Every Reason to Join Comptel at #MWC17

It’s an exciting time at Comptel! Our team is counting down the days to Mobile World Congress 2017, one of the biggest events of the year.

We have so much to announce and discuss, including the release of our new book, “Nexterday: Volume III,” and the results from our new research report, “The Power of Personal.”

As the third volume in our Nexterday series, the book covers the most important steps you as a telco need to take in your digital customer and service journeys. The research, which includes an official report, eBook, infographic and videos, surveyed real mobile customers to give you a better sense of their expectations for personalisation.

If you’re heading to Barcelona, you can get your hands on a hard copy of the new book and our research report by visiting our booth in Hall 5 at Stand 5G40, or you can email [email protected] to book an individual meeting.

But, those aren’t the only reasons to meet up with Comptel at #MWC17. Here’s a few more:

We’re Hosting a Fireside Briefing with Deutsche Telekom

Telcos hear all about the importance of network innovation, but what does it really look like in practice? Our fireside briefing is the perfect opportunity to find out.

On 28 February at 6 pm, visit the Comptel booth for an in-depth panel discussion about the Deutsche Telekom Pan-Net project, which will cover everything you need to know about DT’s ambitious plan to centralise digital service production for 13 national companies in one location. The panellists include:

• Sven Hischke, Managing Director, Deutsche Telekom Pan-Net
• Iulian Stoica Petrescu, Pan-Net Enterprise Architect, Telekom Romania
• Juhani Hintikka, CEO, Comptel
• Antti Koskela, EVP Service Orchestration, Comptel
• Martin Beyer, Sales Director, Comptel

I’ll be moderating the discussion, and there will be a brief period for Q&A. The DT Pan-Net story is a really remarkable story of network innovation and disruption, so you won’t want to miss this chat.

We’re Talking Customer Engagement with Salesforce

Right after the Deutsche Telekom panel, I’ll cover off some of the top highlights of our “Power of Personal” research report, which explains how personalisation can be a difference-maker for service creation and revenue generation.

Then, Comptel EVP Intelligent Data Niilo Fredrikson and Salesforce Director of Product Management Communications Mustafa Oyumi will introduce our joint “Best Next Engagement” solution, which will provide a model and method to achieve powerful customer engagement. Don’t miss it.

We’re Hosting a Party at Esferic

Salesforce is also joining us to throw the coolest #MWC17 party in town, on Wednesday 1 March at 7 pm at Esferic. We’ll have live music, an open bar and finger food, plus plenty of networking opportunities. Tickets are free but limited to just 300 spots – be sure to follow Comptel on LinkedIn or stop by our booth to pick up your ticket!

We’re Smashing Telco Myths and Hosting #Nexterday Demos

Sick of hearing the same tired telco myths over and over? We are too, so we’re setting up a Telco MythSmasher in our booth, where you can stop by and destroy the most annoying misconceptions about service transformation and customer experience. You’ll have the chance to compete – the top three myth smashers will get a cool prize for their mobile device.

While you’re at the booth, be sure to ask for a demo of our new solutions, including:

• Digital Customer Journey – Personalised digital services, at your fingertips. Check out:
  • My Digital Moments, which leverages the capabilities of FASTERMIND and MONETIZER
  • Salesforce customer engagement powered by Comptel FASTERMIND
  • FWD, the Digital Sales Channel. An easy and contextual way for operators to boost ARPU and increase digital service consumption by selling time-based data access.
• Digital Service Journey – OSS modernisation through to full Digital Service Lifecycle Management with the FlowOne suite
• IoTed™ – An IoT-driven app that helps users answer the question “Are you well?”

Comptel is planning to make this year’s show our biggest and best Mobile World Congress yet, and we want to join the fun. Find us in Hall 5 at Stand 5G40, or email [email protected] right now to book an individual meeting.

Nexterday: Volume III: What’s your Digital Journey?

If you’re in telco, you’ve heard a lot about transformation, enough that you’re probably even sick of the word. We feel the same way, so we want to help move our industry move past the point where we talk about change and toward the point of actually creating change. Our message is simple: stop overthinking and start doing.

Our latest book, Nexterday: Volume III¸ brings this message to life. Building off our first two books – Operation Nexterday and Nexterday: Volume II – this edition introduces new thoughts, ideas, and success stories from contributors both within and outside the world of telco. The objective is to give you practical next steps to evolve and grow your business in this rapidly changing digital landscape.

