VP Magazine Q1 2022 by Prestige Media

Issue 1 2022 ISSN 1745-1736

THE GLOBAL VOICE OF TELECOMS IT

TALKING HEADS VoltDB chief executive explains why IT must catch up with OT to enable 5G monetisation

PLUS 7-PAGE Transforma Insights Analyst Review of IoT connectivity’s hyperscale future • Inside Aptiv’s US$4.3bn acquisition of Wind River • Is creativity a bridge too far for CSPs? • How Openet uses VoltDB to power real-time BSS • Why new systems are needed to maximise 5G opportunities • Top tips to avoid digital onboarding disasters • How CSPs can be the leaders in hyperscale connectivity • The latest VanillaPlus Contract Hot List • News, features and interviews online at www.vanillaplus.com

T H E

G L O B A L

V O I C E

O F

T E L E C O M S

I T

Global Advisors on IoT, AI and Digital Transformation Leading the conversation on Internet of Things connectivity Transforma Insights is the leading analyst firm in IoT. In particular we set the standard for qualitative and quantitative research on IoT connectivity. We have ultra-granular market forecasts, deep analysis of new technologies such as 5G, LPWA and Mobile Private Networks, and extensive assessments of strategies and capabilities of service providers.

Our 2022 research agenda is packed full of topics related to IoT connectivity including the following topics in Q1 and Q2: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Satellite IoT Market Landscape Transport Layer Orchestration Platforms Industry 4.0 Service Provider Benchmarking Data Exchange Market Study IoT Hardware Manufacturer Strategies for Connectivity

■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Chinese Communications Service Provider Benchmarking IoT Module/Chipset Market Landscape 5G and Mobile Private Networks Market Landscape LoRaWAN, Sigfox and NB-IoT/LTE-M market updates And much, much more…

IoT is all about making connections. Make one with us. Our analysts are deeply engaged with the IoT ecosystem. We will be at the Consumer Electronics Show, The Things Conference, Mobile World Congress, Industry of Things World, IoT Solutions World Congress and many other events next year. We welcome the opportunity to engage with all participants in the IoT. Get in touch to arrange a meeting. Sign up to your free ‘Essential’ subscription to explore our research at: transformainsights.com/signup/essential

transformainsights.com

enquiries@transformainsights.com

@transformatweet

CONTENTS

IN THIS ISSUE 4 EDITOR’S COMMENT George Malim on whether CSPs can get creative

5 COMPANY NEWS Aptiv spends US$4.3bn on Wind River, PartnerOne completes US$40m Evolving Systems deal 6 THE CONTRACT HOT LIST The latest developments in the world of communications 8 TALKING HEADS David Flower, the president and chief executive of VoltDB tells George Malim that 5G monetisation demands IT and OT that are fit for purpose 12 5G TESTING Phil Thompson describes how 5G has changes CSPs’ responsibilities and highlighted the importance of testing 14 5G MONETISATION Tony Savvas explains why CSPs need to invest in their IT alongside their operational technology network investments to enable 5G monetisation

TALKING HEADS David Flower, VoltDB

18 INTERVIEW

18 INTERVIEW The leadership of ZIRA detail why CSPs are in a rush to complete digital transformation and reveal the future trends influencing OSS/BSS market developments 23 ANALYST REVIEW Transforma Insights’ Matt Hatton reviews the findings of a recent Transforma report that assesses IoT connectivity’s hyperscale future 30 HYPERSCALE IoT Aptilo explains how a mobile network operator can become a leader in hyperscale connectivity 32 DIGITAL ONBOARDING Hamish White reveals how to avoid digital onboarding disasters 35 WHITEPAPER floLIVE whitepaper details criteria enterprises should consider when selecting a global IoT connectivity partner

46 EVENTS DIARY Our pick of the upcoming virtual events.

ANALYST REVIEW

32 DIGITAL ONBOARDING

VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE ISSUE 1 I 2022

Cover sponsor: VoltDB empowers enterprise-grade applications to ingest, process, and act on data in singledigit milliseconds to tap into new revenue streams and prevent revenue loss. With industry-leading customers in telecommunications, finance, gaming, and many other verticals, the VoltDB Data Platform is uniquely positioned to be the go-to technology for any company seeking to take full advantage of 5G, IoT, and whatever comes next. www.voltdb.com

COMMENT

Is creativity a bridge too far for CSPs? As communications service providers (CSPs) engage in new digital value chains, collaborate with partners and participate in multi-directional business models, George Malim shares a tale of two bridges In the city I live in, Bath in the south west of England, there are two bridges. One, Churchill Bridge was built in 1966. It’s constructed from concrete has multi-lane capacity and does a fine job of carrying traffic from the south of the city across the River Avon. The Churchill Bridge is just a bridge.

