Defense Industry Underscores Commitment to TM Forum Standards

Morristown NJ, March 5, 2009 – TM Forum, the world’s premier industry group focused on business effectiveness for the communications, media and defense sectors, confirmed today that more than 80 attendees representing 35 companies participated in a recent defense industry meeting to look at the role of TM Forum standards in managing defense networks. This significant gathering demonstrated the U.S. Department of Defense DISA’s commitment to the development and implementation of TM Forum best practices and standards in the industry.

The milestone meeting was co-hosted by TM Forum and MITRE, a not-for-profit organization chartered to work in the public interest as a federally funded research and development center. The meeting – held at MITRE’s offices in McLean, VA – forms an important building block in the development of the Forum’s Defense Interest Group, which was formed in June 2008. The interest group focuses on enabling collaboration between key players to adapt TM Forum standards for the defense industry, allowing service providers, product vendors, and system integrators meet the needs of government defense departments including the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and NATO.

According to Bob Natale, of MITRE and co-Chair of the TM Forum’s Defense Interest Group, “As part of its industry outreach, collaboration, and information sharing efforts on behalf of our DoD sponsors, MITRE was delighted to host this event. We were very pleased with the number and quality of product vendors and solution integrators who attended, and with the productive interaction among them, the TM Forum representatives, and personnel from leading DoD NetOps organizations. We are confident that this event – and others organized by the TM Forum’s Defense Interest Group in the future – will help to foster an ever greater selection of standards-based interoperable COTS solutions that better meet DoD needs in the network operations and management domain.”

Speakers at the meeting included:

· Martin Creaner, TM Forum President and CTO, presenting the TM Forum’s mission, membership, standards & value proposition;

· Manuel Hermosilla, OSS Chief for DISA, presenting the Systems Integration role from a DISN OSS Perspective and the need for TM Forum standards;

· LTC John Quigg, NetOps Technical Director for the Joint Task Force Global Network Operations (JTF-GNO), presenting TM Forum standards and the Global Information Grid (GIG) NetOps perspective;

· Bob Natale, MITRE and TM Forum Defense Interest Group co-chair, and Ms. Christy Coffey, TM Forum Defense Sector Head, presenting an introduction to the TM Forum’s Defense Interest Group and its work-in-progress;

Martin Creaner, President, TM Forum commented “It is very encouraging to see the defense industry adopting TM Forum standards. While the application scenarios are different from the traditional telecom applications, the core operations management challenges are the same – namely delivering reliable services to customers in a secure, predictable and well managed fashion. We are committed to work more closely with the defense industry over the coming year to ensure our standards continue to meet their needs.”

TM Forum’s Defense Interest Group has already arranged further meetings at the Forum’s flagship conference, Management World 2009 held in Nice, France May 6-8. The conference will include a defense-focused workshop, two defense conference tracks, a networking event and the first defense-related Technology Catalyst live demonstration project as part of TM Forum’s innovation zone – Forumville.

For further information please contact Geoff Devlin, gdevlin {at} tmforum(.)org

About TM Forum

With more than 700 member companies in 75 countries, TM Forum is the world’s leading industry association focused on improving business effectiveness for service providers and their suppliers. Serving the information, communications and entertainment industries, the Forum provides practical solutions, guidance and leadership to transform the way that digital services are created, delivered and charged. Members include the world’s largest service providers, cable and network operators, software suppliers, equipment suppliers and systems integrators.

TM Forum provides a wide range of information and support to help its members reduce the costs and risks associated with creating and delivering profitable services. These include industry research and benchmarks, technology roadmaps, best practice guidebooks, software standards and interfaces, as well as certified training, conferences and publications. The Forum also provides its member community with extensive marketing and networking opportunities, enabling business with new customers and partners.

To learn more and for more information on Management World Nice 2009, please visit www.tmforum.org

Global TM Forum Media Contact
Geoff Devlin
gdevlin {at} tmforum(.)org
+44 (0)7894 300 280

United States Media Contacts
Nate Hubbell
tmforum {at} marchpr(.)com
+1 617 960 9875