We’ll be publishing all of the articles from Nexterday: Volume III on an ongoing basis at Nexterday.org, our online magazine and reader community. Visitors to our booth (Hall 5 at Stand 5G40) at Mobile World Congress 2017 can receive a hard copy – but these are limited, so make sure to stop by early to get your copy!

Here’s what you can expect from Nexterday: Volume III.

What’s your journey?

When you step back and consider digital transformation from a 30,000-foot view, you can see that operators really have two potential paths to take: the customer journey and the service journey.

The Digital Customer Journey
Telcos want to deliver a better customer experience (on average, operators have a net promoter score of 6, compared to 70 for over-the-top (OTT) service providers), and an omnichannel customer experience. So, the digital customer journey is all about the strategies, technologies and business models they take to improve the customer experience, favouring individualised engagement, marketing and sales approaches for B2B and B2C customers. This journey is all about saying “No” to bad customer engagement.

The Digital Service Lifecycle Journey
Operators today need to create, deliver and support complex “living” digital services, but existing networks are too over-built, locked-in and inflexible to support modern service creation. This journey is about the steps operators can take to change their network reality, and it involves concepts and models like virtualisation and end-to-end hybrid service delivery to achieve network flexibility and agility. This journey is all about saying “No” to the monolithic franken-systems of the past.

Most frequently, we have seen the most forward-thinking service providers embark on one of these journeys, or both at the same time.

What’s in Nexterday: Volume III

Nexterday: Volume III tells you everything you need to know to get started, or to take the next step if you’re already following either path. We brought in some of the brightest minds from within and outside telco to share their expertise and insights, including:

• Mike Walsh – a business expert who shares the simplest, most practical path to business transformation
• Jon Wolske – the customer service expert from Zappos Insights who explains how you can be, first and foremost, a customer service company (that just happens to sell digital services)
• David Meerman Scott – the sales and marketing guru who describes how real-time marketing powers a more efficient, results-driving marketing engine
• Stefan Moritz – an expert on the customer experience, who explains how the most successful customer-focused companies did it by backing up their brand story with actual action
• Stewart Rogers – the VentureBeat Insights researcher provides new data showing the biggest marketing opportunity companies are missing out on today
• Dean Ramsay – the Analysys Mason analyst writes about the important role of inventory management in network transformation
• Rich Karpinski – the 451 Research analyst breaks down the top US telcos and describes how each one is attempting to disrupt this mature market
• Fredrik Jungermann – the tefficient analyst profiles the big return of unlimited data to operator service plans, and explains how top operators around the world incorporate this benefit
• Stan Hubbard – The MEF Group director describes the two network qualities needed to offer better customer engagement and service delivery
• Mustafa Oyumi – The Salesforce exec talks about the customer engagement model operators need in a modern service environment
• Luca Decarli – the customer engagement expert describes how Saudi Telecom Company reorganized its business to deliver a higher quality of service
• Antonio Elizondo – the Telefónica exec profiles OpenSource MANO and its key role in the development of an NFV ecosystem
• Bengt Nordström – the Northstream charts the growth and future prospects of 5G connectivity
• David Ho – From Kiina Investment, David provides a fascinating look at the digital technologies that are taking shape in China
• Markku Hollström – Elisa’s IoT expert describes the ambitious IoT project that won international praise and provides an example for other telcos to follow
• Velipekka Kuoppala – the Soracom VP writes about the model telcos and businesses need to secure the IoT

We also have insights from many Comptel contributors discussing everything from IoT, rating and mediation, NFV innovation, customer engagement, plus new research into consumer desires for personalised services.

Nexterday: Volume III is a comprehensive look at the state of our industry today, but, most importantly, it provides a practical guide for you to take the next step in your digital journey. Remember, it’s time to stop overthinking and start doing. Get our book to find out how.

Meet with Comptel at Mobile World Congress to get a copy of Nexterday: Volume III. Visit our booth in Hall 5 at Stand 5G40 or email [email protected].

The Most Compelling Conversations on the Comptel Blog in 2016

In 2016, Comptel focused on extending our Nexterday message and encouraging operators to stop over-thinking and start doing what they need to do to transform their businesses. The energy and excitement we felt at Nexterday North 2016, our second annual anti-seminar, told us that many operators are doing just that, turning the big ideas they hear around the industry into game-changing results.