In contrast, Pulteney Bridge can do more and continually re-invents itself as the businesses it accommodates change with popular tastes and demands. It’s still a bridge but it is many other things and its relationships are with its tenants, the traffic that passes over it and the people it attracts to come to look at it. The bridge engages in multi-party business models with elements maintained by transport authorities, tenants and the city council. It has multiple revenue streams and generates benefits in several dimensions.

In contrast, Pulteney Bridge (pictured) was constructed in 1774 and features a range of shops and restaurants in the buildings that make up its span. In George Malim addition, it serves as a popular selfie managing editor spot for the millions of visitors that flock to the city. Pulteney Bridge is therefore a tourist attraction, business premises, something attractive to look at, a retail site and still, a bridge.

For CSPs, the Pulteney Bridge model is the new creative approach that presents opportunities for the future. To maximise these, CSPs need to engage creatively to determine what services to offer and how. They will need to learn to co-create with partners and share the risks and rewards and, in doing so, they will become far more than just infrastructure providers.

These two bridges provide a parallel comparison for traditional and next generation CSPs. Churchill Bridge is traditional infrastructure. It was designed to carry maximum traffic for minimum cost, with rapid build time and it does exactly that. However, it can do nothing more, the only development option is to pay more to widen it so it can do more of the same.

This issue of the magazine sets out how telecoms IT needs to catch up with operational technology (OT) investments that have been made in network infrastructure in order that the networks of the future are not simply a bridge. Powered by renewed IT, creative CSPs can be far more than basic infrastructure providers if cocreation and new service invention are bridges they want to cross. Enjoy the magazine! George Malim

MANAGING EDITOR George Malim Tel: +44 (0) 1225 319566 george@vanillaplus.com

DIGITAL SERVICES DIRECTOR Nathalie Millar Tel: +44 (0) 1732 808690 n.millar@wkm-global.com

DESIGN Jason Appleby Ark Design Tel: +44 (0) 1787 881623

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR & PUBLISHER Jeremy Cowan Tel: +44 (0) 1420 588638 j.cowan@wkm-global.com

SALES CONSULTANT Cherisse Jameson Tel: +44 (0) 1732 807410 c.jameson@wkm-global.com

DISTRIBUTION UK Postings Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 8456 444137

VanillaPlus magazine is published as a digital edition 4 times a year. It is available free of charge to all readers worldwide, at the publisher’s discretion. To subscribe free of charge go to: www.VanillaPlus.com, click the “Subscribe” tab on the Home Page and answer the questions shown. The Publisher reserves the right to alter or end this free offer at any time without notice. No guarantee is stated or implied. You can unsubscribe at any time by emailing subscribe@vanillaplus.com with UNSUBSCRIBE in the Subject line. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, stored, published or in any way reproduced without the prior written consent of the Publisher

PUBLISHED BY Prestige Media Ltd. Suite 138, 80 Churchill Square, Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent ME19 4YU, UK Tel: +44 (0) 1732 807410

VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE ISSUE 1 I 2022

COMPANY NEWS

Aptiv drops US$4.3bn on Wind River in drive to accelerate digital transformations Aptiv is to acquire Wind River from TPG Capital for US$4.3 billion in cash. Used on more than two billion edge devices across more than 1,700 customers globally, Wind River’s software enables the secure development, deployment, operations and servicing of missioncritical intelligent systems. The company’s edge-to-cloud software portfolio spans the aerospace and defence, telecoms, industrial and automotive markets and is anchored by Wind River Studio, a versatile, comprehensive cloud-native intelligent systems software platform that enables full product lifecycle management for edgeto-cloud use cases. Wind River generated approximately US$400 million in revenues in 2021. “The automotive industry is undergoing its largest transformation in over a century, as connected, software-defined vehicles increasingly become critical elements of the broader intelligent ecosystem,” said Kevin Clark, the president and chief executive officer of Aptiv. “Fully capitalising on this opportunity requires comprehensive solutions that enable software to be developed faster, deployed seamlessly and optimised throughout the vehicle lifecycle by utilising data-driven insights. These same needs are driving the growth of the intelligent edge across multiple end markets.” The acquisition is expected to allow Aptiv to execute against the large softwaredefined mobility opportunity and expand into multiple high-value industries with Wind River’s team and intelligent systems software platform. The combination will enable multiple end-use innovations and applications, particularly as compute and processing continue to move closer to the

