It was great fun to introduce VoiceSage at the Cloud Communications Summit during last week's ITEXPO. Despite the small room and limited advertising/publicity around the Cloud Communications Summit it was clearly a success judging by attendance at all the panels. The word is that Cloud Communications will have a much higher profile track at the next ITEXPO.
My purpose as a participant on two of the CEBP panels was twofold.
1. Introducing VoiceSage as a new player in the US market so that we are positioned to build off our great UK customer successes was met by positioning VoiceSage as a business metric/ROI moving, Enterprise class solution relative to other US firms.
2. Introducing CEBP as a concept and as a results driven, profitable practice area gained a boost too. My sense is that CEBP hasn't been covered at previous ITEXPOs in much detail.
There was an unscripted point in our discussion about vertical and industry specific CEBP solutions when I looked at our panel and then confidently asked the audience to name any vertical or industry. I said that our panel would be able to present a solid CEBP application across any industry vertical. There was no hesitation from the panel members.
This one moment convinced me that CEBP has certainly moved from a theoretical analyst coined concept to pragmatic client focused solutions over the last two plus years.
There is plenty of work left to do but I am excited about the progress made so far.
Patrick Murphy
VoiceSage
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
VoiceSage and CEBP gets noticed in Europe and the US
My VoiceSage colleagues forwarded me this link from an event that we attended in France. At this investor conference Voice Sage was voted one of the most fundable international companies.
I am looking forward to meeting up with industry colleagues at the ITEXPO event in Miami January 20-22,2010.
I get to tell the VoiceSage and CEBP story during two different panel discussions facilitated by Thomas Howe during the Cloud Communications Summit on Wednesday January 20th.
Sincerely
Patrick Murphy
VoiceSage
Patrick.Murphy at VoiceSage.com
I am looking forward to meeting up with industry colleagues at the ITEXPO event in Miami January 20-22,2010.
I get to tell the VoiceSage and CEBP story during two different panel discussions facilitated by Thomas Howe during the Cloud Communications Summit on Wednesday January 20th.
Sincerely
Patrick Murphy
VoiceSage
Patrick.Murphy at VoiceSage.com
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
TELCO 2.0 and VoiceSage
I attended the Telco 2.0 conference in Orlando last week. Congratulations to STL Partners and the sponsors for a successful event. The quality of the content and participants was very high. I would encourage a search for other blogging about the event.
Here is my too quick recap with my prioritization,questions, and my agenda notes.
1. Leveraging Telco Customer Data as a potential gold mine is a widely agreed upon strategy. Tactically, no Telco has the ability to do it without tons of effort. It is too hard technically, physically, and organizationally. Can others aggregate similar client data, cdr, learnings in a fashion that generate real, ongoing business intelligence? Can an overlay of Telco business intelligence or other sources of data be on top?
Atigeo and Sense Networks are working to add contextual insight to these efforts.
2. Changing industry language and message focus caught my attention.
a. Telcos are starting to talk about a new metric of measurement. Instead of ARPUs ( Average Revenue Per User) they describe ATPU ( Average Transaction Per User) or AMPU ( Average Margin Per User). STL Partners soon to be launched white paper with Tom Howe will highlight these new metrics relative to CEBP... we will be looking for that soon.
b. Within the conference there was an ongoing challenge to balance forward thinking strategic presentations with what is real. Of the 11 themes, CEBP clearly came across as the most real especially when using new ATPU or AMPU metrics. My bias is showing.
c. Moving the needle for Telcos requires new business initiatives that generate in excess of 100 million annual revenue within 5 years or less. During my conversations with Sprint strategist Brad Grau, he laughed and said that every business plan that came across his desk had a 5 year target of $105 million. Margin rather than revenue is the real discussion point.
Can STL PARTNERS send every executive in the Telco 2.0 ecosystem a copy of the Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen? This is a classic case study waiting to be written.
d. Vendors and Telcos alike love the big picture idea of 50 billion connected devices around the world by 2020. Independently, I heard calculations that there are 5 billion connected devices now. (2020 estimates ranged from 20 billion to 60 billion.) Verizon speaks of moving from 80-90% market adoption to 500% market adoption in their regions. The thought experiment is fun..what 5-10 devices will be networked in my life?
DAY ONE AGENDA
1. Strategy and Finance 2.0
STL explained the Two- sided business model. STL defined TELCOS' potential new upstream customers along these 7 verticals.
Developers, Retailers, Government, Media, Advertisers, Utilities, Financial Services
Did they steal the VoiceSage customer list!! I almost jumped up and shouted Bingo, matched them all! ( I would argue about developers being a unique vertical). Very cool for VoiceSage.
