on the growth of the global smartphone market and the increase in data-intensive applications resulting from the introduction of the iPhone and other similar devices in the past two years.
 
Thus, in order to offset infrastructure costs, network providers will have to collaborate more effectively with their ACP partners to ensure they have access to a wide range of sticky services and can deliver a differentiated, high-quality user experience.
 
For more on the evolving relationship between network providers and application and content providers, read the complete article, Application/Content Provider and Network Provider Cooperation Drives Innovation and Value for All.

Competition vs. Collaboration: Strategies for New Revenue Generation

Posted by: Erik Linask | November 16, 2009 11:34 PM | 0 Comments
The question of which approach - competition or collaboration - is best in a competitive business landscape is hardly new. The natural instinct is to lean towards competition. After all, collaborating with other industry players can expose your business. However, collaboration breeds innovation, especially in the communications space, where most technologies are based on accepted standards, so there is little risk to intellectual property - your competition is leveraging the same technology.
 
Gary Iosbaker, Principal Technologist in the Office of the CTO for Communications and Media Solutions at Hewlett-Packard, recently discussed this issue in his article in Alcatel-Lucent's online magazine Enriching Communications, noting that HP prides itself on its extensive industry partnerships. In fact, he claims that, because of the standards-based technologies driving the communications market, and the rapid rate of evolution today, it is imperative that businesses be willing to share their information and experiences for the benefit of the industry.
 
Because today's communications experience depends on a broad range of vendors - devices, clients, access, transport, support systems, and more - the only way to truly succeed and deliver a quality experience to the end user is to work through partnerships, "rather than wasting limited resources chasing the same goals," as Iosbaker says.
 
It's the old strength in numbers theory: "By pooling the rich complementary capabilities of a broad range of players, the collective expertise and experience benefits everyone," writes Iosbaker.
 
The idea is that working in tandem with other industry experts facilitates more rapid development of products that will be more widely available, more reliable, and more cost effective to develop. In addition, market acceptance is increased due to the collaborative nature of the product(s) - there is less hesitation resulting from the perception of single-vendor bias.
 
The same ideal of bringing more innovative revenue-generating products to market more quickly drives the Alcatel-Lucent initiated ng Connect program, which is designed to foster the very kind of collaboration between vendors Iosbaker promotes. In fact, according to Iosbaker, HP didn't hesitate to become an ng Connect member because, quite simply, it made good business sense.
 
"It's about truly transformational and innovative companies that are willing to collaborate and understand how they are going to use broadband technologies in a way that betters the user experience," said Derek Kuhn, Vice President of Emerging Technology and Media at Alcatel-Lucent, of ng Connect. 
 
Ultimately, with the growth of broadband communications and the pace of evolution of communications technology, it is impossible for any single vendor to keep pace alone - they simply lack the resources. Si, the logical alternative is to rely on mutually beneficial partnerships that help achieve existing goals, but are also likely to unveil new opportunities as well.

 
For more on how HP leverages its partnerships to drive its business success, read Iosbaker's article, along with several others in an entire issue of Enriching Communications dedicated to how collaboration is driving innovation in the communications market, enabling new, revenue-generating products to be introduced more efficiently and cost-effectively.

Leveraging Multi-industry Ecosystems to Speed Service Innovation

Posted by: Erik Linask | October 5, 2009 9:48 PM | 0 Comments
It's clear that, in order to achieve ongoing success, mobile operators must put in place a plan to evolve to all-IP networks in order to facilitate higher quality and reliability of service. That means either a combination of 3G and 4G technologies, or an all-out migration to 4G.
 

But, the network technologies they deploy are merely the beginning, and will serve only as a medium for delivering the services, content, and applications that will present the real opportunity for differentiation. Once operators have invested in and deployed their next generation networks, their key to success will lie in their ability to quickly and effectively introduce innovative new services to their subscribers - services that will be in high demand and for which users will be willing to pay a premium. In addition, the innovation must extend beyond the applications themselves, to an ability to integrate these new offerings across multiple networks, devices, and geographies.