Here on the Comptel blog, we always want to give room for those big ideas to take shape. Let’s take a look back on some of the top pieces – and ideas – we wrote in the past year.

Enabling the Personalised Customer Journey

All operators are on a journey to better serve their customers. The activities they take in this area can be put into two categories – customer transformation and network transformation. In this piece, we explained exactly what the personalised customer journey is all about, and offered a model for how operators can win the hearts and minds of their customers.

Forget the iPhone. The Next Great UI Design Change is in OSS

The new iPhone UI looks a lot like the old iPhone UI, which tells you how iterative many of Apple’s latest updates have become. In this blog, we proposed that it’s time the OSS embraced a design overhaul, and explained exactly how the OSS of the future should look to offer the same ease of use you might expect from an iOS product.

Comptel Partnerships to Introduce Fresh Digital Service Approaches

2016 was also a busy year for Comptel and our partners. At TM Forum Live! in Nice, we were involved in three separate industry catalysts, each led by a Comptel partner. There was Telefonica’s Open Source MANO project, Orange’s sponsored data initiative, and IBM’s cloud-based networking architecture. These cross-industry initiatives are so important to Comptel because they keep us on the forefront of innovation. We want to lend our expertise in a way that benefits the entire industry, and we’re proud to stand alongside these partners in that effort.

Reimagining OSS to Enable Dynamic Digital Service Delivery

Our digital service lifecycle management (DSLM) model was a major theme for us in 2016, and in the Spring we put it to the test as part of the IBM Cloud Based Initiative. In this post, we explain exactly why and how digital service delivery needs to change to serve a new breed of digital customer.

Spectrum is the First Step. How Will Operators Next Invest in 5G?

Innovation abounds in connectivity, and 5G represents one of many emerging frontiers for investment and development. In the U.S., regulators opened up spectrum for telco experimentation, and in this post we covered the challenges that lay ahead for telcos who dipped their toes in this industry.

Sponsored Data is a Path to Revenue for Savvy Mobile Operators

Pokémon GO was a huge mobile gaming craze in the summer of 2016, and T-Mobile jumped on the buzzworthy topic by offering players one year’s worth of free mobile data exclusively to play the game. It was another example of a savvy sponsored data play that shows other operators how they creatively leverage data access to win over digital customers.

In 2016 we also launched Nexterday.org, our online magazine and reader community. You can read much more of our writing on digital transformation, customer experience and network innovation there.

Nexterday Acknowledged as a Campaign of the Year by Business Intelligence Group

For more than a year, Comptel’s Nexterday movement has pushed forward the conversation around digital transformation in telecommunications. Now, it’s exciting to see the movement catch fire outside our industry and gain recognition from leading experts in digital media and communications.

We’re honoured that Business Intelligence Group named our first book, Operation Nexterday, as one of the top campaigns of the year as part of its 2016 Public Relations and Marketing Excellence awards. The awards recognize leaders in the field of strategic communications and our book’s inclusion in the awards highlights its value in effectively communicating our vision for the future of telecommunications.

In Operation Nexterday, we set out the game plan for how operators can radically update their sales, marketing and service strategies in response to customers’ increasing digital service demands. With contributions from industry experts and Comptel thought leaders, our book challenged the current way of working and described how and why operators must change.

Though we’re proud Nexterday is being recognized worldwide, we know our work isn’t done yet. That’s why we published a second edition, Nexterday: Volume II, to dive deeper into the topic of digital transformation and offer blueprints on how operators can take the next step. That follow-up edition included even more insights from within and outside telco and set a course for how each operator can become a perfect digital company that works for and with its customers to meet their needs.

Additionally, Comptel’s 2016 plans focus on growing the Nexterday movement. Our Nexterday Tour returns this summer, when we’ll hit the road to bring our message to regional decision makers and partners in 20 cities across the world. Everything leads up to Nexterday North 2016, our encore to last year’s inaugural anti-seminar, where we plan to introduce new voices and ideas to create an even richer, more dynamic and inspiring event.

We’re thrilled to see continued excitement around Nexterday, and we’re eager to spread the word even further. To learn more about the campaign that started the movement, click here to download Operation Nexterday. You can also read articles from Nexterday: Volume II and learn more about digital transformation in telco and beyond at Nexterday.org, our online magazine and reader community.

