Recovery and Beyond

April 7, 2009 – 2:57 pm

Well we all made it back, and our demo gear returned just in time to be unboxed and put into the Mobile Experience Trailer to go on its way to Boston for the VOR.  After seeing what we did at CTIA, we are all really happy with the results.  Our booth generated a lot of energy, with forward looking technologies and demonstrations while continuing our focus on treating our visitors like they were at Our Place.

Its amazing what you can pick up from a visitor when you take the time to really understand their needs and you do not just start pushing what ever your area of responsibility is.   Tying cost efficiency that an operator needs to control opex, and the new revenues now demand to draw and keep customers makes the technology only a supporting role.  Our team is what ties the threads all together and makes it a real package when the customer sees a way forward. 

Having a great layout, strong system expert demonstrations and a fantastic team of cross business listeners we not only learned from our customers visits, we had fun doing it.  Hope to see you next year at CTIA 2010, where we plan to initiate some even more creative  ideas to listen and share with our customers.

By Keith Shank | Posted in Las Vegas | Comments (1)

Time to deliver!

April 5, 2009 – 9:49 pm

To all our customers, partners and the visitors who came to CTIA and openly discussed their ideas at the  Ericsson booth “Our Place” – we sincerely thank you.  To our Ericsson Business Builders – job well done!  The demos did stimulate the visitors and we engaged in many very stimulating discussions over this past week. 

The last 12-18 months have been marked by incredible improvements in devices.  The rapid progression of application stores, the deployment of 3G networks, and now LTE, are creating incredible multimedia and convergence opportunities.  The promise of  ”Any Service, Any Time, Anywhere” is here – and the user experience is getting better than ever.  - these key elements were in good display at CTIA, and at the Ericsson booth! 

Our customers’ ultimate challenge to us is clear : Help them find creative new source of revenues, improve the efficient of their networks and help them reduce operating costs!  We are ready to deliver, and look forward the opportunity to do so.  See you soon!

By ericboudriau | Posted in Las Vegas | Leave a Comment

Inspiring growth through listening

April 3, 2009 – 9:54 am

Looking across the floor before we open today it all seems calm.  But then again, it was calm yesterday and then the floor filled up and overflowed all day.  The team was tired, but felt like we had all put a lot into listening to our customers interest areas and seeing what we could do together.  Working with one customer was a perfect example of how we started off by focusing on the technology of our new MSR base station but as we listened we understood that his key area of interest was targeting building cost efficiency for his network.  By migrating to IP Ran Transport we could show how he could change his large network over to the targeted cost efficiency.   Then we listened to his concerns about being more energy efficient which led us to look over our tower tube solution which addresses not ony his need for reduced power and site space, but includes a much more interesting and acceptble view for city counsels. 

Its all about inviting our customer to our place, listening to what they need and finding a way to move to the future.

By Keith Shank | Posted in Las Vegas | Leave a Comment

Our connected life

April 3, 2009 – 9:25 am

Today, we enjoy a connected life like never before. Always on, always available, and now, from virtually any device. Ericsson showed our connected Home solution, further expanding user options on how a subscriber can access and consume digital media. Many more multimedia demos are also on display – join us in our booth for a tour!

The number of compelling applications is vastly demonstrated here in CTIA by a multitude of applications software companies, both large and small.

In a discussion with Myspace, they told me that the number of subscribers now accessing via a mobile device their portal account has grown by 400 percent in last year alone – truly amazing! The processing power, form and function of the new devices and advances in UI are making our connected life better every day. The opportunities are endless, and exciting.

By ericboudriau | Posted in Las Vegas | Leave a Comment

IMS Achieves New Revenue

April 2, 2009 – 4:47 pm

Today, I participated in an IMS panel with Alcatel-Lucent, Redknee, Comverse and Juniper. We discussed the technical and commercial evolution of IMS, with focus on applications ECO system, charging and policy control mechanisms, and efficient service delivery. IMS is happening, and its adoption will continue to increase rapidly as compelling and revenue generating applications are being introduced. We believe it is key as an industry to adopt well defined API and sound service delivery principles to reduce and isolate some of the network complexity, and that we continue to pursue a standardized approach to ensure true multi devices, multi networks availability.

