Gearing Up For Operational Excellence at Expo 2020
Boy, that was some Cable-Tec Expo, wasn’t it? Wall-to-wall insights on the progress of 10G, Smart Cities and so many of the other technologies and applications that can take our industry to new heights. Visions of how our networks can transform the lives of consumers from innovator Dean Kamen. Customer perspectives on the promise of cable from FedEx’s Preetha Vijayakumar. And more.
While SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo 2019 in New Orleans showcased the future of our industry through the lens of innovation, it also set the stage for what’s to come at Cable-Tec Expo 2020 Oct. 13-16 in Denver: a deeper dive into the operational fundamentals that are required to support existing services and applications and to expand the scope of our technology and market footprints.
Our choice of two highly-respected operational executives to head the Expo Program Committee is intended to shape an agenda that focuses on the workforce training and operational excellence that will help us maximize the value of the services that are fast approaching deployment at scale. Comcast’s Ed Marchetti and Charter’s Tom Monaghan are at the leading edge of ideating and implementing new techniques to optimize education and productivity in the field.
When you peel back the onions of new products, services and applications, there are layers of operational questions. Whether it’s 8K video that’s as good as the human eye can get, autonomous vehicles that create new mobility opportunities or telemedicine that simplifies the ability to age in place, we need to understand how the networks that support these applications will be built, managed and maintained.
How do we automate our networks and use artificial intelligence to become far more efficient in what we are doing? How do we use science and technology not only to speed industry transformation, but to ensure that our workforce skills stay abreast of the changes? How do we maintain the operational readiness that will assure our customers of the improved experiences they desire?
There was a time when customer care and responsiveness were not always as top-of-mind as they should have been. In the days when cable’s sole product was video services, a days-long outage was inconvenient, but was by no means a loss of critical communication. All of that has changed with the advent and widespread adoption of broadband over the last two decades, and promises to change more as more powerful networks open the gates to availability of mission-critical IoT applications.
Today we’re increasingly focused on the customer experience. We understand that optimizing the benefits of our networks to consumers is an essential part of a sound business strategy. We’re taking the steps to deliver the service quality and reliability that will meet our customers’ needs and measuring everything through NPS scores.
Under the guidance of Ed Marchetti and Tom Monaghan, Comcast and Charter — as well as Cox and others — have made giant strides in raising the bar. But in the fast-moving world of telecommunications and entertainment, we need to be constantly improving ourselves. There’s not a day that goes by during which we shouldn’t be trying to do something faster, better or smarter than we did the day before.
At SCTE•ISBE, we’re taking a leadership role in powering operational excellence by expediting the availability of new applications and services that can maintain cable’s competitive advantage in the future. Leveraging our position as the preeminent supplier of training resources and standards, we’re supporting product realization by creating the applied science groundwork that underpins everything from 4K and 8K video to autonomous vehicles and telehealth.
As we make the transition from Expo 2019 to our 2020 event, stay tuned for news about how we’re uniquely working across the industry to create the resources that will ensure seamless integration of new services and operation of our networks.
Mark L. Dzuban
President/CEO, SCTE
As President and CEO of SCTE•ISBE, Mark Dzuban is continuing a lengthy career of telecommunications leadership. Mark has been instrumental in positioning SCTE•ISBE as a leader in energy management and technical education, driving creation of the Energy 2020 program, the CORTEX Expert Development System™ and other programs and services that build value for cable system operators, technology partners and individual members. Mark was honored with the prestigious NCTA Vanguard Award in 2011.