 

Operators that invest in LTE technologies, for instance, will have spent billions, even tens of billions of dollars, by the time they have completed their full deployments. ABI Research predicts that Verizon Wireless, for example, will spend close to $30 billion on spectrum and infrastructure, and while LTE technology will present Verizon and other operators with significant reductions in operating costs, they will still need to find new revenue streams to support their business models to compete effectively.

 

As Nadine Manjaro, senior analyst, wireless infrastructure at ABI Research, writes in her article, Ecosystems Help Evolution to 4G Services in the latest issue of Alcatel-Lucent's online magazine, Enriching Communications, "Delivering new services quickly will require collaboration across an entire ecosystem. Operators are turning to vendor partners and members of the mobile value chain to assist in developing new services."

 

The idea of collaborating with other industry participants isn't a new one, and many operators have already successfully developed and launched services driven by such relationships, but there is potential - even a necessity - for more.

 

That's why Alcatel-Lucent, among others, which of course is a key player in the network infrastructure space, is also pushing the idea of developing ecosystems to help spur innovation, lower time to market, and increase the value proposition of new services and applications.

 

The idea is founded on the principle that networks can provide valuable resources that can be leveraged by an entire ecosystem to increase the value of new services and applications. Traditionally, however, most network operators have been hesitant to open their networks up to developers and content providers. However, in order to create deeper relationships, many are realizing that, properly controlled and secured, these resources can be an effective way to deliver more enticing services, since developers will have access to data that will help them more effectively personalize services and ensure their compatibility with networks and devices.

 

An Alcatel-Lucent white paper, Working with Third-Party Services: An Action Plan for Network Operators, identifies several network resources that can easily be leveraged to create compelling services that users will be willing to pay for. They include:

  • The ability to offer differential QoS;
  • Demographic and behavioral information on end users;
  • Information on subscriber devices, location and online status (presence);
  • Ability to authenticate, identify, charge and bill subscribers;
  • Exposure of call control and messaging platforms;
  • Ability to host and maintain services;
  • Ability to provide 1st line customer support.
 

By working with third parties to build wide-ranging, multi-industry ecosystems that include infrastructure vendors, device manufacturers, application developers, content providers, gaming and computing experts, universities, and others with relevant expertise, operators can discover best practices, new business models, and new revenue opportunities not possible on their own.

 

Alcatel-Lucent itself has launched the ng Connect program as a means of bringing together these very types of constituencies in a collaborative environment to develop new services that exploit their network assets to create compelling, sticky services and opportunities for subscriber retention and attraction.

 

"The ng Connect ecosystem has the power to create a nucleus to showcase what is actually possible when you connect all these devices in a real LTE environment that provides the bandwidth that is necessary to provide an enhanced user experience," said Volker Hirsch, EVP at ng Connect member Connect2Media.

Using Ecosystems to Drive New Revenue and Innovation

Posted by: Erik Linask | October 4, 2009 11:42 PM | 0 Comments
As service providers look to feed their subscribers' hunger for innovative services and applications, they have essentially two alternatives: they can work alone to develop them in what amounts to a proprietary environment or they can collaborate with other companies to develop more effective products and that can be leveraged to meet the needs of a wide audience.
 
In a next generation communications environment, it becomes almost impossible to achieve high levels of success with the former. The need to accommodate to accommodate different means of access and devices and to maintain viable financial models by making services adaptable to multiple user types means providers must facilitate interaction with other companies as they seek to develop and introduce new services.
 
It's this need for collaboration that drove Alcatel-Lucent to create the ng Connect program, a mechanism for partnering with other companies - not only in the communications space, but other industries as well - to create services that are flexible, interoperable with multiple technologies, and importantly, present a revenue generating opportunity.
 
According to Derek Kuhn, Vice President of Emerging Technology & Media at Alcatel-Lucent, ecosystems, like ng Connect, allow members to collectively define prospective user groups for services, and determine best practices for addressing the needs of those users.
 
In his article in the latest issue of Enriching Communications, Kuhn adds that in addition to providing an opportunity to define strategies for developing services, ecosystems create what he calls "living labs" to consider the capabilities of next generation networks to deliver these services and the new business models they enable.

