Welcome to PR Vibes™, created by Calysto Communications to provide you with key insights into the publications and events in the telecommunications industry. Today, we’re featuring a short interview with Tim McElligott, editor-in-chief, Billing & OSS World. To help you better understand B/OSS’s focus, we asked Tim to share some of his insight on the magazine, the tradeshow, and on the future of telecommunications in general.
This is truly one of the best interviews we’ve conducted with an Editor-in-Chief. Tim is articulate and funny and true to the tone we hope to deliver to you via these Q&As. We hope you enjoy this as much as we did!
PR Vibes Interview Q&A
What is the editorial mission of the publication, and how has it evolved?
The editorial mission of B/OSS is to be the primary source of news and information for the community of business and operations support system professionals in the telecom industry and to highlight the important and often unsung role that software solutions and services play in making the telecom network everything it is and could be. That includes the people that make it all happen.
How long have you been at the helm of Billing & OSS World?
It’s okay to call it B/OSS (sounds like boss). I came to Virgo Publishing in January 2008, four short months before the first Virgo-produced Billing & OSS World Conference & Expo in Chicago. So the show coming up in Washington DC next June 9-11 will be my third (see how I slipped that in?) As it turns out, I came here just before the economic downturn. We have weathered it pretty well here, so I am looking forward to sunny skies ahead.
What are you charged with accomplishing?
My charge is to grow the magazine and the trade show to a size and depth commensurate with the importance of the back office itself. That means broadening the scope of coverage to include a better balance of both BSS and OSS and all the expanded roles they have begun to play in recent years.
Ten years ago, real-time charging wasn’t on the radar. Customer experience? What was that? Customer profiling and mobile advertising? Who knew? So I am charged with maintaining the relevance of our coverage and identifying important trends and the people and companies leading them. I’d also like to broaden the geographic reach of both the magazine and the trade show. We are well on our way to doing that as half the online readership of our Web site is from outside the U.S. And the 700 members in our LinkedIn group include people from 47 different countries. That’s pretty awesome.
Who are the key target audiences?
Where there is a service provider, there is a back office. And where there is not a back office, there is someone else providing it as a managed service. So every company that sells communications services is our target audience. Be they traditional landline, competitive carrier, wireless, broadband, satellite, cable, wholesale, facilities based or not, we want to enlighten them about the innovation taking place in software. We write for the executive, but we like to think we’re read by the operations guys as well—and I believe we are.
What are some of the key topics you plan to cover in the next year?
While the primary functions of BSS and OSS don’t change—it’s still ordering, provisioning, activation, inventory, billing, customer care, service assurance, revenue assurance and maintenance—the ways these functions are applied and the new services they enable keep the story evolving and, dare I say, exciting. Can’t you feel the tingle?
So the topics become cloud computing, software-as-a-service, mobile data, mobile banking, interactive advertising, machine-to-machine communication, convergence and IPTV. But the essence remains BSS and OSS, because none of these new services can be turned into revenue, nor have their service levels guaranteed without the good ol’ back office.
What changes has this publication put into place (or plan to put in place) to be more effective?
It put me in place for starters. Beyond that, we have some awesome new capabilities coming soon with the implementation of a new content management system. So maybe you’ll see some B/OSS YouTube or other multimedia content. I don’t have the face for video, but we have plenty of folks at Virgo who are ready for their close-up.
One of the changes for the print publication editorially is that in each issue for 2010—and presumably beyond—we will highlight innovative solutions being implemented in various markets around the world. First up in January, for instance, is Eastern Europe. We’ve also realized the importance of community and have been tinkering with publishing various blogs on the site.
What is your vision for the future of the publication?
I have two. The first is to be a monthly, internationally renowned, 100-page print product that runs the table on ASBPE awards like Taylor Swift and Slumdog did in Country Music and films, and to have it regularly quoted by keynote speakers at all the major events as well as in Wired, Scientific American, Forbes and Rolling Stone and Popular Science. The other, well, I guess I only have one.
How has the show evolved to serve the market effectively?
The biggest news for B/OSS World is that we are collocating in 2010 with VON. Rick Martin and I are working together to blend the shows where it make sense in terms of keynote speakers and panels, but maintain our separate education tracks and focus. They are still two distinct events, but a little cross-pollination never hurt anyone. We also said good-bye to Vegas and are conducting the conferences in our nation’s capital. You can’t beat Washington, D.C. in June. We are putting our programs together now, so stay tuned for some surprises.
What other special features do you offer, ie Webinars?
B/OSS works together with xchange and VON to produce Webinars and ebooks on various topics. For example, I just did a Webinar this week sponsored by TEOCO that provided an in-depth report by the legal counsel who represented Qwest in the traffic pumping case it won against a group of service providers in Iowa, but it appears on the xchange site. We also recently did a series of eBooks that highlighted the opinions of various C-level executives across the industry on topics such as business transformation and the Road to 100G. They were done by editors from each publication, and they turned out very well. And as I said before, look for more multimedia in 2010.
What is the most popular section of your product family and why?
It might be my bias that says the print magazine is the most popular because I am partial to print, as are most journalists older than 25. And I do think it has the most personal impact on readers, particularly those that are in it. But week in and week out it has to be the B/OSS newsletter that is most popular. People have come to look for it every Thursday morning, and obviously readership spikes that day. We also get a lot of feedback through that channel because people can react immediately to a story or a blog.
What do you see as the most impacting technology/trend for the next 12 months?
Some of the biggest trends, the ones that became instant buzzwords such as SaaS and Cloud Computing, may be hot, but they will take more than 12 months to have their greatest impact. So in 2010, I think simple data will have the biggest impact. I know that sounds very dull, but the issues around it will be very big. I’m talking the business intelligence and competitiveness that will come from the proper collection and analysis of customer usage data, performance data, profile data, billing data, data warehousing, data management, data traffic volumes and shared data. How this data will be used and potentially shared will have a huge impact in 2010 on the way service providers do business and relate to their customers. IMHO.
If you could interview anyone for the publication, who would it be and why?
Given the bounds of my technology focus, I would say: (1) Peter Nixon, president of FairPoint Communications, perhaps after he’s moved on and over a beer or eight. I wouldn’t even have to ask him any questions, just let him talk and get it all out. (2) Bill Gates, just to ask what it feels like to have had such a positive impact on the world. And (3) Elizabeth Hurley, just so I can look at her while I ask, “Uh, what kind of phone do you have?”
What’s keeping you up at night?
Usually the dogs. Often a deadline. Occasionally a promise.
If you weren’t in telecom, what would you be doing?
Tending the trees in Northern California in the summer and living near the equator in winter with a beer in one hand and a telescope in the other. Occasionally, I would write me a poem.
Who do you consider a role model or inspiration?
Industry wise…Jason Meyers for more reasons than you can imagine. Rob Rich for having the fastest brain in the business; Khali Henderson for being the most organized and forthright person on the planet; and Ed Gubbins for never running out of creative ways to see and say things—he’s my favorite living technology writer. Personally, it’s Paul Kurtz, the soul of Secular Humanism; Edward O. Wilson for trying to make us care and my little brother Tom for more reasons than you can imagine.
What was the latest book you read?
I always have two books going at once. One is upstairs next to the bed; the other downstairs next to my side of the couch. My latest upstairs book is The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins. It scares me to live in a country where the majority of people deny evolution, but believe John Edward can talk to the dead. My downstairs book is by Margaret Atwood. It is called the Year of the Flood. It’s kind of a prequel to Oryx and Crake, if that tells you anything. Basically, it’s science and people gone bad and a future we may not want to think about, but should so that it never happens.