The 10 most innovative telecom solution providers 2018

www.insightssuccess.com March 2018

Editor’s Note

Telecom Solutions Providers: Driving the World with Innovations

S

ince last two decades, we have observed tremendous improvements in wireless technology. One of the main factors behind this drastic change is a huge innovation in the mobile phone technology space, from brick phone to current foldable smartphones and wearables. Unlike before mobile phone is not confined as a calling or messaging device, today it can be used for infinite purposes such as, entertainment, gaming, financial transactions, controlling smart devices (IoT), and many more. These features which are being used currently demands a high quality of wireless infrastructure for their smooth functioning.

From 1G to 5G, advancement in wireless technology has totally changed the concept of communication.

Increased digitization and new trending technologies such as cloud computing, SAAS, VR, AR, IoT, AI, and more are leading us towards being highly dependent on the wireless networks and telecom solutions.

For those, we needed the strong and efficient telecom infrastructure to be available.

Telecom infrastructure and telecom solutions both are interconnected, so telecom solution must be that much efficient and innovative so that they can transform the wireless technology to the next level. There are many solutions offered by telecom solution providers such as; Software Defined Networks (SDN), Large cable solution, BPO solutions for call handling, Cloud solutions, IoT related solutions, and many more. They are acting as a catalyst for the implementation and utilization of telecommunication technology in the broader way. Telecom solutions are becoming more valuable with increased advancements in the telecom space and they are becoming the unavoidable part of our digital life.

All these factors made us introduce the issue, The 10 Most Innovative Telecom Solution Providers 2018 to highlight the telecom solution providers who are taking the telecom sector to the next level with their

extraordinary offerings. On the cover of this issue, we have SureCall Contact Centers: All about Customer Happiness. SureCall offers multiple applications that benefit every industry. No matter the size or location of the organization, SureCall has a solution that can help companies to grow and expand while keeping their overall costs to a minimum. Providing tailor-made services is SureCall’s forte. They provide solutions from Virtual Reception, Order Entry, and Emergency Response services, to customized offerings that fit exactly what their clients need. There is no box that you put around the service offerings that are available, and bluesky thinking is a normal process at SureCall.

Desirée Bombenon is the CEO of SureCall. She is a sagacious leader and is named as one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women for 2017. She was honored with the Enabler of Vision Award by the Center for Leadership Development at the UN Assembly in 2017 for her work on gender equality and female education. Desirée has been in the industry for nearly 30 years and shares her experience and enthusiasm for the technology associated with BPOs with her team. Her business model is tied directly with utilizing culture as a strategy for the organization. SureCall firmly puts their employees and clients at the forefront of their efforts. Engaging both her team and the clients while ensuring that the most important elements of SureCall’s stakeholder groups are taken care of.

SureCall’s leadership team is aware that their role is to enable client happiness and the success of the SureCall agents who deal with their clients on the front line. Desirée believes that transparency and collaboration and the shared accountability to resolve issues within the firm are a must.

With deep research, Insights Success Magazine has enlisted companies who are responsibly driving the telecom space with their groundbreaking strategies and innovations. DX Solutions: Delivering Innovation that Enhances Capability, ngena: A Rising Alliance of Connectivity, Shamrock Consulting Group: The Single Resource for All Your Connectivity Needs, Sigfox: Connecting the World through IoT Connectivity Services, and TinkerLink: Bridging the Gap between Employers and Employees.

While going through our magazine, you must not miss out the masterly written articles by our inhouse editors such as The New Way Of Business- Mobility on Cloud and Yes, Internet of Things is Reshaping the World from the Editor’s Pick. Ultra-Broadband Fixed Wireless Access with Point-toMultipoint at 28 GHz, How to innovate an industry: the telecommunication sector and the softwaredefined network revolution, and Vendor metamorphosis from the View of some of the Successful Leaders.

Hope this edition from us will create a mark on your mind.

Suhel Mashayak

C O N T E N T S

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SureCall Contact Centers: All About Customer Happiness

T S R E V O C

ARTICLES In Brief The New Way Of BusinessMobility on Cloud

Y R O Business Insider

Ultra-Broadband Fixed Wireless Access with Point-to-Multipoint at 28 GHz

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Expert’s Viewpoint

32

Chalk Talk Yes, Internet of Things is Reshaping the World

22

How to innovate an industry: the telecommunication sector and the software defined network revolution

42

Maestro’s Opinoin

Vendor metamorphosis

26

DX Solutions:

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Delivering Innovation that Enhances Capability

ngena: A Rising Alliance of Connectivity

30

Shamrock Consulting Group: The Single Resource for All Your Connectivity Needs

Sigfox: Connecting the World through IoT Connectivity Services

40

24

TinkerLink:

Bridging the Gap between Employers and Employees

36

Pooja M. Bansal Anish Miller Suhel Mashayak Jenny Fernandes Crescent C V Assistant Editors Brian Smith Upama Goswami Visualiser David King Art & Design Director Amol Kamble Associate Designer Rahul Kavanekar Co-designer Shweta Ambilwade Art & Picture Editor Paul Belin Jayant Khanna Senior Sales Manager Passi D. Business Development Manager Peter Collins Marketing Manager John Matthew Business Development Executives Steve, Joe, Alice, Sophie Sales Executives David, Kevin, Mark, Prashant Technical Head Jacob Smile Technical Specialist Amar, Pratiksha Digital Marketing Manager Marry D’Souza Online Marketing Strategist Alina Sege, Shubham Mahadik, Vaibhav K SME-SMO Executives Prashant Chauhan, Uma Dhenge, Gemson, Irfan Research Analyst Chidiebere Moses Circulation Manager Robert, Tanaji Database Management Stella Andrew Technology Consultant David Stokes Editor-in-Chief Senior Editor Managing Editor Executive Editors

sales@insightssuccess.com

March, 2018 Corporate Ofces: Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.com

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DesirĂŠe Bombenon CEO

SureCall Contact Centers ALL ABOUT CUSTOMER HAPPINESS “Our front line employees are

“

our most important asset

Cover Story

‘‘We are inspired what’s to come and

‘‘

by

lookingopportunities

are

T

o remain profitable and meet the bench marks of today’s competitive environment, every company needs to run leaner operations and adjust quickly to the changing market conditions. One key question that often arises is: Can you improve the way you run your business without losing the focus on increasing your market share and customer base?

The answer is yes; when you take BPO into consideration.

One such industry notable who is leading the BPO world is SureCall Contact Centers. The journey of SureCall is not only interesting but also inspiring indeed. SureCall evolved over 35 years from a startup telecommunications company that mainly focused on wireless equipment and radio products to a state of the art outsourced BPO today.

Operating 24.7.365 the company is always open for business and has been honored with several awards and recognitions over the years. SureCall is a leader in the call center and outsourcing industry, however prides itself more on the dynamic culture which it has created with over 100

forward to new

employees across Canada, and partnering with clients all over the world.

Extraordinary Offerings that make SureCall an Achiever of Success SureCall offers multiple applications that benefit every industry. No matter the size or location of the organization, SureCall has a solution that can help companies to grow and expand while keeping their overall costs to a minimum.

Providing tailor made services is SureCall’s forte. They provide solutions from Virtual Reception, Order Entry, and Emergency Response services, to customized offerings that fit exactly what their clients need. There is no box that you put around the service offerings that are available, and bluesky thinking is a normal process at SureCall.