2. Media 2.0
The Bit Torrent founder showed up and talked about ways to prioritize traffic. Brave Man, Smart Man. It costs Telcos money to support online media. No one actually believes Telcos will make much money in this sector unless they buy content companies.....see CableCos.
3. Consumer Services 2.0= App stores for consumers
Few thought the Telcos will make money in this sector other than at the infrastructure level. It could provide customer stickiness. It sells devices that enable the broader ecosystem. Again, this conversation was focused on consumer apps. However, the discussion began to move the conversation beyond consumer apps to enterprise apps. Scott Adler of Amdocs did a nice presentation. That seems like a winning space for Telcos.
4. Customer Data 2.0: Telco goldmine?
Most everyone agrees this is a goldmine. However, Telco's can't mine it on their own. Lots of start ups being funded around this topic. Privacy is an issue.
STL will be hosting a Privacy 2.0 conference at MIT in Boston in February. This is an important topic for lots of very big companies in the Web world too.
5. Digital Advertising 2.0:
An advertising panel that talked about viewers and impressions etc..
STL did a case study on an sms search service that tried to show there was real money in this space.
6. Mobile Money 2.0:
Lots of good analyst work on this topic. I was impressed with Lopez research. Plenty of startups working in this space. Vendors making money in Kenya (Safariicom) and Japan (DocoMo NTT) after lots of investment from major brands were the focus of the STL presentation.
DAY TWO
7. Internet Access 2.0: Mobile Broadband
We all are using a lot of mobile broadband. New devices and pricing models needed. Telcos can't keep up with the demand and getting commoditized. Dean Bubley presentation
8. Voice and Messaging 2.0= Ask Thomas Howe for his CEBP presentation. Irv Shapiro's Ifbyphone presentation.VoiceSage was highlighted well by Tom and Irv. CEBP is a clear path to ATPU and AMPU. According to Tom, VoiceSage and Ifbyphone are the leading CEBP companies in the world.
9. M2M opportunities in Health= Machine to Machine communications
Lots of money and time being spent on device to device communications ( some people to people too) by Orange, Intel, and other Vendors. Big opportunity, Big Challenges. Money is down the road. I really liked the work done by Niels Helkov from Orange in this sector.
10. Cloud Computing= Joe Weinman from ATT came across as the smartest guy in the room. Really good presentation. I talked with him afterwards. Nice guy too. Read his many blog posts highlighted by GigaOm
11. APIs and Open 2.0:
Tom Howe did a great skit with Sanjay Jhawar describing a conversation between a Telco and an API Developer. Half the room was semi- insulted. Half the room was laughing. Sanjay's firm Ideas and Plans looks sharp. I know this API topic all too well.
Bottomline, the Telco 2.0 event in Orlando was the best conference I've attended in years.
Patrick Murphy
VoiceSage, North America
Here is my too quick recap with my prioritization,questions, and my agenda notes.
1. Leveraging Telco Customer Data as a potential gold mine is a widely agreed upon strategy. Tactically, no Telco has the ability to do it without tons of effort. It is too hard technically, physically, and organizationally. Can others aggregate similar client data, cdr, learnings in a fashion that generate real, ongoing business intelligence? Can an overlay of Telco business intelligence or other sources of data be on top?
Atigeo and Sense Networks are working to add contextual insight to these efforts.
2. Changing industry language and message focus caught my attention.
a. Telcos are starting to talk about a new metric of measurement. Instead of ARPUs ( Average Revenue Per User) they describe ATPU ( Average Transaction Per User) or AMPU ( Average Margin Per User). STL Partners soon to be launched white paper with Tom Howe will highlight these new metrics relative to CEBP... we will be looking for that soon.
b. Within the conference there was an ongoing challenge to balance forward thinking strategic presentations with what is real. Of the 11 themes, CEBP clearly came across as the most real especially when using new ATPU or AMPU metrics. My bias is showing.
c. Moving the needle for Telcos requires new business initiatives that generate in excess of 100 million annual revenue within 5 years or less. During my conversations with Sprint strategist Brad Grau, he laughed and said that every business plan that came across his desk had a 5 year target of $105 million. Margin rather than revenue is the real discussion point.
Can STL PARTNERS send every executive in the Telco 2.0 ecosystem a copy of the Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen? This is a classic case study waiting to be written.
d. Vendors and Telcos alike love the big picture idea of 50 billion connected devices around the world by 2020. Independently, I heard calculations that there are 5 billion connected devices now. (2020 estimates ranged from 20 billion to 60 billion.) Verizon speaks of moving from 80-90% market adoption to 500% market adoption in their regions. The thought experiment is fun..what 5-10 devices will be networked in my life?
