Starting off on the right foot

Brent Newsome's picture
Submitted by Brent Newsome on January 9th, 2012

I’ve worked in the telecom and Internet space for a couple of decades and it isn’t uncommon that there is hesitation towards adoption of new products/software/approaches. It often seems like everyone circles around the idea and until one of the big players takes the plunge, no one else wants to be involved. So while the five largest European mobile operators have committed to adopting the Rich Communications Suite (RCS) standard, it is no surprise that the leap hasn’t happened yet, no one is ready to be the first.

Across the board there is agreement on the premise that the unified approach and enhanced features of RCS offer would enhance customer experience while the functionality and benefits could improve customer satisfaction. For mobile operators, taking this step would move them into a position of leadership, instead of taking the backseat to phone manufacturers and application developers.

So what’s stopping the horse from leaving the gate? The concerns are diverse, as are the solutions and approaches. We’ve heard from customers concerns such as: uncertainty over the business case, access to RCS clients and services, high cost of adoption and deployment and user demands. We decided that by starting a blog we could individually tackle some of these topic areas and ignite a discussion among those most invested in seeing this technology change the way we use mobile around the world.

We think that the table stakes are really around creating a solution that can get all players (regardless of customer size) into the game quickly and efficiently. A quick to market approach will allow the market place to dictate the demand, their needs and how the product will evolve. No one would have believed that a computer that once took up an entire room could fit into the palm of our hand. We are limited by our actions not our imagination. We need to stop talking and start doing. Lets make 2012 the year we get RCS out of the programmer’s heads and into the customer’s hands and lets do it together.