SureCall primarily deals with application verticals not just industry verticals. The organization designs its services to meet the requirements of each specific client, while bringing their extensive experience to the design innovation

“Our Success comes from our Customer’s Success “

process. During the discovery session, SureCall works with its clients to find the best way to effectively improve the client's own processes. Then provide quality resources to manage the specific application, and an agent team skilled to handle the program. Defining the needs of the client and how to improve efficiencies, reveals in advance where the clients pain points are, and how SureCall can help.

The Trailblazer of SureCall Desirée Bombenon is the CEO of SureCall. Desiree is a sagacious leader and is named as one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women for 2017. She was honored with the Enabler of Vision Award by the Center for Leadership Development at the UN Assembly in 2017 for her work on gender equality and female education. Desirée has been in the industry for nearly 30 years and shares her experience and enthusiasm for the technology associated with BPOs with her team. Her business model is tied directly with utilizing culture as a strategy for the organization. SureCall firmly puts their employees and clients at the forefront of their efforts. Engaging both her team and the clients while

ensuring that the most important elements of SureCall’s stakeholder groups are taken care of. SureCall’s leadership team is aware that their role is to enable client happiness and the success of the SureCall agents who deal with their clients on the front line. Desirée believes that transparency and collaboration and the shared accountability to resolve issues within the firm are a must. With a flat organization where everyone is on a peer level and having a ‘no blame’ environment, issues are dealt with from a process view point. This forms clarity around root causes and enables the team to fix the problem without getting defensive. As a service company the main concerns that arise are around service level performance and quality of the work done.

With multiple platforms that measure and assist the team to improve and succeed, SureCall is always working to a higher level. Coaching and mentoring are the most utilized methods within the organization along with ongoing education and getting client feedback. With a ‘fix it now’ mentality, Desirée and her team feel they have a good process for managing client expectations.

here to ‘Wedesignareinnovative

A Leader’s Advice to Rising Stars Being a renowned name in the call center solution providers’ industry, SureCall advises the rising stars of this sector to break through the walls and show the world infinite capabilities of the telecom industry. “Don’t limit your options with what you can offer, and be open to doing things differently,” said Desirée Bombenon. She further adds, “With certain types of operations often the path taken is one that everyone has traveled. My recommendation is try something new to differentiate yourself in the market, and don’t be afraid of innovations that are coming down the pipe, embrace them into your business.”

Going Beyond Boundaries while Creating New Milestones Like any other successful company, SureCall too faced multiple challenges on its way to success. During the days when the company started its journey, technology was shifting and changing, hence, the company had to find partners on whom it can rely on and build solid alliances.

Desirée further said, “The challenges are less difficult if you can define exactly where the issues are and how to resolve

‘

Taking Good Work to a New Level SureCall has established itself as a community partner with charitable organizations as well as creating its own “Good Call” program that contributes to projects that educate females globally. The team at SureCall works hard each day knowing that every call they take contributes to, and serves a much bigger purpose.

solutions that give our customers

peace of mind

them. Utilizing lean six sigma processes were extremely useful for our team to fix the core concerns and work towards better systems.”

Customer Satisfaction equals to SureCall’s Success “Our core values are specifically around the success of our employees and our customer’s happiness. We express them through the ongoing programs we have to improve the skill level of our team, the culture we create in our work environment and the ongoing coaching and mentoring for employee success. We know if we work towards our team’s success they in turn will focus on the best service for our clients. Our customers are often given tours and hear testimonials from our team on how we have developed the type of culture that is ‘customer first’. They can see it and feel it in everything we do,” asserts Desirée.

Looking Forward to a Bright Future SureCall strives to continue developing an outstanding team for their global expansion efforts over the next 3 to 5 years.

The organization feels that the future is something they can all look forward to with even more exciting technology, and interesting concepts for their design platforms.

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SOLUTION PROVIDERS 2018

Company Name

Management

Brief

Aqua Comms aquacomms.com

Nigel Bayliff CEO

Aqua Comms was established to provide capacity networking solutions to content providers, cloud based networks, data centres, IT companies and the global media.

Cronos Telecom Europe cronosgroup.net

Diana Daniels CEO

Cronos Group's TinkerLink is the first social marketplace where you can search, find and connect with trustworthy experts recommended by people you already know.

DX Solutions dx.com.au

Peter Yialas MD

DX Solutions is an ICT solutions provider offering innovative end-to-end services covering project delivery, integration, testing, engineering, and managed services.

Mounir Ladki President

MYCOM OSI provides deep telecom expertise and solutions in areas fundamental to network and service quality, the primary contributor to customer experience, loyalty and churn. It is a leading independent provider of Next Generation Assurance, Automation and Analytics solutions to the world’s largest Communications Services Providers (CSPs).

Phillip Walker CEO

NSP provides cutting-edge solutions and services to businesses in California, Ohio, Georgia, Washington, and Arizona. From cloud computing to network security to mobility as a service.

ngena GmbH ngena.net

Marcus Hacke Founder & MD

ngena GmbH is an international alliance of telecommunication companies who provides connectivity solutions for global clients.

QROi qroi.net

Helge Raitanen Founder & Chairman

QROi offers a full range of end-to-end technical services and technology solutions to mobile operators and all major telecom vendors in Southeast Asia.

Shamrock Consulting Group shamrockconsulting.com

Paul Cooney Founder

Shamrock Consulting Group is a full-service telecommunication and IT consulting agency.

Sigfox sigfox.com

Ludovic Le Moan CEO & co-founder Christophe Fourtet co-founder

Sigfox is a recognized global pioneer and leader in a sector that is already disrupting business models and will revolutionize the whole of society.

SureCall Contact Centers surecallcc.com

Desiree Bombenon CEO

SureCall is a contact center that provides help desk, sales support, and customer service support, along with many other services to corporations and business professionals.

MYCOM OSI mycom-osi.com

Network Solutions Provider (NSP) networksolutionsprovider.com

Ultra-Broadband Fixed Wireless Access with Point-to-Multipoint at 28 GHz

F

ixed wireless access (FWA) is a solution that has been around for more than a decade as an alternative to xDSL, fiber and other wired broadband access technologies. Used to provide access to the underserved, usually in sub-urban or rural areas, it is also utilized as a complementary solution by WISPs or CLECs to provide competitive services. FWA is more applicable to the residential or small-business markets that constantly use bandwidth hungry applications.

Ÿ Scalability of CPE The higher the number of Customer Premises Equipment that can be served in a sectorized area, the faster the ROI. Increase in demand should not obligate additional spending on equipment infrastructure at the hub sites.

High sector capacity is also an important factor to consider, combined with the spectrum efficiency of the deployed system. Ÿ Cost of infrastructure

Challenges of FWA Networks

Ÿ Technology selection Fixed line networking -with fiber, cable access or even xDSL/vectoring technologies- provides high capacity and reliability but at a significant CapEx. Moreover, typical copper-based xDSL technologies cannot offer high capacities. Modern wireless technologies are already field-proven and operators invest in related solutions to deliver residential broadband access services as efficiently as possible. Ÿ Fast rollout

Deployment time is also important in the fiercelycompetitive telecom market. As a result, operators have to consider wireless technologies for such a solution, as they have a significant advantage over fixed line networking in terms of the time it takes to reach the end customer, and also generate CapEx savings. Ease of installation and commissioning is also critical for the OpEx of large deployments.

