Co-operation and finding synergy in product management

Longyearbyen, 6 April 2005

Walter van Dijk Pekka LinnaSURFnet, the Netherlands CSC, Finland

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Agenda

• Introduction– What is product management in an NREN

context– Ratio for co-operation between the NRENs – On-going co-operation; history and plans

• Discussion– Participants views– Cases– Discussion

• Conclusions and closing

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Product management in an NREN context: decisions about the service portfolio

• What are the services delivered to the customer, i.e. what is the service portfolio

• What is being promised to the customer, i.e. what are the service definitions and service level agreements

• What are the terms and conditions of the service delivery and how are the costs being covered, i.e. what are the business models

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Product management in an NREN context: life-cycle and production strategies

• When to open up a new service for the customers at large, when to shut down a service, i.e. how to manage the life-cycle of a service

• Are the services produced and managed in-house or are they out-sourced, i.e. what are the choices in production strategies

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Lifecycle from an NREN perspective

ConductFeasibility

Study

Customer notice ofchange in

in portfolio

Clearance for new service

Phasing outof service

Turn-offservice

Service- development

Operationalservice

Servicephased out

TechnologyAssessment

1 2 3 4 5

Technology-developments

Customer requirements

Life-Cycle

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Why co-operation? A pressure towards richer and more aligned portfolios

• Average NREN customer-base (universities and research-institutions) is becoming more critical towards the NREN service portfolio

• Logical development now that: - (high-speed) connectivity and associated services

are “mission-critical” for a growing number of users and/or- commercial ISP’s are closing the gap (financial, technological, services) with NREN’s

• Hence: NREN service portfolio should align with existing and future customer requirements!

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Why co-operation? Product management is a challenge

• Traditionally the services of NRENs have been technological innovation driven, hence there is a need for the exchange of best practices for introducing and promoting services

• Future user requirements are not easily discovered by market-research

• Technology reviews are resource consuming but necessary, hence the need to look for synergies and labour division

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Why co-operation? Potential synergies in production

• Co-operation in new service development (e.g. anti-spam service) may bring about some short-cuts in time and costs

• Co-operation in purchasing services (e.g. Usenet News) gives a competitive edge that should not be lost by the NRENs

• Co-operation in production may help NRENs to provide a wider range of services to their customers

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History of the interaction and future plans

History and plans in 2005:- BoF meeting at TNC2004 in Rhodes

- open discussion on many topics- mailing list (lcpm@terena.nl) created

- BoF meeting at Nordunet2005- BoF meeting at TNC2005 in Poznan- Track on product management at TNC2005- A workshop in Q3 2005- Request for TERENA Taskforce?

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Potential topics for future co-operation

• Exchange of ideas and best practices- introducing new services (cook-book?)- marketing of slowly adopted services (multicast)- discontinuing services (cook-book?)- procedures for lifecycle- and portfolio management

• Co-operation in service production- copying successful services (anti-spam?)- co-management of existing services (Listserv?)- co-buying of new or improved services (News?)

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Other potential issues

• Tariff models used within NREN’s• Service Level Agreements• Best practices for account management and/or

customer service• Common language for new service development• Which services should be run “in-house” and which

can be subcontracted to third parties or acquired on a commercial basis?

• Cooperation in writing white-papers, user guides, training etc.

• Role NREN versus role commercial ISP’s (competitors, partners, customers, suppliers?)

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Ways for interaction in the future

• (BoF) sessions at TNC and other networking conferences

• Mailing list for ad hoc questions (”How do you do this in your NREN …”)

• List of contact people in different NRENs at the Terena website for direct contacts

• Service Level Agreements, portfolio-strategies, product management models at the Terena website

• Workshops on specific topics for interested NRENs

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To be continued: at TNC2005

Sunday 5 June 9.00 – 12.00 hrs: BoF-session on LCPM

Wednesday 8 June 2005 16.00 – 17.30 hrs:Session on services that NREN’s should provide