Why the Telecom Industry Needs Open Ecosystems

If the past four months have proven anything, it’s that communications services are as more essential than ever, as businesses, schools, families, and others had to re-imagine how they interact.  The success many businesses have had in transitioning to remote working is a testament to the advancements in technology in enabling access to solutions from anywhere.

One of the advantages is the traditional open ecosystems that have allowed telecom operators to interoperate have made it easy to deliver services.  Today, the cloud market has disrupted the communications space and has forced telecom providers to shift their strategies and compete against a host of new players.  It’s also created an environment where integration and standardization is more important than ever to ensure services and capabilities can be delivered anywhere and to any device.

At the same time, with a surge in innovative startups and new technologies, it’s nearly impossible for providers to do everything.  This has driven a surge in partnerships and ecosystems to increase not only access to technology, but customers and revenue streams as well.  Accenture (News - Alert) places the value of ecosystems across business markets at $100 trillion over the next decade, with telecom being better positioned than other industries to take advantage.

For both providers, it’s necessary to make sure emerging trends aren’t cast aside and interop and partnerships continue to evolve to deliver holistic service portfolios across the board.  Otherwise, the closed solutions that emerge will inevitably move the entire industry backwards.  We’ve already seen some walled gardens raised that are making it harder to navigate the communications landscape.

I’m moderating a webinar on July 21, featuring Voxbone’s (News - Alert) Tony Gooch, who has spent the better part of his career managing integration efforts in the communications space.  During the session, Dialing Back Telecoms: How to Drive Our Industry Back Towards an Open Ecosystem,” Tony will share some of his experiences as they relate to the telecom space today, with a specific focus on these questions:

• What are some closed practices that could impact your overall comms strategy?
• Why is  working to SIP standards key for resellers, carriers & direct enterprises?
• Why are integrations increasingly important when transitioning across different platforms?
• What can interop provide and how can you to achieve it to transform your comms infrastructure?
• What should you expect from your telecom provider(s)?
• What does an open ecosystem mean to you and your organization?

Whether you’re a business telecom or IT manager, a reseller, or a provider yourself, Tony’s session will apply to you as you look to prepare your business to embrace an open ecosystem and allow companies to make decisions on how to put an end-to-end solution together.