 
"It's about truly transformational and innovative companies that are willing to collaborate and understand how they are going to use broadband technologies in a way that betters the user experience," noted Kuhn previously. "We can collaborate to benefit the operator community with time to market and time to revenue, and we can innovate and touch industries that traditionally telecom might not reach out to. That's what's drawn a lot of the partners to this program."
 
The ng Connect program is based on an understanding that the only limitation to innovation is the effectiveness of vendors and developers in delivering new products. By providing a venue where providers, developers, and even users can come together to share ideas and experiences, ng Connect helps increase the pace of innovation, benefitting the entire community, from developers to providers to users.
To read more about why ecosystems, like ng Connect, hold the key to service innovation in next generation communications environments, click here.

Using Multimedia Content Management Solutions to Drive New Revenue While Increasing QoE

Posted by: Erik Linask | October 4, 2009 10:46 PM | 0 Comments
In an age where applications and content are king, and the networks that deliver them play second fiddle, telecom provider, in order to effectively penetrate their target markets, must unsure they are able effectively manage that content. It's not enough to simply develop and introduce new services; they must be able to integrate these offerings across multiple platforms, networks, and devices to create a seamless, integrated, and personalized user experience.
 
The evolution of networks, content, applications, and devices, combined with user's understanding of the capabilities available to them and their new expectations that result from this enlightenment make it critical for providers to be able to leverage flexible service delivery and management infrastructures.
 
Alcatel-Lucent's 5920 Multimedia Content Manager (MCM) has been designed for this very purpose - to enable service providers to manage, market, sell, and deliver content and services to any device their subscribers choose to use. The MCM allows mobile, broadband, IPTV, and converged services providers to manage the delivery of their services - including applications, video, music, ringtones, news and updates, and other personalized content - based on unique subscriber preferences.
 
To facilitate the efficient delivery and management of content, the 5920 MCM includes the following features:
·         Service and Delivery Orchestrator - Gateway for coordinating access to and management of core functions, including marketing, rating, charging, digital rights management (DRM) and service delivery;
·         Content, Storefront Manager and Subscriber portals - Provides flexibility in managing multi-screen catalogs and storefronts and allow service providers to build custom Web portals;
·         Marketing and rating - Enables multi-screen subscriber segmentation and management functions and the creation of targeted campaign promotions based on subscriber activities, including the definition of multiple pricing options and discounts;
·         Delivery and DRM - Allows the integration of the latest delivery protocols for both download and push services and offers a complete DRM solution to secure premium content;
·         Mediator - Provides a service order activation-enabled distribution workflow that integrates the Alcatel-Lucent 5920 MCM with downstream systems.
 
By bringing these capabilities to service providers in a single platform, Alcatel-Lucent not only simplified the content distribution capabilities for its customers, but also ensures they are able to focus on growing revenues and increasing operational efficiencies. It also allows them to focus their energies on the kinds of content and application partnerships Alcatel-Lucent promotes through its ng Connect program, while ensuring high quality, reliable services.
 
If you read the latest edition of Alcatel-Lucent's online magazine, Enriching Communications, you saw a case study explaining how Israeli telcom Pelephone used the 5920 MCM to launch its new music service that includes more than 250,000 tracks and playlists - Israel's largest music catalog. Not only does the Alcatel-Lucent solution allow Pelephone to manage and deliver the content through a friendly interface, it allows it to synchronize multiple user devices, a real advantage in an age where many - if not most - users have a desire to access content on multiple fixed and mobile devices.
 
"For example, if you use a PC to download a "jogging music" playlist to your private content area, that playlist is automatically available on your mobile phone," according to Pelephone.  "You can listen while you jog -- without the need for local synchronization via wires or WiFi."
 
This is just one example, and providers like Pelephone are increasingly looking to introduce new, innovative, and more personalized services to grow their market presence and subscriber bases using Alcatel-Lucent technology.
 
To read more about how Alcatel-Lucent is helping the service provider community address growing market complexities on the Next Generation Communications community.
 
