With DTW23 - Ignite set to begin in less than week, Ariana Lynn, Principal Analyst at The Fast Mode spoke to Sandeep Singh, SVP, GM, Digital Business Enablement at Mavenir on the company’s participation at the upcoming event.
Ariana: What are you looking forward to most at the event? What products/solutions will Mavenir be showcasing at DTW23?
Sandeep: We are glad to participate in Digital Transformation World (DTW) 23 and engage with industry leaders and peers. Exchanging insights and ideas in such a dynamic environment is always invaluable.
At DTW23, we will showcase our innovative approaches which reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) for Communications service providers (CSPs) and mitigate risks associated with digital transformation. We will also emphasize the significance of having architectural agility in today's ever- changing market vs. the use-case-centric approach of yesteryear.
A central focus will be on our comprehensive digital enablement portfolio, built with microservices and open APIs. This portfolio not only addresses current challenges faced by CSPs but is also designed to adapt seamlessly to future requirements emerging in the fields of 5G, IoT, and AI. To undergo digital transformation, our overlay approach of deploying Digital BSS (Business Support System) adjacent to existing systems of CSPs is a game changer. It reduces the cost of digital transformation by up to 50% and shrinks the time to market from a typical 2-year timeline to just 3 months.
We are hoping to share these advancements with industry experts and fellow attendees at the event.
Ariana: What are some emerging trends and technologies that you expect will power digital transformation in telco space in the next year?
Sandeep: The legacy systems of CSPs were not originally designed to support today’s dynamic markets. CSPs will undergo digital transformation to respond to the market requirements quickly by staying nimble and reducing their time to market (TTM).
CSPs will invest in no-code platforms to de-skill tasks such as personalized bundle configuration, charging rules definition, and workflow automation. The no-code approach empowers product teams to swiftly respond to market requirements and launch innovative products.
Moreover, many CSPs will consider launching sub-brands to tap into niche customer segments. Sub- brands focus on delighting customers through end-to-end digital customer experience, personalized offerings, partner-led services, and more. CSPs will undergo digital transformation to have independent charging and BSS platforms for sub-brands. It will allow the sub-brands to have more agility, interoperability, and freedom to innovate fearlessly without impacting the parent brand.
Lastly, CSPs’ transition to 5GC, convergence of prepaid and postpaid charging, and adherence to compliance as per 3GPP requirements will drive digital transformation. Introducing the Charging Function (CHF) will streamline operations, reduce complexities, and enhance customer experience. It will also empower CSPs to capitalize on new business opportunities brought by 5G by supporting network functions like CEF & NEF for network slicing monetization, enabling charging per API calls, non-usage events, quality of service, and more.
Ariana: How has the convergence of telco and cloud changed CSP monetization strategies? What are some new growth opportunities?
Sandeep: CSPs have recognized the enormous potential of cloud convergence to diversify their revenue streams alongside traditional telecom services. By integrating cloud services into their portfolios, they can provide customers with a comprehensive suite of solutions. The convergence with cloud services has been instrumental in enabling the concept of XaaS – Anything as a Service, by providing the cloud infrastructure with its scalability, cost-efficiency, and reliability required to deliver a wide range of services to a global customer base.
Innovative concepts like Network as a Service (NaaS) are a result of telco convergence with the cloud. NaaS allows CSPs to provide private networks to businesses with flexible, on-demand network resources, addressing the increasing need for agile and scalable connectivity solutions. This approach is particularly advantageous for businesses as it embraces the ‘pay as you grow’ model and eliminates the need for upfront capital investments.
Another exciting avenue with growth opportunities is Edge Computing. The integration of telco and cloud resources at the edge of the network enables CSPs to offer low-latency, high-performance computing services. This is particularly valuable for critical IoT applications, autonomous vehicles, and augmented reality, where real-time data processing is imperative. They unlock an array of monetization opportunities by enabling charging per data consumption, event triggers, subscriptions, connectivity, dynamic pricing, and more.
Ariana: What are your thoughts on artificial intelligence (AI), specifically generative AI? Where is it heading?
Sandeep: Generative AI is in demand for solutions that significantly reduce operating costs for CSPs. Take, for instance, the deployment of chatbots to aid in sales, personalized marketing at the scale of individuals, and real-time analysis of customer calls to provide resources to help customer care agents. Moreover, we also see scope for generative AI in business process optimization by examining and analyzing revenue and profits from various consumer plans, bundled offerings, and operational expenses. But it is also worth noting that the costs associated with training an AI model from scratch with company-specific data are high. The process is time-consuming and requires specialized expertise. We believe that today only some instances will require generative AI. Supervised ML and AI for operational efficiency and building customer profiles are more than capable of helping with capacity planning, predicting churn, analyzing trends, and identifying patterns.
Sandeep as the Senior Vice President and General Manager for Mavenir’s Digital Business Enablement is responsible to lead the global rollout of Mavenir’s Business & Operational Support offerings for Enterprise and Consumer domains. Sandeep spent almost two decades in the Telco industry and brings leadership & technology vision in BSS/OSS domain. He has leadership experience in building strategic & innovative service monetization and business solutions for the Enterprise, consumer mobility, and convergent communication verticals. He is proficient in optimizing business processes for telco operators during major technology transformation cycles.