edge and connected devices, including vehicles, expand in complexity and capabilities. “Combining Wind River’s industry-leading software, customer base and talent with Aptiv’s complementary technologies, global resources and scale will realise our vision of the new machine economy,” said Kevin Dallas, the president and chief executive of Wind River. “Together we will accelerate the digital transformation of our customers across industries through best-in-class intelligent systems software. We look forward to working with the Aptiv team to reach even greater heights and provide further growth opportunities for our customers and partners.”

Kevin Clark, Aptiv

“CSPs operating in a highly competitive VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE ISSUE 1 I 2022

fonYou secures funding to go beyond telecoms Fintech innovator fonYou has secured US$8 million in growth funding from Banco Santander‘s Smart Fund. The financing deal aims to support fonYou’s future technology development and market expansion as it rolls out its new fintech solutions across key regions including Latin America and Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The new framework finance agreement will fund fonYou as it expands its sector focus beyond telecoms to integrated digital finance enablement across global fintech and ecommerce markets. fonYou’s innovation roadmap is focused on delivering new technologies to enable the deployment of embedded finance solutions including instant payment, ‘buy now, pay later’ and emerging credit modalities in partnership with connected mobile operators, ecommerce, and the wider global banking ecosystem.

BICS Singapore buys 3m Digital Networks BICS has agreed the acquisition of communications platform as a service (CPaaS) specialist, 3m Digital Networks, by BICS Singapore, a 100% subsidiary of the BICS Group, for an undisclosed amount.

Kevin Dallas, Wind River

PartnerOne complete US$40m Evolving Systems deal The US$40m acquisition of Evolving Systems, a provider of real-time digital engagement solutions and services, by software conglomerate PartnerOne has been completed. For more than 30 years, Evolving Systems’ products and services have empowered communications service providers (CSPs) to increase revenue per user, reduce friction, improve retention and maximise customer satisfaction. Many of the world’s telecommunications companies rely on Evolving Systems’ proprietary technology and industry expertise to deliver improved experiences to their own customers.

NEWS IN BRIEF

market are reliant on providing better customer engagement and an improved customer experience if they want to retain and expand market share,” said Adhish Kulkarni, Evolving Systems’ senior vicepresident. “Evolving Systems has been enabling them to do this for three decades. As a result, the technology we deliver and the results we provide to our customers and partners is unrivalled.” As part of the PartnerOne organisation, Evolving Systems will solidify its position as a global provider and all Evolving Systems customers will benefit from improved products and services that exceed the rigorous demands of its market.

The deal will accelerate the BICS Group strategy to become a communications platform company, delivering a suite of cloud-based omnichannel communications services alongside its existing portfolio. This will significantly enrich BICS’ value proposition towards both the telecommunications and enterprise markets, with the ambition to expand its Softwareas-a-Service (SaaS) solutions to support businesses in their digital transformations. The acquisition will add a wide range of cloud-native communications solutions to BICS’ portfolio, including AI-enabled voice, multi-channel messaging (WhatsApp, verification services, IP messaging, and rich communications services) and advanced analytics services. 5

HOT LIST

Vendor/ Partner

Client, Country

Awarded

A1 Telekom BBC Studios Austria Group

Extension of distribution agreements for the current BBC Earth and BBC First channels on the A1 Pay-TV platforms until 2025.

11,21

Allot

Allot adopted for launch of zero-touch, clientless cybersecurity and content control services for consumer customers.

11,21

Amdocs’ CES cloud-native platform to support AT&T BSSe programme and Amdocs to provide next-generation cloud operations for BSSe.

11,21

Play, Poland

Amdocs AT&T Amdocs

Globe Telecom, Amdocs Catalog and Commerce Suite chosen to provide enhanced digital experience for mobile and fixed-line customers. Philippines

11,21

Amdocs

Melita, Malta

Provision of charging system to create differentiated services and business models over Melita’s 5G network.

11,21

Amdocs

True Corporation, Thailand

Multi-year modernisation and support agreement to upgrade billing and charging platform to enable monetisation of 5G services.

