When I first learned of the word FinTech, I thought, “Oh! A group noun for digital banking, finance, insurance, and crypto currencies. A handy moniker for a collection of related services, and at least it avoids using the dumbass term digital.” That handle has stuck and driven broad recognition of the category for investors, press, […]
Happy New Year! I thought I’d kick the year off with the Great API Con, as its resulting in systematic failures of innovation projects that should be seeing far more business success. This article is for API providers not consumers. “Wait! What? Aren’t you an early proponent of APIs? Recommending copying the lead of Web […]
On Wednesday 17th Oct I gave a keynote at the IIT RTC Conference covering Programmable Telecoms Evolution along with the 3 winners from TADHack Chicago. The slides from the session are shown below, and you can see the keynote video here. This link is the live stream, so you’ll have to hunt through it. Just […]
Before we start, do not worry about all the acronyms in this potted history of Programmable Telecoms, there is an irreverent acronym list at the end of this weblog to help you through them. And yes, this is a long weblog, at 4k words it should take about 20 minutes to read, but its easy […]
Microsoft built Windows, a platform that enabled people to create cool stuff, like spreadsheets, word processors, lots of enterprise desktop applications. Microsoft copied the high margin cool stuff built on Windows, and soon their software became the default. This is what we’re seeing with Twilio Flex. BTW, browsers were not high margin, hence the delay […]
The information shown below on SMS API pricing is easily accessible from the companies’ websites. I’ve used all their services. My clients use their services at a range of volumes. I’ve run hackathons where people are innovating on most of these companies, where we experience firsthand the ease of use and flexibility. I have a […]
I’m asked this question surprisingly often, “Alan, what is it that you do?” My stock answer is, “I wander the world helping people.” Which generally results in a wry smile from those who know me; else a questioning or annoyed look from someone who was expecting a straightforward answer to a straightforward question. When I […]
Its always before Enterprise Connect the confusion on CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) and UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) rises. Here are two simple definitions: UCaaS is a PBX in the cloud, its a telecom application (granted a complex one, but a telecom app nonetheless). CPaaS is a telecom application server in the […]
I thought I’d keep this article punchy as I’m full of a cold, so would rather just shoot from the hip than think too much on some of the topics I’ve discussed on my calls this week 🙂 There are some numbers in here, so its not just rambling opinion. Cisco bought market share, all the […]
There are 3 principle reasons why analysts are wrong on many aspects of telecoms, because they: Believe the AR (Analyst Relations) / CFO (Chief Financial Officer) spin on the numbers and happily repeat them in their research notes. Its reportage and linear prediction on the story / spin given. Many industry analysts are ex-reporters, the trade […]