Nexterday Volume II: A Blueprint for the Perfect Digital Company

For Comptel, the past year has been all about sharing our ideas around the digital business transformation operators must undergo to deliver perfect digital moments to customers. Now, we’re challenging operators to take the next step and put those ideas into action.

We’ve published Nexterday: Volume II, a follow-up to our previous book, Operation Nexterday. You can pick up a hard copy of the book at this year’s Mobile World Congress or download a digital version by visiting our new online magazine and community, Nexterday.org. With this edition, our goal is to help each operator become a “Perfect Digital Company,” one that works for and with its customers to enhance the digital moments that make up life.

To achieve that, operators need to open their minds to fresh ways of thinking about serving customers, taking inspiration from their counterparts across the globe and visionary, non-telco businesses that are changing the face of digitalisation.

The Customer is in Charge

Generation Cloud is, as always, at the centre of the digital struggle. B2B and B2C customers crave the autonomy to customise, configure and purchase digital services at a faster pace and on their own terms. On top of that, operators are increasingly starting to play in non-traditional markets, including connected devices, smart cities and healthcare, in both established and emerging markets.

Technology advancements – from the introduction of and ongoing management needs for virtualised network functions to the rising importance of real-time data in sales, marketing and service management – mean operators have more tools at their disposal to serve buyers’ unique interests and succeed in new verticals.

The challenge is determining how to effectively leverage these tools, while also applying the creativity and radical ideas operators need to distinguish their service at a time when customers are willing to switch digital and communications service providers at a moment’s notice. It’s not just about offering dynamic new services, but also delivering those services as part of a more pleasant and fulfilling customer experience.

Creating Perfect Digital Moments

Nexterday: Volume II describes how your business can evolve to meet the needs of a changing digital economy. The book includes:

• Inspiring real-world examples of telco and non-telco businesses that strive to offer customers extraordinary digital experiences
• Perspectives on the qualities of leading digital businesses from economist Dr. Kjell Nordström and business experts Stefan Moritz, Mark Curtis and Jeetu Mahtani
• In-depth research from analysts Stewart Rogers, Fredrik Jungermann, Caroline Chappell and Steve Bell
• Blueprints on how operators can automate their enterprise sales approach, pursue Internet of Things (IoT) service opportunities, create a richer B2C customer experience and re-engineer their back end for accelerated service delivery and enhanced digital service lifecycle management

Though we believe strongly in the themes we cover in the book, we want it to inspire a rich dialogue about the state of our digitalisation. We invite book readers to visit Nexterday.org to share their opinions and challenge our thinking. Whether you agree or disagree, we want to hear from you at Nexterday.org. Registration is simple: just sign up with your LinkedIn account.

Nexterday: Volume II, which will be available in hard and digital copies, will be officially released at our #Nexterday party on Wednesday, 24 February at 7 p.m. CET during Mobile World Congress. We’ll have live performances, an open bar and plenty of opportunities to unwind and mingle. You can pick up an exclusive ticket at the Comptel booth (stand 5G40 in hall 5). If you are not attending Mobile World Congress, you can download a digital copy of the book at Nexterday.org.

We invite you to join the movement and become a ‘Perfect Digital Company’ that serves the best interests of its customers. Nexterday: Volume II will show you how.

Why 2016 is the Year of the Perfect Digital Company

In 2015, Comptel encouraged operators to embark on their own Operation Nexterday and re-imagine their sales, marketing and service playbooks in reaction to new digital opportunities. This year, we’re asking operators to take the next step and work on designing the perfect digital company.

What does such a company look like? Broadly speaking, it’s a business that is built not only to serve customers’ unique needs, but one that seeks input from those customers to inform its decisions. In other words, the prefect digital company is built for and with its customers.

Digitalisation makes this possible. Generation Cloud demands highly personalised and instantly available services from operators, and they want more say in how these products actually serve them. That means customers want to be able to set service terms and avoid hard-and-fast tiered packaging that, for a long time, has defined the telco industry and limited service disruption.

Customers are also increasingly surrounding themselves with a variety of apps and digital content that address their needs. This digital service ecosystem includes products from traditional telcos and non-industry players like Google and Amazon, and it’s always evolving as customers add new apps or drop services that no longer excite or intrigue them.

The devices on which these services exist also play a role. The emergence of connected devices, from smartwatches to smart cars, adds a new layer – and a new level of complexity – to the digital ecosystem.

