The following transcript has been edited for length and readability. Listen to the entire discussion here on The Broadband Bunch. The Broadband Bunch is sponsored by ETI Software.
Pete Pizzutillo:
Welcome to the Broadband Bunch, a podcast about broadband and how it impacts us all. Join us to learn about the state of the industry, and the latest innovations and trends. Connect with the thought leaders, pioneers, and policymakers helping to shape your future through broadband.
Pete Pizzutillo:
This episode of the Broadband Bunch is sponsored by ETI Software, your Zero Touch automation experts. By Calix, simplify, excite, grow. By DxTEL, creators of the Harper Broadband Marketing Library. By ITK Solutions Group, the process first, technology second. And by Utopia Fiber, building a more connected nation.
Joe Coldebella:
Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Broadband Bunch. This is Joe Coldebella. Joining me is one of the other hosts of the Broadband Bunch, Pete Pizzutillo.
Now, normally we’d have a guest from the broadband world, and we’d share their story, but this episode’s going to be a little bit different. One of the goals of the Broadband Bunch is we want to be a resource for the entire broadband community. Along with the podcast episodes we share with you guys, we have panel discussions, and we have our own website, which is broadbandbunch.com. We like to provide tools and resources and to ultimately educate the broadband community. And one of the important components of the world of broadband is software. And Pete, to be totally transparent, as a marketing guy just entering the space, it’s incredibly intimidating.
Pete Pizzutillo:
Yeah, Joe, 100%. And that’s part of what we’re seeing, as more and more folks are coming into this market trying to figure out how to bring broadband to their communities. There’s a lot to learn, right? From software to networking, to hardware, to contracting to all the legal aspects of it. So, as you mentioned, one of our focuses for the Broadband Bunch is to provide some clarity, a single source of information for folks to quickly find the information they’re looking for.
And one of those aspects is software. And if you start digging around, you could see it’s a sea of information. And so that was really the genesis. I’d seen this done before in a different marketplace, and it really kind of codified and brought everything together in a fun, light way to say, “Okay, what are the things I should be thinking about? Who are the players in that different market, or capability? And how do I learn a little bit about them so I can figure out how to plan my procurement process or my design process?”
Joe Coldebella:
So, we created this periodic table of broadband tools. It’s one of those things where it really is great. It’s sort of a great visual tool. But what exactly was the idea behind it?
Pete Pizzutillo:
Yeah. When we first started looking, coming into this space of all the different toolsets, I think there are a lot of different ways to categorize it. So, trying to get a taxonomy, I think, was the first step, what are all the different tools that are out there? And you can look at, from the design, build, operate, to the optimization, kind of the program or network life cycle, because most people need to build something first, right? So, what are the toolsets that they most care about, instead of trying to get lost in all those tools out there?
So that was really the genesis, was okay, if I’m at a certain point in my maturity as a network operator and a service provider, what are the things that I could use to improve the ability to serve my customers, or to automate, or to get better intelligence, right? So, stepping back and kind of looking at the categories. And you’ll notice at the bottom of the page, really took some time to spell out the different software categories and provide some definitions. So, people can come and say, “Okay, asset management software, what do we talk about? What are we including in there?” Call center software, knowledge base software. And there’s a lot. But I think just trying to get the macro, big blocks in place have a lot of utility for folks that are saying, “Okay, what’s the problem I’m trying to solve, and what are the options I have to solve it?”
Joe Coldebella:
And those definitions are great for someone who’s just entering this space. So, I guess one of the other questions that I would want to ask is who exactly is the target? Who would benefit from going to the table and checking out the different software platforms?
Pete Pizzutillo:
Yeah. I think it’s horizontally across organizations and different maturities. I think there’s a lot of utility here. People that have been in the business for a long time may not know what the other options are for some of the toolsets that they’ve been using. But I think most of the low-hanging fruit, the folks that we see interacting with the toolset, are new folks, right? If you think about municipalities and we talk about this a lot, folks that have been dragged into now supporting and building out broadband, they really have no starting point to understand what is this that I’m getting into, fundamentally.
So, I do think there’s something for everybody in here. And I do want to say, if you go to the website, go to the broadbandbunch.com, it’s the Periodic Table of Broadband Tools. You’ll see, it’s really kind of a living document, right? Because there are just so many options coming out every day. There’s a lot of innovation, which is really exciting.