11,21

Amdocs, Orange, Belgium Giesecke+Devrient

Joint collaboration to provide Orange Belgium’s enterprise customers with the ability to order, activate and manage embedded SIM (eSIM) on their employees’ devices.

12,21

BBT.Live Cellcom, Israel

Agreement to bring in an SD-WAN cloud-based secured connectivity service designated to Israel’s growing SMB/SME market.

12,21

Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel and TCS complete testing of use cases from TCS’ Neural Manufacturing solutions suite on Airtel’s 5G network.

12,21

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

BICS Group 3m Digital Networks BICS Singapore acquires 3m Digital Networks to deliver a suite of cloud-based omnichannel communications services alongside its existing portfolio.

12,21

BT OneWeb

11,21

BT and OneWeb have agreed on terms for a new distribution partner agreement, for low earth orbit (LEO) satellite communication services across BT Group.

Ciena

Bharti Foundation, Ciena and Bharti Foundation have inaugurated the Advanced Technology Lab at Satya Bharti Adarsh Senior Secondary India School, Chogawan, Punjab.

11,21

Ciena

Digital Realty

Agreement to deliver open, secure and dynamic cloud-based interconnectivity to customers across Asia Pacific.

11,21

Ciena Telecom Egypt

Deployment of Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme coherent optical technology for MENA submarine cable system and Egypt’s mesh network.

11,21

Ciena

T-Mobile Polska

Optical solution selected from Ciena for its high-performance, flexible 800G network.

11,21

C Spire

Troy Cablevision

C Spire has completed the acquisition of Troy Cablevision, including Union Springs Telephone.

12,21

Deutsche Telekom Weaveworks

Deutsche Telekom rolls out Kubernetes optimised for cloud-native 5G deployments to accelerate continuous application delivery and continuous operations for 5G workloads.

11,21

Ericsson

ArcelorMittal France, Orange

Companies collaborate to launch 5G Steel to test 4G/5G connectivity at ArcelorMittal’s industrial sites in France over the next three years.

11,21

Ericsson

Ooredoo Qatar

Partnership to deploy 5G connectivity experiences inside several event stadiums and across the country.

11,21

Ericsson Singtel

Collaboration to use New Radio-Dual Connectivity (NR-DC) to reach download speeds of 5.4Gbps by aggregating Singtel’s spectrum holdings.

12,21

Ericsson

SK Telecom, Korea Partnership to support 5G Standalone networks through the deployment of cloud-native dual-mode 5G Core

11,21

Ericsson

Telefonica Germany / O2

12,21

Ericsson MINI-LINK microwave product portfolio allows CSP to implement a vendor-agnostic SDN interface.

Ericsson Telstra Qualcomm Ericsson, Telstra, and Qualcomm Technologies have achieved the highest uplink peak rate ever recorded on a commercial network during a live demo in Queensland, Australia.

12,21

Ericsson

Vonage Holdings

Ericsson has agreed to acquire Vonage Holdings for US$6.2bn.

11,21

Google Cloud

SeABank

SeABank has chosen Google Cloud as its primary cloud provider.

12,21

HUBER+SUHNER McLaren Applied Technologies

Launch of 5G edge computing rail antenna to offer increased data throughput to support 5G services.

11,21

Infinera

G8 Telecomm- unications, Brazil

Selection of GX Series Compact Modular Platform for long-haul dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) network.

11,21

Infinera

Fastweb, Italy

Use of Infinera’s fifth-generation ICE6 800G technology on the GX Series Compact Modular Platform in network trial.

12,21

Infinera Telia Carrier

Selection of Infinera’s ICE6 800G solution for Telia Carrier’s global network after completing a successful trial of the technology on Telia Carrier’s live global network.

12,21

Infinet Wireless

Burabay National Park, Kazakhstan

Provision of high speed data transfer for Kazakhstan’s nature reserve video surveillance system in the Burabay National Park.

11,21

Keysight Technologies

Credo

Collaboaration to enable data centre operators (DCOs) to validate readiness of data centre equipment.

11,21

Keysight Fibocom Technologies

Keysight’s 5G solutions chosen to perform comprehensive testing, verification and optimisation of wireless modules for 5G and IoT.

12,21

Keysight NEC Europe Technologies

Keysight selected to create advanced radio frequency (RF) propagation environment for verifying the performance of open radio access network (RAN) base stations.

11,21

Keysight Technologies

Ti Group has selected Keysight to support wireless device conformance validation.