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The FWA market and especially the residential access applications are price sensitive as far as the CPE is concerned. Wireless ISPs that plan to deploy fixed wireless broadband networks and offer attractive monthly packages need to select equipment vendors that will provide low CapEx solutions and generate profitable investments.

High-capacity FWA does not have to wait for 5G The current FWA sub-6GHz technologies offer maximum throughputs in the order of tens of Mbps per user. Everyone is waiting for the holy grail of 5G access and its fiber like performance. The question is why does it take so long to mature? In the past, mobile standards were designed to improve on previous ones in one or two ways, such as voice or mobile broadband. 5G, however, has a much broader scope. From its conception, the creators of 5G wanted the network to handle several different functions, including enhanced mobile broadband, massive machine type communications, also called IoT, and critical, ultrareliable

March 2018 |

Business Insider

and low-latency communications.

The demand for broadband services both in the enterprise and the premium residential user segments is constantly growing.

Despite good fiber availability in large cities, the deployment of microwave access links (28/39 GHz) can be quicker and cheaper in many cases. Analysts are projecting double digit growth rates in the FWA market in the forthcoming years. This is seen by many WISPs and CLECs as an opportunity to deploy highcapacity FWA services today and not wait for 5G to happen.

Advantages of Area-Licensed Spectrum with FWA

Pantelis Trakas Senior Product Manager, Wireless Network Systems, Intracom Telecom

About the company Intracom Telecom is a global telecommunication systems and solutions vendor operating for over 40 years in the market. The company has become the benchmark in fixed wireless access and it successfully innovates in the 5G/4G wireless front haul, backhaul and small-cell SON backhaul international arena.

| March 2018

Many operators already possess, or consider acquiring, area-licensed spectrum and would like to take advantage both of their investment and the extra assurance offered by licensed spectrum with respect to interference, in order to deploy FWA in these frequencies.

Owning area-licensed spectrum (as opposed to per-link licensed spectrum) enables the use of PtMP systems and offers the advantage of not requiring a separate licensing procedure for the planning and installation of each link, which is a consideration if one has to deploy, and potentially re-deploy, multiple links within a short period of time.

Licensed spectrum for the bandwidthrich, area-licensed 10.5/26/28 GHz bands, is ideal for dense FWA deployment in residential applications.

The benefit of using licensed spectrum is the assurance of avoiding interference from competing operator systems using the same bands.

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DX Solutions: Peter Yialas

Mark Greenwood

Jason Peters

MD

Director Professional Services

MD

Delivering Innovation that Enhances Capability

I

n the recent past, traditional networking has been a trend and traditional networking vendors have dominated the networking segment since many years. But now, with the advancement of technology more and more organizations are embracing the growing networking hardware and software disaggregation paradigm. As a result, the telecom industry is now under immense pressure to go with the trend while at the same time outshine others. One such company which was able to hit the metal when it was hot is DX Solutions. It is a forerunner in the telecom industry which is currently in the unique position of providing specialized telecom services to the Australian market, which covers IT through the core network.

Meet the Dynamic Team of DX Solutions DX Solutions was co-founded by Peter Yialas and Jason Peters in 2006. This dynamic duo met while working on a software testing project at SingTel Optus. Peter had built up a team of professionals to integrate, test and deploy the first program to drive the deregulation of the Telecommunication’s industry in Australia where Optus implemented their DSLAM equipment in the Telstra exchanges and were the first to own and operate their own customer service which was not just a sub-lease.

According to Peter, they teamed up after identifying a gap in the market where one can find a more effective and feasible way to test multi-vendor system environments, and at the same time remain vendor agnostic. They recognized a market requirement for niche professional services in software testing and set out to provide end-to-end business outcomes for both customer and enterprise system integration.

Peter and Jason then went on a tech voyage to gain deeper industry experience in telecommunications sector, and to become an inevitable part of the top “Telecom Transformation” in Australia. During this journey they met Mark Greenwood at Telstra and Karl Wood at Optus. Now, all four are all equity partners in the business; Mark holds a Director Title and Karl Wood as CTO, Mark brings in Professional Services while Karl brings in strong technology and partnerships to DX Solutions. Matt Schulz heads up Telco for Dx Soltions.

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Karl Wood CTO

Outshining the Competitors Being different is DX Solutions’ forte, as a result of which they all went on to complete all Network upgrade projects at Vodafone including the full 4G roll out and another two Business IT transformations at Optus. In Australia DX Solutions is also the sole reason for the release of Australian Federal Government emergency warning system and Prime Ministers cloud in Canberra.

DX Solutions specializes in multivendor integration with partners such as Ericsson, Nokia Networks, Alcatel Lucent, Huawei, CISCO and more.

Even though the company has extended to aviation, banking and finance, Telecommunications remains the heartbeat of the company.

In 2016 DX Solution also became the Platinum ANZ partner for Verizon Global and are now specializing in all levels of security for products and services.

Awards and Accolades DX Solutions has also celebrated many achievements over the past years: Ÿ BRW fast 100 company 2014 and 2015 Ÿ CEO Magazine top four finalist 2016 Ÿ APAC 25 top cyber company’s 2017 Ÿ Top 10 Telecom companies 2018

| March 2018

The business shows no signs of slowing down, with plenty of future plans in the works, including expanding DX Solutions’ “Vantage” methodology, which challenges the basis of the SDLC by increasing coverage and reducing errors and cost.

Also, this year DX Solutions will be launching its newest product to market, “Rubx is an integrated, connected and secure cloud management platform.

Rubx aligns technology, processors and people towards a customer-centric cloud operating model, which is easy to consume via a monthly pay as you go charge,” says Peter. “This will allow your business to focus on customer products and enable them compete with modern day, ‘born in the cloud’ disruptors.” He adds that his ultimate goal is for DX to become “not only a systems integrator but a solutions aggregator, the first in Australia”. All this is enabled by their ever performing team of people who work tirelessly to make success a habit.

Mission: To provide our customers and partners with strategic products and services aligned to their business outcomes.

Vision: To build a robust ict company that is known for its market leading management team, people and products.

To enable our people to achieve the highest possible level in their professional lives, whilst committing to have them operating in a safe working environment.

To establish and commit growth and longevity in all our initiatives, stabilizing the company and enabling our 2022 roadmap.

‘‘

We apply local

knowledge, but have a

‘‘

Marching towards a Bright Future

global reach

To increase our strategic partnership and introduce market leading solutions and services to our customers.

To lead with example and form a bond with our team, customers and partners alike.

www.dx.com.au

21

Yes, Internet of Things is Reshaping the World

D

ata—an abstract can’t be felt, can’t be touched, more likely to be understood.

A cryptic information flows omnidirectional in surrounding in the form of wave signals, transferring the data at different frequencies prevents the over-drawing. This data is secured in the cloud—large storage servers which provide a better protection to the information.

Internet of Things—the appliances used in daily life interrelated with cloud computing in-order to make toil easy. It’s been introduced while ago; its applications are seen in household commodities, and now enterprises have also started showing their keen interest in IOT’s. Certain IOT’s specially programmed for the processes in the enterprise; coordinating with such technologies will bring a boon to the enterprises as a whole, with variations in utilization the benefits also vary.

