A recently released Analysys Mason study in collaboration with Huawei exemplifies how the success of CSPs’ operations transformation hinges on a new software-driven operations model that is already driving the success of digital businesses across different industries.
The study, entitled, ‘Digitalisation reshaping operations: a new digital operational model for the future’ illustrates how digitalisation is fundamentally reshaping the way businesses are being operated, and how in order to remain competitive a new operational model for the future operational environment is necessary.
The new operational model must support high levels of process automation to the point where predictive autonomous operations becomes a reality, enabling CSPs to automatically pre-empt and tackle service quality issues before they occur.
Based on cross-industry research, the paper explains how the current operations model severely constrains CSPs’ abilities to achieve the benefits of digital transformation and that to remain relevant in the digital era, the telecoms industry must adopt a software-driven operations approach that has been instrumental in the success of major digital companies such as Uber, Google and GE.
Anil Rao, principal analyst at Analysys Mason and the author of the study, said: “The telecommunications industry is at a major tipping point; as operators embark on important digital transformation initiatives, with NFV/SDN, IoT and 5G still to come, the prevalent operational model and economics severely constrains them to achieve the benefits of these strategic transformation initiatives. CSPs need a future proof software driven operations model that can not only support today’s physical networks but also adapt as the infrastructure transitions to hybrid and virtual networks.
“The new operations model must be underpinned by highly automated operational processes, enabled by analytics powered operations software platform and supported by an operations workforce with the software skills to continuously enhance operational efficiency by developing automation as part of their daily duties,” added Anil Rao.
The study also illustrates new ways for the CSPs to transform, whether they embark on the journey alone through a ‘Do It Yourself’ (DIY) approach or establish a partnership depending on the level of maturity of the vendor offer and the level of control and ownership that the CSP wants to retain in-house. The paper includes a description of the various engagement options such as consultative led operations-as-a-service which relies on the partner to deliver the operations, based on agreed service level agreements using the partners’ operations platform, supplemented with advisory and implementation services to transition to software driven operations.
