Elizabeth Hair

Help Desk Today: How has the pandemic changed the modern Help Desk?

Monday, April 25th 9:45am to 10:15am

The Help Desk we see today isn’t the same Help Desk that many companies had in place just two to three years ago. The pandemic has drastically changed how we support end users. As end users transitioned to working remotely, Help Desks had to pivot and learn how to support end users who are now working from home (WFH). Many organizations were not previously accustomed to this environment. Pandemic or not, end users still desire a seamless support experience. How do we overcome these challenges and adapt to the new work force?. 3 Key Takeaways:

• Maintaining help desk excellence for WFH support.
• Creating seamless experiences for our end users.
• Improving asset management practices to anticipate hardware needs.

Business Impact: Driving Results

Wednesday, April 27th 10am to 11am

Glenn Leatherwood, Felicia Spratley-Mills, Michael Loggins, and David Middleton host this enterprise panel discussion. This moderated panel explores the impact of technology and on business results. Panelists will share business impact success stories and lessons learned to inspire telecom, mobility, and IT management professionals to rethink the status quo and innovate in their organizations.

Are You IoT Ready?

Monday, April 25th 9:45am to 10:15am

The hype on the Internet of Things (IoT) is at its peak; the reality is that most companies today are still in learning mode on IoT.  Mobile network operators, systems integrators, hardware vendors and software providers are all using the hype surrounding IoT to drive new revenue streams and help their enterprise customers digitally transform their businesses. Recent research from James Brehm & Associates found that while over 70% of enterprises are working on IoT, fewer than 18% of deployments could be viewed as successful. And this means enterprises are looking for help and clarity, now more than ever before.

This session will define IoT, explain the IoT value chain, point out members of the IoT stack and where they add value, discuss the current state of the market, describe the five greatest challenges in IoT today — lack of people with required skills, security, can’t prove the RoI, interoperability/integration, data ownership and appropriate data use—that companies must resolve before launch and how companies are resolving these concerns by means of internal and external relationships. It will highlight how IoT is being deployed, showcase successful use cases as well as point out examples of what not to do. Finally, the session will feature the basics on conducting a readiness assessment followed by Q&A.

For participating in the session, participants will receive access to valuable market research on the State of the Industry and a copy of James Brehm & Associates IoT Readiness Assessment.</p>

5 Ways to Cut Costs and Maximize UCaaS Value

Tuesday, April 26th 9am to 9:30am

Are you trying to manage the cost and deployment of rapidly expanding UCaaS tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams or RingCentral? Gain an understanding of the current marketplace, who the top UCaaS vendors are and their strengths and weaknesses. Hear 5 business-critical ways to cut costs and optimize your UCaaS strategy today!

Business Value of Cloud Service Transition

Monday, April 25th 10:30am to 11:00am

As businesses start to see increased demand from clients for “As a Service “software products , Experian embarked on this journey 5 years ago to penetrate in to a new segment of clients where their primary demands from providers like Experian were driven by:

• Speed, Flexibility, Agility.
• “Out of the box” set up process drives faster implementation.
• ability to increase or decrease capacity.
• Access anywhere via Web browser, mobile device, etc.
• Lower upfront investment: little to no capital investment required.

The transition from “ product “ to “ service “ , from “ On prem “ to “cloud “ powered by the ubiquity of cloud services provided by likes of AWS , Microsoft and others , fueled a Go To Market strategy with a completely new suite of use cases offered as a service to mid tier clients executed on top of a state of the art cloud native platform which brings value to the clients and fulfills the need of speed , agility and lower upfront cost. This session will provide an overview of the transition journey , with the technology drivers and business imperatives , combined with a complete transformation of the software development and delivery lifecycle to become truly “ Agile “ in the age of cloud native software where continuous delivery of new features to clients in a seamless manner becomes the key business differentiator in a fiercely competitive marketplace.

Manish will also be part of Illustrations in Operational Excellence enterprise panel discussion.

The status quo for enterprise telecom features little to no provider and price transparency, manual workflows, error-prone installations, and in many cases poor customer support. Whether enterprises are sourcing large-scale telecom solutions for internet, WAN, colocation and/or voice across many locations or expanding individual facilities, the process can be costly and time consuming. In this session, industry experts, Dennis Thankachan, CEO and Co-Founder of procurement software platform Lightyear, and Lightyear customer Neil Chatterjee, CEO and Co-Founder of Andrena, discuss best practices and recent trends in telecom procurement informed by data-driven insights from both of their respective industry vantage points. Also, during the session we’ll briefly introduce Lightyear, the first software platform that allows enterprises to buy and manage their global telecom footprint online.