Outlook of IOT’s depending on their functioning Twining the Product Digitally Digital Twins—a mirror-like virtual representation of an original product for proper analysis is it all about. This program helps to generate a digitalized graphical image of any object at an instantaneous time, whereas, the analysis includes functioning, learning, and reasoning. Any complicated object can be regenerated and studied for its better improvement. For example, in automotive industries,

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it’s quite hard to point out a mistake or a flaw in complicated functioning objects. An engine design is pretty much intricate, so is it’s functioning, a digital twin of the engine helps to analyze the speed of the engine, compressor ratio, oil pressure, heat emitted by engines and, etc. With the help of DT, there’s the possibility of creating a connected engine instead of assembling the parts of an engine.

DT can make a change in physical assets by providing options for creating, testing, building, monitoring, and maintaining. Implementing such IOT will benefit in accelerating the product development rate and will also reduce the costs. Before any occurrences in failure predictive maintenance is always the best option. Hence, in order to prevent further calamities, it’s better to take measures accordingly.

Following Up the Blocks; More Secure Way Block chain is another way to transfer data without getting altered by other factors, the cryptography is so at its depth that making changes get tough. Block chains is a series of blocks which will pass data from one to another. This methodology is used for transaction process between two parties, considering any enterprises sharing the monetary assets digitally, and then through block chain, the transaction will be more secure. Trust is important factor required for the business, thus, this will build trust between those two parties involved in the transfer. And, as block

March 2018 |

Chalk Talk

chain stores the data promptly in the blocks; the details of transfer amount and related can be retrieved.

Earlier three parties were required in order to proceed for the transfer, but here, the involvement of ‘middle party’ is evoked, this reduces the time as well as efforts needed. As the transactions are done on a peer-to-peer basis, there is a reduction in contractual costs. And, reduction in cost is always been beneficiary to the company. With the absence of middle-man, the transaction process boosts up leaving out the unnecessary time required.

Delivering Various Platform for Various Processes This the age of digital disruption, in order to overcome such issues, an enterprise needs to rethink on their business agendas. There are certain IOT companies which provide solutions with the digital transformation. A trend has been followed up with innovation comes growth, considering such methods a new platform has been developed to reduce the launch timing of new digital services which includes predictive maintenance and helps to monitor assets.

Some companies provide cloud-based IOT SaaS platform for medium-sized businesses, and large companies for the distribution and managing their IoT assets and services.

Enterprises will also be able to engineer the products by gaining proper insights with advanced digital technologies; this will help to maintain position in the market. There are some platform providers which help the enterprises to develop smart IOT’s, so that the maintenance required by the enterprises work more efficiently and will definitely increase the product quality and will increase transparency in operations. Along with, as-a-services are also offered to the enterprises for the repairing and product performance related issues. Whereas, there are some IOT firms which provide assistance by monitoring, utilizing assets and tracking of vehicles. Installing such IOT will not only help industries to remotely monitor and will have a total control over the management.

Industries to Utilize Automated Vehicles

through certain commands supporting employees to remotely manage vehicles. AV consist of advanced GPS systems with high quality of cameras which helps the vehicle to see up to 100m of the area without any disturbance caused by nature, in hand to that, the data acquired by the sensors helps to generate 3D optimized view of surrounding of vehicles. This reduces the cost as well as the time required for the transportation.

Now, Easy to track assets A systematic implementation should be taken for the management of assets. Talking about the management, the most faced problems by the companies are the assets missplacement and miss-location. For preventing such issues, certain measures could be taken by an implementation of IOT; IoT such as tracking devices, this will monitor the location of assets and help the companies to have an outlook of their products.

Customizing the consumption with IoT Smart Metering—another way to make building maintenance easy, this allows a program to manage the consumption rate of water, natural gases, and energy entities. Installing such SM IOT will boost the comprehension of building requirements; it will maintain the level of needed supplies resulting in the reduction of over-pay for the resources. Well, it is the beneficiary method to focus on.

Coordinating IOT with CC Cognitive Computing (CC) is a way to bring human thoughts in computerized figures; it has self-learning abilities which helps it to solve problems on its own. It’s been a while in the use of CC in industries, but, with the involvement in IOT has uplifted the technological standards. CC acquires the data from IoT devices and works accordingly, this vastly generated data are unstructured, multi-modal, and, while maintaining the use of such large detailed information some of the sensor data is thrown away. As the productivity is limited not utilized data are considered are left out which is also known as ‘dark’.

Hence, for certain products certain data is acquired.

Time to go RC’s (remote controlled) Many big companies have made electric-cars more available at a commercial level too. Whereas, automated vehicles have raised the level of non-liquid fuel cars; nowadays, computerized controlled cars are seen in the trend. Many companies have adapted them in order to reduce labor; these cars receive data directly from the cloud

| March 2018

Securing the Place in Market Due to digital disruption, it has become mandatory for the enterprises having a strong-hold understanding on upcoming new innovation. Implementing IoTs will not only help in the growth, but also be a tough competitor by increasing productivity rate. Hopefully, the saturation in the IOT is far more likely to be inevitable.

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ngena: A Rising Alliance of Connectivity Marcus Hacke Founder & Managing Director

I

n this captivating age of technological advancement and digital disruption, the telecom industry has experienced a vast shift. There’s no denying the fact that with digital transformation the world of connectivity has also seen newer avenues and promises of greater connectivity.

ngena GmbH is an alliance of leading international telecom companies headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany. An end-toend service provider of Software-Defined Wide Area Networks (SD-WAN), ngena (Next Generation Enterprise Network Alliance) offers services to enterprise customers on a global scale with help of its alliance partners. Originally founded by Deutsche Telekom, Century Link, Reliance Jio and SK Telecom in early 2016, the alliance has achieved a tremendous growth with major inclusions like A1, Altice with SFR and Portugal Telecom, Expereo, KPN, MTN, Neutrona, Starhub, Telus, PCCW Global and VEON along with technology partners Cisco, Comarch and Equinix.

The Visionary Leader: Marcus Hacke, the founder and Managing Director of ngena is a Doctorate in Physics, who holds an in-depth knowledge of the telecom industry. The initial idea behind the alliance was devised by Marcus, which was initially implemented with a small team of Deutsche Telekom and Cisco and now is pushed forward by ngena and a strong ecosystem of partners. One of the many challenges he had to face during the initial stage of setting up the company was the rising demand of more agility and flexibility in global enterprise networks.

Marcus’s dynamic vision solved the entrepreneurial challenges the organization had to face in its initial days. His amazing leadership skills became the stepping stone for the success of ngena. The brilliant leader made the journey of the company swifter and easier than ever by taking some conceptual measures like;

Ÿ Formation of a strong global alliance of leading telecommunication providers by means of a sharing economy model, Ÿ Connecting their regional networks to one Software-Defined Wide Area Network, Ÿ Use of end-to-end automated service orchestration to provide hybrid VPNs for enterprises and Ÿ Invention of a central cloud portal supporting all business and operational processes.

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MOST

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Outstanding Contribution of ngena to the Digitized Business: Enterprises of this digital era need new and advanced network connectivity to cope with the increasing data flow.

The traditional Wide Area Networks (WANs) are built using private networks, which are very timeconsuming, and quite costly. If we think of the worst, these traditional WANs are not enough adaptable and flexible to go with the global digital Karl To Wood business standard. console these CTO requirements of global business, ngena has used a very powerful and adaptable approach known as Software-Defined Networking (SDN). SDN uses a series of data networking protocols, tools, interfaces and controls to enable more advanced, programmable and flexible networking. All the systems in ngena are developed by an agile “DevOps” approach. This approach aims at shortening development cycles, increasing deployment frequency, and building more dependable releases.

