A few weeks ago I have attended Management World conference in Nice. This was a very facinating event as it is the place where you have the opportunity to meet industry leaders and be privileged to witness the on going innovation in telecommunication. This year's conference showed that that telecommunication industry is facing significant change. The first deployments of VoIP services by cable operators and telecoms a few years ago demonstrated potential of IP services. On the other side an increased competition and price erosion of offered services forced communication service providers (CSPs) to rethink their business models. As one of a panelists stated "Power moved to consumers" . Customer experience is a key driver of this change. TRANSFORMATION was the theme of this year's conference. I was very impressed with keynote speeches from Telstra and Telecom New Zealand.
" differentiation is everything in the market place, putting customer experience in center of everything. Services must be simple, integrated and intuitive".
Paul Reynolds ,CEO Telecom New Zealand, shared his experience with the transformation he started just a few months ago. As he stated a fundamental change in their processes and infrastructure. Multibillion dollar investments in new services, infrastructure and system transformation towards building one platform for multiple services. All this with with customer experience, customer focus in mind:. "customer pull not push"
Paul Reynolds mentioned key role of Enterprise Architecture in assuring that investments are spent in most effective way avoiding duplication of systems.
In context of services transformation he emphasized that this was directed by Enterprise Architecture.
Describing the creation of five business units with customer experience focus using shared technology and services he referred to enterprise architecture delivering the efficiency and innovation Telecom New Zealand is looking for.
This is the first time I have heard CEO mentioning Enterprise Architecture in supporting company strategy and business goals. I encourage all Enterprise Architects to watch this presentation as Paul Reynolds is setting a new trend: a role of Enterprise Architecture organization in enterprises is changing. "Enterprise Architecture as Strategy" as very well addressed in Jeanne Ross book is becoming a real thing. CEOs will become Chief Enterprise Architects (CEAs) future sponsors.