Key Discussion Points:

• How enterprises procure and manage telecom solutions today (internet, WAN, colocation, voice)
• Pros and cons of various different approaches to telecom procurement – direct procurement, indirect procurement (agent channel), aggregator approach, and more
• Best practice observations, informed by data on cost and long-term customer NPS
• Recent trends in telecom procurement – what are enterprises buying, what are they getting rid of
• Demonstration of Lightyear’s “Procurement Engine” and “Network Inventory Management” software platform

Elevating Your Brand and Developing Your Team to Deliver Optimal Results

Monday, April 25th 1:15pm to 2:15pm

When people in your organization think about you and your team, what thoughts come into their minds? The common impressions they have as a population represent the brand you and your team have created. Your brand impression may be positive or negative (just like for big companies) depending on the common experiences people have when they interact with you or your team. If there isn’t much commonality it means your internal market is confused and your team has failed to make a distinct impression. A strong positive brand will help you to get things done more effectively because it establishes expectations, enhances trust, and influences results. Join us as Yolanda Smith, Certified Brand Analyst, explores answers to three critical questions that will unlock new perspectives empowering telecom, mobility, and IT management professionals to elevate business results.

• What is your personal brand?
• How does a personal brand contribute to team branding?
• How do personal and team brands influence business results?

Breaking Away from POTS Lines. The Options, ROI, and a Successful Transition Strategy

Tuesday, April 26th 9am to 9:30am

Many Enterprises are still straddled with hundreds, or even thousands of POTS lines scattered throughout their organization. Providers continue to claim that they are going to cancel all POTS line services. At the very least, their costs will continue to rise. Replacement can be a monumental task and could involve some investment but there can be an ROI as well as a more reliable solution depending upon several factors. Join us as we discuss POTS line replacement options, their impact, and how to make a transition successful.

Business Impact: Driving Results

Wednesday, April 27th 10am to 11am

Glenn Leatherwood, Felicia Spratley-Mills, Michael Loggins, and David Middleton host this enterprise panel discussion. This moderated panel explores the impact of technology and on business results. Panelists will share business impact success stories and lessons learned to inspire telecom, mobility, and IT management professionals to rethink the status quo and innovate in their organizations.

Diversity of Thought in IT

Wednesday, April 27, 3:00 – 3:30pm

It is no secret that the world of IT has had a long-standing diversity and inclusion problem, the result of which has lasting implications for justice and fairness while simultaneously producing flaws in the industry’s own products.

The weaknesses highlighted by the homogeneity of the tech industry create massive roadblocks to our opportunities for innovation and equity alike. A deliberate, focused effort to include diverse thoughts and backgrounds in the decision-making process enables leaders to explore missing viewpoints and helps to eliminate blind spots in project planning and strategic business developments.

Join Mike Loggins for an in-depth discussion about intentionality in recruiting diverse teams with unique lived experiences. From creating space for women and BIPOC to lead to engaging neurodivergent individuals in the IT field, the inclusion of diverse thoughts and backgrounds allows leaders to access untapped opportunity for their organizations.

Michael will also be part of the Business Impact: Driving Results enterprise panel.

Be Ready to Stay Productive During a Business Disruption

Tuesday, April 26th 9:45am to 10:15am

Business Continuity is an organization’s ability to continue critical business operations at predefined levels throughout a disruptive event. If you work remotely, your organization depends on you to help maintain the continuity of commercial operations. Take your emergency and continuity preparedness role seriously by acting now, so you will be productive during and after a business interruption. In this talk, Linda Bell, IBM Security BISO Advisor, will share actions you can take to strengthen your Personal Business Continuity posture.

• Document your personal emergency plan on a hard copy.
• Plan for contingency internet connectivity access if your home service goes down.
• Harden your home networks.
• Don’t share your work devices with your kids or other family members.

Linda will also be part of Illustrations in Operational Excellence enterprise panel discussion.

Digital Transformation is Not About the Technology

Monday, April 25th 11:15 am to 12:15pm

IoT and connected products are changing every aspect of business. The number of connected devices in 2021 grew 9% to 12.3 billion. Cellular IoT grew to 2 billion devices alone. The financial impacts have been well documented. Digital leaders outperform their peers by 22%! So then, why do 73% of all digital projects fail to produce the expected value? In this session we will walk through a well-defined process, that when followed, ensures a technology project is successfully implemented, producing the expected value. We will explore numerous real project examples to better understand what to do and potential pitfalls to avoid. We will explore these fundamental concepts:

• How to answer the most important question: “What is the cost if we do nothing.”
• Remembering that digital transformation is really human transformation.
• Project fundamentals: Value – Action – Information – Data Process – People – Technology, in that order.

Through all of this, remembering that there is no digital strategy. Just a strategy in a digital age!

Technology Impact on Invoice Tracking

Monday, April 25th 9:45am – 10:15am

Managing and monitoring invoices is critical in telecom wireline inventory management. With the industry transition away from legacy technologies, there is a tremendous need for tracking different technologies under the umbrella of wireline services.

POTS-in-a-Box, DIA, etc., while not traditional wireline services, often replace these services and require tracking for technology management and optimization purposes within a cloud-based management platform. This session is designed to explore that necessary transition and how to build and maintain these new types of inventory.