When deployed over a WAN, an SDN becomes SD-WAN. SD-WANs can be quickly and easily configured, automated and managed using a service provider’s centralized, usually cloud-based and adaptable software platforms. SD-WANs enable rapid network provisioning, and agile adaptability of network capabilities at much lower cost than with traditional network management approaches. With SD-WANs, global network updates and security management can be automatically delivered, remotely customized and reconfigured via the cloud. ngena has developed and implemented all needed IT tools and workflows to ensure end-to-end automation of service provisioning as well as service assurance. With the alliance approach, ngena becomes able to deliver services in a more consistent manner globally and locally at the same time.

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Winning Over the Obstacles: If you do something really new or create something that has never been imagined before, you must be ready for the complexity and challenges in the path of achieving it.

Marcus, the founder of the company was aware of the challenges and barriers in the starting phase of the new and unconventional venture.

The SDN technology, being such a new endeavor with its innovative and potential features, the initiators focused on the huge opportunities ahead, rather than the challenges. The company believes in overcoming any challenges in the way to deliver its services in a better way.

“You’ll always have to believe that it can be done in a smarter and faster way to achieve more success. This is what drives you.” says Marcus.

Distinguishing Factors of ngena: The Frankfurt based company helps enterprises with the benefits of consistent data connectivity services, integrating all the alliance partners’ networks into a global SoftwareDefined Network. Using the state-ofthe-art cloud and virtualization technologies from the strategic technology partner Cisco-Viptela, ngena provides end-to-end managed SD-WANs to around 200 countries worldwide.

The combination of the innovative SDN technology with the strength of the alliance’s operating model and ecosystem not only provides alliance members’ enterprise customers access to secure, stable, scalable and easy-touse global corporate networks, but also high-quality, local customer services.

‘‘

Paving

the way for a truly globalized

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THE

economy

build a bright future for the company by inventing and developing more relevant and reliable solutions for the global telecom industry. He wants to achieve the goal by constantly improving the systems by adopting the latest wonders of the digital world, making the services more attractive and adaptable than they already are, and adding new services to the ngena platform and thus helping business customers to cope with their connectivity and communication challenges.

The Way Ahead: The visionary leader of ngena wants to

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Prior to founding Cataleya, Andreas was the Founder and Group CEO of Epsilon Global Communications, which includes Epsilon service provider and Cataleya technology businesses.

He is now continuing to supporting the industry’s evolution through his start-up and investment facilitator (Incipio) and his position as Chairman and CEO of Cataleya and Member of the board of Cirrus Core Networks. His passion for supporting startup businesses and people who dare, is further manifested in his active role as a member of YET, an initiative launched in collaboration with the United Nations Sustainable Business Network ESBN.

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Andreas Hipp CEO Cataleya

March 2018 |

Maestro’s Opinoin

W

hen things change in our super-connected digital world, nowadays they tend to do so at a quickening pace. Trend cycles have shortened from years to months and turned from analogue to almost digital waves. This is no different in the communications sector.

The consumer-centric behaviour evolution, towards the hyper-personalization and real-time control of the communication experience, is having a massive impact on service providers of all kinds, forcing them to compete with uncommon business models of rival players in all verticals. This is resulting in a massive disruption of the sector, creating challenges all around.

Whilst operators are challenged to figure out how to reinvent themselves, they are rarely helped by the vendors of technology and systems who should naturally play a central role in enabling them to provide the disruptive and innovative services they need to offer.

This needs to change. To do so, vendors must re-think the services they offer. But more importantly, they should reinvent their role in the telecom ecosystem, while meeting their customers’ needs using innovative and tailored business models.

Be the ecosystem or become part of one Today, vendors also need to learn to be part of an ecosystem that is a solution rather than only offering a component or part of it. For customers, the “Lego” style approach is good when one has the time and detailed knowledge required to select and combine the right pieces to create something that looks like a plane and also flies.

But, not every customer has that capability and luxury of time. Even the large ones are slimming down their internal resources and concentrate on their core strength and business - which is infrastructure, service and brand.

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Vendors therefore need to move away from offering simple switching equipment and create solutions. They should add for example BSS or OSS capabilities to their basic offering.

They should also focus on offering other value added services, such as big data analytics utilizing AI and machine learning to provide full insight into traffic patterns and behaviours. The objective is to expand the purpose by creating an ecosystem or solution with, not only the operator customer, but also the end-customer in mind. The idea here is for vendors to become an integral part of their customers’ offering and experience and to be seen as a partner and not necessarily a pure box shifter.

Mirroring customers’ reality The unpredictable market we now live in, in terms of customer behaviour or adoption, does not allow vendors to continue enjoying the predictable revenue streams they have been used to over the past decades from their service provider customers, who themselves live in uncertainty.

The problem comes from the fact that vendors’ current capex revenue model does not match the consumptionbased spending habit of consumers or enterprises, who might even expect basic features to be provided free of charge, ultimately maybe paying for them by sacrificing their privacy.

Vendors must evolve into service or business enablers who, besides providing technology or software, also mirror the commercial model used by their clients and take part in the business risk that comes with it. That new breed of vendor will therefore, by definition, be deeply involved in their clients’ commercial success.

The commercial model for service enablement is all about being able to match the cost plan (what we offer) to our customers’ revenue plan (what they sell), which needs to be matched to the spending habit or profile of their own customers (how much they want to pay).

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Maestro’s Opinoin

Redifine your own reality Last year we at Cataleya embarked on our revolutionary journey, driven by our vision and imagination of how technology needs to serve us today and tomorrow.

In an industry where transformation and disruption are the new mantras, communication service providers if they have not done so yet, will have to go through a metamorphosis to stay relevant. We at Cataleya are here as an enabler and partner of their own journey of change.

Our mission is to empower customers to become the next industry disruptors by enabling them to innovate, monetize and simplify their business better and faster.

Advanced analytics, cloud based service creation, flexible business models and hyper-personalized service and support are our contributions to their own revolution.

To change paradigms we had to redefine flexibility first, so we could revolutionise our approach to shaping the four most relevant areas of real-time communication solutions and platforms in this new and brave world of constant change.

The first revolution is the way we allow the tailoring of our product and service features to really fit service provider requirements and needs.

The second revolution is the way we allow our customers to consume technology. Either using simple purchase or subscription models – our customers only buy or subscribe for what they actually use in the network. This in addition to offering different deployment options: hardware based, software or virtualised.

The third revolution is the way we allow clients to empower their customers to service themselves via online portals for features such as SIP trunk ordering and deployment, call recording and many more solutions to be launched in the near future.

The fourth revolution is about reversing who fears whom. The service provider the fraudster or the fraudster the service provider? We offer built-in or standalone real-time Machine Learning based fraud detection and prevention tools that let our customers catch the fraudsters before it hurts.

No risk no glory Another important change required in the vendor space is the need for the deepening integration of technology or software vendors into the product design and delivery process of operators.

Going forward, vendors need to act almost as if they were part of the customers’ organizations. This means more than being a technology partner, it requires vendors to become an integral part of their customers’ projects and therefore their success. This means that vendors also need to increasingly share the risk with their customers.