11,21

MATRIXX Software NOS, Portugal

NOS has selected the MATRIXX Digital Commerce Platform to power its digital transformation.

11,21

Mavenir L&T Technology

L&T Technology has been selected as an engineering partner by Mavenir and NVIDIA, to accelerate the adoption of the industry’s first converged AI-on-5G.

11,21

Mavenir

T-Mobile, Czech Republic

Enablement of some smartwatches to connect to their existing mobile number.

12,21

Mobileum

3 Hong Kong

Mobileum Active Intelligence Platform chosen to provide superior roaming services.

11,21

Motorola

911 Datamaster

Motorola Solutions announced that it has acquired 911 Datamaster to reinforce commitment to command centre systems.

12,21

Motorola

SEGUP of Pará, Brazil

Deal to modernise communications to connect all public safety agencies across the country’s second-largest state, Pará.

11,21

Motorola

Specialized by stc, Specialized by stc has selected Motorola Solutions to deliver new FORUN push-to-talk (PTT) system. Saudi Arabia

11,21

Netcracker Technology

Vodafone Spain

11,21

Nokia

Bahrain’s Electricity Deal to build a secure, private LTE network to modernise distribution network for improved efficiency and performance. and Water Authority

Ti Group, China

Nokia Bell Canada

Product/Service (Duration & Value)

Upgrade to Netcracker Digital BSS as part of an overall IT transformation project.

Announcement of initial successful test of 25G PON fibre broadband technology in North America at Bell’s Advanced Technical Lab in Montréal, Québec.

11,21

VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE ISSUE 1 I 2022

HOT LIST

Vendor/ Partner

Client, Country

Product/Service (Duration & Value)

Awarded

Nokia

CityFibre, University Trial shows 25G PON can support 5G networks and that fixed and mobile network infrastructure convergence is now closer of Glasgow than ever.

Nokia

Earthlink Deal to build a high-capacity IP metro transport network in 15 provinces in the country, as part of the Iraqi National Telecommunication, project. Iraq

12,21 11,21

Nokia

Elisa Estonia

Nokia chosen for Estonian nationwide 5G RAN deployment and replacement of existing 4G infrastructure in a five-year deal.

12,21

Nokia

everyWAN, Spain

Nokia to provide its SR Linux network operating system (NOS) and 7220 IXR data centre switches to everyWAN

11,21

Nokia

Frontier Comms

Completion of US trial of 25G PON broadband technology.

12,21

Nokia

NTT DOCOMO

Nokia ready to supply its O-RAN fronthaul multi-vendor solution to NTT DOCOMO’s 5G network following successful testing.

12,21

Nokia Ooredoo Group

Nokia selected to bring multiple technologies and services, including 5G, to customers in Middle East, North Africa and South-east Asia as part of a multi-country, five-year deal.

11,21

Nokia

Ooredoo Group

Nokia chosen by Ooredoo Group to supply 5G CPE and whole-home mesh WiFi solution to residential and enterprise customers. 12,21

Nokia

Rally, Canada

Nokia and Rally announced the initial deployment of Nokia’s Lightspan MF-2 fibre access node in North America.

Nokia

Teletalk, Bangladesh Nokia chosen to deploy 5G network in the country.

12,21 12,21

Nokia TOP-IX, Italy

Deal to supply 400GE IP routing platforms to enable Italian internet exchange provider to scale its regional interconnection and peering infrastructure.

12,21

Nokia

Volkswagen, Germany

Deployment of private 5G standalone wireless network for Volkswagen at the car maker’s main plant in Wolfsburg, Germany.

12,21

Nokia

Westcon-Comstor, Deal will provide industry expertise and specialised channel needed to unleash the full potential of high-performance, Germany end-to-end private wireless networking.

Nokia

WorldLink Comms, Nokia WiFi Beacon 1.1 mesh access point chosen to offer a seamless home Wi-Fi experience for subscribers in Nepal. Nepal

Nordic Semiconductor

Advanced Info Service (AIS), Thailand

Selection of multiprotocol Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE) system-on-chip (SoC) to provide the core processing power and wireless connectivity DEVIO Beacon.

12,21

Nordic Semiconductor

Alibaba

Collaboration to complete innovative design for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with the Alibaba Cloud Pin wearable.

