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Interview with Chantel Cary

by | Apr 26, 2021 | Interviews,

Chantel Cary

Chantel Cary

Director of Product Marketing, Monetization at Oracle
Key Topics:Monetization; Customer experience; Partner Ecosystems
Location:Boston, United States
Bio:

Chantel is a Senior Analyst in Omdia's (formerly Ovum) Service Provider Operations and IT team. She provides thought leadership, forecasts, vendor assessments, and competitive analysis for the telecoms industry, with a specific focus on business support systems (BSS), as well as the impact of emerging technologies on CSP operations. With more than a decade of experience in the TMT industry, Chantel has extensive experience consulting organizations on their go-to-market strategy, the competitive landscape, as well as business strategy.

How did you get to become an expert in your key topics?

Interestingly, my path to telecoms industry “expert” was completely coincidental. I received my degree in Psychology and had fully intended on becoming a psychologist at some point in my life. My first job out of college, I landed a great opportunity working for Dish Network out of the Dominican Republic. Unbeknownst to me, my time managing a group of customer service and technical support agents as an Operations Team Manager would lay the foundation for my career as an analyst. When I joined Omdia (then called Ovum) in 2013 and later became an analyst covering all things BSS, this practical, hands-on knowledge and understanding of the pain points that telcos were facing gave me a deep understanding of the challenges and the needs of the telecoms industry. Through on-going conversations with vendors and CSPs throughout the industry, guidance from brilliant analysts and bosses at Omdia (special shout outs to Clare McCarthy and Nicole Englebert), and a desire to know a little more and do a little better each time, it has allowed me to deepen my knowledge of topics like monetization and customer experience.

What topic areas are you most passionate about?

As an analyst who covered monetization for years during a time where revenue management was considered a boring and outdated necessary evil, I am happy to say I am still very much passionate about the topic of monetization. In recent years monetization has become a hot topic and buzzword that includes everything from strategy to the implementation of cutting-edge technologies. More recently, I’ve focused much of my research on the role of dynamic partner ecosystems in the monetization story for CSPs. There is so much that goes into creating, orchestrating, and monetizing partner ecosystems and it is an area that I am sure will be the next big trend in telecoms.

Which influencers influence you within those key topics?

Actually, my former Omdia colleague, Michael Azoff has had a tremendous influence on my work in recent years. His work on topics including cloud and microservices has played a significant role in my own framing of the role of cloud and cloud-native technologies in the telecoms industry.

Outside of key topics, who else influences you?

Growing up I’ve always admired the works of Maya Angelou. Her biographies, in particular, inspired me to be courageous, to persevere, and to always act with tact and kindness towards other people. I’m most influenced by her quote, “…people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forgot how you made them feel.”

What’s your best source of information for getting ahead of a story? What resource do you use to stay ahead of the trend?

The way I stay ahead of industry trends is by constantly having conversations with people throughout the industry and also looking at how other industries are tackling problems. It’s important to always be listening to what problems people in our industry are trying to solve, what new technologies are on the horizon, and understand where the industry is headed. Doing detailed research on emerging technologies will typically put you a few years ahead of the curve of adoption in the telecoms industry. I also think that taking a look at how other industries tackle challenges is a great way to get ahead of trends. Other industries offer another perspective on common problems and the solutions that might be common in one industry, may be innovative in another. Having an idea of what the trends are in technology in general, is a great way to stay ahead of the curve, especially because the telecoms industry can be slow to adopt new technologies.

If a brand wanted to work with you, which activities would you be most interested in collaborating on?

Webinars, speaking opportunities, video interviews.

What brands have you worked with?

AWS; Amdocs; Matrixx Software; HCL; Netcracker; Openet; Oracle; Red Hat; Tech Mahindra.

Which non-paid activities would you be keen to take part in if the opportunity raised your profile or delivered value to your audience?

I am happy to provide a quote for content or news article, speak at an event, online chat, podcast or a webinar. I am also keen in creating video content and co-creating long for content.

What are your passions outside of work?

Although I spend most of my days covering telecoms and technology, by night my personal passions are music and technology. I was a self-described band-geek growing up and played a slew of instruments. I like to say that music is food for my soul. I’ve recently taken my personal passion to the next level by starting a social music app company called TAMBER.

What would be the best way for a brand to contact you?

Email.


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