The era of shifting boxes and batches (software) and getting paid up front is about to end, and it will end swiftly. This challenges and puts into question the way vendors are structured and organised and the business concepts and models they believe in or are used to.

I am involved in two businesses that truly reflect that new future “vendor”, not only by the commercial model applied, such as pay per use for example, but also by their organisational structure, where each and every member of the company is a coowner.

Only true entrepreneurship across the entire organisation allows it to understand what its clients go through and what their real pain points and needs are. Only when all people involved have skin in the game do they strive to achieve what is required and what customers desire.

That will be the only future for the “Technology Vendor” or no future.

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Shamrock

Consulting Group:

Ben Ferguson Executive Vice President

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The Single Resource for All Your Connectivity Needs

hile the outside world may see telecom as a rapidly changing and evolving industry, Shamrock Consulting Group can’t help but notice how slowly many elements of the industry are moving.

The extremely high barriers to entry have hindered new providers’ ability to come in and compete with the big players.

On the contrary, though, new technologies being driven by Software Defined Networks (SDN), Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Cloud Computing have allowed new niche players to enter the market and deliver Products-asa-Service (XaaS model), which has delivered a huge value to driving new innovation within the industry as a whole.

Customers are able to get better products and services for less money than they have ever been able to before, and Shamrock is uniquely positioned within the market to capitalize on it.

Key Points About Shamrock Founded by Paul Cooney in 2008, Shamrock Consulting Group is a full-service telecommunication and IT master agency based in El Segundo, CA and serving clients across the globe. Shamrock facilitates solution procurement for thousands of products related to telecommunications, data communications, data center and cloud, and they offer best-in class network design and support.

As a veteran of the telecom industry who achieved great success as a Sales Manager at AT&T, Paul knew he would need a team of highly capable and driven individuals to help achieve the success he envisioned for Shamrock. So, Paul brought in Ben Ferguson, who is now Shamrock’s Executive Vice President. Ben quickly became the driving force behind Shamrock’s industry-leading business practices and their continued push towards innovation.

Shamrock’s expert team develops a deep understanding of network strategy, inventory, current pricing, contract

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As a vendor-neutral consultancy, Shamrock acts as a firewall between their clients and the providers. They manage the entire lifecycle of every deal, from the initial research, analytics and pricing for RFPs, to installation and renewal, regardless of provider.

Best of all, through the company’s direct partnerships with over 250 major and niche service providers, they guarantee the best price point on any product from any provider.

while holding both themselves and others accountable. It works well because at the end of the day, Shamrock employees are not competing against one another, like many other agencies – instead they all works towards a common goal. Taking this approach gives Shamrock the ability to allocate resources effectively and attack every aspect of a particular issue simultaneously, ultimately providing their clients with faster and more accurate solutions compared to any of their competitors.

Guaranteed Best Pricing for Any Product

Best-In-Class Telecom & IT Services Shamrock Consulting Group specializes in all industry-standard products related to telecommunications, data communications, data center and cloud. But above and beyond that, Shamrock has long been at the forefront of ingenuity for building customized new products in Software Defined Networks, Network Function Virtualization, Cloud Orchestration and Cloud Cost Management.

Building a Culture of Success As a top-rated consulting group for medium and large enterprise clients, Shamrock solves many of the most challenging technology problems companies face on a daily basis. For the most complex issues, Shamrock tends to favor a divide-and-conquer approach. They divvy up their team of experts to where one member handles overall management, another addresses engineering and technical aspects, and one or more of their analysts takes care of all financial matters.

They’ve built a culture where everyone has the ability to run with their tasks

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Shamrock Consulting Group focuses primarily on mid-to-large enterprises.

Their core approach is simple -superior service, best-in-class technology, and guaranteed best pricing for any product or service from any provider.

Quality is a Shamrock Cornerstone A consulting group isn’t like other companies that can grow with capital and head count. A consulting group is only as good as the ideas and strategies that its team is able to produce, and as such Shamrock has placed their focus on building a team of quality professionals capable of adapting to any situation or circumstance.

The Winning Formula of Putting Customers First Shamrock operates on a fiduciary model. As a completely neutral agency, they put the interests of their customers first; everything else falls into place in the process. That’s why they are consistently winning deals and beating their competitors, many of whom simply try to peddle whatever products

‘‘

Our guarantee is to o er the best reliability and service for

‘‘

expirations and people to deliver customized solutions for any business.

the best price

or services have the largest commissions attached to them.

Shamrock Welcomes Future Innovation Shamrock Consulting Group will continue to grow methodically and keep its core principals intact. While other companies get scared by market disruption and innovation, they welcome it with open arms.

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In Brief

The New Way Of BusinessMobility on Cloud

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In Brief

T

he radical change in the innovative technology, is changing the basics of the enterprises function. The way of the businesses today is very much affected by the convergence of enterprise mobility with Cloud Computing, Big Data Analytics and Social Media. The mantra for a successful business today is to observe and adopt the way employees, partners and customers connect and energetically engage in fulfilling business objectives and attaining the enterprise goals in record time. This is the reason, that the enterprises of today have to follow the current trends in the real time.

There is one more paradigm shift the IT industry is observing, and that is the entrance of Enterprise Mobility in the business. With the use of it now critical business data, complex analytics and reports are getting available to the decision makers and executives in no time. The vast acceptance of the Mobile Phones and Tablets burgeon the businesses.

With anytime-anywhere access to the business data for swift decision making and improved customer service, is only getting possible with the use of Enterprise Mobile Device Management (MDM). In this way Mobility on Cloud is helping SME’s to get benefited by the technological advances.

Approximately, 70% of the North American workforce is now mobile, cloud-based environments require a transparent mobile policy management strategy. As is observed, more and more data of the companies, nowadays is residing on mobile devices and is distributed on off-site servers, protecting that data is becoming a mission-critical priority. That is the reason that security concerned enterprises are more concentrating on the three critical mobility factors as they evaluate and deploy cloud computing. The three important factors are: Easy access to cloud-based data and applications from anywhere at any time The availability of the flexibility of the mobile workforce is only possible with the enablement of easy access to the cloud-based data and applications from anywhere at any time. The workers today have to travel from one place to another switching between various public, private, wired and wireless networks in order to get access to the corporate applications. Mobile workers have to manually select and connect to the best available network in the given location because of this. This creates a confusion in between the workers what network to select, what policies to apply and etc. just because of the connectivity process is left on the end-users. This whole process is the reason of less productivity on the part of the mobile workers.

Unnecessary Access Costs Wi-Fi and 3G like technologies are getting used to access cloud-based data and applications by the mobile workers today, from anywhere, on the road, from a hotel or a home office. This is becoming a reason of extra cost, when you are supposed to gain from the cloud computing environment. Most of the time this cost becomes unnecessary, like paying for LAN or Wi-Fi fees when a mobile worker is in an area covered by his paid 3G subscription, using 3G when roaming internationally or using 3G when a free or low-cost Wi-Fi or LAN option is available.

Security Concern Today, many enterprises are investing on endpoint security solutions and corporate VPNs, data compromise is still a big threat for enterprises because of a variety of threats that stem from network bridging, visits to malicious Web sites, download of malicious software, and use of open and unencrypted networks. The process of connecting to wired and wireless networks is a manual, user-driven process makes the risk high. Despite these high risks, enterprises can maintain itself against these risks with the Mobile Policy Management (MPM): The critical mobility factors of cost control, security and end-user connectivity for cloud-based enterprises, comes under a term, ‘Mobile Policy Management (MPM)’. MPM adds to the overall return on investment of cloud-based initiatives through reduced costs and improved security.

