Often it takes 10 meetings to decide which developers should be involved in a project, another 10 to figure out how to resource the team and forever to decide the name for the project that just took 30 meetings to hammer out. In the AT&T press release below, one element that stands out is devoting more of that time to develop, test and get feedback on ideas. Incredibly, there are still people who want to make things happen instead of talking about making it happen. This kind of innovation and speeding up the processes can make truly great things happen.
All companies should be looking at crowd sourcing models and adapt to more innovative styles allowing for creative and participatory passion. Developers may see the approach as a smart one with less bureaucracy and red tape. If only a small number of the businesses in America used this cooperative model – there could be substantially more productivity. Job creation via entrepreneurial enthusiasm would foster creativity and innovation in abundance. Exciting for entrepreneurs seeking an audience for their ideas. Software engineers are likely to support this approach to providing SDK’s and support communities and I hope it’s contagious.
AT&T Opens International Innovation Center in Israel
AT&T Foundry in Ra’anana is the second permanent location in its growing developer collaboration network
AT&T* today opened its latest AT&T Foundry innovation center in Ra’anana, Israel, together with Amdocs (NYSE: DOX). The facility is a collaborative environment where AT&T and technology providers work with start-ups and developers to get the latest innovations and services into the hands of AT&T customers more quickly than ever before.
The Ra’anana center is the second permanent AT&T Foundry facility to open worldwide. It replaces a temporary facility where dozens of collaborative projects have been underway since AT&T and Amdocs announced plans to collaborate last July. A permanent center hosted by Alcatel-Lucent opened in Plano, Texas, in February. Work is ongoing in temporary facilities in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, with a permanent center hosted by Ericsson planned to open later this year in Palo Alto, Calif.
AT&T Foundry development tracks include mHealth, HTML5, new ways to deliver rich media, advanced check-in and location-based applications, and APIs – application programming interfaces that make network services easily available to developers. Projects at the Ra’anana center are enabling integrated mobile and wired broadband capabilities crossing multiple screens, including smartphones, PCs, televisions and emerging devices.
“The AT&T Foundry network is a collaborative environment where AT&T researchers, key industry technology providers and developers from all over the world innovate in new ways,” said AT&T CTO John Donovan. “Project managers drive project development in 30- and 90-day sprints that allow us to cut the time required to evolve great ideas into products and services by two thirds.”
“Fostering innovation and bringing new ideas to our customers is a key part of our strategic approach to deliver more business value,” said Eli Gelman, president and chief executive officer of Amdocs Management Ltd. “The team in Ra’anana has deep ties with the startup community and specializes in identifying unique technologies that can benefit AT&T and their customers. It offers startups and developers the environment to initiate and advance projects by providing technological expertise to make their idea happen.”
“As a startup company, having access to the right tools and resources provided by the AT&T Foundry can make all the difference,” said Efrat Barit, co-founder and CEO of Ringbow, the developer of the first peripheral device for touch screens. “AT&T and Amdocs understand the need for speed in development, and they’re bringing the right people and technology together to get things done quickly.”
“Rather than spending three months talking about how we might work together, we were instead using that time implementing the technology in real-world applications and getting immediate feedback,” said Aviv Goren, VP Sales of SundaySky, a developer of an automated video solution to maximize customer engagement through a dynamic video presenting personalized bill, upsell recommendations and welcome greeting for on-boarding customers and collaborator in one of the projects underway in Ra’anana. “The speed at which we moved from our initial discussions to pilot program is remarkable.”
The AT&T Foundry is a core component of AT&T’s strategy to drive innovation, building on the resources of AT&T Labs and AT&T’s crowd-sourcing platform, The Innovation Pipeline. The company holds “speed dating” or “fast pitch” proposal reviews to evaluate projects for inclusion in the program, and anticipates more than 400 sessions to be held in locations across the globe this year alone. Earlier this week, more than a dozen fast pitch meetings were held at AT&T Foundry in Ra’anana in addition to a developer session calling for device applications for AT&T’s U-verse® service.
The AT&T Developer Program has ranked highest among U.S. wireless carriers for five straight years according to a survey of developers by Evans Data Corporation. Online tools and resources are available through AT&T’s developer portal at developer.att.com.
*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.
About AT&T
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation’s fastest mobile broadband network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet and voice services. A leader in mobile broadband, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries. It also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verse® and AT&T | DIRECTV brands. The company’s suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world. In domestic markets, AT&T Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive are known for their leadership in local search and advertising.
About Amdocs
Amdocs is the market leader in customer experience systems innovation. The company combines business and operational support systems, service delivery platforms, proven services, and deep industry expertise to enable service providers and their customers to do more in the connected world. Amdocs’ offerings help service providers explore new business models, differentiate through personalized customer experiences, and streamline operations. A global company with revenue of approximately $3.0 billion in fiscal 2010, Amdocs has over 19,000 employees and serves customers in more than 60 countries worldwide. For more information, visit Amdocs at www.amdocs.com.
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