DAY ONE AGENDA
1. Strategy and Finance 2.0
STL explained the Two- sided business model. STL defined TELCOS' potential new upstream customers along these 7 verticals.
Developers, Retailers, Government, Media, Advertisers, Utilities, Financial Services
Did they steal the VoiceSage customer list!! I almost jumped up and shouted Bingo, matched them all! ( I would argue about developers being a unique vertical). Very cool for VoiceSage.
2. Media 2.0
The Bit Torrent founder showed up and talked about ways to prioritize traffic. Brave Man, Smart Man. It costs Telcos money to support online media. No one actually believes Telcos will make much money in this sector unless they buy content companies.....see CableCos.
3. Consumer Services 2.0= App stores for consumers
Few thought the Telcos will make money in this sector other than at the infrastructure level. It could provide customer stickiness. It sells devices that enable the broader ecosystem. Again, this conversation was focused on consumer apps. However, the discussion began to move the conversation beyond consumer apps to enterprise apps. Scott Adler of Amdocs did a nice presentation. That seems like a winning space for Telcos.
4. Customer Data 2.0: Telco goldmine?
Most everyone agrees this is a goldmine. However, Telco's can't mine it on their own. Lots of start ups being funded around this topic. Privacy is an issue.
STL will be hosting a Privacy 2.0 conference at MIT in Boston in February. This is an important topic for lots of very big companies in the Web world too.
5. Digital Advertising 2.0:
An advertising panel that talked about viewers and impressions etc..
STL did a case study on an sms search service that tried to show there was real money in this space.
6. Mobile Money 2.0:
Lots of good analyst work on this topic. I was impressed with Lopez research. Plenty of startups working in this space. Vendors making money in Kenya (Safariicom) and Japan (DocoMo NTT) after lots of investment from major brands were the focus of the STL presentation.
DAY TWO
7. Internet Access 2.0: Mobile Broadband
We all are using a lot of mobile broadband. New devices and pricing models needed. Telcos can't keep up with the demand and getting commoditized. Dean Bubley presentation
8. Voice and Messaging 2.0= Ask Thomas Howe for his CEBP presentation. Irv Shapiro's Ifbyphone presentation.VoiceSage was highlighted well by Tom and Irv. CEBP is a clear path to ATPU and AMPU. According to Tom, VoiceSage and Ifbyphone are the leading CEBP companies in the world.
9. M2M opportunities in Health= Machine to Machine communications
Lots of money and time being spent on device to device communications ( some people to people too) by Orange, Intel, and other Vendors. Big opportunity, Big Challenges. Money is down the road. I really liked the work done by Niels Helkov from Orange in this sector.
10. Cloud Computing= Joe Weinman from ATT came across as the smartest guy in the room. Really good presentation. I talked with him afterwards. Nice guy too. Read his many blog posts highlighted by GigaOm
11. APIs and Open 2.0:
Tom Howe did a great skit with Sanjay Jhawar describing a conversation between a Telco and an API Developer. Half the room was semi- insulted. Half the room was laughing. Sanjay's firm Ideas and Plans looks sharp. I know this API topic all too well.
Bottomline, the Telco 2.0 event in Orlando was the best conference I've attended in years.
Patrick Murphy
VoiceSage, North America
Monday, November 16, 2009
Voicesage and the future of CEBP
Having joined Dublin, Ireland based Voicesage this month, I feel fortunate to be involved with a company that clearly is the future of CEBP.
Although under the radar in the US, Voicesage has been around since approximately 2002 working on the tough stuff. The SaaS application has gone through multiple product development releases. Thus, it is ahead of anyone else in our space already. There is no legacy application or infrastructure weighing it down. The UK client base already includes many of the strongest brands. These clients are committed to leveraging the Voicesage solution throughout their business since they have experienced business metric improvement over and over again
The business model is working quite well with revenue driving skyward over the last year despite the economic downturn. Profitability for a small angel/vc funded company is a good thing in these times. Voicesage has committed investors without the curse of having taken "too" much funding too soon relative to other businesses in the industry.
There is a nice balance of strategy and tactics blended throughout the company. The team drives customer value while behaving like a real business.
Finally, the advisory team (TBA) is made up of some of the most respected names in the business.
There is lots of work still to do. One of our first tasks is to publish use cases that show how the Voicesage application builds business processes and moves business metrics better than anything else I've seen in the CEBP industry.
