Autonomous Networks will shape the future of telcos - but how?

Autonomous networks are indeed widely spoken of in industry. It is a highly debated topic that has many viewpoints. My key beliefs are:

• Cloudification offers significant opportunities for reducing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). However, it necessitates a high degree of automation to effectively manage the complexity and ensure a seamless end-to-end (E2E) customer experience.
• The future of network operations lies in AI, which will become the standard operating model, but telcos need to develop their path towards integrating these advanced technologies into their operations.
• Successful autonomous operations should and will be built on reusable building blocks. This approach ensures scalability and efficiency in deploying automation across various network components.
• At its core, autonomous operations aim to enhance customer service. By automating network management, telcos can provide more reliable, faster, and personalized services to their customers.
• Efficient data operations are imperative for improving the bottom line. Properly managed data processes enable better decision-making, operational efficiency, and ultimately, enhanced profitability.

My beliefs underscore the importance of a strategic and well-rounded approach to adopting autonomous networks, ensuring that telcos can fully realize the benefits while overcoming inherent challenges.

Let’s face it, in order to invest in network automation telcos are in search of direct cost savings, which are obvious and plenty. However, the risk is that the telcos will be distracted from the main benefit of automation – serving the customer better. Whether it is flawless service provisioning, proactive customer and service management, superior quality of service or proactive service assurance it is all improved by automation and advanced analytics.

In other words, if an automation use case is not improving customer experience, drop developing it! The typical challenge in defining the benefits of operational efficiency is that the comparison is not right. Automation does far more and far more comprehensively than the humans can do. Thus, the measure should not only be automating the existing manual functions but achieving the capability to do more, analytically and data driven.  

Yes. However, the pace may vary. A good indication of a forerunner telco is how data centric one is; the more data intensive the networks, the more automation is needed in order to push down the cost of the transferred byte. This is valid for both operation expenditures and capital expenditures

• The more cloudification; simply cloud infrastructure & SW based networks need to be managed by automation. If not, the promised TCO benefits of cloud infrastructure are not met
• The more diverse service offer. Manual operations require simplification and offer unification. Automation instead enables tailored offers and new revenue potential

A cheap labor is many times considered as a slowdown for automation, as the cost benefits are understandably not as obvious as in the high labor cost markets. However, this I think is a distorted perspective as none of the above drivers are directly linked to labor. The moment your data volumes grow, your networks are increasingly cloudified and the competition is offering new attractive services – automation would be relevant for you regardless of the cost of labor.

The whole telco industry is in a very unique position. At one end the network infrastructure is really a long term, capex heavy investment, on the other hand, the pace of change and technology development is overwhelming. We all know that the measure of a successful transformation is not in adaptation of new technologies but to make the whole orchestra play together.

To add, it is not only about the network technology, but telcos need to succeed in process digitalization, adapting new operating models, bringing AI analytics and managing the data efficiently. And not to mention talent management and organizational structures that need to support autonomous operations.

I see these four cornerstones above all:

• Leadership commitment: Ensure strong leadership commitment to drive and support the transformation process.
• Clear vision and goals: Define a clear vision and set achievable goals for the transformation to guide the process and measure progress.
• Employee engagement: Innovation rarely comes top down but bottom up. Actively involve employees at all levels in the transformation process to gain their buy-in. Encourage people to innovate new ways of working and build the potential of automation.
• Transfer automation strategy to deployable plan and measure the progress.

Knowing your starting point and current status is the key for:

• Setting up realistic targets
• Linking the targets with business benefits
• Defining the gap
• Translate the gap into a gradual action plan
• Monitor the process

It is not a simple thing to measure and monitor the autonomous networks maturity levels. TM Forum and other industry players have developed assessment frameworks, where Detecon has been fully engaged.

I am happy to invite telcos for a dialogue on how to assess automation maturity levels, deploy a structured approach, define deployment strategy and a roadmap for autonomous networks!