CTO Straight Talk - Issue 2 - 44

can spend a lot of time seeing how our

and communications. As always,

higher layers of the network or to the

products fit into customers' network

scalability means better throughput.

network operator.

designs, discussing problems and

But increasingly, scalability needs to

constraints, and sharing their visions

be about signaling, too.

for market evolution.

In addition, superior performance
becomes very, very critical in a world

Sessions involving on-the-go users

where everything is connected and

Product Development for
Tomorrow's Networked
Society

with smartphones and mobile devices

everything will be housed in the

tend to be quite chatty, generating

cloud. And, lastly, simplicity is the

lots of messages to be processed. This

order of the day. Our customers

changes the nature of the signaling

are looking for simpler networks,

As we develop our collaborative

load on a network. In fact, we see the

networks that are easier to operate,

product development environment,

signaling overhead as a much bigger

and networks that can reduce the

we work toward meeting the four key

challenge in many cases than the data

overall cost of ownership - and

requirements I mentioned before:

load, and we are always looking to

here, too, we're always pushing the

scalability, intelligence, performance,

introduce enhancements in hardware

envelope in our development efforts

and simplicity.

and software to address it.

in order to meet those needs.

Networks will have to be highly

The network of the future must also

As I think about the networked

scalable in order to absorb the

be intelligent, capable of analyzing

society and how its demands filter

increased volume and diversity of

behavioral information and

down into my product development

traffic coming their way. Network

traffic patterns, for instance, and

domain, I can clearly see that vendors

operators must be able to handle

adapting in real time on the basis

that don't adapt their product

a steadily growing stream of

of the analytics. From a product

development approaches accordingly

Internet TV and video content while

development perspective, this means

will not survive. As fast as society is

supporting an unending array of

we've been looking at our ability to

changing today, it will be changing so

interactive, real-time applications

capture, analyze, and present data to

much faster in the future.

The Takeaways
* As network operators look for continuous improvements in dimensions such as scalability, intelligence,
and speedy implementation, vendors must pursue continuous improvements of their own. Each software
release, for instance, must be better than the one before.
* Instead of micromanaging product development from the top, Ericsson creates multiple small, crossfunctional teams, assigns each one a specific task-a feature or feature set-gives them autonomy to
complete their task, and requires them to coordinate for the delivery of the end product.
* To stay motivated and engaged, these teams need to visit with customers in person to see how the product
is being used, how it's answering a specific need, and how it's performing in the market.

CTO Straight Talk | 44

CTO Straight Talk - Issue 2

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CTO Straight Talk - Issue 2