Smart pipe strategy puts new services in value chain

 

 

The idea of a highly integrated, interconnected world where the barriers to entry are very low is not a new concept, but it's still pretty revolutionary when you think about it. You can come in and set up your business with services you purchase or outsource to other partners, put your own brand on it, and away you go.

 

And yes, this has been done before with the whole MVNO idea. But the reason that MVNOs largely failed was that there simply wasn't enough margin between what companies were paying for network capabilities and how much they charged their customers for them.

 

But in a cloud computing services world, the idea of a virtual value chain actually allows for a bigger margin through economies of scale, which is absolutely critical. Only then will you be able to find someone who can provide you with particular new services of lower price and higher quality than you could achieve yourself -- not because they are smarter, but because they run a much larger operation or they specialize in a particular area.

 

This whole concept could revolutionize the way we do business. It will allow smaller entrants into the market and allow traditional telecom service providers to broaden their reach into areas they couldn't get into on their own. As I've said before, in today's global economy, your partner's success directly affects your own good fortune.

 

TM Forum's Management World 2010 in Nice, France, in May offered a one-stop shop for information and resources to give providers and other players in the value chain a leg-up on new services in general and cloud computing services in particular. Its Enabling Profitable Cloud Services summit covered service provider and enterprise opportunities and case studies from BT, Telecom Italia and others, and it looked at standards and technical issues surrounding the cloud. The Growth Through New Content & Innovative Services summit addressed mobile advertising, location-based services and social media services, IP and Telco 2.0 business models, the changing value chain, and content over broadband.