11,21

Nordic Semiconductor

Bellman & Symfon, Nordic’s nRF52832 Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE) multiprotocol System-on-Chip (SoC) chosen for Vibio bed shaker Sweden alarm.

11,21

Nordic Semiconductor

Dronetag, Czech Republic

Dronetag Mini employs Nordic nRF9160 SiP and nRF52833 SoC, enabling users to apply for flight approval and monitor the status of their drones.

12,21

Ooredoo Group

Snap

Three-year partnership for the use of augmented reality (AR) technology to enhance customer experience.

11,21

QA Cafe

prpl Foundation

Deal to expand performance and security for broadband Wi-Fi routers and gateways with enhanced automated testing.

12,21

Qvantel

DNA, Finland

Multi-year contract extension to supply its Qvantel Flex BSS to Finnish telecoms operator DNA.

11,21

Rakuten DISH Network

Rakuten Symphony’s observability framework (OBF) chosen to enable use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to operate and optimise DISH 5G network.

11,21

Ribbon Communications

Bezeq, Israel

Ribbon Apollo optical transport and switching platforms, which feature 400G ZR+ pluggable dynamic coherent optics, deployed. 12,21

Ribbon Communications

Moratelindo, Indonesia

Moratelindo to more than double capacity of its Sumatra backbone to 3.6 terabits per second.

Ribbon Communications

Westcon-Comstor Extension of existing distribution agreement to encompass an additional ten countries in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

12,21 11,21

11,21 11,21

Rohde & Schwarz Audi

Partnership to enable Cellular-V2X (C-V2X) application testing.

12,21

Rohde & Schwarz Broadcom

Test solutions for the Broadcom 6GHz Wi-Fi 6E chipsets launched.

12,21

Rohde & Schwarz Car Connectivity Rohde & Schwarz has joined the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC) to support the organisation’s mission to foster Consortium (CCC) industry-wide standards.

11,21

Rohde & Schwarz China Mobile

12,21

Rohde & Schwarz supports China Mobile with 5G voice over New Radio (VoNR) audio quality test.

Rohde & Schwarz Granite River Labs Granite River Labs partners with Rohde & Schwarz for its new high-speed digital compliance test laboratory in Germany.

11,21

Rohde & Schwarz MediaTek

Collaboration to deliver one of the first production test solutions for Wi-Fi 6E devices.

11,21

RtBrick

OpenBNG project

RtBrick has been selected as one of only four software vendors for project to fixed broadband services deployment issues.

12,21

Semtech

Arson Metering, Spain Arson Metering is utilising Semtech’s LoRa devices and the LoRaWAN standard for new smart gas metering sensor solution.

12,21

Sigfox

CAR-LITE

Sigfox and CAR-LITE have launched a new smart beacon model based on IoT technology and Sigfox 0G network.

12,21

Sigfox

GreenCityZen

Sigfox 0G network to provide the Marseille Metropole sanitation department (Seramm) with connected storm drain network.

11,21

Sigfox Skyhook

Sigfox has partnered with Skyhook to improve the quality and performance of existing tracking services on the Sigfox network globally.

12,21

Softil

Zetron

Zetron to expand the LTE Push-To-Talk (PTT) integration capabilities of its dispatch solutions with Softil.

12,21

Swisscom Broadcast

Dedrone

Dedrone and Swisscom Broadcast partner to protect people, property and information from the threat of unauthorised drones. 12,21

Telent

Harlequin Group

Telent has acquired technology services company Harlequin Group.

Viasat

Inmarsat

Viasat announces planned acquisition of Inmarsat.

VEON

Yandex.Plus, Russia VEON’s Beeline mobile operator to partner with Yandex.Plus for the launch of joint tariff plan.

12,21 11,21 12,21

Vodafone Mavenir

Announcement of first data and Voice over LTE (VoLTE) call across a containerised 4G small cell Open RAN solution in a lab environment.

12,21

Vodafone Telekom Srbija

New partnership agreement covering Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina through which Telekom Srbija will benefit from Vodafone’s global knowledge and procurement capabilities.

11,21

Vodafone VMware

Vodafone has extended its partnership with VMware to accelerate the roll-out of new digital services, using one scaled platform for networks and IT systems across Europe.

11,21

VOSS Solutions

Enhancement to SFR Business’ hosted Cisco Cloud through integration with Microsoft Teams to satisfy the increasing demand for integrated, best of breed, on-demand workplace collaboration tools.

