New SVP a Key to Sylantro’s IMS Solution

 

Marco Limena, president and CEO of Sylantro Systems (News - Alert), which develops software platforms for communications solutions providers and has been a forerunner in the IMS space, told TMC upon his appointment, that voice represents a tremendous opportunity for his company. More specifically, he pointed to IMS and as showing tremendous promise, and that his goal would be to continue to drive development and growth in that direction.

 

Indeed, Limena explained that Sylantro’s platform has been specifically designed to help service providers introduce new applications and standards, especially in IMS deployments. It was built on the premise of SIP-based communications, making video, mobility, and other next generation applications easy to develop and use. 

 

Continuing along that same path, Sylantro has announced the addition of John Trobough to its team as senior vice president of solutions, a newly formed group encompassing all aspects of Sylantro product development, product management, and life cycle management.

 

Trobough has spent his entire career in the telecom industry, both on the carrier side, with Qwest (News - Alert) Communications and McCaw Cellular Communications, as well as on the vendor side, with Openwave Systems, where he was vice president of the company’s mobile infrastructure and solutions business unit. He is certainly no stranger to the converged communications space in which Sylantro excels.

 

“John brings strong experience in the solutions market, scaling businesses and a customer-centric approach to technology development,” said Limena. “His understanding of mobility, messaging, and convergence around end user services are all consistent with our strategy for growth, making him a great addition to our team.”

 

Trobough says that his experience with broadband providers and mobile operators — and specifically the understanding he gained of their thoughts and assumptions on how convergence would evolve — generated his interest in Sylantro Systems. With his preponderance of experience on the vendor and carrier side, he says he has heard an awful lot about the “promise” of IMS and convergence, but what he really wants is to see it in action. 

 

“Sylantro is in a unique position to address the billion-dollar question: ‘What are all these convergence applications and services?’” he said. “We’ve been talking about it, but someone needs to actually start doing it. With Sylantro’s technology and business model, I see an opportunity to really change the game.”

 

In addition, Trobough has something of a history with Marco Limena, having gone head to head with him when Limena was with HP. Their paths crossing many times in the past — sometimes in collaborative relationships with carriers, and at others in direct competition — a mutual respect grew between the two, and they ultimately found that their views on the future of the industry coincided to a great extent.

 

“Marco and I were able to connect, and his views on how Sylantro can evolve align with mi views,” explained Trobough. “We both see a significant opportunity in the wired and mobile network environment, and how we can push the company forward.”

 

The solutions group that Trobough will be heading at Sylantro will be focusing on an operational consolidation of Sylantro’s engineering, product management, and marketing functions. The idea, according to Trobaugh, is to bring the different aspects of the business into closer alignment with one another at both a business and a technical level, as well as on the customer relationship side.

 

“It is end-to-end solution oriented, including how we address technical and business barriers,” he explained. “As an industry, we would all like to see the pace of adoption accelerate; we all see the opportunity with unified communications, and things become more complex when you want to deliver on those types of value propositions.”

 

The idea, then, is to better organize the organization in order to effectively provide a product that is aligned with both organizational goals and market needs and requirements. Trobough says he has some initial thoughts on how to proceed with this initiative, including how Sylantro can best allocate resources, including R&D spending, to focus on forward looking services and products.

 

“The big question around IMS from carriers has consistently been, ‘I need help on what the services are to justify the business case around why it is I’m doing these things,’” said Trobaugh. “We have to figure out what these revenue generating services are; that’s where Sylantro’s opportunity is going to lie.”

 

As is typical in any technology space, IMS generated tremendous hype at the outset, but then witnessed a period of some disillusionment. The next stage, according to Trobough, is real-world application and adoption of the technology. For companies like Sylantro, the question then becomes how to best capitalize on the enthusiasm exhibited around IMS and how to monetize that opportunity.

 

“That is the big opportunity, and Marco and I share that view,” he concluded.