Our North American launch will be done thoughtfully and in a timely manner. I do guarantee big things are coming.
Patrick Murphy
Voicesage, North America
Although under the radar in the US, Voicesage has been around since approximately 2002 working on the tough stuff. The SaaS application has gone through multiple product development releases. Thus, it is ahead of anyone else in our space already. There is no legacy application or infrastructure weighing it down. The UK client base already includes many of the strongest brands. These clients are committed to leveraging the Voicesage solution throughout their business since they have experienced business metric improvement over and over again
The business model is working quite well with revenue driving skyward over the last year despite the economic downturn. Profitability for a small angel/vc funded company is a good thing in these times. Voicesage has committed investors without the curse of having taken "too" much funding too soon relative to other businesses in the industry.
There is a nice balance of strategy and tactics blended throughout the company. The team drives customer value while behaving like a real business.
Finally, the advisory team (TBA) is made up of some of the most respected names in the business.
There is lots of work still to do. One of our first tasks is to publish use cases that show how the Voicesage application builds business processes and moves business metrics better than anything else I've seen in the CEBP industry.
Our North American launch will be done thoughtfully and in a timely manner. I do guarantee big things are coming.
Patrick Murphy
Voicesage, North America
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
The Telco API problem= 2 sided markets are winner take all
I noticed several unique posts this week that seemed to come together in my mind. First, Voxeo made yet another strategic partnership announcement with Motorola and their VXML broswer. Secondly, Google and Verizon announced a strategic partnership. Third, Amazon payments api went mobile. Finally, my friend, Tom Howe started posting again with some comments about what he calls the Telco API problem.
Here is my answer to the "Telco API" problem posed by Tom.
In my CEBP status report,I compared ( with Alan Quayle) the success of the CEBP application vendors to the api/platform vendors. Tom reiterates the report's findings in that it is clear the application vendors as a group have been much more successful. VoiceSage is just my latest example of a CEBP application company driving real revenue, fantastic product innovation, and seeing crazy growth.
It is also clear to me that the Telco API/Platform opportunity is a classic example of a 2 sided network or 2 sided market. According to Harvard Business School research, one of the defining characteristics of two-sided markets is they tend to quickly evolve into winner take all competitive environments.
Now, the world of Telco is huge. So, the winner take all competitive environment may ultimately mean there are 2 or 3 dominant market leaders globally in the Telco API/Platform space. Here is the problem. One of those spots has been nailed down already by Voxeo.
Another winner's position may have just been nailed down by Google Voice if they can leverage the Verizon/Google partnership just announced. While this may fail due to egos, when it gets down to execution, the Google Android Verizon announcement gets my early bet for the second platform/api winner. Google is a platform. Verizon is a platform. Combining the two of them makes THE global platform. Google Voice is just one of many CEBP style solutions to come. Click to connect advertising and real time lead generation is being tested now.
In terms of who might be the final api/platform winner I am keeping my eyes open for the first player who wakes up and proactively integrates with mobile payment players especially Amazon. Will Ribbit/BT get there first? Adobe Flash ( a Ribbit tool set) is certainly pushing towards mobile.
So, this is the beginning of a debate. I say the Telco API/Platform winners have basically been decided. My guess is Thomas Howe believes otherwise. We both agree there is plenty of opportunity left in the CEBP application space. I've kept some of my powder dry to respond to Tom's arguments.
Here is my answer to the "Telco API" problem posed by Tom.
In my CEBP status report,I compared ( with Alan Quayle) the success of the CEBP application vendors to the api/platform vendors. Tom reiterates the report's findings in that it is clear the application vendors as a group have been much more successful. VoiceSage is just my latest example of a CEBP application company driving real revenue, fantastic product innovation, and seeing crazy growth.
It is also clear to me that the Telco API/Platform opportunity is a classic example of a 2 sided network or 2 sided market. According to Harvard Business School research, one of the defining characteristics of two-sided markets is they tend to quickly evolve into winner take all competitive environments.
Now, the world of Telco is huge. So, the winner take all competitive environment may ultimately mean there are 2 or 3 dominant market leaders globally in the Telco API/Platform space. Here is the problem. One of those spots has been nailed down already by Voxeo.
Another winner's position may have just been nailed down by Google Voice if they can leverage the Verizon/Google partnership just announced. While this may fail due to egos, when it gets down to execution, the Google Android Verizon announcement gets my early bet for the second platform/api winner. Google is a platform. Verizon is a platform. Combining the two of them makes THE global platform. Google Voice is just one of many CEBP style solutions to come. Click to connect advertising and real time lead generation is being tested now.
