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Rice focuses on a slightly different angle on the event. “I think it's very important for service providers to spend some time with their peers. A forum like this is less intrusive than a trade show. You aren't being bombarded by vendors all the time. Spending some time with representatives from peer companies from around the globe who are specifically in your area, and to be able to share your thoughts in an open forum is valuable. These folks can spend some time sharing ideas, expressing opinions, and finding out what's going on in the world. At the end of the day, I think the competitive pressures that a lot of these folks face is really at a corporate level. When it gets down to the folks doing the operations, they just care about doing their jobs, accomplishing their projects, and achieving their goals for the year. If you can pick up some traits and learn and benchmark from your peers, that's great. I think we'll see a spirit of openness at this event because of that.”
Venugopal takes it one step farther. “Also, for representatives of North American companies involved with a lot of these next-generation technologies on the OSS side, their European counterparts are much farther ahead. For some companies like Sprint and AT&T, they should be motivated to see their counterparts, many of whom are speaking at this event.”
As for vendors, “We’re putting them in front of all the decision-makers in the industry. We have all the major carriers, both here and internationally. So, for them, it’s a win-win situation. They are put in front of all the real end users. We attract a very high level audience to this.” Selling products is a definite plus for vendors, but IQPC notes that vendors can learn from each other, also. “It’s for them to meet the service providers but it’s also for them to meet some of the other vendors, as well,” Secor said. “A lot of them are speaking and this forum provides them with the opportunity to get in front of the group and showcase them with the technology, and, more importantly, bring their clients in side by side so they can really talk about ‘this is what
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"The NGOSS show is sort of a secret in the marketplace,” Rice says. “We want to promote it, and support it, and help get additional service providers there, because at the end of the day, they're the folks that are going to benefit from it the most". |
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I’ve done for my customers and how was I able to do it.’ “ Secor feels that the 2007 Next Gen OSS Integration Summit stands out because not only do they showcase products, they also showcase certain problems and how they were solved using those products.
Rice notes that the biggest advantage of the event, for vendors, is really education. “I think the appropriate approach for vendors is to be supportive of NGOSS as a forum, and to be quietly supportive with sponsorships and business meetings, and to arrange meetings with their customers. Most importantly, it's a time to listen.” Venugopal continues this line of thought, noting that “That's what we [CA] had in mind when we moved into a sponsorship. We looked at this as an opportunity to look at what our customers are doing and what their pain points are. Most of the speakers are from the SP community, and that's a rare thing.”
The summit is filled with three days worth of information, networking opportunities, and more. The event will conclude with a prize giveaway, though the nature of those prizes is being kept strictly confidential until conference time. Those interested in attending the conference should call Morsel Allison at 212 973 3308 for more information. “The NGOSS show is sort of a secret in the marketplace,” Rice says. “We want to promote it, and support it, and help get additional service providers there, because at the end of the day, they're the folks that are going to benefit from it the most.”
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