Yogesh Malik, Global CTIO / CTO of the Year 2017 / Embracing New Tech Trends for Customer Experience / Telco Digitalization.
Australia’s recent decision to prohibit individuals under 16 from using social media reflects a growing global recognition of the need to rebalance our digital and physical lifestyles. This move introduces a broader trend that other nations may follow as they face the consequences of our increasingly digital “first screen” reality. For telcos enabling connectivity, the challenges are forming as they strive to meet the needs of customers navigating the rapidly evolving digital landscape. But, despite the rapid digitization of users’ needs, once telcos understand the challenges, once they start to fully appreciate their assets, they can become the true enabler. They can fill in the gap between the digital lifestyle needs and connectivity and become the backbone of the first screen era.
We have seen this happening with the evolution of 3G to 4G and 4G to 5G. Now, in a world of generative AI (GenAI) powering everyday life and everything customers require embedded into the “first screen,” simply supplying connectivity is no longer enough. Entering the stage of Deep Digitalization, with the screen occupying 10 hours of people’s daily attention, what better option can there be for telcos than taking as “measured & informed approach” as possible? It’s enough to look at the industry leaders pioneering the future-proof mindset and already seeing the benefits of it.
Telcos’ challenges can thus turn into real opportunities as they possess data and knowledge and have the need for new digital skills. Meanwhile, most telcos are under constant pressure to sustain and update their technologies, covering decades of sometimes irrelevant legacy. These challenges are growing under the limited revenue streams, as many telcos continue to rely almost exclusively on gigabyte connectivity to generate profit.
To thrive in this era of deep digitalization and go beyond being merely a utility provider, telcos should shift from reactive monitoring to proactive observability. From a technical standpoint, the key advantage of observability is that it enables inspecting a process without the need to know its internals. Observability lets you understand a system from the outside by letting you ask questions about that system without knowing its inner workings. It offers the ability to inspect and understand a system’s behavior without requiring too detailed knowledge. This is crucial as cloud-native environments don’t lend themselves well to this type of monitoring because they are dynamic and complex, which means you have no way of knowing in advance what kinds of problems might arise. By leveraging observability, telcos can enhance their offerings in three key ways:
Stable And Secure Connectivity: Observability ensures that telcos can deliver consistently stable services, meeting the demands of both individual users and businesses.
Informed Consent Management: Observability enables telcos to create systems where user consent is clear, traceable and secure, boosting customer confidence.
Deeper Personalization And New Product Opportunity: With access to rich data insights, telcos can deliver personalized services tailored to the diverse needs of customers. This data can enable telcos to develop and offer new products, reducing reliance on third-party providers like Google Analytics or other OEMs.
But GenAI without the right knowledge base or a data-based architecture is like a flight without an engine. This becomes an untapped opportunity for telcos specifically. They first need to understand their business processes versus system landscapes and data flows. The initial and critical step to enable the benefits of AI is to map these processes and how they align with the knowledge base. If telcos are unable to get that insight, it’s quite impossible to use the full potential of AI and observability.
Time To Get (Pro)active
For telcos, embracing observability represents a paradigm shift and a new way of thinking. It allows them to tap into resources they already have and use them to move beyond just supplying gigabytes into becoming trusted partners in managing customer experience. Adopting observability is not just a technical advancement; it is also a business opportunity. By embracing observability, telcos can unlock new revenue streams, strengthen customer loyalty and position themselves as leaders in the age of GenAI and deep digitalization. But before that happens, telcos need to do some work required to fully understand their data structure, gain a deeper understanding of OTTs and take a step-by-step approach.
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