MPM helps enterprises to:

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In Brief

Pre-define network prioritization policies MPM helps IT to pre-define network prioritization policies and assign specific mobile policies to a given network for cloud and non-cloud data and application access. By automating network selection and mobile access policies, MPM boosts the mobile workforce productivity. Additionally, MPM helps IT to pre-define network selection rules and assign mobile policies to each type of network. MPM solution automatically selects the best available network as defined by IT, connects the user and applies the relevant mobile policies, while the mobile workers roam around. This gives the worker a remote access and connectivity transparent to end-users, saving their valuable time when accessing cloud and non-cloud data and applications.

Enables to cost-optimizing network selection MPM enables an option of ‘cost-optimizing network selection’ to reduce the cost of mobile data usage by costoptimizing network selection. Leaving network selection up to the end-user can drive data costs far over budget and create significant cost liabilities, for the enterprises. For an instantance, a mobile worker with an unlimited 3G subscription should avoid connecting to, paying for and expensing hotel Wi-Fi when in an area covered by a 3G local provider. For the enterprises benefit, MPM platform avoids unbudgeted data costs by helping IT to define and enforce a network white list, preventing users from adding unsanctioned laptop communications options to their mobile Pcs. Avoids common Data-Security Threats The data security threats occur only because of the rogue access points or networks that are in place to lure mobile workers onto them in order for hackers to gain access to corporate data like public Wi-Fi access points in airports labeled “free Wi-Fi” or rogue Wi-Fi placed in proximity to corporate offices. Though there are security solutions working for the same, but of no use. When a mobile worker is working and visiting various places an MPM platform enables IT to dynamically automate and enforce network-specific security policies.

Enterprises who are deploying cloud computing are influencing Mobile Policy Management to gain organizationwide visibility and control over their mobile workforce.

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March 2018 |

Sigfox: Ludovic Le Moan CEO & Co-founder

Connecting the World through IoT Connectivity Services

S

oon, billions of devices worldwide will be connected to the Internet; their data will be stored in the cloud and will participate in the digitalization of our environment. Having a global, simple, low-cost and low-power solution to connect those devices is fundamental. This is the challenge that Sigfox is addressing by deploying a low bandwidth dedicated network, already present in 45 countries.

Inception Story of Sigfox Created in 2010 by Ludovic Le Moan and Christophe Fourtet the company is a recognized global pioneer and leader in a sector that is already disrupting business models and will revolutionize the whole society. The ambition of Sigfox, embedded in the slogan “Make Things Come Alive,” is to give a voice to the physical world around us and to allow these billions of devices to transform our economy, society and the environment. Sigfox has 400 employees and has headquarters in Toulouse, Paris, Boston, Dubai and Singapore.

Why Sigfox?

Thanks to a Global Network: Sigfox delivers the network and the protocols required to allow an object to share its data from anywhere in the world.

A simple and low energy consuming technology: The simplicity of Sigfox’ technology means that it is possible to provide the best possible user experience and lowest maintenance costs while allowing a device to consume very little energy and last on the field for years.

Collecting data at the lowest cost: A module on Sigfox network can cost from as little as a few dollars to cents– at this cost, it is possible to economically connect virtually anything. Sigfox’ services allow to collect data which was in the past uncollectable and thus bring value to companies .

Meet the Trailblazers of Sigfox Ludovic Le Moan co-founded SIGFOX, the first and only company to provide global solutions to power the Internet of Things (IoT). In order to support SIGFOX’s global expansion, he has raised a total $280 million round of financing from

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‘‘

Our vision: Karl Wood

Make things

strategic and financial investors in Europe, the U.S. and Asia. Le Moan has been involved in the machine-tomachine space since 2000, when he cofounded Anyware Technologies, which enabled the connection, management and monitoring of remote equipment through a Web interface. After selling Anyware Technologies to Wavecom in 2008, Le Moan co-founded Goojet, a B2C services company that offered a simple, personal experience of the mobile web and allowed users to share and exchange messages and content.

He served as COO of the company, now repositioned as scoop.it, from February 2008 to March 2011. Le Moan is a serial entrepreneur who also founded the “IoT Valley” an association offering mentoring, networking and other support for startups in the field of the Internet of Things. Apart from these responsibilities, Le Moan is also involved on a day to day basis in the monitoring of Sigfox’ operations. He is also leading the innovation teams by bringing its vision of the future of the Internet of Things and evangelizing about how the IoT will be a game changer not only for the economy but also by transforming society and the way we monitor our environment.

Sigfox’ co-founder Christophe Fourtet, is an avid philanthropist. He set up a Foundation (https://sigfoxfoundation.org/) which

| March 2018

acts on urgent causes with three priorities: health, living, and the protection of the planet. The Foundation uses the Sigfox technology and connected sensors to solve major problems, that were too difficult to address before the Internet of Things revolution.

Leaving no Stones Unturned Sigfox was the first company to open the era of “massive IoT”, that is to say, the ability, at a very low cost, to collect data from millions of sensors. Sigfox had to go through two major barriers at initial stage: Advocate Sigfox’ complementarity with existing technologies: Sigfox is not a telecom company and had to demonstrate that its technology is not competing directly with existing services but offering a complimentary solution to existing problems met by clients.

‘‘

CTO

come alive

Future Prospects Sigfox has an intense R&D activity and is continuously improving the quality of its services and preparing new offers. Sigfox is at this time working on the launch of its new service allowing to connect disposable objects with a new service offer, which allows chips - costing less than 50 cents - to send Sigfox messages.

Sigfox is looking forward to launch this revolutionary to the market before summer.

To build a brand-new ecosystem: From developers to devices and chips makers, academics, Sigfox had to build a full ecosystem to support the development of the massive IoT Market. As an example, in the past 5 years, for 1 dollar of funds raised by Sigfox, 1 dollar was raised in parallel by its ecosystem and there are now more than 400 companies in partnership with Sigfox.

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TinkerLink: Diana Daniels CEO

Bridging the Gap between Employers and Employees

T

inkerLink is the first social marketplace where you can search, find and connect with trustworthy experts recommended by people you already know. In today’s economy, there are millions of people looking for a job!

Most jobs are based on trust and confidence between employers and employees. There are millions of people looking for domestic help jobs like cleaners, drivers, gardener, and cooks: 7 million in America and 25 million in Latin America.

When hiring cleaners, drivers, gardeners, and cooks, employers look for a guarantee of trustworthiness in their potential employees, and complementarily, employees want to know that their employer is trustworthy.

With these ideas in mind, TinkerLink was born. It is the first social Marketplace app where you can search, find, and connect with trustworthy tinkers who are recommended by people you already know.

The aim of the app is to help users build a trustworthy network through which they can contact experts or potential clients with complete safety.

Independent workers, freelancers, small business owners, and entrepreneurs are just a few of the people who need a network like the one TinkerLink provides. Anyone who is looking for a trustworthy person to perform a service or anyone who wants to turn their hobbies into a source of income will find these solutions on TinkerLink’s app.

