| BELTUG UPDATE 3 November 2010 |
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Lobbying
1.Consultation on BIPT's strategic plan
2.BELTUG challenges Colt
3.INTUG position on net neutrality
4.Dutch sister organisation BTG on BELTUG
Networking
1.Second Visionair gets rave reviews
2.Consultation on pricing models
3.Inspiring Ireland Information and vision
1.Simbox Simulator launched – First experiences surprising
2.A handy tip for complying with RSZ/ONSS regulations
3.New case stories
4.New presentations and reports available
5.New faces: BELTUG team enlarged Agenda |
| New priorities: The activity plan is ready! |
| 240 companies gave us their priorities, which we have used to make our action plan 2010/11. It was decided BELTUG will focus on the topics of: mobility; company networks, including cloud computing, virtualisation, performance and governance; unified communications; SIP trunking; network security and telecom expense management.We already have 30 distinct activities planned, and 20 companies have committed to presenting their case studies. You can follow our plans on our web agenda. |
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Lobbying |
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1. Consultation on BIPT's strategic plan |
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The BIPT (the Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications) has published its strategic plan for consultation. BELTUG will, of course, be sending in its position on the plan. You can read the BIPT plan in Dutch or French. |
2. BELTUG challenges Colt |
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| On September 22, a delegation from BELTUG met with Ronny de Goedt, Managing Director Colt Benelux and Steve Hewson, Managing Director, Operations Division, Colt to discuss the plans and positioning of Colt. Steve Hewson made a presentation regarding the company’s investments to provide a reliable service now, and to meet the growing demands of the future. The BELTUG members then challenged the Colt representatives regarding the requirements for a truly international service, the need for a single point of contact, etc. A fruitful meeting, for both parties. |
3. INTUG position on net neutrality |
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INTUG – the International Telecommunications Users Group—has released its response to the European Commission‘s consultation on the Open Internet and Network Neutrality. Openly-available and competitively supplied fibre-based Next Generation Access (NGA) networks and related services will be key. In essence, selecting a provider or ICT element should not restrict the choices available to a company or user elsewhere in the ICT landscape. Network operators should not be able to discriminate against users for commercial or anti-competitive reasons.
Read the full response of INTUG, or for a summary, INTUG’s Press Release. |
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4. Dutch sister organisation BTG on BELTUG
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| Within INTUG, BELTUG often works together with other user associations. Lately BELTUG has received a lot of attention in BTG Magazine. See what the Dutch Association of Major Business Telecommunications Users writes about us, in an interview of 7 pages with Danielle Jacobs from BELTUG. |
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Networking
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1. Second Visionair gets rave reviews |
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At our second, inspirational Visionair session we were very pleased to have Adolfo Hernandez, President Alcatel-Lucent, present his vision of the future of communications. For those of you who couldn’t be there, we filmed his speech. We also highly recommend the mini-movie, showing one possible view of that future. Don’t miss it! |
2. Consultation on pricing models |
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New questions continue to arise among our members concerning these pricing models, and we would like to bring together the experiences of different companies, to create a good view of what companies face and how they react.
Virtualisation: As companies replace their physical infrastructures with virtual servers, we need to know: is it still reasonable to maintain the ratio of one physical server to one virtual server, or are alternative pricing models necessary, e.g. based on the size of the underlying machines?
Bandwidth: Storage volume in companies is increasing exponentially, making pricing models per Gigabyte seem unrealistic. What pricing models exist for storage by an operational partner? Are prices still based on volume? Are they linear or gradual? Or should we look at prices a level up, e.g. per machine? What other possibilities are out there, or would you like to see? |
3. Inspiring Ireland |
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| At the end September, a delegation from BELTUG was invited on an ‘inspirational trip’ with Irish companies. The result was a stimulating debate on the BELTUG priority topics, such as: smooth migration paths to all-IP; mobile e-learning platforms in the cloud; real-time charging policies to avoid bill shocks; multisite networking; FM convergence; SIP possibilities; and voice-enabled business processes, with cases from different sectors. |
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| Information and vision |
1. Simbox Simulator launched – first experiences surprising! |
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While many companies have been using Simboxes to reduce fixed-to-mobile costs, they have their disadvantages. This is where the Simbox Simulator can help, giving you a comparison of your costs with and without your simbox(es).
We have received the first feedback from members who have tried the Simbox Simulator. It seems that the consequences can be wildly different. Some companies us they have decided to eliminate their simbox(es), while others say that they will invest in more simboxes. The main differentiator? Whether the company benefits from zero tariffs for mobile-to-mobile calls. If you haven’t tried it yet, BELTUG members can download the Simbox Simulator. |
2. A handy tip for complying with RSZ/ONSS regulations |
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Some employees prefer to have their own private GSM for personal call, and use a second, company GSM for business use. How can you correctly integrate them into your corporate GSM policy? We can recommend two possible options: - You can stipulate in your policy that private calls using the company GSM are forbidden for this group of employees, so no taxable advantage is due.
- You can continue to include this group in a split-billing system implemented for all employees. In this case, their private bill should be zero.
In either case, you must be able to demonstrate to social security inspection that you regularly check that there is no abuse of the policy, via random sampling of anonymous bills. |
3. New case stories |
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Did you miss one of our member’s case studies? Don’t worry, you can read the highlights on our website: • Thomas Cook (Geert Sinnaeve, IT Manager) on innovation and talent management in ICT
• Van Ameyde (Arjan Smedeman, CIO) on smooth migration to VoIP
• Siemens Enterprise Communications Belgium (Frédéric Gilmont, CIO) on unified communications and web conferencing
• TechTeam (Lasse Hanssen, Telecoms Manager EMEA) on international communications management |
4. New presentations and reports available |
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There are new presentations for you to check out this month! BELTUG Member Forum – presentations
-The Green Desktop Initiative: Power from the Datacenter
Wiel van de Pasch, Technical Services Manager, Xerox
-Cloud computing risks: which really impact you and how? “Old” risks versus “new”
Erik Luysterborg, Partner, Security & Privacy leader, Deloitte
-Sharing data across borders - The legal challenges and how to manage them properly
Tom De Cordier, Senior associate at Allen & Overy |
5. New faces: BELTUG team enlarged |
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You’ll see some new faces at BELTUG, as we enlarge our team to even better serve your needs and expectations. Welcome to Wendy Brévière, who comes to us with 15 years of experience in security & telecoms at ING, and to Kirsten Asling, who will use her 19 years of experience with B2B markets as our English-language writer and editor. |
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| Agenda |
Upcoming events:
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