Kill your darlings - The death of the Killer Application

We all knew it, the "Killer Application" is dead. What is there to replace it?

During ICIN 2008 a common theme so far is the need for open telco operators providing services for various kinds of mashup. This implies that the search for the next killer application is dead. The open telco should provide services to its customers. It is unclear so far which services the operator should provide and how to charge for the service.

From my point of view the question is wrongly asked. A better question would be "What do your customers need? What would simplify their life?". Opening up the telco only helps if you know what your customers will need to use. The opening of the telco itself is more of a technical exercise than of anything else. It is however important as a foundation for execution of an open telco operator enabling colaboration with external innovation and development. How do you get to know what your customers needs and wants?

One way that I have been experimenting with is to open up labs or trial areas where the operator and customers can collaborate and play with open services. By tracking what becomes popular an operator can focus efforts in that area to provide quality of service, security and the appropriate business model. With a thorough follow-up and evaluation of how services are used a greater understanding of underlying drivers and motivators can be understood. From this point the operator can evaluate which services to open, business models, bundling and alignment to strategy and vision. It is extremely important to be in line with your strategy and vision otherwise customers will be confused and/or there will not be a continuation of the process due to misalignment of strategy.

Another important aspect of opening up telco operators is to provide billing and CRM functionality supporting personalization and business models. Being able to personalize customer offers helps being relevant and meeting the individual customer. Supporting different business models is critical in enabling flexible payments and bundlings of services. Who should pay for the open services and how? Flexibility here enables advertisement and someone-else-is-picking-up-the-bill business models.

In short: The Killer Application is dead, it's time to open up the telco. In order to succeed you need to know your customer and what he wants. Flexible billing supporting business models and payments enables a sound business for all parties.