[December 04, 2012]

World's Leading Service and Solution Providers Forge Path to Open Digital Economy

Management World Americas 2012 - As the market for enterprise digital services gathers pace, TM Forum today announced the launch of its Open Digital Economy Group, a new action group formed to address the challenges of delivering reliable, secure and scalable enterprise digital services. Comprising nine of the world's largest service and solution providers, the group will provide strategic guidance and executive support for TM Forum's recently launched Digital Services Initiative which focuses on overcoming the end-to-end management challenges of complex digital services, enabling an open and vibrant digital economy.

Already, Accenture (News - Alert), China Mobile, France Telecom-Orange, IBM, Microsoft Corp., Oracle, Telecom Italia, Telefónica Digital and Telstra have joined the group with the goals of providing executive guidance and support, including strategic direction and consultation; representing company and ecosystem interests to help shape TM Forum's Digital Services Initiative; and acting as representatives for the initiative within their company and the broader industry as a whole, encouraging broader engagement and support.

With a global presence, TM Forum's Open Digital Economy Group will drive the Digital Services Initiative to:

• Accelerate the development of open, interoperable enterprise-grade digital services built on flexible cloud and network platforms;
• Develop easy-to-manage multi-partner, multi-cloud service platforms to optimize end-to-end service integration across the ecosystem;
• Collaborate across the ecosystem to agree on transparent language, KPIs and best practices for enterprise-grade digital services that consistently exceed customer expectations.

"The first decade of the digital revolution focused on the consumer, and the next will focus on the consumerization of the enterprise," said Nik Willetts, chief strategy officer, TM Forum. "Enterprise-grade digital services ranging from enterprise IT-as-a-Service, to eHealth, Smart City and machine-to-machine are transforming companies and entire industries. But these services demand new levels of security, reliability and service assurance. Delivering these requirements necessitates an ecosystem that works together-and our Open Digital Economy group brings together industry leaders to do just that."

Separately today at Management World Americas, TM Forum released its latest Frameworx adoption survey results combined with the latest release of Frameworx 12.5; and the appointment of several new board members from across the digital services ecosystem. Please see TM Forum's News Room for the latest news from Management World Americas.

Supporting Quotes:

"Success in digital services demands collaboration across the ecosystem: communications service providers delivering innovative services through partnerships," said Monte Hong, managing director, Communications Industry Group, Accenture. "TM Forum has a key role to play in uniting the industry to overcome the end-to-end management challenges for new services, and we're proud to join the Open Digital Economy Group to help make this happen."

"As the Chinese communications market begins to mature, we see digital services as a significant opportunity for growth," noted Mr. Liu Aili, executive vice president and board member, China Mobile Communications. "TM Forum and the Open Digital Economy Group will play a key role in leading the communications industry to a successful future in digital services."

"Things are moving very rapidly in the new digital economy," said Pascal Viginier, group chief information officer, France Telecom-Orange. "It is key to keep an open ecosystem where all service providers can play a role in the value chain and deliver a compelling and secure user experience for these new services. France Telecom-Orange strongly supports the TM Forum's Open Digital Economy Group and Digital Services Initiative."

"Enterprise digital services will unlock the next wave of IT rationalization, and represent a very real opportunity for new growth in the communications sector," said Scott Stainken, general manager, IBM (News - Alert) Global Telecommunications Industry. "As a long standing member of TM Forum, we're pleased to support the Open Digital Economy Group and its efforts to enable a vibrant ecosystem for digital services."

"This initiative is important to help address challenges and deliver on the promises of the new digital ecosystem. Software, services and devices must be able to work together seamlessly," said Bob De Haven, general manager, Worldwide Communications and Media Industries, Microsoft (News - Alert). "TM Forum's Open Digital Economy Group is designed to bring stakeholders together and achieve the consensus needed to move forward."

"The digital revolution creates significant growth opportunities for the communications industry, but it also changes the rules of the game," noted Bhaskar Gorti, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle (News - Alert) Communications. "As a leader in open interoperability and long-standing advocate of collaboration, Oracle strongly supports the goals of the Open Digital Economy Group and is eager to participate."

"Digital has the potential to empower our customers to do things differently and drive huge efficiencies in the way we operate. We believe to do that requires open ecosystems and open access to digital services built on partnerships and open innovation," said Brendan O'Rourke, chief information officer, Telefónica (News - Alert) Digital. "TM Forum's Open Digital Economy Group is an essential step toward driving the consensus needed to make that happen."

About TM Forum:

TM Forum is a global, non-profit association focused on enabling service provider agility and innovation. As an established thought-leader in complex service management, the Forum serves as a unifying force across industries, enabling more than 900 member companies to solve critical business issues through access to a wealth of knowledge, practical tools, best practices and standards.

The Forum provides a fair and safe environment for collaboration across the value-chain to overcome the barriers to a vibrant, open digital economy. We help member companies of all sizes gain a competitive edge by enabling efficiency and agility in their IT and operations while protecting competitive differentiation. For more information, visit www.tmforum.org.

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