Welcome to Comms Vision 2012

Comms Value Chain

For the last 7 years Comms Vision has helped directors of communications channel companies keep abreast of the latest thinking, ideas and business opportunities as the industry has transformed into an IP world.
Now is the time to define how Comms channel organisations need to re-evaluate who and what they are and their role and value to their clients.
Over the years most forward thinking communications organisations have used the 'Value Chain' model to understand and build their competitive advantage. However, having gone through the trauma and transformation of the last few years, it is time for most of them to reassess and re-evaluate what the 'Value Chain' is in today's world and what it means to them.
Comms Vision 2012 will therefore address this issue as its main theme this year and attempt to define for the channel their 'Comms Value Chain'.

Keynote: 'LTE: Why? When? Who? And so what?'
Our opening keynote this year will be delivered by Steven Hartley, Practice Leader, Telco Strategy at Ovum and will address the hot topic of 4G/LTE (Fourth Generation / Long Term Evolution) following Ofcom's announcements at the beginning of October. Steven will give delegates an insight into the telcos plans for LTE and how that will affect what services the market can expect.

Open Session 1 - Defining the new Comms Value Chain
Our first Open Session this year will focus on the way new business models are redefining the go to market strategy of many organisations. In particular it will address what are now being termed 'the ages of the customer, the cloud and the platform', as collaboration, partnerships and social networking stretch and re-model our business thinking.
The speakers from TalkTalk Business and Cisco will give their views on the relevance of a value chain to communications channel companies and how that might look in the future.
They will address the role of the comms channel over the next few years, the new expectations of customers and define what they see as the key elements of the Comms Value Chain.

Guest Speaker - From Complexity to Simplicity
Our opening talk for day two will be delivered by Melvin Jay, co-author of the book 'from Complexity to Simplicity' and Founder and CEO of the Simplicity Partnership.
Having looked on day one about the changes that are happening and how the Comms Value Chain is changing it is important that before we move on to the issue of creating Competitive Advantage that we understand how to manage and control the increasing complexity of our businesses.
"The competitive environment is becoming more complex and unpredictable, and senior managers have no control over the underlying trends, from globalisation to technological change. The most damaging kinds of complexity, however, come from within."

Open Session 2 - Creating Competitive Advantage
In the age of mobility, the cloud, collaborative applications and managed services, where competitors could be former partners, suppliers or organisations you have never seen before, how does the comms channel create its competitive advantage.
In this session speakers from Gamma and O2 will give their views on how the comms channel can create a competitive advantage in this complex marketplace. In particular they will show how, using a 'Comms Value Chain' model, the channel can sustain that competitive advantage.

Open session 3 – Selling is Changing
The current era of IT is often referred to as 'post product', defined by managed services and hosted solutions. This begs the question 'what is the role of the salesperson?' when the capital equipment sales model is no longer the norm.
Are 'farmers' now more important than 'hunters'? How does self service and social networking affect the sales cycle and how do you set sales targets and commission structures.
Our lead speaker in this session will be Gary Stimson, Director of Larato, authors of the 'Hidden Sales Cycle'. Following Gary we will have a speaker from Outsourcery before inviting other panel members to debate the issue. Could be our liveliest session.

Special Session - Developing a distinct and differentiated customer experience
Our speaker for this special session is Andrew McMillan, Principal at Engaging Service, and formerly responsible for developing John Lewis Partnership's market-leading culture and attitude towards customer service and sales.
In his talk Andrew will touch upon, organisational development to deliver enhanced customer service, defining and shaping organisational culture, effective internal communications, fun at work to improve commercial success and productivity, leadership and customer service and selling though service and relationships.

Comms Value Chain Defined?
Our final session of Comms Vision 2012 will be presented by Content Director, John Chapman, who will review whether the event has really defined the new Comms Value Chain. He will also give his views on the subjects covered throughout Comms Vision 2012.

The Delegate Debates
For the first time at Comms Vision we will be adding some special sessions that allow delegates the opportunity to air their views on some of the topics we have covered in the Open Sessions. We will be taking over the last boardroom session on day 2 and running three separate sessions titled:
      • New Value Chain - driven by age of customer?
      • The reality of creating competitive advantage
      • Who is selling now?
These sessions will be moderated by our event content managers, and delegates will have the opportunity to debate and discuss ideas with the sponsors who have been presenting or been on panels throughout the event.

Content subject to change