Illustrations in Operational Excellence

Tuesday, April 26th 1:30pm to 2:30pm

Mike Mehterian, Doug Rabold, Manish Arora, and Linda Bell host this enterprise panel discussion. This moderated panel explores technology management center of excellence performance. Panelists will share operational excellence success stories and lessons learned to inspire telecom, mobility, and IT management professionals to take action and optimize technology management performance in their organizations.

TEM Consolidation: Achieving Efficiency and Savings

Monday, April 25th 10:30am to 11am

General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) began 2020 facing a massive TEM consolidation project. In a holistic view, GDIT was challenged with several moving parts, which included three TEM solutions (two ran in-house and one by a third party), a financial system alignment, supporting SMEs aligned to two different departments, and differing payment methodologies. Over the course of the year, GDIT consolidated to a single TEM solution and financial system.

Results? Measured reduction in annual platform costs and circuit spending, as well as the opportunity to add automation of invoices. Join David Middleton as he shares his approach to the project and lessons learned along the way.

David will also be part of the Business Impact: Driving Results enterprise panel.

Market Trends

Tuesday, April 26th 9:00am – 9:30am

Each year, Tangoe Advisory Services works alongside hundreds of clients, helping enterprises to understand their network services, renegotiate their telecom, mobile, and cloud agreements and optimize their networks configurations. During this session, we will review key network service and pricing trends, shifting buying behaviors, and industry dynamics that companies will face in 2022 as they continue to work toward more efficient, flexible and cost-effective IT environments.

Service Management Disrupted!

Tuesday, April 26th 9:45am to 10:15am

In this age of disruption, long-held standards everywhere are falling and being replaced. It is no secret that of the two largest retailers in the world, one carries no stock and the other has no brick-and-mortar storefronts. It’s commonly known that the largest transportation for hire company today owns no fleet of vehicles and that the largest accommodations provider owns no properties. Closer to our world, project management was bitten by the disruption bug as Agile practices gained popularity. Yet the tried-and-true framework – ITIL – that guided IT Service Management for three decades remained largely unaffected until recently. The last few years have seen the rise of new frameworks and methodologies – DevOps, Business Relationship Management, VerISM, and finally ITIL4 – that are poised to disrupt our industry. What’s the key difference between traditional IT Service Management and these new approaches? The answer is “Customer engagement that delivers clear business value.” Service Management under the traditional ITIL framework – v3 and earlier – had happened behind the scenes – Service Management by IT focused on IT. The processes were opaque to the service consumer. These new approaches bring the technology consumer not just into the conversation but welcome them as active participants in the practice.

This approach – Enterprise Service Management – is the future, and the future is now! Join Doug for an exploration of how your team can evolve along with the frameworks. Key takeaways include:

• Disruption in our industry has arrived in the form of new methodologies.
• Service Management is no longer strictly the realm of IT.
• IT needs to evolve to be more people-centric.

Doug will also be part of Illustrations in Operational Excellence enterprise panel discussion.

E911 in the Enterprise: Understanding the Legal Implications, the Technology, and the Options

Monday, April 25th 10:30am to 11am

This session will cover the questions that have come up due to the recent Kari’s Law legislation and the Ray Baum’s Act for dispatchable location requirements for enterprises. These requirements relate to accessing direct lines and pinpointing locations and have been established to accelerate emergency responses. What challenges might you encounter in reaching compliance? We will cover this along with technologies available to assist you along the way.

Effective Vendor Management to Build Long-Term Strategic Value

Tuesday, April 26th 9:45am to 10:15am

Successful vendor management is critical to strengthening your business and achieving strategic goals. Strong vendor management is a two-way relationship that allows for collaboration, problem-solving, and risk management while driving a competitive advantage for your company. “Partnership” isn’t a word that should be thrown around in a QBR and then not lived out in meetings, emails, and interactions after the fact.

But why is that important? Shouldn’t a vendor give you the best price possible and do what you ask simply because they want your business? Sure, until you need them to think outside the box, get creative, go the extra mile, get strategic. Hear tactics for building successful relationships with vendors, leveraging tools like scorecards and KPIs that take conversations beyond the attendee list and give your vendors the leverage they need to be effective, acting as a conduit within their organizations to achieve goals on your behalf. Discover how open communication can help you learn each other’s business to build strong partnerships that bring long-term value.

A telecom, mobility, and IT management industry thought-leader, patent inventor, and best practice architect with 30+ years of experience helping customer drive better business results. Timothy is responsible for leading the content team responsible for developing training, certifications, publications, and industry standards and supporting all association members and member events.

5G, IoT, and Edge Computing in the Real World

Tuesday, April 26th 2:45pm to 3:15pm

Let’s take the marketing hype out of the equation and walk thru the real-world use cases by industry currently available and on the horizon with 5G, Internet of Things, and Edge Computing.