In conjunction with TM Forum’s DTW23 - Ignite, which kicks off today at the Bella Center, Copenhagen, Ariana Lynn, Principal Analyst at The Fast Mode spoke to Mari Nilsson Bjorkman, Media, and Technology Principal of SAS Global Telecommunications. Mari discusses the company's participation at the event, her predictions for the digital transformation space, and her thoughts on artificial intelligence.
Ariana: Which of the five tracks at DTW23 (AI at scale, cloud native software, future networks, platforms and partners, and Techco DNA) will SAS be participating in?
Mari: SAS approach spans across and combines all the topics from the five DTW23 tracks and leverages SAS broad experience in Telco industry. This is why our messaging is sharp and effective: Find out why > 400 telecom companies are working with SAS!
In the heart of our offerings is SAS Viya, our powerful end-to-end analytical platform, which according to a Futurum Group report outpaces competition in being on average 30x faster in executing data and AI tasks with endless scalability and compared with alternatives can lower cloud operating cost with 86%.
We will demonstrate how we can support autonomous, efficient networks and service assurance which is clearly connected to improved customer experiences as well as support for AIoT innovative services.
In our booth we will show what we call Enterprise Decisioning, the ability to make holistic decisions across the entire customer lifecycle, and each discrete customer journey across risk, fraud, and marketing on a single architecture. Take a moment to think about the stages of the customer lifecycle from acquisition to onboarding from customer engagement to subscription management. Each of these has a multitude of decisions that are made from service offering(s) to validating ID to credit risk evaluation. And then decisions around Next Best offer to grow share of customer wallet and ongoing monitoring for fraud and AML. Providing that differentiated frictionless customer experience can set one organization apart from the next.
Furthermore, we have created vibrant partnerships to expand our portfolio which we will showcase on the event. With our partner Digital Route, we have developed a vendor agnostic 3GPP standardized NWDAF solution for intelligent automated 5G network service assurance and capacity planning. In the telecom Fraud and Revenue assurance area we work with our partner Vanrise to have a complete portfolio to address different kind of telecom fraud prevention and revenue assurance use cases.
Ariana: What are some emerging trends and technologies that you expect will power digital transformation in the telco space in the next year?
Mari: Technologies that have been in spotlight for a while such as Cloud, 5G, IoT and Edge Computing continue to be the driving forces behind Telco digital transformation with AI at the heart of all these initiatives.
Now is the opportune moment to unlock their full potential and capitalize on the investment in them. This is why industry focus now and beyond centers on efficiencies, diversifying revenue streams, gaining a competitive edge, fostering innovation and making wider reach by using those technologies. And this is the rationale behind transforming from traditional telco to ”Techo” – technology oriented company.
At SAS we see cloud being the cornerstone of a successful digital strategy but as great as it is to have a flexible, limitless IT environment there is a need for the power of analytics and AI to maximize business impact. What sets SAS apart is that analytics and AI is our core domain, our DNA. Bringing AI and Analytics closer to the cloud allows for operating with greater flexibility, innovating fasterand accelerating businesses with real-time evidence-based decisioning, AI being the needed intelligent driver in that fast car.
Ariana: What are your thoughts on artificial intelligence (AI), specifically generative AI? Where is it heading?
Mari: AI attracts a lot of attention in both media and among our customers - both due to its potential and its risks. AI is indeed everywhere, we are all impacted by AI, and more people than ever are discussing its implications due to the latest developments and releases in generative AI.
Put in a broader context of digital transformation, Generative AI represents a remarkable advancement in technology with transformative potential and with its ability to synthesize content, LLM models, designs, and solutions, it has become a game-changer. Therefore, it is not a surprise that it is making its way into various industries. Telco might be the one where it gives the most significant promise - to revolutionize this industry by enabling it to enhance customer experiences, automate operations, and elevate the efficiency bar.
However, it is only one piece of the whole puzzle. Generative AI alone, without considering internal processes, willingness to accept the change, other complementary technologies and especially governance and trustworthiness can become yet another buzzword.There are both risks and rewards, and we do have a responsibility to make sure AI reflects the best of us.Everyone engaged in AI development and use need a solid governance framework. SAS has built trustworthiness into our platform, Viya. With capabilities supporting responsible innovation throughout the AI lifecycle, we enable our customers to build compliant, responsible AI with SAS and our approach to Generative AI is absolutely the same.
Our focus is to deliver trustworthy generative AI value through industry solutions, all to stay true to our vision and mission ‘to be the most trustworthy analytics partner on the planet’ and ‘to provide knowledge in the moments that matter.’
Mari Nilsson Bjorkman is the Global TMT Industry Principal at SAS Institute and comes with over 25 years of experience in the telecom industry in Marketing, Senior Sales and Business Development Manager roles with reporting teams owning sales budgets and P/L responsibilities. Mari has worked in companies such as Ericsson and Telenor which has given her the opportunity to establish extensive industry relationships and experience. At SAS, her work is to drive our global TMT industry strategy which includes identifying TMT market trends, challenges and opportunities and transforming that into adequate input for relevant offerings and solution development so SAS can support its customers to solve those challenges and add value for business growth. Other important parts of her work are to participate in different industry events and engaging in the executive dialogs with SAS' global telecommunication customers to understand and advise on their approach to the current massive business transformation needed to secure the future.
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