11,21

Wireless Broadband Telecom Infra Alliance Project (TIP)

The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) announced an expansion of its relationship with the TIP.

11,21

ZTE

ZTE has been selected by China Telecom for the operator’s core router centralised procurement 2021project.

12,21

SFR Business, France

China Telecom

VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE ISSUE 1 I 2022

TALKING HEADS

David Flower VoltDB

VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE ISSUE 1 I 2022

TALKING HEADS

5G monetisation demands IT and OT that are fit for purpose With 5G rolling out across the world, communications service providers (CSPs) have invested heavily in their operational technology (OT). However, to generate a return and grow their market share, they need to invest in their IT to handle automation, low latency, services such as network slicing, and technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). To make matters more complex, this is not just a CSP challenge, David Flower, the president and chief executive of VoltDB, tells George Malim, the managing editor of VanillaPlus. Other organisations are already engaging with 5G, meaning that CSPs must keep up the pace in both their IT and OT transformations if they want to maximise success in the new era George Malim: How is the arrival of 5G accelerating the convergence of OT and IT? What are the complexities of this that need to be addressed? David Flower: We approach this from a slightly different angle to other organisations because we’re an underlying infrastructure technology provider, not an application provider. We’re in the world of supporting business support system (BSS) applications, for example, in the charging or policy side of CSP operations. This means we are always one or two steps removed from the end customer so a lot of what we learn is really through the conversations we have with partners and operators. Another difference is that not all of our clients are in telecoms even though they are starting to use 5G as an underlying delivery platform. While we see that there is a lot of hype around 5G, the most common question we hear is how to monetise 5G which comes back to how OT and IT are converging and working together. You can’t have one without the other if ultimately you want to try to monetise these massive amounts of investment that are going into 5G. While the promise is there to unlock enormous revenues for operators and technology partners, there is also a recognition that investment is needed in the operational technology side, that core network environment, to actually build out what 5G is capable of delivering.

There is also a recognition that you must match that by ensuring organisations update their IT infrastructure to support what is being invested in the OT side of the operation as well. From that perspective, if most of the investment has quite rightly gone into OT initially, you might think that investment into IT happens in a parallel process but in reality it doesn’t. Having said that, with enormous investments having been made in network builds, the next level of investment is to align IT with OT. Most CSPs have been relying on ten-year-old architectures when it comes to BSS. In the last 18 months, we’ve seen a realisation, and in the last six months an aggressive realisation, that there is a need to move on from legacy technologies and enable IT infrastructure environments to match the capabilities of all those OT investments that have been made to date. One can’t operate without the other. GM: Is it 5G or IT advances that have changed the telecoms landscape? DF: 5G is a completely new paradigm when it comes to the world of telecoms. We’re now talking about software-defined networks, edge processing, and network slicing and these things have never been possible before. They are opening up a whole new world of both pain and opportunity in the marketplace and the broader market is looking at this and starting to step into the traditional world of the CSP.

SPONSORED INTERVIEW

VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE ISSUE 1 I 2022

TALKING HEADS

The heart of fraud and security is all about recognising an issue before it becomes a problem and addressing it

We are seeing manufacturing businesses acquire spectrum, for example, and that’s never been heard of before. These standalone industries are now demanding network slices that can be developed for their specific business requirements and this is something new for the whole industry to get its head round. Some of the legacy providers don’t necessarily have the applications that CSPs are looking for in 5G and we are seeing new providers coming in, particularly in the world of systems integrators. Of course, mobile operators themselves are now becoming application developers in their own right and may be able to keep hold of more revenue than they have seen in the past because of that. GM: With new edge capabilities and the higher speed that can be enabled by 5G, we’re seeing edge intelligence enabled by low latency data processing. Will these new capabilities be used to fuel OSS/BSS to do new and interesting things? DF: There are several evolving trends in the market feeding into this. If you look at analytics, it has gone from post-event to in-event over the last two to three years. Everyone talks about real-time analytics and is very much focused on what that is but what do they really mean? Real-time understandably is used by different organisations to mean different things. In 5G, the latency requirement is sub-10 milliseconds (ms) and that defines where real time starts to have a significant impact, but for VoltDB, this isn’t about being able to do one thing in less than 10ms. It’s about undertaking several different processing requirements on that data to ensure that value can be extracted from it. That value isn’t extracted only through analytics. Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) can do what humans do much better and more quickly but there is no point if you can’t monetise the outcome in real time. I think things are still at an early stage and there is a long way to go in terms of CSPs becoming cloud native and deploying machine learning, AI and analytics. 5G, IoT and edge computing are changing the rules for data-dependent enterprises but, ultimately, the value is only achieved by what you extract from the data.