By ericboudriau | Posted in Las Vegas | Comments (1)

Day 2 busier than the day before

April 2, 2009 – 1:05 pm

Wow the day started out a bit slow but really hit stride about 30′ into the morning.  The booth is packed and our business builders are 2 deep in groups waiting to talk at our place.   By making the business insight seminars within the booth, our delivery of key topics that range from the Individual TV Experience, Mobile Broadband Backhaul and Mobile Broadband are hitting the key notes with the customers.    It is clear that the operators are very interested in building new revenues now.  With our key demonstrations showing new applications that cover how to drive revenues from user generated content, advertising insertion and our Social Media Portal application has a lot of interest.

The operators and attendees do span a much larger area than just North America,with teams from as far away as Morocco and as close as Peru CTIA is changing to a truly more global aspect.  This makes it even more important to drive new ideas for creating business.  One key aspect is how IMS can really be used to drive new busienss.  To see some ideas on what we are doing live here on the floor, take a look at Ericsson.com to see our lead Two Wheeled Mobility video of one of our latest innovations.

By Keith Shank | Posted in Las Vegas | Comments (1)

Day one is over, almost…

April 1, 2009 – 7:34 pm

The Exhibit floor is now closed.  Great start – busy first day.  As expected, the interest around LTE was very high.  More than 50 demos and presentations have been assembled to assist the customer discussions – impressive!  Our business builders had a busy first day.  Customer challenges and their opportunities are being openly discussed, and the demos are very good.  Network convergence and transformation as key enablers for enabling new revenues and a better use of network assets is high on many agenda, and the proliferation of multimedia applications is truly exciting.  Come and visit us Thursday!

By ericboudriau | Posted in Las Vegas | Leave a Comment

Wild Wild West!

April 1, 2009 – 3:40 pm

Wow!  Our customer agenda – our place.  The booth is great! 

We are already half way through day 1 and the activities are going full speed ahead.  The last business insight seminar on IP transformation drew a good crowd – good job Thomas!  Walking through the exhibit floors, you can feel the energy.  New devices are being introduced by all major device manufacturer – the innovation in this sector is thrilling!

Tomorrow, I will be on an IMS panel along with Alcatel-Lucent, Redknee, Comverse,  and Juniper.  The panel will provide an overview of where IMS is, and will tackle the importance of revenue generation applications, service delivery, netgwork optimization and many other key aspects of any successful IMS service introduction – I will come back with more on this topic tomorrow.

By ericboudriau | Posted in Las Vegas | Leave a Comment

A wild and wooly start at Our Place

April 1, 2009 – 3:17 pm

The day started off with a lot of trepidation, last minute demo reviews and general hand wringing.  But as the doors opened and our customers poured in, an almost tantric calm descended on our team.  We were set and ready to play.  From the initial blast of the run though visitors to the visitors that tested our detailed knowledge it has been a really good morning.  Our key messages resonate with our visitors.  Creating new Revenues Now is of key interest by the operators from big to small, as they see our new applications and systems that can drive new business.  Our new technology capabilities with HSPA evoution and LTE are showing clear trends in insuring long term business solutions that will help operators ensure a sustainable future for their business.  Blending the technology to the growth of the operators business is a primary need in todays communications industry and we are able to show that.    We have had a great day so far with the booth, the technology and the business builders are in synch, and the real focus of having our customers in our place with their agenda is all part of our chi, so come and join us!

By Keith Shank | Posted in Las Vegas | Comments (1)

Ready for Launch

March 31, 2009 – 2:46 pm

Today we are getting all the last parts ready for the opening tomorrow.  We have gotten our share of last minute fun, from the main IP switch letting all the magic out in a puff of smoke, to a fire drill like afternoon of swapping monitors and computers for the best look.  In just a couple of hours we will do the kick-off meeting, and bring all the business builders up to speed on the latest messages from Angel and the rest of the EMT.   Our message visibility at the show is very strong, and the booth flow for key points is the best ever.  I know when we start tomorrow our technology and business builder will be in tune and ready to help us move forward to bring the best experience to the visiting customers as possible.  We are ready for launch and looking forward to the visitors to our place.

By Keith Shank | Posted in Las Vegas | Leave a Comment