If you haven't read the Pelephone case study, check that out here.
 

Driving Innovation Through Multi-Industry Ecosystems

Posted by: Erik Linask | October 4, 2009 9:18 PM | 0 Comments
The second installment of Enriching Communications, Alcatel-Lucent's eZine highlighting many of the hottest topics in communications today, takes a look at how ecosystems and the business models they promote help businesses leverage a collaborative environment to enhance the opportunities for all members of the communities.
 
As editor-in-chief Ruth Killeen writes, "Why work alone when partnerships help mitigate risk in a highly competitive marketplace?"
 
Indeed, ecosystems provide an opportunity for businesses that would have had little cause to work together under traditional business models, to generate added value for the members of a growing number of ecosystems as well as their end users. Taking a deeper look at some of the trends and topics in the LTE market introduced in the previous issue, this iteration looks at how participation in ecosystems helps members create new value from their own products and solutions, while leveraging the expertise of other members.
 
While the ecosystem isn't necessarily a new concept, this is an ideal time to foster long-lasting relationships to help the community as a whole more quickly assess and respond to evolving trends and requirements. Essentially, these ecosystems are the foundation for business relationships between strategic, multidisciplinary companies from a variety of industries, providing an opportunity for them to collaboratively deliver new solutions.
 
Ecosystems increase the value of products and solutions from each partner by offering input and feedback from a variety of members who have distinctly unique perspectives on what users want, what they will buy, and how much they will use new services and products, adding a new measure of predictability into the value chain.
 
Real-world experiences often provide a powerful message regarding products and services. The same can be said for the successes driven by participating in collaborative ecosystems. Hewlett-Packard, for instance, continues to expand its partnerships because of the benefit it has seen from the openness and collaboration promoted by ecosystems. These partnerships, in fact, are a key part of its corporate culture.
 
With the rate of evolution in the communications market, it is more critical than ever for individual vendors to ensure the ability to move equally quickly. Few companies have the resources to successfully respond to changing customers requirements without risking financial stability, making pooling resources and experiences more than a reasonable option - it is becoming a necessity. This article illustrates the success Hewlett-Packard's has seen from membership in ecosystems like ng Connect.
 
Even as many wireless provides are still moving into the 3G world, wisdom dictates that their goal must be to evolve further, to 4G technology, to deliver services with greater quality and reliability. However, the secret is not in merely evolving their networks - they must have a keen focus on the applications and services they bring to their subscribers. They need compelling new services that can cross networks, devices, and geographies - and they must provide enough value so that subscribers will be willing to pay for them.
 
This article looks at how network operators can leverage ecosystems to quickly develop and deploy 4G services, including eliminating risk through interoperability testing in a standards-based environment. By working closely with their partners, operators will increase their ability to grow revenue and market share in an ultra-competitive mobile market.
 
Israeli telecom Pelephone indentified some time what is now common theory - content and applications will be the keys to successfully penetrating the mass market. As such, it knew it had to be able to design new and innovative services for flexible, scalable deployment and rapid launch.
 
By working closely with its ecosystem partners, it is now able to deploy new services in a fraction of the time it would otherwise take. It has also been able to expand and manage its content and application library through simple, intuitive, and appealing interfaces, resulting in what it calls a "stunning user experience," including location-based services, mobile Internet, and multimedia content.
 
A key part of Alcatel-Lucent's market strategy is its application enablement model, which combines next generation network technology with the ecosystem and partnership theory to create more effective business models and greater efficiency in bringing services to market.
 
Earlier this year, Alcatel-Lucent conducted a study to gain an understanding of how various members of the communications value chain might be able to better work together to combine network capabilities with the speed of the Web - a key part to its application enablement strategy.
 
This article provides answers to the questions it was looking to answer, and which will help network providers more effectively partner with content and application providers to create a highly collaborative environment that drives value for both sides and create a win/win/win situation for network providers, application and content developers, and end users.
 
 
In this issue, experts from Alcatel-Lucent, Hewlett-Packers, ABI Research, and Pelephone discuss the need for and benefits of technology ecosystems in a competitive landscape. The next issue will delve into to telecom operators can transform their businesses to create more effective, sustainable operational models.

