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Alliances – Pushing the Boundaries
May 27, 2008: An audience of over 50 members and their guests attended the latest ASAP UK event at The O2, London’s latest hot entertainment venue reincarnated from the former Millennium Dome at Greenwich.
The O2, Greenwich, London
Our hosts from O2, Pete Bullas and Steve Pluta, explained how the new theme and branding around the venue had raised O2’s profile across Europe, while The O2 was itself the product of a major alliance between O2 and AEG who run the facility and entertainments.
The focus of the meeting was on two major new influences in the ICT industry – the Software-as-a-Service concept and the power of Mobile Convergence. Richard Carrington from Salesforce.com described how traditional alliance models will have to change as enterprises increasingly adopt the subscription software model. Revenue splits, incentive plans and annuity streams are all affected, and Richard challenged the audience to consider how these changes might impact on their own businesses.
Pete Bullas and Steve Pluta of O2 used the example of their highly successful alliance with Research in Motion which introduced Blackberry into Europe, as the type of alliance that will increasingly be needed as Mobile Convergence extends into different industries. Although O2 itself has moved well beyond its traditional “mobile carrier and handset” role into a diverse array of opportunity areas, the message was that alliances are key to introducing and gaining share with vertical industry solutions. Steve went on to illustrate these ideas with real examples of initiatives that are close to fruition, leaving the audience suitable impressed by the way these new technologies can be harnessed in so many real-life applications.
A tour of The O2 and networking over a generous buffet concluded a highly successful event. Our thanks go to O2 for sponsoring the event and for offering such a distinctive venue.
ASAP members can download a PDF of the slides used from the Downloads section.
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