Contributed ArticleThe future is digital, and digital service providers will lead the way. From enhancing the way, you engage with your customers to automating operations, service providers reach new levels of programmability, access and agility – levels that digital natives call home.
What does it mean to become a digital service provider? Here is a five-step framework that can help service providers prosper in the digital economy:
#1 Build cloud infrastructure
Cloud infrastructure is the foundation for 5G and IoT. The scale and performance requirements of 5G and IoT demand a different approach to digital infrastructure. Increase speed, efficiency, and agility in offering new services while reducing risk and shortening lead time while you transform the network.
With an open and pre-integrated NFVI solution which can be deployed both at central and distributed sites, organisations will be better prepared to manage all workloads.
#2 Go to market with VoLTE
Whether you are a service provider with millions of customers or just thousands of users, you have your own cloud datacenter, or you want a full-stack solution for VoLTE services, there is an industrialised solution that will suit your requirements.
The same is true if you are a Mobile Virtual Network Operator or mission-critical service provider looking for an easy way to get both mobile broadband and voice services over LTE and Wi-Fi ready in your network in one step. You can deploy VoLTE in weeks now allowing a quicker time to market.
#3 Boost revenue with digital BSS
Digital business support systems are key to uncovering new revenue streams. Customer experience is vital for a successful transformation to a digital business, and digital business support systems are in the center of this change.
Businesses cannot deliver an agile digital customer experience with the transformation of the front-end experience alone. It needs to be a complete business transition – to put in place the end to end tools and processes to make real the goal of delivering a truly digital, simple, one-click business.
Customers experience simplicity and ease in administering their accounts through the ability to find information online, compare offerings, make online purchases, and get fast and automated deliveries. This results in real, measurable business improvements from simplification including much faster time-to-market and better customer experience.
#4 New revenue streams from network slicing
The IoT era has the potential to transform industry and society, and with 5G on the horizon, countless new business models become a possibility. IoT services come with their own complex connectivity and performance-related challenges.
As such, operators must invest in technologies to meet efficiency and flexibility demands of these new services – making an alternative approach necessary in order to maximise revenue generation. That is where network slicing comes in.
Network slicing is a virtualisation capability which allows operators to segment the network to support particular services and deploy multiple logical networks for different service types over one common infrastructure.
#5 Cloud native design
In the next few years all telecom applications will be cloud natively designed so as to increase efficiency and utilisation of the cloud infrastructure. Benefits include increased speed of software upgrades and releases plus improved granularity, and enhanced automation through already embedded features in cloud infrastructure for NFV.
In the case of 5G, the new ETSI standardised 5G Core functions will be cloud native and container based. By finding the right blueprint for their businesses, service providers can reach new levels of agility, access and automation.
Key takeaways
- Cloud infrastructure is the foundation for 5G and IoT.
- Performance requirements of 5G and IoT demand a different approach to digital infrastructure.
- Speed, efficiency, agility, in offering new services while reducing risk and shortening lead time while you transform the network.
- With pre-integrated NFVI, deployed at central and distributed sites, organisations will be better prepared to manage all workloads.
Ericsson’s Indranil das explains five steps that service providers need to take to become automated and agile.
