Work Stream 5 (Service Innovation Processes) Kick Off Discussion

service innovation processes tadsummitAt TADSummit on the 12 and 13 November in Istanbul, there will be six work streams over the two days of the event, as described in this Introduction to TADSummit weblog. The work streams will be divided into detailed case studies and facilitated work group discussions focused on solving / exploring key issues in building the telecom application development ecosystem.  This weblog focuses on work stream 5, service innovation processes.  You’ll see the approach is straight forward and practice based.

There will be work stream sign-up so people can choose what stream is right for them. Each work stream leader will choose the format that is right for their work stream. We’re having an online discussion for each of the work streams in the run up to TADSummit to expand on the issues, generate discussion, and ensure the time working together in Istanbul is intense and productive.

Work Stream 5. Is focused on addressing the question, “Processes for successful new service commercialization.”

Service innovation within a telco isn’t easy, but we must never give-up else resign the business to just being an ISP. This work stream is a frank review of how people are finding ways to force action (what has worked), the barriers to overcome, and even when service innovations get launched how to protect them from the “anti-bodies” within every organization.

We’ll structure for first half hour with a panel discussion of prominent innovators within Telcos to share their experiences, for example: Giles Corbett (a serial entrepreneur and intrapreneur) on the essence of how he made Libon work within Orange.  Patrice Crutel with extensive service development experience across the whole ecosystem. We reviewed one of his services, B.Duo, last year in this weblog.  He described TADSummit as “THE PLACE TO BE PRESENT” the capitalization is his 🙂  We have many more proven innovators lining up to join the panel.  Each will give the top three things that made their service innovation success possible.

We’ll then discuss and consolidate their experiences into a high level recipe for service innovation success. BUT, this is not a one-size-fits-all formula, my hope is we can identify some critical must-haves, and then start to understand where differences in approach buy alprazolam online legally must emerge given each attendee’s specific situation.

We’ll break into groups to work on specific questions around service innovation processes.  Which is the main point of this weblog to promote discussion on the questions we should address.  Here are some of my suggested questions, please comment, add, edit, group, etc. Thanks.

  • Should Service Innovation be kept separate from from the rest of the organization? And if so, how should it be structured?
  • Should there be line of business owners for new services?
  • When does corporate protection of new services get removed?  So cannibalization issues can be addressed as a company?
  • How do we break from the traditional ‘plan and build everything and launch ready to scale to millions with little feature flexibility’ and adopt a more incremental approach that collaborates with early adopter customers to find the right recipe for success?
  • Service innovation with partners is critical, its a core assumption of the telecom application developer ecosystem and Manifesto.  But how should it be managed?  In my experience its quite ad-hoc, yet when a process is put in place is ends up stifling partner innovation.  How can we get this right?
  • What are telecom application developer requirements for effective partnering?  We’ll have a number of telecom application developers involved in TADSummit to contribute on this one.
  • What are the best processes for working with Ecosystem partners?  Given the discussion in Work Stream 2 on platform and ecosystem models.
  • What are the typical budgets, people, team mix, approach to market that leads to service innovation success?  If it is always small and lean with a diverse team, then what specifically should we be looking for to maximize chances for success?
  • What are the best tools?
  • Innovation means ‘failure is part of the process’, what are the criteria to define failure rather than continuing to searching for the right recipe so the team can move onto the next service innovation project?

The above are only some suggestions.  In the lead-up to TADSummit we want as many people as possible to contribute to the questions and structure of this work stream so we address the right questions and move the ecosystem forward to greater service innovation success.

2 thoughts on “Work Stream 5 (Service Innovation Processes) Kick Off Discussion”

  1. This is the jewel of TADSummit tracks. Yes, innovation is happening and the number of success stories coming from startups is growing. But it’s still a drop in the bucket.

    This track is essential to help extract best practices for processes that can accelerate the innovation storm.

    When we (Telestax) talk to new customers, we still hear the same questions and uncertainty related to ROI, old school metered vs new app based charging, security risks with new solutions , internal business risks, etc. All valid questions that continue to stall projects and cause many months of delays due to lack of common best practices across the industry.

    For the most part the best practice now is to wait until all 99 people and affected vendors are involved in the conversation and sign off before a new project l advances.

    I think most of the sponsors at TADS have developed far more efficient ways to navigate the obstacles and will be happy to share for the greater good.

    I sincerely hope TADS will play a key role in assembling, blessing and enacting modern processes across the industry.

  2. Thanks Ivelin,

    People still point to my litany of excuses weblogs, which is still painfully accurate 4 years on, http://alanquayle.com/2010/09/the-litany-of-excuses-stifling/. And was accurate 14 years ago when I was pitch my start-up.

    I think Dialog Axiata have some great lessons for us and I’m really looking forward to Anthony Rodrigo Group Chief Information & Chief Digital Services Officer Dialog keynote as well as Venura Mendis, Head of Innovation, Dialog Axiata presentation.

    Giles Corbett’s success with Orange Libon I think has important lessons for internal innovation. His presentation and work stream involvement will be very interesting.

    Patrice Crutel from Bouygues as just launched B.Duo, that will be a great case study on all the barriers telcos face.

    I’m increasingly of the opinion that new services can only survive in a separate group that is protected from the anti-bodies, and only once they can stand on their 2 feet does the organization look at how to rationalize the new with the old. Getting everyone together and having a frank and open conversation is critical. This is the unique thing we’re doing at TADSummit in making these discussions a focus.

    What do you think of the questions? Are we missing any? How should we group them?

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