Defining, Measuring and Ensuring the Customer Experience

The IPTV Experience - A Service Provider’s Perspective 10:45 – 11:30 a.m.
IPTV may be the latest and greatest thing for telcos, but what happens when you actually want to venture down that path? In this session, you’ll learn what obstacles and issues must be overcome, key business decisions that must be made and where the technology is headed next. These are real-world examples from pioneers in deploying IPTV about what happens when a telco decides to enter the entertainment market. 

Moderator: Tim McElligott, Editor in Chief, Billing & OSS Magazine
Speakers: Derrick Duczek, Assistant Vice President, Marketing and Sales, SaskTel International
Brian Eltom, Director, Take to Market Group, SaskTel
Paul Bertino, Director of Marketing and Product Management, HickoryTech

Delivering the Value of CEM 11:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Customer Experience Management has become the latest fashion accessory to many corporate websites. However, CEM is not just talk, there are a number of companies that have been busy walking the walk.  This session will discuss recent activity and new cross silo approaches to delivering experience based insight and stakeholder value. It also will discuss the challenges that remain in providing even a seamless customer web experience due to business strategies, technology and processes not being aligned. And it will examine the importance and means of measuring the customer experience.

Moderator: Larry Goldman, Head, Analysys Mason’s Global Telecoms Software Research Program
Panelists: Kelly Owens St. Julian, Vice President, Customer Management, Boost Mobile
Raj Rao, Solutions Partner, EMC Consulting
Cathal McGloin, Vice President of Sales, Americas, Arantech
Scott Sobers, Director, Global Service Provider Solutions, IBM

The Five Key Drivers of the Customer Experience 2 – 2:45 p.m.
Too many CSPs have only a fragmented view of their customers’ usage patterns and preferences and, as a result, are basing their tactics and strategies on incomplete information which keeps them from deriving the best returns on their investment. Mobile operators in particular have a unique insight into individual users. Applying user insights can help maximize the customer experience as well as monetize it. This session will discuss how deeper insight into customer behavior and a commitment to investing in several areas of the business, including networks, devices and business processes can help all service providers achieve this goal.

Speaker: Brad Cornett, Head of Head of Service Management and Charging, North America, Nokia Siemens Networks

Want more on improving the customer experience? Click here to read Anita Karvé’s The Single View or Bust.

Coalescing Around the Home Network 3 – 3:45 p.m.
Great opportunity and great challenges lie in the realm of the home network. Various industry bodies have been working feverishly to define standards for working in this environment, but in January the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) stepped up to centralize these efforts and provide a single body responsible for comprehensively addressing home networking standards. With the formation of the ATIS Home Networking (HNET) Forum, network operators can focus their approach to the interoperability, interconnection, and implementation of IP-based home networking systems and services. Gale Lightfoot from Cisco and Convenor of the HNET Forum, will discuss the timeliness and need for this forum and its strategy for making the forum work for you.
Speaker: Gale Lightfoot, Senior Staff Program Manager, Cisco and Convenor of ATIS' newly formed HNET Forum

Wednesday Sessions

Subscriber Data Management as a Candle in the Dark 9 – 9:45 a.m.
One of the greatest competitive tools a service provider has in good times and bad is information about its subscribers. They know it, too, as spending in this area has not decreased. This panel will discuss why SDM is so important for relating to customers, how to bring the data from disparate systems and networks together and how it paves the way for next-generation architectures including home subscriber and location directories.

Moderator: Dan Geiger, Analyst, Infonetics
Speakers: Jim Hayden, Executive Director, Business Intelligence, TEOCO
Charlotte Yarkoni, CEO, Xeround
Rick Halton, Head of Solutions Management, Nokia Siemens Networks

Transforming Your Business Through Cloud Computing 10 – 10:45 a.m.
Talk about hot topics. Cloud computing is a concept not only generating buzz, but finding some large and influential proponents. Oracle’s Larry Ellison may not be one of them, but this session focuses on ways cloud computing could benefit your business today and where it may take your business in the future. Panelists will discuss the promise as well as the reality and challenges of employing cloud computing and separate it from the hype.

Moderator: Brian O’Rourke, Director, Cable Practice, Acumen Solutions
Panelists: Pat McQueen, Vice President, Sales Engineering, Salesforce.com
Jack Weixel, Google Head of Service Provider Markets – Enterprise, Google
Daniel Sieff, Senior Manager, Sprint

Want more on Cloud Computing? Click here to read Jim Barthold’s, B/OSS Panel Has Its Head in the Clouds.