Pipeline Publishing, Volume 5, Issue 1

	This Month's Issue:
	Cableco vs. Telco

OSS on the Riviera:
Management World 2008

By Tim Young

So when you think about the big events in the early summer season in the South of France, what do you think of? An event in which all the beautiful people of a particular industry jet in from all over the world to present their craft, rub elbows with others in the biz, and hope against hope that their appearance at the event will lead to a big sale of the project that is the product of years of effort and sacrifice?

The Cannes Film Festival? The Gran Prix? Nope. I'm talking, of course, about the TMForum's Management World in Nice. Maybe it isn't quite the media spectacle like the events that visit the area the weekend before, or the week after, but for the OSS/BSS crowd, it's definitely a must-attend.

This year's Management World (the official line, at this point, is “Please don't call it TMW!”) boasted a larger number of attendees (well over 3000, vs. some 2700 last year), and a more ornate collection of booths, exhibits, and off-site events.

The Gala:

For the second year, the TMForum used the backdrop of Management World to hold its Excellence Awards gala. The event was hosted, again, by British comedian Tony Hawks, whose unruly brand of humor proved off-putting to a few guests, but caused riotous laughter in most. The black tie-preferred event ensured that telecom's finest were dressed to impress, and the event was pleasant, overall.

Digital Fuel took home the award for Best New Management Product for its ServiceFlow solution. There were eight companies vying for the award (including Telcordia, the sponsor of the awards gala), so the award was a bit of a happy surprise for some. Other winners included Telstra (Best Practices, Service Provider), Orga Systems (Most Innovative Application of Customer Care for its Virtual Voucher solution with TIM/Brazil), and IBM (Best Practices, Supplier).

One rough spot in the evening, however, was the award for Most Innovative Integrated Marketing Campaign. Reliance and Nakina Systems were the listed finalists, and Reliance was announced as the winner. After the event, however, the Nakina team was spotted posing for pictures with the trophy, which was printed with Nakina's name. At the moment, both companies are listed as winners on the TMForum website, so I suppose the best answer to a sticky situation was a joint award.

That wasn't the only hiccup in the evening. The musical cues that welcomed the newly announced winners to the stage were

This year's Management World boasted a larger number of attendees and a more ornate collection of booths, exhibits, and off-site events.

distracting and occasionally wholly inappropriate. I believe it was as the esteemed Jenny Huang was making her way to the stage to accept her recognition as a Distinguished Fellow that she and the rest of the crowd were greeted with Amy Winehouse's timeless words: “They tried to make me go to rehab, I said no, no, no...” Musical cues aren't a tough thing. Pick some jazz (or an instrumental pop song, if you want to appear hip). There's no reason a distinguished person receiving a well-deserved award should have to contend with such a soundtrack.

These kinks aren't dealbreakers, but if I had purchased the very expensive ticket to the event (rather than getting in on a media pass), I might be a touch miffed at the mistakes. I truly hope TMForum works through these problems, because it is a great event, and with a little tweaking could be a fantastic one. Far more entertaining than your average awards program.

Other Events:

The Gala certainly wasn't the only evening event at Management World. Amdocs hosted a great soirée right on the beach, and Comptel (and its newly acquired Axiom) had a really nice reception on the rooftop of the Meridien Hotel, right on the Mediterranean. Oracle bussed party attendees to Cannes for a beachfront party, while Nakina opted for a smaller event at a medieval chateau overlooking the sea. The TMForum also hosted an event just out of town, but construction issues caused the buses containing partygoers to need an hour to make a 15 minute trip. Unfortunate.

This is just a small cross-section of the evening events in Nice, and examples of why

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