Livewire

Occasionally good fortune befalls me for timing with my blog posts. Sean Buckley had a nice piece on changing TV viewing behaviors (http://www.telecoms-mag.com/article.asp?HH_ID=AR_4518) which corresponded nicely with my attendance at the Microsoft Mediaroom Developers conference this week where I was able to see some of the newer innovation possible on their TV platform. While I saw some incredible user interfaces with interactive applications, the question really comes down to an issue of usage by the end customer. As a veteran of many discussions regarding “lean forward” or “lean back” experiences for the TV, I tend to agree more with Sean’s position regarding the need to change user behaviors before traction will occur. This is not impossible to overcome. A good parallel to draw in regards to customer uptake would be significant explosion in online video consumption where users started using the online channel when compelling content became available.

While I do understand the argument that TV is often reserved for time to relax or “zone out”, I feel there is still tremendous opportunity for interesting interactive news or sports applications which could be game changers for the TV experience. Providing non-intrusive widgets displaying friend’s status, messages or interesting statistics changes the complexion of viewing a sporting event by providing a community element. In regards to news, giving the ability to the user to immediately drill down into a particular subject provides significant value. How many times have you heard something briefly on the TV only to then have to go online to find out more information? Another intriguing use case I saw at the conference was the use of a wifi device (in this case an iPhone) to bifurcate the TV viewing experience by un-tethering from the set top box and the TV itself. The user was able to manage the full DVR functionality in addition to having a soft remote interface on the iPhone. This provides more value to the phone by making a more integral component in the customer’s lifestyle while providing easier access to TV content. Additionally, there was the ability to use games on the phone that then reflected the results on the TV screen. It was a very rich example of convergent services. In the end, some interactivity may be more popular with singular viewing (my co-watcher may not be interested in my news deeper dive), but should continue to evolve into group watching popularity as other applications are introduced around topic such as group sports.

At Infosys we are continuing to push the envelope in regards to interactive TV applications and TV deployments. Our participation with Microsoft Mediaroom is only a start and our other capabilities are reflected in our recent announcement with Bharti Airtel (http://www.infosys.com/newsroom/press-releases/2008/next-gen-DTH-Service.asp) where we are providing our own intellectual property to accelerate TV deployments. What is your experience with interactive TV?

[As a side note- Kudos to the Microsoft marketing team for doing a brilliant job in Toronto, top notch.]

Posted by Jeremy Kloubec at 03:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I feel that there are a few forces at work here. First, we are seeing a significant amount of content being made available on the internet and it is being more actively promoted for consumption (e.g. HBO, ESPN, YouTube). Fears of cannibalization are being replaced by audience expansion. Second, long tail or niche content providers are using the internet to cost effectively reach their audience which is helping to drive the total amount of content available. In the past, distribution costs would be too great to utilize TV as a delivery mechanism. Third, online video enables even better advertising options by placing pre-roll or embedded ads on the player itself to truly target consumers. Short clips can use specific ads to match the content more effectively than showing ads in a channel timeslot. Finally, consumer behavior is changing as more people are getting on the internet to view content, it is not such a tweener activity anymore.

However, online video creates a number of issues as well. The first being an interesting conundrum where the bearer of the broadband traffic typically does not benefit from online video consumption. It simply creates a larger burden on the network and the content owners do not have to pay for this additional burden which is the basis for the net neutrality debate in the US (Telco 2.0 blog does a good job dissecting this analysis for the BBC iPlayer http://www.telco2.net/blog/2008/02/bbcs_iplayer_nukes_all_you_can.html). The second issue is discovery of relevant content. Most users will not spend hours scouring for content to watch, but will go directly to destination sites for a specific show or clip they may have missed (NBC’s use of Olympic coverage is a good example http://www.nbcolympics.com/). This is where new entrants such as Videosurf are entering the market to incorporate visual discovery to make searches more relevant than relying on metadata tags put in place by an administrator.

In summary, online video is definitely on the upswing. The key will be to continue to create additional value by the content providers which complements their broadcast offering. The real issue will be the eventual showdown over payment for the infrastructure this video is delivered over. Stay tuned. Any thoughts on this subject?

Posted by Jeremy Kloubec at 06:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

As I mentioned in a previous blog entry, the current financial market conditions are pretty scary out there and I tried to review some areas of impact. In this entry, I want to cover some strategies for dealing this these problems and selling effectively in this market.

First, let’s set some basic understanding. One of the outcomes of the financial crisis has been the freezing of the short term commercial paper market, this topic was raised by Randall Stephenson the CEO of ATT in a recent interview (http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/01/news/companies/att.ap/). Large companies use commercial paper or the short term credit market to manage cash flow at low interest rates, essentially as if you would use a credit card. It keeps operations moving and projects funded. Typically there are many buyers of this commercial paper since large corporations like ATT are able to cover the loan, however many of those potential buyers have disappeared in recent weeks which has dried up the commercial paper market. While large Telcos may be stable businesses, this creates a ripple effect in regards to upcoming investment decisions since funding could be more of an issue. Now take this on a global scale and you can see it affects in many geographies.

So what does this mean for vendors selling hardware, software or professional services into these companies? You have better figure out your value proposition and return on investment to ensure continuity or future sales.  I feel there will be more investment scrutiny until the markets start to free up again. Additionally, vendors should be more focused on solutions with discrete outcomes that deliver measurable value instead of point products. End to end ownership of outcomes will be more important than a best of breed product that replies on integration to many other products to create value. Finally, risk sharing to ensure these outcomes (instead of simple low prices) will help win deals by more effectively matching cost to revenue or savings realized. One blog I have recently read focused more on quick revenue generators such as advertising, this may or may not work depending on your portfolio (http://www.xchangemag.com/blogs/telecom/blogdefault.aspx/a/economy-ravaged-invest-in-advertising-now.html/m/art).

At Infosys, we are continuing to evolve our model to provide new options to our customers in this time of market turmoil. In addition to providing high value, we are actively investing in new IP such as SaaS platforms to provide quick deployment capabilities, risk sharing models to further align ourselves with our customers and large, transformational propositions to take ownership of business outcomes instead of only point projects. We feel this will keep us ahead of the market and enable that trusted relationship with our customers. How is the market affecting you? I would like to hear your thoughts?

Posted by Jeremy Kloubec at 04:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by Jeremy Kloubec at 07:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)