So, I think that’s a great way for us to be able to make sure, from a grassroots perspective, what are all the things that people are using, as well as from a bottom-up perspective, what are all the new things that are being created that people should be considering? Because you may have been in the industry for a long time and not really looking at, or keeping a track of, what’s happening in a certain space. And here’s an opportunity to say, “Oh, I haven’t seen that before, let me go check it out,” without spending a lot of time through the interweb trying to figure that stuff out. Does that make sense?
Joe Coldebella:
It does. And do you know what? The reason why I like it as well is that there’s zero intimidation factor. As someone who’s been in the field just about a year, when I go to conferences or when I talk to folks, sometimes I feel intimidated to ask the questions because sometimes you don’t want to seem so uneducated, and this is an opportunity for people to sort of, like, dip their toe and sort of just learning what different areas they need to consider.
Pete Pizzutillo:
Yeah, I totally agree. And I think if you look at the way we compose the table, it’s kind of cutesy in terms of how it’s organized. But there’s just a little synopsis about the company. And there are links directly to the product pages, not even to the vendor pages, right? Our goal was to get you to the information as quickly as possible without having to call a salesperson or put yourself in a situation where you’re not really sure what you’re talking about. So, we all know that the Internet’s a great source of learning and knowledge. This just makes it a little smaller, and a little bit more custom to the industry and the problem set that our community is dealing with.
Joe Coldebella:
And so, I guess just one quick question about the table itself. Now, as someone who would be a new operator in the space, do they need to engage with each one of the different areas? Or is it one of those things where they can kind of hunt and peck, in terms of the different software tools available?
Pete Pizzutillo:
Yeah. So, you can filter by the categories. So, you can say, “Just show me the asset management options or the OSS pieces.” So, I think there are 108 different vendors on here now. It gets down to eight vendors, right? So, if you know where you’re coming from, if you’re looking, say, for payment processing, you can quickly figure out where they are and then surf through those few vendors.
Otherwise, you can hunt and pack, and explore some folks that you never heard of, which I think is another great opportunity as well, because you just don’t know what you don’t know, right?
Joe Coldebella:
No, and absolutely. And one of the things that I also want to say is that we highlight this guide and all these different folks, but this is not the end-all, be-all. We’re not endorsing this. It’s just sort of like an area for people to start their journey in terms of just getting that initial education.
Pete Pizzutillo:
Yeah. And I think that’s a great point. I welcome everybody to go to broadbandbunch.com, to the resource menu, and you’ll find many things that Joe and I will spend a little bit time kind of unpacking in the future. That’s really the approach to everything that we’re trying to do. This is nonpartisan. We have multiple people on our Broadband Bunch team from across the industry. And it’s about finding the information and curating that information into digestible, accessible chunks. So again, this is not an endorsement of any products. I’ve never used, probably, 98% of these things.
Joe Coldebella:
Right, exactly.
Pete Pizzutillo:
So, I wouldn’t know. So, my goal is, if one person’s finding this is a problem, my guess is there are many, many other folks in our community that see this as a challenge. And we’re just trying to tackle those challenges one at a time.
Joe Coldebella:
That’s awesome. All right. And then Pete, just as a sort of a wrap up here, there’s just a little bit of housekeeping. Broadbandbunch.com is primarily where we put our episodes, as well as the different resources that we have available. But you can also follow us on LinkedIn. Just type in The Broadband Bunch, and we come up, and just follow us there. And then also, we’re on Twitter, @PodcastBunch. So, if anyone wants to be more in tune with when we drop new episodes, as well as share features like this, please feel free to follow us. And then Pete, is there anything else you’d like to add?
Pete Pizzutillo:
Yeah. I mean, it’s a call out to folks. As I mentioned before, this is a living tool, right? So, if there’s anything that’s missing, there’s a link in there to kind of email us and say, “Hey, have you thought about out these folks? Or, can you update this information?” So, I invite that kind of engagement. And also, any new ideas. So, if there’s anything that you have developed, that you have new folks coming into your organization to help reduce the learning burden, we would love to hear those ideas, because that’s our goal, right? To share and to help our community move forward together.
Joe Coldebella:
Yeah. That’s our primary objective, is to be a resource for everyone in the broadband community. All right. Well, that’s going to wrap up this episode of the Broadband Bunch. On behalf of everyone, thanks for listening and we’ll see you next time.
Pete Pizzutillo:
Thanks a lot.
