For several years now, a significant number of our African customers have not been able to attend the Comverse User Forum, for reasons such as the European Union visa policy and the high cost of flights to Europe.
“These customers are very important to us, so we decided that if our African customers can not come to User Forum, then we will bring the User Forum to them in Africa,” said Jennifer Cherry, Comverse Africa Marketing Director. “And that’s what we did. The first Africa User Group, held in October, was a major success.”

Creating a well-targeted agenda for the continent’s service providers is a challenge. Africa, one of the fastest-growing telecommunications markets, is a market of extremes. While some of the operators are proceeding with implementation of the most advanced and innovative 3G services, other operators are fighting for market share by focusing on low-cost basic services. Our goal was to craft an agenda that encompassed the varied needs of the region and its operators.

In terms of timing and location, the Africa User Group event was planned to coincide with GSM Africa, taking advantage of the fact that people would be traveling to South Africa. The event took place October 15th - 17th in the luxurious Riviera, at the Vaal Hotel on the Vaal River, near Johannesburg. This first Africa User Group attracted 60 delegates, from 22 African operators. Of these, 20 were at the CXO level.

The key Comverse message promoted partnership through providing first-world services to Africa. “Unlike the hit and run sales paradigm practiced by many big companies, we are here as a dedicated partner, introducing the most advanced services and backing them up with comprehensive technical and marketing support,“said Haim Amshalom, VP and Comverse Africa Managing Director.

Keynote speaker was Ian Thomas, a business strategist and motivator who in his book “The Power of the Pride” draws from his experience as a game ranger in Africa for more than 20 years. He set the tone for the event with an inspiring presentation about how lions partner in the bush to survive, drawing parallels between the jungle in nature and the business jungle.

The main topics of the agenda were new converged billing services, voice and video service implementation, mobile data, IMS and innovative applications. About a third of the presentations were case studies and customer presentations. Operator presentations were given among others by the Vodacom group, the MTN group, Tel-cell, M-cell. Comverse will strive to feature more customer presentations at the coming 2007 event.

“The Africa User Group was a successful seminar. Delegates viewed it as a valuable opportunity for networking with other operators in the same region and across the continent, and expressed a desire in the future to take a more active participatory role with workshops and roundtable dialogues. Africa User Group was a great success due to the professional Marcom execution led by Tracy Klinger, that impressed the customers with Comverse professionalism,” said Eli Amar, Comverse EMEA Marketing.

Comverse has already begun planning the 2007 Africa User Group, which will be held in Cape Town, South Africa, and have created a customer steering committee to design the agenda. We invite our customers to take a proactive role in planning the next Comverse Africa User Group for what is fast becoming one of the continent’s foremost industry events.