FAST FORWARD: MICHAEL HENDERSON, NEW GENERATION SYSTEMS

Telcordia named former ADC executive Michael Henderson president of New Generation Systems last week. Tim McElligott spoke to him on his first day on the job, just after he oversaw the acquisition by Intec of ADC's software division.

On ADC's divestiture of its software division: Back in the late '80s and '90s, there was a belief that there would be synergies in having software assets and hardware assets. It was thought that they were complementary, that when you met with [customers'] decision-makers they would be making more bundled decisions instead of buying disparate hardware and software platforms. That all proved not to be the case.

On his view of Telcordia before joining: We had some early discussions around service assurance when [Telcordia CEO] Matt Desch joined to see if there was an opportunity for Telcordia to OEM the Metrica product. In the end, the decision was not to go forward. Since then, Telcordia has had some success with its Service Director and other service assurance products (see feature story on Telcordia and o2 on page 56). They are clearly making a major mark with their Elementive strategy.

On the Telcordia product portfolio: It was developed and built out of the broad base of experience Bellcore and Telcordia have had over the years. They really do address the requirements they are intending to address from a product standpoint. Also, OEM relationships and the acquisition of Granite clearly fill a gap in the product set. And customers want to do business with suppliers that are financially stable, have substantial resources, are profitable, can commit to long-term product plans, have professional services resources of their own that are substantive, have offshore capability and experience delivering systems in a network environment. And Telcordia has “been through a few” as they say.

On the decision to come to Telcordia: For the reasons I just mentioned, but also because of what Matthas been able to do here in a very short amount of time. He put together a strategy that has been widely accepted by the employee base and certainly by the marketplace. You have people that have been here for 15 to 25 years. Back in the go-go days of the Internet that would be looked down upon, but it is a major asset.

On his plans to drive the business: It's my first day. Three months from now I'll be much smarter.