Many operators favor a “use case” approach to transformation so that they can leverage what they see as immediate opportunities, and therefore presumably fund the ongoing, gradual transformations of everything else. VoLTE and QoS charging are by far the most popular use cases, followed by real-time alerts and the ability to take advantage of intelligent upsell opportunities.
The advantage of the adjunct approach is clearly popular, with 46% seeing this approach taking six to 12 months, with 42% believing it will take just three to six months. And, of course, an adjunct approach can happen alongside a larger transformation to deliver concrete results as soon as possible.
The discussion about using adjunct systems and separate solutions for use cases is not a new argument. It is, however, made more compelling when seen in the context and capability that virtualization, openness and increased systems and process agility bring to the table. These ingredients now enable these implementations to happen very quickly.
Operators see the move to more, much smaller, less risky projects as the most effective way to achieve transformation. Certainly advances in IT with virtualized systems and open APIs now make this approach viable in a way today that would have been unthinkable even five years ago. In many cases, these smaller agile projects can be run alongside the larger (typically billing) system transformation projects so that operators can move away from the prison of single vendor lock-in, as well as have systems that will enable them to best compete in the digital economy.
However, if operators want to become truly digital service providers then they must move now, and move swiftly.