6^th June 2008

Just a week ago, I stepped out of the warm embracing arms of the corporate sector and took a whiff of fresh air as a free man. It tasted exhilarating! Somewhat akin to the first few seconds in a bungee jump – fear, excitement, anticipation, sense of freedom and a feeling of limitless possibilities.

Having spent over a decade in telecom operations, I found that I had often struggled with various operational challenges, and often wanted a forum dedicated to the needs of the operational professional, the one who is actually putting all those fancy technologies into production and struggling with how to increase revenue and cut costs while at the same time, increasing customer loyalty (the holy grail of the service provider!)

So I spent some time on the net, trying to seek out operational forums and blogs. I did come across many interesting sites, but could not find what I was looking for. One blog index in particular – I would like to recommend http://www.voipnow.org/2008/05/top-100-telecom-industry-blogs.html . This is an index that carries reference to 120 telecom blogs.

One thing that stands out is that they are all what I would call – “object oriented blogs” some specifically focussing on the telecom technologies, some on the handsets, some on the technological features that are just coming on the horizon. Therefore, all of them carry specific topical focuses, mostly technological.

But where does the practical, operational telecom manager go to seek insights, perspectives, comparisons, advice on things like customer lifecycle management, customer experience management, retention of customers, revenue, channel partners and employees, B2B Account Relationship Management, B2C Channel Management, Segmentation techniques, how to get the maximum out of your Business Intelligence and a host of other topics?

Hence this blog on ‘Operational Challenges in Asian telecom’ where the above challenges will be discussed, with the accent being on “real” which means that real challenges will be discussed and real, implementable possible solutions brought out.

The only way this is going to be of value to all is if it is interactive. So please write in with your comments, criticism, requests or whatever else comes to mind!

• Anupam