Alcatel-Lucent's "Enriching Communications" - The State of the LTE Market

Posted by: Erik Linask | September 12, 2009 11:03 PM | 0 Comments
Alcatel-Lucent recently unveiled its electronic magazine (e-Zine), Enriching Communications, an online initiative to provide an in-depth look at many of the communications industry trends and innovations - including how Alcatel-Lucent is helping its customers achieve business success by leveraging its next generation communications products and services.
 
The first online-only edition of the publication focused on the migration of 2G and 3G wireless networks to 4G technologies, specifically LTE. The process of network transformation from legacy environments to more agile, flexible, and stable 4G technologies has been a key area of focus for Alcatel-Lucent, including a particular emphasis on consulting customers on how to best approach the Broadband Stimulus component of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).
 
Featured content in the inaugural e-Zine include:
 
6 Key Trends Driving the Evolution to LTE
The demand for mobile services in increasing, and will only continue to rise, which is driving the migration to new wireless technologies to support the growth in subscribers and mobile broadband usage. LTE can enable sustainable and profitable business models while supporting the increase in network usage. In fact, LTE subscriptions globally are predicted to grow at a rate of more than 400 percent (CAGR) over the next four years. This article highlights six trends that will drive the demand for mobile broadband.
 
As it seeks to enhance its ability to provide the best possible educational environment and prepare its students for the future, Georgia Tech's mission is to ensure its students, researchers, faculty, and staff have access to the latest advanced communications technology, representative of the real-world technologies they will matriculate from the University to use, including 4G/LTE wireless networks.  In this article, Georgia Tech's CTO and Director of GT-RNOC, explains how 4G/LTE will enable students and faculty to create a better future and why next generation communications technologies are critical in an academic environment.
 
Inconsistency in the delivery of services across best effort networks, without QoS guarantees are the reason service providers are bombarded with questions like, "Why is the speed and download rate of my public Internet so variable?" or  "Why doesn't TV over the Web look like HDTV?" or "Why do video calls over the Internet have inconsistent quality?" or "Why are multi-user, interactive online games sometimes ruined in an instant by network quality issues?" This article addresses the need for enhanced QoS for reliable, consistent delivery of today's bandwidth hungry services, and how guaranteed QoS turns into a winning proposition for network operators, ACPs, and end users.
 
The global LTE market is expected to grow faster than any previous mobile standard, with subscribers predicted o eclipse 136 million by 2014. To help mobile operators prepare for this growth in both developed and emerging markets, this article looks at end user expectations as LTE-based networks become available to them. What applications will they want? How will they use them? Which applications will the pay for, and how much will they be willing to pay? How much will they pay for network access? These are all questions that operators will need to understand before they can successfully migrate users to next generation networks.
 
LTE is representative of the realization by network operators that they need to create and open environment for application and service development and delivery and become much more than merely providers of connectivity. This video, featuring a number of communications industry experts, including Dick Lynch, Executive VP and CTO, Verizon Communications, and Vivek Badrinath, IT Networks and Product Support, Orange, focuses on end-to-end LTE as a means of "IP-izing" mobile networks, as the industry moves rapidly towards the commercialization the technology.
 
 
The next issue of Enriching Communications will take the ideas from this edition a step further, focusing on how operators can build and leverage ecosystems to increase their ability to provide quality services and content, and create new revenue opportunities.

Best Practices for Improving Time to Market of New Products and Services

Posted by: Erik Linask | September 11, 2009 10:04 PM | 0 Comments
For today's network operators, the key to creating new revenue streams lies in their ability to quickly and cost effectively bring new services to market. It's an accepted fact that future success depends on applications and content that is delivered to the end user, not in the network itself.
 
Naturally, the network infrastructure must be in place to make these services available, which is why Alcatel-Lucent is heavily pushing its application enablement strategy, including its high leverage network theory, which will enable faster, more reliable, and more flexible service delivery, while promoting increased collaboration between network providers and their third party partners - the application developers and content providers.
 
