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
Thursday, October 1, 2009
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
Friday, September 18, 2009
CEBP use case for Government
I noticed this post from Voxeo. Awesome stuff.
This is a great write-up in the blog of the New York State Senate Office of the CIO, “Dialing in to the NYSenate OpenLeg API“, that outlines the great work that independent developer Mark Headd has done.
As the article notes, Mark has used the IMified platform to let people find out the status of legislation before the NY State Senate using:
▪ Instant Messaging Client (Jabber): opensenate@bot.im
▪ Twitter Client: Send a tweet formatted as a @reply to @opensenate
▪ Short Message Service (SMS): Send a text message to (315) 308-1943
▪ Regular Telephone: Call (646) 736-2439 (see note below)
Through whichever channel people want to use, they can now query the NY State Senate legislation database and find out the status of various bills. As the NY State Senate blog post author, Nathan Freitas, stated:
These services fit very well with the Office of the CIO’s vision for a fully mobile-accessible legislative body, where everyone from elected officials to their consituents can fluidly connect with eachother around issues that matter to them no matter where they are. Access of information via mobile phones also signficantly leverages the playing field when it comes to cost… a $99 iPhone is a pretty fantastic computing device.
Mark went into more details on his own blog in a post, “Leveraging the Government 2.0 Platform“, specifically noting that the exposure of an open API by the NY State Senate was the exciting part to him:
When governments make their data available in public formats, and expose APIs for querying such data, they are throwing the door open to outside developers to build useful things. That’s significant, and the NY Senate should get some major props for being among the first (if not the first) legislative body in the country to provide an API for their legislative information.
When governments make data available through an API, they are telling developers: “Use any platform or programming language you want to access our data.” The basic requirements for invoking an API like the NY Senate’s (or the District of Columbia’s 311 API) is the ability to communicate via HTTP and to parse XML, or JSON. Since pretty much every modern programming language and development platform can do these things, it creates opportunities for developers of all stripes.
But if APIs are platform and language agnostic, they are also modality agnostic – if the data exposed through an API is compact enough, there are lots of different ways to present this data to an end user.
This is a great write-up in the blog of the New York State Senate Office of the CIO, “Dialing in to the NYSenate OpenLeg API“, that outlines the great work that independent developer Mark Headd has done.
As the article notes, Mark has used the IMified platform to let people find out the status of legislation before the NY State Senate using:
▪ Instant Messaging Client (Jabber): opensenate@bot.im
▪ Twitter Client: Send a tweet formatted as a @reply to @opensenate
▪ Short Message Service (SMS): Send a text message to (315) 308-1943
▪ Regular Telephone: Call (646) 736-2439 (see note below)
Through whichever channel people want to use, they can now query the NY State Senate legislation database and find out the status of various bills. As the NY State Senate blog post author, Nathan Freitas, stated:
These services fit very well with the Office of the CIO’s vision for a fully mobile-accessible legislative body, where everyone from elected officials to their consituents can fluidly connect with eachother around issues that matter to them no matter where they are. Access of information via mobile phones also signficantly leverages the playing field when it comes to cost… a $99 iPhone is a pretty fantastic computing device.
Mark went into more details on his own blog in a post, “Leveraging the Government 2.0 Platform“, specifically noting that the exposure of an open API by the NY State Senate was the exciting part to him:
When governments make their data available in public formats, and expose APIs for querying such data, they are throwing the door open to outside developers to build useful things. That’s significant, and the NY Senate should get some major props for being among the first (if not the first) legislative body in the country to provide an API for their legislative information.
When governments make data available through an API, they are telling developers: “Use any platform or programming language you want to access our data.” The basic requirements for invoking an API like the NY Senate’s (or the District of Columbia’s 311 API) is the ability to communicate via HTTP and to parse XML, or JSON. Since pretty much every modern programming language and development platform can do these things, it creates opportunities for developers of all stripes.
But if APIs are platform and language agnostic, they are also modality agnostic – if the data exposed through an API is compact enough, there are lots of different ways to present this data to an end user.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Change is a good thing when you learn something.
With this post about Thomas Howe resigning from Jaduka by Phil Wolfe of the Skype Journal, the many changes at Jaduka and NetworkIP are coming out.
From my perspective, change is a good thing. I'm not in any way predicting the demise of Jaduka or NetworkIP. As you can tell from the Jaduka website, we made several great Bus.Dev. announcements this summer. They are real. Before leaving Jaduka I collaborated with my good colleague Jack Rynes on a next steps plan. With a tight focus,a little luck, and good execution the plan will certainly bear some fruit. I want Jack Rynes and the rest of the guys left at Jaduka to succeed.
