What do carriers want from software companies? This is the question the Telecom Council tries to answer each year at its annual TC3 event. “All year long software companies take their ideas to you,” conference organizer Derek Kerton told the carriers today. “Once a year we get to hear from you directly about what you want —what your gaps are, where you need to find innovation, where you are seeking partnerships.”
Partnerships are the goal for the software innovators that attend TC3. On Day One of the event, the Telecom Council selected nine companies to present to a carrier panel that included AT&T, Sprint, BT, Telefonica, Orange, and Singtel Innov8 Ventures. Each company had just five minutes to make its pitch. The presenting companies were Guavus, Keypoint Technologies, Devicescape, Altobridge, 2600HZ, Calient Technologies, Jamcracker, Innopath Software, and Jolata. At the end of the presentations, Telecom Council president Liz Kerton asked the carrier representatives to raise their hands if they planned to follow up with at least one of the companies. All six hands went up, a first for this event, which Kerton said had an 80% indicated “followup rate” from the carriers last year.
Next the conference addressed the issue of the vendor as a path to market for software companies. Attendees noted that software companies who successfully generate interest from a carrier often find themselves directed by that carrier to work with a specific equipment vendor, and there the sales process begins anew. Representatives from Ericsson, NSN, Juniper, Genband, and Qualcomm Atheros advised software companies to find an advocate within the vendor company and to make sure that their presentation pitches were based on demonstrable technology rather than two-dimensional presentations.
Companies that have successfully navigated the path from pitch to partnership addressed the group next. One panel member bluntly advised the software companies in the audience not to fall into the arms of an equipment vendor if their software could eventually represent competition for that vendor. “It’s not in their interest to promote a cheaper, better solution,” he said.
In terms of software for mobile subscribers that is currently generating carrier interest, mobile health was a theme that came up frequently. Sprint in particular mentioned a strong interest in this area, and in the data that mobile health apps can generate. When asked about how it hopes to monetize this data Sprint said that strategy is still evolving.
See also: Dancing with elephants – Startups step out with carrier partners
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