The Customer Service Survey
Let's Outlaw Acronyms (LOA)
Thu - March 16, 2006 02:43 PM in
Many years ago I discovered that if one could speak in acronyms, one could often get by without actually knowing anything about the subject. First came the TLA (three letter acronym). IBM, AT&T, that wasn't too bad. But soon we had the ETLA (extended three letter acronym) and the DETLA (doubly extended three letter acronym).
Just out of college, I was selling database marketing services for Dunn & Bradstreet (D&B), and found that in those pre-desktop computer days dropping DETLAs such as EPSIDIC, COBAL, FORTRAN could buffalo most anyone.
Later when employed by Ma Bell, I found myself commenting that TLAs were not so much industry shorthand as they were a way to keep up profit margins. "If people know what it means, we can't charge as much for it."
This morning I was reading the daily blizzard of e-mails (a semi DETLA) inviting my company to participate in so many conferences and trade shows that if accepted meant my next night's sleep in my own bed would come in early 2007. I was trying to prioritize these events in order of relevance. It struck me that every single event promoter identifies themselves with acronyms, and that differentiating ICCM from ICMI from IQPC from ACCE from SOCAP, from INNUA, etc. was becoming impossible.
Then the mail arrived including a sponsorship invitation by TMC for IMS Expo. Now I know who TMC is, but am not 100% sure what TMC stands for, and I honestly drew a blank on IMS. So I reviewed the cover page to see if the answer was there. On a single page with just a few lines of copy were the following in order of appearance: TMC, IMS, ILECs, CLECs, ISPs, PTTs, VoIPs, IP, SIP, TMC and IMS again. And they missed a couple, actually spelling out the names for WSPs and CATVs.
It wasn't until page two that there was a definition of IMS as: IP Multimedia Subsystems, but since that didn't really help me any, I ain't going.
Posted by Rick Rappe'
Later when employed by Ma Bell, I found myself commenting that TLAs were not so much industry shorthand as they were a way to keep up profit margins. "If people know what it means, we can't charge as much for it."
This morning I was reading the daily blizzard of e-mails (a semi DETLA) inviting my company to participate in so many conferences and trade shows that if accepted meant my next night's sleep in my own bed would come in early 2007. I was trying to prioritize these events in order of relevance. It struck me that every single event promoter identifies themselves with acronyms, and that differentiating ICCM from ICMI from IQPC from ACCE from SOCAP, from INNUA, etc. was becoming impossible.
Then the mail arrived including a sponsorship invitation by TMC for IMS Expo. Now I know who TMC is, but am not 100% sure what TMC stands for, and I honestly drew a blank on IMS. So I reviewed the cover page to see if the answer was there. On a single page with just a few lines of copy were the following in order of appearance: TMC, IMS, ILECs, CLECs, ISPs, PTTs, VoIPs, IP, SIP, TMC and IMS again. And they missed a couple, actually spelling out the names for WSPs and CATVs.
It wasn't until page two that there was a definition of IMS as: IP Multimedia Subsystems, but since that didn't really help me any, I ain't going.
Posted by Rick Rappe'
Posted at 02:43 PM | | | | |