I've had three similar conversations this past week that might fall under the category of what Andy Wood ( Head of Consultancy Practice at UK based Affinity), refers to as Context Delivery or Event Driven Architecture.
What caught my attention is that CEBP tools sets and solutions are really starting to focus on the business process creation and logic sets as the path to building value added relationships with clients. From a business development perspective this really fires up my imagination.
Three plus years ago the biggest objection/question to overcome arguably was something related to SaaS versus premise based deployment. For many reasons that obstacle has been overcome.
I'm sure the client statement that sounds something like " what is your per minute or per message rate? Or can I get it cheaper?" is clearly at the top of the most annoying questions/objections in the CEBP space now.
My bet is this commoditization pressure goes away as soon as real innovation within the business process and logic tools of CEBP solutions hit their stride. These innovations become the tools that allow businesses to trial, implement, and iterate.
It is fantastic to see the CEBP space move rapidly beyond clunky, useful, but dumb tool sets towards applications and platforms that drive real change and learning for our clients.
I am not certain if "hanging out my own sign" under the CEBP.biz domain is a short term or long term move. I truly love working with smart teams of technologists and entrepreneurs both domestic and international. So, if there is any need for Go-To Market,Business Development, Sales strategy and tactical help in this CEBP /Telco 2.0 space lets schedule a conversation.
As the saying goes timing is everything.
Patrick Murphy
Principal Consultant for CEBP.biz
From my perspective, change is a good thing. I'm not in any way predicting the demise of Jaduka or NetworkIP. As you can tell from the Jaduka website, we made several great Bus.Dev. announcements this summer. They are real. Before leaving Jaduka I collaborated with my good colleague Jack Rynes on a next steps plan. With a tight focus,a little luck, and good execution the plan will certainly bear some fruit. I want Jack Rynes and the rest of the guys left at Jaduka to succeed.
I've had three similar conversations this past week that might fall under the category of what Andy Wood ( Head of Consultancy Practice at UK based Affinity), refers to as Context Delivery or Event Driven Architecture.
What caught my attention is that CEBP tools sets and solutions are really starting to focus on the business process creation and logic sets as the path to building value added relationships with clients. From a business development perspective this really fires up my imagination.
Three plus years ago the biggest objection/question to overcome arguably was something related to SaaS versus premise based deployment. For many reasons that obstacle has been overcome.
I'm sure the client statement that sounds something like " what is your per minute or per message rate? Or can I get it cheaper?" is clearly at the top of the most annoying questions/objections in the CEBP space now.
My bet is this commoditization pressure goes away as soon as real innovation within the business process and logic tools of CEBP solutions hit their stride. These innovations become the tools that allow businesses to trial, implement, and iterate.
It is fantastic to see the CEBP space move rapidly beyond clunky, useful, but dumb tool sets towards applications and platforms that drive real change and learning for our clients.
I am not certain if "hanging out my own sign" under the CEBP.biz domain is a short term or long term move. I truly love working with smart teams of technologists and entrepreneurs both domestic and international. So, if there is any need for Go-To Market,Business Development, Sales strategy and tactical help in this CEBP /Telco 2.0 space lets schedule a conversation.
As the saying goes timing is everything.
Patrick Murphy
Principal Consultant for CEBP.biz
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Voxeo Labs and Adhearsion are spreading their wings
I had a terrific conversation with Jay Phillips and Jason Goecke about Adhearsion and their new gig with Voxeo Labs. Here is a press release describing the Voxeo/Adhearsion announcement this summer.
Having been introduced to the wonderful world of Open Source tools,projects, and communities during my time with a regional ISP and web development shop I have always been amazed by the creativity and brilliance found within many of these communities. As a Bus. Dev/Sales type I would scroll through SourceForge and look at projects to figure out how they might be valued by various types of customers. (Yes, that's about as geeky as a non- technical Bus. Dev. guy gets!)
So, I love the direction the VoxeoLabs team is driving. They want to create iterations on the Adhearsion/Tropo frameworks so that other communities of developers can take advantage of Voxeo services. Voxeo has done a fantastic job building a vxml developer community. Why not excite or encourage the Ruby community or other developer communities into leveraging the Voxeo network too?
It makes a lot of logical sense and Voxeo Labs will absolutely be able to leverage the existing Voxeo and Asterisk community to gain even more traction. They will absolutely see some real success!
