OPINION: Syndesis

Surviving the Inertia

Change is difficult but clearly necessary for the communications industry. Communications services are rapidly shifting away from circuits, bandwidth and connectivity towards personalized content and applications. The old walls that once separated telecommunications, television, software, the Internet, media and entertainment are crumbling. These once distinct industries are being driven together by demand for instant access to digital information and ubiquitous communications. Headlines tout new and exciting IP-based technology and services - some of which are already here, many more still to come. But one crucial area that garners far less attention is the "people equation" and how convergence will impact two groups with differing perspectives: Service Provider employees and Service Provider customers.

For Service Provider employees, the blending of TDM networks carrying traditional voice and data services with next-generation converged IP networks is much more than a technological issue. These worlds have traditionally been completely separate within Service Providers. They have maintained different networks, different management methodologies, and different organizational structures, with traditional network technicians often being unionized while IP/data technicians typically were not. The converged network carrying all-digital content will necessitate an eventual merging of roles and organizations within the Service Provider. Data networks will invariably drive this transition, but Service Providers will still need to retain voice expertise in order to properly understand demand loads and patterns, emergency services interfaces, QoS, security and other considerations in a carrier-grade network and organization. Ultimately, retraining will become a huge preoccupation for Service Providers transitioning to the software-intensive world of IP convergence.

From the customer perspective, things have changed considerably over the last 10 to 15 years. The move to converged IP networks and Ethernet as an underlying technology has significantly empowered both enterprise and residential customers. In the traditional communications world, enterprise customers bought complex communications pipes about which they had limited understanding, and were to a large extent, unable to migrate to alternative providers without significant disruption. Decision makers (either non-technology business people or technologists who were not business oriented) were impaired by a lack of complete information from Service Providers and burdened by contractual constraints and potentially severe penalties. Still, these decision makers were responsible for ensuring continuity of service. With today's move toward converged IP networks and Ethernet infrastructures, the tide has turned. Enterprise customers have been deploying IP for the last 20 years and, as such, have an inherent understanding of the technology. In the new communications world, enlightened enterprise customers know exactly what they want, in some cases better than the Service Providers themselves.

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