Successfully guiding open platforms through corporate procurement, Mark Kent, OFB 2016
Channel: British Computer Society Open Source Specialists
Date: 02/04/2020

Presented by Mark Kent

How to make your open platform a thing of beauty for any corporate procurement team to admire and desire. Understanding what motivates procurement decisions, how to inspire confidence, how proprietary vendors approach such opportunities, and how to form lasting positive commercial relationships. The talk will focus in detail on a genuine BT platform example which has continued to re-instantiate, grow and develop well beyond its original goals and markets.

Mark Kent has over 25 years in BT, and is currently technical shaping and driving BT’s moves into business grade Cloud Voice VoIP services from the CIO. He was the technical lead for BT’s MVNO negotiations with UK mobile operators, ultimately culminating in the acquisition of EE. His time in Openreach involved leading the software design teams for OR’s B2B platform, following a substantial career in global and international voice and transport networking, which included the introduction of Open Voice Platforms for consolidating global networks, where a clear focus on technical and commercial issues was vital.

Mark has considerable experience in international standards as an ITU rapporteur, and designed an algorithm adopted by the ITU-R for measuring satellite link performance. Mark also performed deep testing on the first digital transatlantic cable, and introduced a fully automated monitoring and protection system for BT’s international backhaul network. Prior to joining BT, he worked as a software developer for a small consultancy, designed radio test equipment and worked in technical maintenance.

Mark holds an OU postgraduate Certificate in Management, an honours degree in Electronics with Physics from the University of Keele, and attended Ilkley Grammar School.

Mark is an active radio amateur, licensed in 1978 as G8PHM, and speaks regularly on open-source and amateur radio topics.