Ben Now & Then

As Alcatel-Lucent posts a €1.37 billion net loss in Q4, chief executive Ben Verwaayen steps down (Read the article).


Yet just 9 months ago the industry named him CEO of the Year at the prestigious World Vendor Awards, you can see what he said back then in the video below.



So who'll follow Ben? Let us know who you think in our quick survey...
www.surveymonkey.com/s/FollowingBen

COMPLETE THE SURVEY: Who'll follow Ben?

Doing the double? #WVA12

The final two shortlists have just been revealed for the 2012 World Vendor Awards, bringing with them some interesting dynamics, both for CEO of the Year and for Best Brand. We'll find out who triumphs on the 26 April 2012.

First up we have three contenders for CEO of the Year. The potential double here sits with Alcatel-Lucent CEO, Ben Verwaayen. Ben has the almost unique distinction of being in the running for this gong, having been a previous winner of the top award at the WVA's larger sibling, the World Communication Awards, where in 2005 he was named Most Influential Person (forerunner to the CEO category) as CEO of BT Group.

Up against Ben we have Hans Vestberg of Ericsson, who arguably has one of the toughest jobs in telecoms having recently revealed reduced targets for the company, and  Jeff Gordon of Syniverse, who amongst other things leads a company playing in the fast growing IPX arena.

The other shortlist to be revealed is the other industry voted category, Best Brand. A slightly different angle here, but last years Best Brand, Ericsson, are in the running again, along with the company with the most valuable hardware brand in this years Top 500 Telecom Brands, Cisco. Also in the chase are 2010 winners, Juniper Networks, Syniverse, and who could under estimate the power from the East in the shape of ZTE?

To view all the shortlists, visit www.worldvendorawards.com and make sure you book your seats to avoid disappointment on the night!

Top Telecom Vendors: Awards Shortlist Published #WVA2012

The shortlist for the World Vendor Awards 2012 is out and includes not only most of the big players, such as Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, and ZTE, but also a strong showing from smaller players and some more unusual names. One that stands out is Sage who we would recognise for their accounting software, but would not traditionally think of as a telecom vendor.

The list of 44 companies that have made the shortlist is on the website www.worldvendorawards.com plus there is still an opportunity for more companies to join the finalists as the voting has begun in the two industry voted categories: Best Brand and CEO of the Year.

Candidates in the voted categories have been nominated by the industry, World Vendor Awards judges and editors of Total Telecom, so make sure your favourites are in with a chance and VOTE TODAY!

The CEO's in the running are:

• Ben Verwaayen: Alcatel-Lucent
• Charlie Vogt: GENBAND
• Cui Liangjun: ZTE
• Gary Smith: Ciena
• Hannes van Rensburg: Fundamo
• Hans Vestberg: Ericsson
• Jean-Yves Leclerc: Ipanema Technologies
• Jeff Gordon: Syniverse
• Karl Thedéen: Transmode
• Kevin Freij: MYMobileSecurity Ltd
• Mike Frayne: VOSS Solutions
• Mohan Kumar: Plintron Technologies
• Rajeev Suri: Nokia Siemens Networks
• Ren Zhengfei: Huawei
• Thomas R. Stanton: ADTRAN, Inc.
• Vivek Ragavan: Actelis Networks

Whilst the Best Brand contenders are: Alcatel-Lucent, Amdocs, Ciena, Cisco, Corning, Ericsson, Harris, HP, Huawei, Juniper Networks, Motorola, NEC, NetCracker, Nokia Siemens Networks, Openwave, Qualcomm, Syniverse, Telcordia, Tellabs, ZTE.

The shortlist for the two voted categories will be announced after voting closes on the 23 March 2012, so don't miss out, CAST YOUR VOTE

Not easily impressed: #WVA2012 judges

Meet the judges for the 2012 World Vendor Awards. These are the men and women you've got to impress if you hope to win at this years awards, and between them they have a formidable track record in the telecom industry and knowledge second to none.


They include representatives of your customers, telecom operators who buy hardware, software and solutions, and industry commentators including analysts, journalists, and trade associations.

For the 2012 World Vendor Awards we are delighted to be able to welcome some new faces to join the established names, including:

Matthew Finnie, the CTO of Interoute;



Rob Staples, the Partner who is leading development of the Telecoms and Media practice at BearingPoint;

Isabelle Paradis, President of Hot Telecom.

In total this brings to 13 the number of judges for the WVA and without insulting anyone a collective experience of more than 200 years in telecoms...


If you can impress these people, you are indeed worthy of a World Vendor Award!
Meet all the judges at: www.terrapinn.com/2012/worldvendorawards/judges.stm

Enter now - DEADLINE 30 November 2011 www.worldvendorawards.com

Does your CEO have the X-Factor?

The vendor CEO with the #xfactor will be recognised at the 2012 World Vendor Awards.

Last years winner was Vishwanath Alluri of IMImobile whose company also won Best Outsourcing Initiative.

Vishwanath commented: “I feel this is a reflection of the innovative and compelling work we do at IMImobile that delivers consumer engagement and increased revenues for our customers. Winning these two highly regarded World Vendor Awards is evidence of our continued excellence within the mobile industry.”

CEO of the Year is important because it is determined by the industry. In a two stage evaluation process we ask the industry to nominate candidates who are then put to an industry vote. To ensure fair play we use an evaluation system where voters have to tell us theior top three choices.

Of course if your CEO isn't nominated, they can't win, so make sure you submit your nomination today!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WVA_CEO_2012

Countdown for #vendor excellence

The entry deadline for this years World Vendor Awards is the 30 November 2011, so now is the time to start refining your entries.

2012 will be the third annual World Vendor Awards and we're celebrating with some new categories and a new venue, the fabulous Jumeirah Carlton Tower in Knightsbridge.

A thorough review of the categories has seen eight categories appear that are either new or substantially revised, including Best Cloud Solution, Best Mobile Network Product, The Small Cells Award - you can view them all and download the categories brochure here.

The first entries are already in, but if you want inspiration, you may want to watch the videos from last years awards dinner, or read the Winners magazine to see who won.

Write on! Deadline extended...

If you are still desperately scribbling your entry for the World Vendor Awards, you can relax - a little. The deadline for entries has been extended to Friday 28 January, giving an extra week give a final polish to your entry!

This year there are 14 categories, including the NEW CEO of the Year. The latter will be voted by the industry, and we are currently seeking nominations.

If you missed last years awards night, here a reminder:

Film preview...

OK so it might not be a blockbuster, but the video from the World Vendor Awards earlier this month is now available. Our video portal has a number of interviews as well, viewable at www.totaltele.tv/wva but you can watch the overview here.

And the winners are...

Last night saw the presentation of the first World Vendor Awards at the spectacular UnderGlobe in central London.

More than 150 guests gathered to enjoy drinks, dinner, and of course the awards themselves - brilliantly introduced and hosted by Dominic Holland - described by The Times as ‘The Uk’s master of observational comedy’

Particular success was enjoyed by Huawei Technologies, Juniper Networks, and Comviva Technologies - you can view the full list of Winners and the Highly Commended finalalists here.

Of course there is always one no-show, and the prize for Best Mobile Device goes to Apple - who aren't here. What a shame!