While investing in intelligent network infrastructures is necessary, as they provide the physical foundation for making new products and services available, ultimately, the ability to quickly deliver new services rests largely on operators' ability to build strong third-party relationships. More specifically, they will need to move past mere marketing and branding agreements to include deeper technology integration to increase the value for both parties. This will have the added benefit of shortening time to market of new services, as partners will have greater insight into the network resources to allow them to more effectively build applications that will require less testing and modification.
 
This change in behavior - to date, network providers have been reluctant to allow access to their resources, and their partners, therefore, have been less motivated to collaborate more closely with them - is key quickly introducing new services. The network capabilities - application enablers - that will drive the creation of new revenue producing services includes, an ability to provide differential QoS, user demographic and behavioral data, end user devices and presence information, billing and provisioning abilities, hosting of content and applications, call control and messaging platforms, and, not least, customer support.
 
These capabilities, made available to in-house developers or third-party partners, will allow for increased efficiency in the development of new services that can run on different platforms to support a wider user base. They will also dramatically increase the number of partners network operators have access, since they not only promote a trusted two-way relationship, but also provide valuable resources developers and content providers are looking for as they seek to engage targeted audiences that are most likely to want their services, increasing the relevance of the entire value chain by leveraging contextual information to deliver services to users where and when they want them, on whatever devices they want them on.
 
Of course, there is also the question of identifying the right applications and services, the capacity for which is also enhanced through this sort of closer collaboration and sharing of information - and revenue. While it is nearly impossible to predict which specific applications will have the greatest impact, a few common traits that are likely to deliver the most significant return include:
  • A focus on multimedia capabilities
  • Personalization and customization
  • Leveraging collaboration and social networking
  • Anywhere, anytime, any device availability with seamless switching between platforms
  • Automation of installation and maintenance
  • Integration with other applications and services
What this list really means is that the most successful services will be more flexible and more adaptable to different user environments than ever before. In other words, they will leverage the need to personalization and customization.
 
For more on how third-party relationships can be developed to improve time to market of new services, read Alcatel-Lucent's white paper, Working with Third Party Services - An Action Plan for Network Providers.

Evolve to a More Stable Business Model and Create New Revenue Opportunities

Posted by: Erik Linask | September 7, 2009 5:09 PM | 0 Comments
Today's Internet has evolved into a real resource - perhaps the greatest resource - for business and personal interaction with other individuals, communities, businesses, and information portals. It is typically the first place people look to for information, and the networks that provide access to that information and content are the primary vehicle for all communications today.
 
The applications that enable these various modes of interactivity, whether person-to-person communication, downloading content, online shopping, or merely gathering information are becoming more complex and more personalized to meet particular needs of each individual user. They are able to do that only by leveraging user data available through network providers.
 
However, the traditional relationship between network providers and content and application providers, where the network is merely a physical resource for delivering content and applications, has resulted in an unstable business model. The fact is that neither party has the resources to fully provide enhanced services to users, but neither has access to all the resources they need for developing a viable long-term business model.
 
Network providers are not being compensated for providing the bandwidth to deliver applications, and service and application providers are not being given access to full network capabilities that would increase the value of their services (i.e., location, presence, QoS, security). The challenge, as the demand for applications continues to grow - and features directly tied to these network capabilities with it - is for operators and providers to agree on a business model that benefits both and allows them to deliver optimized services to their users.
 
Naturally, any mutually beneficial strategy will be focused on delivering an improved user experience and a keen understanding of what services users want, how do they want them delivered, which ones will they pay for, and, perhaps most importantly for long-term success, which ones will they be willing to provide profile information for. Those operators and providers that can collaborate to determine these factors will be on the front lines for successful new product launches.
 
Alcatel-Lucent's application enablement ideal is built on enabling these kinds of business models and delivering these key services. On the network operator side, it focuses on the need to evolve to a high leverage, all-IP network, which can deliver these services and collect subscriber data - and then recycle that data for delivering even greater value to users. 
 