Ultimately, operators must determine how they fit into all of this. Digitalisation introduces a bevy of new consumer and network technologies for operators to leverage, and it also allows telcos to think creatively about how they can serve their customers. In a bid to become the perfect digital company, operators need to open their minds to new ways of thinking and address key growth factors in various areas of their business.

In a predictions piece for The Fast Mode, “Telco in 2016: Build the Perfect Digital Company For, and With, Your Customers,” we outlined four focus areas operators will need to address if they hope to achieve the dream of becoming a perfect digital company.

Deliver Real-Time Decisions and Automated Customer Actions

The speed at which consumers evaluate and buy digital services is faster than ever, meaning operators need to keep pace. In 2016, operators must leverage the customer behavioural data they already have, plus customer action automation technology, to create better customer experiences. The Four Cs will define these experiences: by applying the right Context, the most appropriate Content can be delivered to the right Customer through the best possible Channels.

Accelerate Product Delivery to Enable a Digital Service Ecosystem

Speed is also a critical factor when it comes to product delivery, and in 2016 operators will need to learn how to configure, test and launch services faster so that customers can build their personal digital ecosystem at a pace that works for them. To achieve this pace, operators will need to eliminate friction in the service lifecycle process, invest in tools that recognize demand quickly and embrace creative monetisation models.

Understand the Purpose of Open Network Integration

Network functions virtualisation (NFV) already forces operators to re-imagine how the network is built to serve new market realities, but it’s about more than flashy new technology. This year, operators need to recognise that the true potential of a flexible, agile network infrastructure is its ability to deliver a frictionless, dynamic and elastic service delivery experience for customers. As always, technology is supposed to serve human interests.

Embrace Data to Enable Smarter Living

Finally, operators this year must consider how the Smart Living movement will affect the development of personal digital service ecosystems. Connected devices are introducing new use cases for technology that telco may have previously lost sight of: the benefits of real-time data in improving education, the environment, personal health or global security. Operators have an important role to play in the development of these services, because they can offer the immediate data insights that power a smarter world – if they are ready to step to the plate.

To date, operators have wondered how they could leverage the industry’s megatrends to benefit their own bottom line. In 2016, many will realise that the real goal should be on working for and with their customers to improve their daily lives. In taking this fresh outlook, operators will not only better serve consumers, but they’ll also unlock routes to new revenue-driving service opportunities that will shore up their relevance in the rapidly evolving digital world.

The Most Compelling Conversations on the Comptel Blog in 2015

In 2015, Comptel challenged operators to embark on their own “Operation Nexterday” – a mission to redefine their sales, marketing, technology and service approach to better suit the demands of the tech-savvy digital natives that make up Generation Cloud. Our challenge manifested in several ways – we published a book explaining the challenge and outlining steps to achieve it, launched an event to introduce new ideas and insights, and encouraged new conversations with operators who were ready to take the jump into Nexterday.

The Comptel blog was also busy covering various aspects of the Nexterday mission. Here, we look back on the five most popular blogs we published in 2015.

Slush 2015 and Nexterday North: A One-Two Punch for Innovation

Our vision for Nexterday culminated in our first ever major anti-seminar. Nexterday North took place in the two days immediately preceding Slush – the largest startup conference in Europe – giving visitors to Helsinki a full week’s worth of fresh ideas, big announcements and new visions for the future of telco, digitalisation and business. Our most popular blog of the year got attendees excited for both events.

How a Push for NFV Standardisation Brought Comptel to ETSI

Network functions virtualisation (NFV) continued to be a hot topic in 2015, and many operators have discussed their desire to see better standardisation around the implementation of this emerging technology. In this blog, Comptel Director of Business Architecture Stephen Lacey explained how we lend our voice to the NFV standards discussion as a member of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).

Mobile World Congress Recap: 3 Key Takeaways on the Future of Mobile Communications

Last year’s Mobile World Congress was an exciting one for Comptel – that’s where we launched Operation Nexterday, our guide to how operators can rewrite their sales, marketing and service playbooks for Nexterday. The event also offered a great look into the trends that are affecting the telco industry, and in this blog post I recapped the top three takeaways I drew from the show.

