By
Chris Ballard
As the new digital media commerce and service applications chains emerge, there is an explosion of isolated solutions. There are lots of new devices in the value chain and many more are coming. The devices are of many different types and employ a variety of methods to connect to each other and to applications to deliver the services needed by their users. There are also multiple protocols that have evolved to manage the devices. Enterprise customers, service providers, consumers, network infrastructure providers, retailers and resellers, and device manufacturers all have a stake in simplifying the management of large numbers of existing and newly arriving devices. Key innovations from device players (such as the Apple iPhone store, Google's Android, Nokia's Sybian outsourcing, and the war for the home gateway market by gaming companies) place welcome but difficult demands on the business.
Consumers lose time and become frustrated trying to use and connect a quickly increasing number of new devices at home and on the move. They also encounter an upward spiraling of unexpected charges when using and connecting the devices.
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Service providers find that their customers expect exponentially increasing bandwidth, but there is little elasticity on the price they are willing to pay. |
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The price of inaction by the industry to master device management will be high!
For consumers, "time and money fatigue" will result in loss of enthusiasm to buy newer devices, resulting over time in relative dampening on the appearance of new and interesting devices and applications. For device manufacturers, plummeting sales will result in industry consolidation and loss of resources to innovate. The costs of user
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Device manufacturers experience cost increases and squeezed margins due to product returns and user support costs. Their brand credibility can be damaged due to gaps in customer support that lead to consumer dissatisfaction.
Service providers find that their customers expect exponentially increasing bandwidth, but there is little elasticity on the price they are willing to pay. Further, the costs to deliver customer care are difficult to contain due to lack of user support in the device offerings.
Enterprise customers need to deploy their IT staff to fill the gaps in device management, increasing their total cost of ownership.
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support and the losses due to returns will be unacceptable. For service providers, there will be a loss of new revenue opportunities as well as existing revenues and an unending proliferation of staff associated with managing devices. For enterprise customers, there will be a loss of agility due to lockdown of highly skilled staff on work not associated with core business needs.
Leading members of TM Forum have started to collaborate to define areas not yet fully addressed by the device management solutions and standards currently available, across a variety of devices and connection technologies. These members include: T-Mobile Netherlands, Korea Telecom,
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