However, there is a caveat. Others have tried and failed to build highly scaleable business models based upon open source efforts. This needs to be looked at clearly and honestly. It doesn't mean that LAMP,for example, isn't the most widely adopted web server platform. I think? There are real limitations to building a business off these types of projects or by simply opening up apis. Orange suggests their API developer community exceeds 50,000 members. Is the business model a success? Unfortunately, No.
In my mind, communications services continue to be valued by end users so FREE isn't an absolute requirement. But, profitability is severely constrained if you are limited to charging per port, per minute, per channel.
One of the points I have made frequently is that we will be seeing a land grab mentality very soon. The land grab is NOT simply for developers but ultimately for the enduser applications purchased by businesses or consumers. Eventually, communication services will be embedded and adding value to almost every application and business process extending itself beyond the company firewall or household PC.
The closer one gets to the end user is where the maximum value can be identified and monetized. When done well, CEBP solutions help us better communicate with and understand customers. Then, profitability is assured.
Patrick Murphy
CEBP.biz
Having been introduced to the wonderful world of Open Source tools,projects, and communities during my time with a regional ISP and web development shop I have always been amazed by the creativity and brilliance found within many of these communities. As a Bus. Dev/Sales type I would scroll through SourceForge and look at projects to figure out how they might be valued by various types of customers. (Yes, that's about as geeky as a non- technical Bus. Dev. guy gets!)
So, I love the direction the VoxeoLabs team is driving. They want to create iterations on the Adhearsion/Tropo frameworks so that other communities of developers can take advantage of Voxeo services. Voxeo has done a fantastic job building a vxml developer community. Why not excite or encourage the Ruby community or other developer communities into leveraging the Voxeo network too?
It makes a lot of logical sense and Voxeo Labs will absolutely be able to leverage the existing Voxeo and Asterisk community to gain even more traction. They will absolutely see some real success!
However, there is a caveat. Others have tried and failed to build highly scaleable business models based upon open source efforts. This needs to be looked at clearly and honestly. It doesn't mean that LAMP,for example, isn't the most widely adopted web server platform. I think? There are real limitations to building a business off these types of projects or by simply opening up apis. Orange suggests their API developer community exceeds 50,000 members. Is the business model a success? Unfortunately, No.
In my mind, communications services continue to be valued by end users so FREE isn't an absolute requirement. But, profitability is severely constrained if you are limited to charging per port, per minute, per channel.
One of the points I have made frequently is that we will be seeing a land grab mentality very soon. The land grab is NOT simply for developers but ultimately for the enduser applications purchased by businesses or consumers. Eventually, communication services will be embedded and adding value to almost every application and business process extending itself beyond the company firewall or household PC.
The closer one gets to the end user is where the maximum value can be identified and monetized. When done well, CEBP solutions help us better communicate with and understand customers. Then, profitability is assured.
Patrick Murphy
CEBP.biz
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
CEBP research and lessons learned using Linkedin.
I have been compiling content and writing a document on CEBP from a business development perspective off and on over the summer. The short term goal is to use it to educate our new partners. Obviously I hope to learn something too.
As far as I can tell since Gartner launched the term CEBP a few years ago there hasn't been a formal update on the topic by any independent analyst groups. Please let me know if I am wrong. Obviously, the failure of the premise based solutions by the big telco vendors shows the space may not be a ripe one for the analyst business model. However, we clearly know there are plenty of hosted services providing successful solutions to an array of clients globally. My report will sample both api or platform providers as well as application vendors. I am not making "magic quadrant style" technical comparisons. We are focused on lessons learned so far and effective go-to market strategies.
For those of you on Linkedin, I have a CEBP group that is open with a fascinating mix of people from around the world. Please request an invite. The fact that this Linkedin group is made up of people and firms with a truly global perspective has really caught my attention. It simply formed on its own with little or no attention from me. I promise to pay more attention.
I do try to prevent myself from limiting my perspective to a US centric approach and especially a Telco centric approach. So, I would like to make an offer to blog readers and Linkedin members of our CEBP group. If you are willing to answer a couple of open ended questions about CEBP I will include your attributed comments (with your permission) and share the complete report with you.
As you might guess if I make a public commitment to getting this CEBP report done I might actually finish it!
