One of the most overused and inaccurate phrases in the entertainment business is overnight sensation. As any successful musician or actor can attest, stardom is rarely achieved in an instant. Instead, the journey from neophyte to limelight can take years and includes multiple detours and blind corners.

A few weeks ago during a business lunch the topic of how customer service has gone by the way-side came up.  One of my colleagues told the story of how during a recent meeting with a group of rural telephone companies he came across a unique, but refreshing instance of customer service. While waiting in the small lobby for the meeting to begin, a woman came in, was greeted by name by the receptionist, and asked “Can you change my Internet password for me?”

Faced with a barrage of strategic trends that include cloud-based applications, IMS, LTE, Social Networking, and Over the Top (OTT) multimedia content delivery, many service providers are being forced to revisit their go-to-market-strategies and service offering differentiation. But to offer services anywhere, on any device, at any time, most networks must undergo IP network transformation.