Workshop debates system architectures

Leading figures in service provider, analyst, media, integrator and vendor communities discuss evolution of the enterprise applications market

Next Generation Billing, one of the BSS market's leading conferences, will be preceded next month by a not-to-be- missed, day-long strategy workshop addressing what many believe is an inflection point in the design and architecture of enterprise applications.

The workshop will analyse why traditional BSS products are nearing the end of their life-cycles as business models continue to evolve, why applying Service Oriented Architectures to existing enterprise software is a stop-gap, and how next generation enterprise application architectures will meet increasingly complex BSS demands.

The event, sponsored by MetraTech, will be held in the Arabella Sheraton Grand Hotel in Munich, Germany on Monday, December 4th, and bring together industry luminaries to discuss and debate the issues while offering case studies on these important questions.

An impressive line up of speakers and panelists will discuss the future direction of the billing market and includes:.

* Allen Stern, CEO of Adaptive Engineering, Major IT Initiatives of EchoStar/Dish Networks (Nasdaq: DISH), a leading satellite TV provider with over 12 million subscribers, will discuss EchoStar's award-winning billing implementation for groundbreaking prepaid satellite TV services in the United States.

* Hugh Roberts, associate strategist, Logan-Orviss International and longtime leading commentator and observer of the billing market, Mike Green, chief information officer of UPC Broadband, Scott Swartz, CEO of MetraTech and Russell Lee, managing director, EMEA of LTC International will engage in a panel discussion on Achieving Business Flexibility: Redefining What Operators Should Expect from Vendors.

* David Watrin, head of Swisscom Innovations (NYSE: SCM) and leader of its IPTV catalyst project completed in conjunction with the TeleManagement Forum will discuss building the infrastructure required to support these services.

* Marion Howard-Healy, a leading analyst with the consultancy Qualitative Change will report the results of a newly completed survey of communications CIOs providing insights into their satisfaction with legacy IT infrastructures and how they see the market evolving.

* Doug Zone, longtime technology thought-leader in the billing market, board member of the Global Billing Association and chief technical officer of MetraTech Corp.

will give his view of the tyranny of billing solutions architected using outdated best practice business models.

The workshop promises to be both lively and controversial with input from the audience strongly encouraged.

Observes Scott Swartz, CEO of MetraTech, "We are entering a period that, for many in the billing market, will be very difficult".

"Inflection points are never easy, nor, at first, do many people willingly accept their arrival".

"But while the nature and direction of how the market will shift can be debated, that we are standing at the edge of the billing market's biggest leap forward in a decade ".

"The workshop will address the nature, the timing, and the probable aftermath of this market evolution".

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