Comptel, STC Partner to Train Saudi Arabia’s Future IT Leaders

One of Comptel’s most exciting stories of the year involved our work with Saudi Arabian operator STC. As a long-time customer, STC reached out to Comptel for support launching a brand-new employee training initiative. Through the four-month program, we helped train the next generation of Saudi telecommunications professionals with courses in Riyadh, Helsinki and Kuala Lumpur. We’re proud to play a role in youth IT education – read more in this blog from Comptel Senior Vice President, MEA, Mika Korpinen.

Bye Bye, Big Data – Hello Intelligent Fast Data

Big Data is a big disappointment – at least, that’s how some IT executives view it after prior data investments and initiatives felt short of lofty promises. In this blog, Comptel CTO Mikko Jarva argued that the failures of Big Data are a reflection of poor execution, and that to truly make the most of their customer data for greater business opportunities and revenue, operators need to account for every new raw data source and turn that data into real-time contextual decisions and actions. In short, it’s a push toward Intelligent Fast Data.

Learn more about our challenge to operators to evolve their sales, marketing and service playbooks for a new generation of buyer. Download and read “Operation Nexterday.”

Team Dragon’s Match & Snap App Takes Second Place at Ultrahack 2015

Last month, we told you about Mavis Wong and Chin Kang Tan, also known as Team Dragon, who wowed the judges at Comptel Hackathon 2015 with their innovative mobile retail app. Congratulations are once again in order for Team Dragon, as they took second place and a cash prize in the Next Gen eCommerce track at Ultrahack this month.

Ultrahack is a 48-hour hackathon that rewards prizes worth up to 130,000 euros to the best innovations and offers expert coaching and support from developers at some of the world’s leading companies. It’s one of many hackathons that occur in the weeks leading up to Slush, the biggest startup conference in Europe. Team Dragon first qualified for Ultrahack by winning Comptel Hackathon 2015, where they were rewarded with a first-place prize that included a full two-day pass to Slush.

Team Dragon’s app, called Match & Snap, brings the power of the Internet of Things to the retail shopping experience. The IoT-based technology immediately recognizes Match & Snap app users once they enter a store. Users then receive targeted content to improve their shopping experience, whether it’s suggestions on what to wear or information on in-store sales and bargains. There’s even a social component, so Match & Snap users can share their new outfits with friends and ask for their input.

Comptel is once again proud to offer aspiring developers – including Mavis and Chin Kang – an opportunity to share their inventiveness, creativity and intelligence with the world at major events like Nexterday North and Slush.

We’re also thrilled that Team Dragon follows in the footsteps of other Comptel representatives at recent hackathons. Rami Al-Isawi, a software engineer at Comptel, participated in this year’s Junction hackathon, another side event to Slush. He managed to win awards in two categories: The “Most Destructive Hack” and “Most Useless Hack” tracks.

Congratulations to Rami, Team Dragon, and all other participants in this year’s Comptel, Ultrahack and Junction hackathons. We look forward to seeing the innovations that these bright minds bring to the table next year!

Read more about Nexterday North or click to learn about Comptel’s latest mobile data innovation FWD.

3 Major Takeaways From #NexterdayNorth

Although Comptel’s inaugural Nexterday North has wrapped up, post-event enthusiasm hasn’t faded at all. Take a few seconds to scroll through comments on our official Twitter hashtags – #Nexterday and #NexterdayNorth – and you’ll get a sense of the massive number of ideas and insights attendees were able to gain over two inspiring days in Helsinki.

As our CEO Juhani Hintikka said in his closing remarks, we are grateful to all of the partners, colleagues, speakers and guests who helped make our first antiseminar such a success. Plenty of blogs and articles have already been written recapping Nexterday North – check out the links at the bottom of this post for some of those – but here’s three of our own parting thoughts from the first Comptel anti-seminar.

Futurist Rohit Talwar (left), Stewart Rogers of VentureBeat Insights

There is Hope for Humanity

Those were the words Juhani used to describe Day 1 of Nexterday North, and it’s easy to see why. Our first day’s presenters offered a hopeful message of perseverance, potential and positive transformation.

Futurist Patrick Dixon’s energetic presentation taught us that emotion is the single most important driver of the future of technology, business and culture. Successful businesses remember that and seek to satisfy their customers on an emotional level. WIRED’s Gregg Williams shared a similar take, saying “It’s just as important to take bad things out of people’s lives as it is to add good things.”

