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By Tim Young and Phillip J. Brit
In early December, OSS/BSS vendors converged on Orlando for the TM Forum’s Management World-Americas 2009. The event, which has seen varied success levels over the years, has continued to attempt to solidify its market niche as an OSS/BSS event for not only North America, but Latin America, as well. In addition, the event is, at the very least, an interesting precursor for what we might be able to expect from the Forum’s flagship event in Nice. So, after having attended the event once again, here are a few things we learned from Management World Americas, 2009.
If You Build It?
For the most part, people are willing to attend events that they care about. And, people told us in Orlando that they care about the work (especially in the realm of standards) of the TM Forum. An event like this one provided an opportunity for industry types to gather and give/receive updates on the growing demand for varied services at home and on the go, and how OSS and BSS companies can help CSPs to maintain and grow ARPU and customer base in the face of a still-struggling economy, increased threat from over-the-top providers, and a widespread desire among subscribers to have unfettered access to unlimited bandwidth for a low fixed cost.
How many people attended the event, exactly? Total registrations for the event came in at 1160. We understand from the TM Forum that conference registrations were slightly up on last year's Orlando event, and that training attendance was down. Still, in this economic climate and in the midst of an
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Total registrations for the event came in at 1160 |
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expo floor. You could also meet service providers by paying the premium for the event’s match-making executive appointment service. While a handful of exhibiting companies told us they were very pleased with the general booth traffic, the majority of vendors exhibiting on the show floor told us they were unhappy with the turnout.
The Exhibitor’s Dilemma
However, vendor disappointment notwithstanding, we saw an overall reluctance from some vendors to back out of future exhibition on the show floor. Granted, any sane vendor is spending its marketing money with some caution these days, so the decision to exhibit or not to exhibit can be a heavy one. Some vendors told us that, in spite of lackluster booth traffic, if they were not to exhibit others in the industry might think they've gone out of business.
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industry trend away from conference participation, it seems like we have all conditioned ourselves to be happy with less, and therefore, most would agree that the Orlando event did not fare too badly. How many times in the last year have your heard or said something like this: "Flat is the new growth"? The danger here, of course, is that if you lower your expectations far enough, sooner or later they will be met. Is that what we've done? Have we resigned ourselves to accept the notions that no one can grow their revenue in this economy, and no one can deliver a homerun of a trade show, so we'll just be satisfied or even happy to come out neutral? Perhaps that thinking is necessary right now. We heard it in abundance in Orlando.
CSP Attendance
As for service providers in attendance at the event, it seemed that if you wanted to see or hear a service provider, your best bet was to attend a keynote or one of the sessions, as we heard that not many of the operators in attendance spent significant time on the
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If that’s the case, did Oracle close up shop and not tell anyone? The BSS/OSS giant was noticeably absent from the expo floor and told Pipeline they were not planning to have a whole lot going on at the event. However, the firm did sponsor the Revenue Management & Billing summit, illustrating that when seeking maximum bang for their buck, vendors may opt to participate in ways other than the expo.
CSP/Vendor Presentations
And, once again, the event taught us that when service providers talk, people (service providers and vendors alike) are inclined to listen. From what we saw, the sessions were quite well attended, with most rooms at about 80% of capacity. In the sessions, service providers came out to present alongside their vendors.
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