In terms of who might be the final api/platform winner I am keeping my eyes open for the first player who wakes up and proactively integrates with mobile payment players especially Amazon. Will Ribbit/BT get there first? Adobe Flash ( a Ribbit tool set) is certainly pushing towards mobile.
So, this is the beginning of a debate. I say the Telco API/Platform winners have basically been decided. My guess is Thomas Howe believes otherwise. We both agree there is plenty of opportunity left in the CEBP application space. I've kept some of my powder dry to respond to Tom's arguments.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
CEBP status report update= 4500 downloads and counting
With a little help from colleagues across our CEBP industry my own minor concerns related to the CEBP Status report have all been addressed.
1. Distribution of the report
Alan Quayle's blog has some serious reach across the industry. He sent me an update that the report has been downloaded over 4500 times already. I was expecting less than 5% of that number...after a year.
2. Market Valuation
I was very hesitant to calculate a market value for CEBP. Eventually,I settled on an estimate from a very conservative perspective. I simply aggregated how much of the core communication functionality of CEBP is being used right now. However, the other side of the CEBP market valuation is, of course, the business process component. In a recent conversation with our CEBP colleague at Voice Sage, Paul Sweeney mentioned that he independently had taken that approach. His conservative estimate was based on business process solutions that CEBP is successfully addressing right now. By definition, these are the early adopters. The good news is that Paul's numbers and my numbers match. Contact VoiceSage and encourage Paul to blog about his findings.
3.Go-To Market tactics and adoption.
I just found out that a recent Gartner report states that CEBP applications and functionality are expected to be commonly found within the platforms/ecosystems of the Big 4 vendors(IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, SAP). This clearly says that TELCO API functionality will start to get embedded in many, many premise based offerings let along SaaS solutions. More importantly, the leading consulting firms and integrators will begin to create CEBP practice areas as an extension of their current software practice areas.
4. Telco attention to CEBP
At the recent VON show, Thomas Howe blogged about a talk from Verizon that mentioned the importance of CEBP. My guess is that Verizon is starting to see the value add opportunities from the perspective of their largest clients. Selling CEBP's ROI, especially in this economy, is one way to get out of the commodity business.
It is certainly nice to receive validation from multiple sources. Maybe now I will admit to myself that I really do know what I'm talking about across the CEBP space.
Patrick Murphy
1. Distribution of the report
Alan Quayle's blog has some serious reach across the industry. He sent me an update that the report has been downloaded over 4500 times already. I was expecting less than 5% of that number...after a year.
2. Market Valuation
I was very hesitant to calculate a market value for CEBP. Eventually,I settled on an estimate from a very conservative perspective. I simply aggregated how much of the core communication functionality of CEBP is being used right now. However, the other side of the CEBP market valuation is, of course, the business process component. In a recent conversation with our CEBP colleague at Voice Sage, Paul Sweeney mentioned that he independently had taken that approach. His conservative estimate was based on business process solutions that CEBP is successfully addressing right now. By definition, these are the early adopters. The good news is that Paul's numbers and my numbers match. Contact VoiceSage and encourage Paul to blog about his findings.
3.Go-To Market tactics and adoption.
I just found out that a recent Gartner report states that CEBP applications and functionality are expected to be commonly found within the platforms/ecosystems of the Big 4 vendors(IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, SAP). This clearly says that TELCO API functionality will start to get embedded in many, many premise based offerings let along SaaS solutions. More importantly, the leading consulting firms and integrators will begin to create CEBP practice areas as an extension of their current software practice areas.
4. Telco attention to CEBP
At the recent VON show, Thomas Howe blogged about a talk from Verizon that mentioned the importance of CEBP. My guess is that Verizon is starting to see the value add opportunities from the perspective of their largest clients. Selling CEBP's ROI, especially in this economy, is one way to get out of the commodity business.
It is certainly nice to receive validation from multiple sources. Maybe now I will admit to myself that I really do know what I'm talking about across the CEBP space.
Patrick Murphy
Monday, September 21, 2009
CEBP status report is now available
Our CEBP status report is now available. It is a free report. Thank you to Alan Quayle for contributing content and his skills as an editor. If interested in the this report and any other future versions simply email one of us with your contact information. Join the CEBP LinkedIn group to contribute insights or follow the discussions. You can request the report by emailing me via gmail at pmcape.
Sincerely
Patrick Murphy
Sincerely
Patrick Murphy
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