Riisto Siilasmaa’s candid talk on Nokia’s business transformation had the crowd buzzing, and he offered a compelling walk-through of how he helped lead the company through one of its most challenging time periods. It was an inspiring lesson for the crowd that even in difficult times, there is always hope if you can commit to change.

Ted Matsumoto of Softbank (left), Horacio Goldenberg of Telefonica

Customers Drive the Future

A consistent theme through every session – and especially on Day 2 – was the importance of putting customers at the centre of business strategy.

Our moderator, Ville Tolvanen, hosted a fascinating fireside chat with T-Mobile’s Milan Ruzicka that explored the company’s popular customer-centric Uncarrier movement. In a panel discussion Smart Kalasatama’s Veera Mustonen suggested that business transparency earns customer trust, while Tele2’s Lars Torstensson explained consumers’ desire to set their own service terms.

Of course, you need strategy and structure to put customers at the centre. SoftBank’s Ted Matsumoto offered a compelling business model to help operators fine-tune to customer needs. We also heard from experts on the data, service architecture and monetisation strategies that will play a vital role in operators’ business transformation.

Mehackit's Cycle for Technology (left) and the launch of FWD

It’s Time for New Ways of Thinking

Many of the presentations also focused on the new service opportunities available to operators, from app development to smart cities to digital servies.

VentureBeat’s Stewart Rogers described new insights into hyper-personalized marketing that could deliver richer customer engagement. Futurist Rohit Talwar suggested a business pairing – experienced workers with younger ones – to balance the need for structure and discipline with the desire to innovate. And storyteller Linda Liukas advocated that children today could be the next generation of innovators if we make learning about technology fun and exciting.

Nexterday North was an exciting and inspiring event with more than a few surprises, including the launch of Comptel’s FWD app, which we believe will change how operators sell and market mobile data forever. Ultimately, Nexterday North proved that when you think differently, you uncover ways to make the world a better place for everyone.

Read more about Nexterday North below:

How Nokia’s chairman demanded €2bn from Steve Ballmer

Telcos need to emulate SoftBank & decouple network / services businesses

Look to the future to survive disruption

Comptel’s Nexterday

Hackers’ Advantage Over Security Professionals: A Willingness To Share

Time Based Mobile Internet Data Purchase Finally Arrives

Forget Big Data, use “Little Data” instead

Congratulations to Team Dragon, Winners of Comptel Hackathon 2015

At Comptel, there’s nothing we like more than a killer idea. That’s exactly what we found when we organized our first ever hackathon. We’re now pleased to announce a winner: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s Team Dragon, which includes developers Chin Kang Tan and Mavis Wong. Congratulations!

Comptel Hackathon 2015 ran from 18-19 September. Our aim was to identify superb innovations in three categories: Smart City, Internet of Things (IoT) and Mobility as a Service. Teams had from noon on the 18^th until midnight on the 19^th to create their concepts, with presentations to the jury held on 23 September via Skype. Our jury evaluated each submission based on the level of innovation, the merits of the solution and the quality of the presentation.

Team Dragon wowed our judges with an extraordinary IoT-based shopping application called Match & Snap. The app creates an integrated shopping experience from the moment users enter a retail location. Once the store recognises them as a Match & Snap user, the app feeds users relevant offers and helpful content. For example, users can rely on Match & Snap to find the perfect outfit, send updates to friends via social media and learn about great bargains.

With their win at Comptel Hackathon 2015, Team Dragon will now represent Comptel at Ultrahack – a 48-hour hackathon in Helsinki, Finland scheduled just a few days before Nexterday North and Slush 2015. Team Dragon also won a trip to Slush, which takes place 11-12 November.

Second place in the Comptel Hackathon 2015 went to Team Tangra of Sofia, Bulgaria, who has earned a team dinner for their impressive data anonymising solution. Third place went to The Mechanics, also from Sofia, Bulgaria; they built a tool that makes hardware sizing easier and faster. Both of these teams will receive an additional much deserved prize for their amazing innovations!

Eight teams in all participated in Comptel Hackathon 2015, and our jury was delighted to see the energy, inventiveness and preparation each brought to the table. We can’t wait to see what Team Dragon does at Ultrahack and Slush, and we’d like to extend our thanks and appreciation to all the teams, jury members and organizers who made our first hackathon a success!

Want to get in on this innovation? Register for a Nexterday North Front pass, and receive a full conference pass to Slush 2015.