These new high leverage networks will allow operators and their provider and developer partners to collaborate in a much more meaningful fashion, where the best capabilities of both sides are highlighted to present a more stable business model with new revenue potential. A new, significantly larger market opportunity can be opened up, network providers can open their resources to their partner community in a controlled way, such that applications and services can be optimized and delivered to each unique user anywhere, anytime, on any device.
 
It presents a new opportunity for operators and providers, where each can showcase their strengths, and leverage each other's assets to enrich the user experience and drive new revenue streams.
 
For the content provider and application developer, it creates a targeted audience for services. For network providers, it means an offset to network investment through advertising and network access and resources.
 
By evolving to a high leverage network, network operators will quickly be able to build new business models with partners via a network that is:
 
  • Multi-service, to reduce cost and enable both fixed and mobile services that are transparent to the network
  • Available at anytime, anywhere, and on any device
  • Application- and service-aware to allow contextual, personalized delivery of content and services
  • Scalable and flexible in both directions to provide high QoE at all times without increased cost
  • Open to developers and for service providers to leverage

By embracing the application enablement ideal, and a high leverage network, operators will put themselves, and their partners, well on the path to a sustainable, mutually beneficial business model for the next generation communications environment. And ultimately, both will benefit from the ability to combine to deliver new, innovative, and rich set of applications to the user community.
 
Read more about application enablement in Alcatel-Lucent's white paper, Application Enablement, Delivering a trusted Web experience to increase revenue.

Enhance Network Relevance to Strengthen Customer Relationships

Posted by: Erik Linask | September 5, 2009 12:21 PM | 0 Comments
As the network continues to become an increasingly valuable tool - indeed a necessity - for both business and personal communications, entertainment, and information, network operators are faced with a serious challenge. Specifically, they must address the need to expand and enhance their network capabilities to deliver a quality user experience, but they must develop a strategy for doing so that will allow them to remain financially competitive.
 
In other words, while network evolution and investment are required - for instance, by evolving to all-IP high leverage networks that enable scalability and increased flexibility -- operators must find the right business models to balance that investment with new revenue streams to ultimately meeting users' demands for new applications and service quality and reliability.
 
The current environment is not conducive to meeting that goal. Network operators are hesitant to invent in network resources because they feel they are not being appropriately compensated for their resources. On the other hand, application and content providers are not given access to the resources and data they need to deliver the experience users demand. 
 
To overcome this hurdle and to create a network ecosystem that benefits all constituencies - from network providers to developers and content providers to end users - the network must be evolved into a more relevant resource, more than just a "dumb pipe."
 
Alcatel-Lucent's answer is its application enablement strategy for operators, which is designed to leverage both the network and the content and applications to help create a more stable, more easily monetized - and significantly enhanced - user experience. By making network resources available - in a controlled and managed environment - the idea is to help operators develop and build new relationships and business models increasing the ROI on their network investment.
 
The strategy is founded on the fundamental that network operators and content and application providers add value to the overall network and services environment, and are all necessary to deliver a viable end product. It also is based on an understanding that each must derive value from the relationships between them.
 
In addition to the network infrastructure, operators have significant resources that can be leveraged to deliver applications and content more efficiently and reliably and, importantly, to the users that need or want them. It is these resources that can be leveraged to extend the value of the network to developers and content providers, increasing the ability to generate recurring revenue. 
 
These resources include:
  • Integrated billing systems that allow multiple alternative billing options
  • Security to enable private transactions
  • Network-based storage to allow more efficient delivery of digital content
  • End-to-end bandwidth management for ensuring QoS and enhancing the user experience
  • Contextual information and other user data that can be leveraged to personalize services and applications
Alcatel-Lucent drives additional innovation to drive these new services through its Alcatel-Lucent Ventures division of Bell Labs, which focuses on creating innovative products and services, from concept to market availability, all designed to enhance the value of the network for both operators and their applications developer and content provider partners.
 
By taking measures to ensure content providers and application developers gain value from their relationships, network operators can increase their value as a vehicle for delivering services, ultimately cultivating stronger relationships between themselves and their partners, as well as with end users.
 
For more on Alcatel-Lucent's application enablement strategy, read its recent white paper.
 
 
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