Today was the first day in gorgeous Lisbon, Portugal at TM Forum’s Action Week.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Action Week, it’s not your typical industry conference.  During Action Week, groups of members of the TM Forum roll up their sleeves and work on projects. Some of those projects culminate in new standards, best practices, guidebooks or APIs. Deliverables are built by leaders in digital business and shared with the rest of the industry.

Other projects, called “catalysts” involve the development of proof of concept prototypes that are then demonstrated at TM Forum Live! in May in Nice, France (another beautiful place to visit!)

I arrived in Lisbon on Sunday evening after an Aer Lingus flight from Dublin and shared a taxi to the hotel with some fellow Action Weekers from Huawei and BT.

I’ve been involved in the Forum now for multiple years, so immediately upon arriving I was happy to see friends and colleagues from all over the world that I talk to weekly, but only see maybe 2 or 3 times a year.

I spent today doing a couple things:

1.Listening to the Keynotes:

REBECCA SENDEL, VP, SERVICES, AND CATALYSTS, TM FORUM

Rebecca kicked off the event and welcomed everyone, especially those people participating in their first Action Week.  She outlined the agenda for the week ahead with a special emphasis on the word Action which she defined as “things that are happening, especially exciting or important things” based on the Cambridge Dictionary definition.

NIK WILLETTS, INTERIM CEO, TM FORUM

Nik gave the attendees some great insights on the mega trends that are driving digital business transformation and the core changes underpinning digital operations.

Nik also explained how Frameworx is rapidly evolving to support the platform era and how new projects such as the Digital Maturity Model will be key deliverables during 2017. And importantly how the new CurateFX tool will play a key a key role to better empower members to use Frameworx for ecosystem modeling and business/IT alignment.

He wrapped up his insightful talk with an overview of how the TM Forum will continue to be the trusted partner for members as they continue on the journey of digital business transformation.

JOSE MANUEL GASCON, DIRECTOR OF STRATEGY & TRANSFORMATION, TELEFONICA

Jose shared the details of Telefonica’s business-led multi-country digital E2E transformation initiatives which included using Frameworx business processes to ensure customer-oriented transformation and standardization.   Telefonica has taken an outside-in approach with the customer being the primary focus for all initiatives taken.

Transformation is designed around customer lifecycle processes and their linked customer journeys – again re-emphasizing the outside-In approach to transformation.

The scale of transformation being undertaken by Telefonica is very impressive.

KLAUS MARTINY, DEUTSCHE TELEKOM SENIOR PROGRAM MANAGER, DEUTSCHE TELEKOM AG Klaus talked in detail about getting ready for the 5G evolution, his focus was definitely more on the technical aspects.  One of the key takeaways was that there must be greater collaboration across the various SDO’s with a goal of creating a Common Information Model (CIM).  He provided an overview of Deutsche Telekom’s core technology beliefs.

A coffee (and some of those yummy treats) was thoroughly enjoyed once the Keynotes were finished.

2. Meeting with the Smart Life Incubator Team.

I was invited to provide some members of the Smart Life Incubator Team with a demo of CurateFX.  The feedback was very positive and 12 of the team have asked for access so that they can start to use the tool during their workshops later in the week.

I spent the rest of the day meeting with TM Forum staff to prepare for upcoming demos and also to provide insights and background details on CurateFX for publications.

Based on some discussions with members of the Digital Maturity Model team it became clear that CurateFX could provide an excellent way to help members use the model once ready.

Also started some planning sessions with the Catalyst Teams to initially provide them with demos and then making sure the teams who are using the platform feel very comfortable with it and talking with others who plan to use it and share it with their colleagues at home.

Next up for this evening is preparing a new video that walks through CurateFX. But first I’m off to enjoy the evening networking and happy hour activities which include a casual expo from the members of catalyst teams.

I’ll share more updates tomorrow. Tomorrow will be full of project work, demos, and catalyst meetings.