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Verizon Speaks Veritas at TM Forum

When a top B/OSS executive of a large carrier gives a keynote address, we don't expect to learn very much. After all, this is a major PR and PB (public bragging) opportunity for Big Telco to tell us how it's leading the world into 22nd century telecom.

For most of us, a Big Telco keynote means it's time to sip your coffee and check your BlackBerry.

That's why I found the keynote given by Verizon's CIO, Fari Ebrahimi, at the recent TM Forum's Management World Americas conference, to be a refreshing change. You can hear it here.

His keynote offered great industry perspective and practical strategies on how telecoms can solve operational problems. Sure, he did mention LTE deployments and FiOS, but the hype was kept to a minimum.

If Ebrahimi was playing to his audience, he could have easily spent his full 30 minutes talking about the buzzword of the moment: cloud computing. But he didn't. In fact, Verizon fully intends to get BSS/OSS benefit from internal, private clouds, but it's not about to chase the smoke being put out by the Google and Amazon PR machines.

Focus on Less Heralded Technologies

Instead, Ebrahimi gave his audience a reality check on the power of less heralded technologies like:

  1. IVR systems good enough to fool folks into thinking there's a human on the other end;
  2. Analytics to streamline call center processes;
  3. Consolidated CSR desktops that keep the conversation flowing; and,
  4. Web self-care that's become Verizon's biggest "call center."

The key takeaway for telecoms? While you're hunting the latest wireless and broadband technology, don't forget how important customer service and operational excellence really are. And that's a message near and dear to all of us in the B/OSS community.

Ebrahimi's speech was actually the first of three good sessions given by Verizon at the conference. Kathy Romano followed up with a fine panel contribution on revenue assurance for content delivery. Hear an extended interview with Kathy here. Then Verizon's Kandy White gave a detailed talk explaining how Verizon improved flow-through in its order-to-bill process.

Conclusion

If you wanted the straight, non-sugar-coated scoop at the conference, Verizon supplied the veritas. Time for other Big Telcos to follow the leader.