Patrick Murphy
Jaduka, VP Business Development
As far as I can tell since Gartner launched the term CEBP a few years ago there hasn't been a formal update on the topic by any independent analyst groups. Please let me know if I am wrong. Obviously, the failure of the premise based solutions by the big telco vendors shows the space may not be a ripe one for the analyst business model. However, we clearly know there are plenty of hosted services providing successful solutions to an array of clients globally. My report will sample both api or platform providers as well as application vendors. I am not making "magic quadrant style" technical comparisons. We are focused on lessons learned so far and effective go-to market strategies.
For those of you on Linkedin, I have a CEBP group that is open with a fascinating mix of people from around the world. Please request an invite. The fact that this Linkedin group is made up of people and firms with a truly global perspective has really caught my attention. It simply formed on its own with little or no attention from me. I promise to pay more attention.
I do try to prevent myself from limiting my perspective to a US centric approach and especially a Telco centric approach. So, I would like to make an offer to blog readers and Linkedin members of our CEBP group. If you are willing to answer a couple of open ended questions about CEBP I will include your attributed comments (with your permission) and share the complete report with you.
As you might guess if I make a public commitment to getting this CEBP report done I might actually finish it!
Patrick Murphy
Jaduka, VP Business Development
Friday, August 14, 2009
CEBP and Two-sided markets
One of the truisms in the technology industry is that waves of technical innovations are followed by waves of business model evolution. The wave of Telco APIs, platforms, and communication applications clearly brought innovation to the industry. As I've stated previously, STL partners' theme of Two-sided business models represents the business model evolution.
An assumption I make is that Communications Enabled Business Processes is one if not THE most important tactic in helping Global Telcos to move toward Two-sided Business Models. Simply CEBP becomes a method for smart Telcos to not only maintain but extend their voice ( and sms) products rather than lose them to commoditization pressures. There are other important tactics available to Telcos including transactional processing but given that voice is the original cash cow it needs to be a priority.
The research on two-sided networks or markets shows this model can be very tricky to implement. To purchase background articles, go to Harvard Business Review
There are many complexities to putting the idea into practice but an HBS article by Eisenmann, Parker, and Van Alstyne identify three of the most important decisions.
1 .Get Pricing Right
a. subsidize quality and price sensitive users
b. secure marquee users or anchor tenants
2. Cope with Winner-Take All Competition
a. Will the market eventually be decided by one standard or platform?
b. Does this suggest a share or fight attitude with competitors?
3. Avoid Envelopment
Many platforms have overlapping user groups. Be aware of competition from outside your typical industry. Look for opportunities to extend.
Given the evolution of Jaduka and our parent company NetworkIP we are in an awfully strong position to enable two-sided networks. I can identify 2 possibly 3 other firms with strong positions too.
One of the arguments I have with STL's work is they do not adequately discuss the technical, regulatory, and cultural challenges a global telco will have to overcome in order to implement a successful two- sided business model. The academic research puts into context both the challenges and opportunities. In my opinion, the M&A or Strategic Partnership approach to implementing the two-sided network strategy will certainly gain traction.
There will be winners but not many.
An assumption I make is that Communications Enabled Business Processes is one if not THE most important tactic in helping Global Telcos to move toward Two-sided Business Models. Simply CEBP becomes a method for smart Telcos to not only maintain but extend their voice ( and sms) products rather than lose them to commoditization pressures. There are other important tactics available to Telcos including transactional processing but given that voice is the original cash cow it needs to be a priority.
The research on two-sided networks or markets shows this model can be very tricky to implement. To purchase background articles, go to Harvard Business Review
There are many complexities to putting the idea into practice but an HBS article by Eisenmann, Parker, and Van Alstyne identify three of the most important decisions.
1 .Get Pricing Right
a. subsidize quality and price sensitive users
b. secure marquee users or anchor tenants
2. Cope with Winner-Take All Competition
a. Will the market eventually be decided by one standard or platform?
b. Does this suggest a share or fight attitude with competitors?
3. Avoid Envelopment
Many platforms have overlapping user groups. Be aware of competition from outside your typical industry. Look for opportunities to extend.
Given the evolution of Jaduka and our parent company NetworkIP we are in an awfully strong position to enable two-sided networks. I can identify 2 possibly 3 other firms with strong positions too.
One of the arguments I have with STL's work is they do not adequately discuss the technical, regulatory, and cultural challenges a global telco will have to overcome in order to implement a successful two- sided business model. The academic research puts into context both the challenges and opportunities. In my opinion, the M&A or Strategic Partnership approach to implementing the two-sided network strategy will certainly gain traction.
There will be winners but not many.
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