Out-of-the-box Solutions TinkerLink use provide users the ability to search find and connect through a mobile application where people with total confident and security can share their interest, type of jobs and searches, TinkerLink use industry standard and agile methods in order to develop cutting-edge technology to allow users to discover people in their own network, and the system algorithm to suggest what potential users might know each other based on preferences, geolocation, interest, and people they might already known.

Prime Mover of TinkerLink Diana Daniels, CEO of TinkerLink, is one of the most involved, motivated, hard-working, and energetic people around.

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Karl Wood CTO

For many years Diana leads some of the largest telecom organizations providing telecommunication services and financial products directly to the multicultural markets in the United States. And in the major markets in Latin America. With a profile like that, there is no doubt that she has the capability to deal with and overcome any problem that might come up at work. Her solid experience, in dealing with the day to day user problems, her superb knowledge of the product, user, and the industry, and her personality help her to deal with everyday issues.

Her analytical view and her perfectionist side help her to improve the product and any problem it may encounter. Her constant desire to improve, foster success, and provide a quality product that will help people find a job are key in the resolution of conflicts.

Diana believes that hard work and constant improvement through learning and experience are two of the most important steps in making a better

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product. Listening to the customers is also vital in product improvement.

Participating in world-class events such as the MWC18, or the Websummit, is a good way to get feedback about how the product is doing, and team TinkerLink was fortunate to be able to learn from their experience in such events, but as well, about receiving feedback directly from their more than 50k active users in the Mexican market.

Vision and Core Values of TinkerLink The most important goal for TinkerLink is helping people find a job; this is priceless. Apart from that, TinkerLink is looking to increase its downloads and engagement and expand the number of tinkers and clients. TinkerLink also wants to expand their market presence to the US/Hispanic markets, continue to grow in Mexico, and explore their options in the Asian market.

“We highly encourage people to find a good paying job and want to help entrepreneurs. We have broken the mold surrounding the traditional ways of finding jobs. We are bringing word of mouth to the online world. We help people to create their own business opportunities. If you are a tinker, why not work on your own, at your own pace, and become your own boss?” asserts Diana.

Journey to Success When Diana and her team thought of the concept of TinkerLink, one of the biggest issues they had was to find the right talent, so they start reaching out to people they used to work in the past and getting referrals until today they have a fantastic team that helped them get there. The second big issue was to release the product to the market, people didn’t know about TinkerLink,

‘‘

We highly

encourage people to find a good paying job and

‘‘

THE

want to help entrepreneurs

so they had something of an uphill battle when it came to expressing the concept of trust as the essence of their brand. It was also a challenge to start adding tinkers to the app and clients to use it to find a tinker to do a specific service. But with hard work, competent workers and data analysis, these were solved. This is how team TinkerLink managed to grow the app.

Future Roadmap of TinkerLink TinkerLink’s goal is to keep growing and increasing client satisfaction by focusing on the trust in the service and the quality of the product. In order to achieve this, they surround themselves with quality motivated and competent workers who help them to stay on top of the latest industry trends and keep learning and improving every day.

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How to innovate an

industry:

e telecommunication sector and the software defined network revolution

M

ultinational enterprise today are facing a huge range of challenges as digitization, globalization and new IT solutions call for innovative network solutions.

According to Gartner, around 80% of employees and customers are served in branch offices. And a survey done by research company Populus shows that even 41% of small and medium companies say, they do business in countries outside their own.

Enterprises thus need to interconnect sites and workforces around the globe with greater flexibility and agility than ever before.

In addition, new cloud-based applications are driving demand for greater connectivity and higher bandwidths with premium network performance and security. According to a survey done by Gartner, the worldwide public cloud service market grew by 18% in 2017. And market researchers from Cisco see an increase of global business IP traffic by 21% until 2021. Thus, enterprises need new data connectivity services to cope with the increasing network requirements.

A sharing economy approach to provide a “one-stop-shop” experience for enterprises Many global companies we talk to have a growing international presence or customer base, and they need a secure approach to connect their

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worldwide operations. Most of the time they are relying on several service providers to deliver the needed services. But this procurement set-up often makes e.g. the addition of new sites or changes to an existing network connection complicated and slow.

Instead of having to negotiate, obtain, and manage disparate connectivity from various providers, it would be much better, if one trusted partner could manage and operate the complete data connectivity services as a “one-stop shop” for all global network needs of a company. And this is exactly, why we have initiated an alliance of leading service providers and founded ngena. ngena stands for »Next Generation Enterprise Network Alliance« and is an alliance of global telecommunications providers that are joining forces in a shared economy model to offer a solution that can overcome the customer challenges described above.

Founded in early 2016, ngena has seen more than 17 strong international partners around the globe joining the alliance. Founded by Deutsche Telekom, CenturyLink, Reliance Jio and SK Telekom, the alliance has now grown to include several new telecom partners such as A1, Altice with SFR and Portugal Telecom, Expereo, KPN, MTN, Neutrona, Starhub, Telus, PCCW Global and VEON plus technology partners Cisco, Comarch

and Equinix.

Software-define networks – much more than a hype From a technology perspective, the alliance provides a central cloud platform that merges the local networks of all alliance partners, forming a single global Software Defined Wide Area Network (SDWAN). The architecture is based on sharing the local network assets using cloud and virtualization technology to provide hybrid VPN services with additional service options (e.g. network optimization services, security services etc.). Thus, all local partners can deliver performant and secure data connectivity services to their end customers on a global scale.

Enterprises benefit from this approach in many ways: on the one hand they get a global network service which is secure, stable, scalable and easy to use; on the other hand, they profit from the local access and local care of their regional telecommunication provider.

One of ngena’s technology partners is US technology giant Cisco. Cisco has been working with the alliance from the start to design and build the service delivery platform behind ngena. The platform is powered by technologies that feature high-performance cloud infrastructure, layered orchestration for end-to-end seamless automation, service assurance, virtual network

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Expert’s Viewpoint functions, and customer premise equipment portfolio. Combined with Cisco’s newly acquired Viptela SD-WAN technology, this platform enables ngena to offer enterprises cost-effective and reliable business network services. The ngena solution is designed to meet customer requirements for single sourcing of service providers for global enterprise network services, faster service roll-out at any location in the world, and predictable end-to-end service level agreements.

What is also special about this model is that the Cisco technology integrates with a third-party Business and Operations System (B/OSS) developed by software company Comarch. With the help of this cloud platform, all alliance partners can configure and manage the global networks of their customers centrally. Thus, they can change network configurations, add new accesses or make fast changes to existing networks with a tip of a mouse click.

The transformation has just begun The potential power of the ngena approach is really impressive. It’s a transformative initiative that combines an innovative business model, strong industrial partnerships, a cloud-first, software-based technology platform, and a high degree of process automation. Together those attributes enable ngena and its alliance partners to uniquely address the needs of multinational enterprises and leapfrog the classic competition.

About

e Author

Dr. Marcus Hacke, Founder & Managing Director ngena Gmb Marcus developed the idea and concept for ngena and is the Managing Director of ngena since its foundation in February 2016. He has worked for T-Systems since 2004, holding a number of managerial positions in Delivery, Sales and Product Management. In these roles, his responsibilities included global provisioning and operations of telecommunications solutions as well as the development of a global telecommunications portfolio.

Before joining T-Systems, Marcus spent seven years as a business consultant with McKinsey & Company, focusing on the IT and telecommunications industries. He holds a doctorate in physics.

| March 2018

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