5G is important here because it’s far more than a simple upgrade from 4G to 5G. 5G enables forwardthinking businesses to monetise a new set of differentiated services. Extracting value from data is where low latency starts to show its true worth because if the data can be extracted, understood and acted upon before competitors, companies can take a lead. Of course, not every application is going to have demand for low latency but there are a significant number of apps that will depend on low latency. Another issue – and this subject is a little closer to my heart given that I came into VoltDB through the world of cybersecurity – is the impact of low latency on fraud and security. The way technology is evolving creates a larger attack surface for fraud and breaches whether attacks are aimed at individuals or endpoints. The heart of fraud and security is all about recognising an issue before it becomes a problem and addressing it. You need low latency to be able to do that. If you can see something happening, recognise patterns, and act before the damage is done, that’s a winning ticket. GM: How does VoltDB help CSPs bring OT and IT together to help 5G monetisation? DF: Operations support systems (OSS), BSS and OT require an active data plane or data layer that can expose itself across multiple different disciplines as opposed to only silos within the business. If you have an active data environment, it means you can understand what’s going on with the data and very quickly extract value from it. We are not a 5G application provider. What we seek to do is to ensure that organisations, whether they are systems integrators, platform providers, CSPs themselves, or third-party industries starting to make use of 5G, are able to use the latest technologies to support their objectives in creating and monetising 5G through those applications. If you do not have real-time capabilities built into your OT and your OSS/BSS application stacks, you will not be able to monetise 5G, so it is something of a chicken and egg situation. We hear a lot about what the killer app for 5G will be, but there is not going to be one

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TALKING HEADS

end-all be-all application. Instead, organisations need to make sure they’ve got the underlying fabric to create and roll-out 5G-monetising applications.

I think manufacturing, retail and financial services all will benefit from network slicing and enabling real-time offerings to consumers and beyond.

This can be achieved through IoT applications, customer value applications , or by providing value to enterprises via network slicing, but if you don’t have the underlying capabilities that are built to support those demands, you are not going to monetise anything. We therefore look at VoltDB as that core enabler in terms of the technology that has been built to specifically deliver those capabilities.

For me, this is where the interest in the industry really lies – it’s not just about what’s immediately in front of us. It’s beyond that and the industry needs to take the blinkers off and consider the wider picture. From VoltDB’s perspective, we came from the world of MIT and one of our founders, Michael Stonebreaker, foresaw that in-memory distributed architectures that offer scale, performance, low-latency and real-time decision-making were something the market was going to require.

GM: How do you see the market maturing and what role will VoltDB play in that? DF: 5G is never done. It’s ongoing and will be changing customer demands all the time, which is great because it pushes us forward in terms of our product development. I think as the market matures, it is looking for two or three applications initially to truly showcase the entire value of 5G. Like any business, 5G needs these apps to start to shine the light in terms of why these billions of dollars have been invested. There is a real hunger to get there and unlock new industry use cases – and importantly that’s beyond telecoms. When I talk about 5G, it involves financial services, for example, just as much as telecoms. There are many industries that 5G will change. 18 months in the world of telecoms or financial services always seemed to be a blink of an eye but those days are gone. We are starting to see other industries understand the value of 5G and be transformed by it.

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Like any business, 5G needs these apps to start to shine the light in terms of why these billions of dollars have been invested

Frankly, five years ago, that was still a bit of a pipedream, but now all of it is a reality that has come together with other market trends such as machine learning and AI, which four years ago were still on the drawing board. At the same time, if you look at how cloud has evolved, it is also a reality and has become the primary infrastructure that underpins platforms today. If you look at the way data volumes have increased exponentially over the last three or four years, it’s clear it isn’t going to slow down. And with the way underlying telecoms capabilities have evolved, network performance means we can do much more than we ever anticipated and CSPs can actually start to take away market share from others. I think telecoms is going to become far more CSP-centric as we move forward and, for VoltDB, we want to make sure we support the underlying requirements of this new business, not only for telecoms but for all industries that need to tap into the true power of 5G. This is what we www.voltdb.com were built for, and this is what we plan to do.

5G TESTING

Why 5G needs to test for the worst 5G is coming and mobile network operators’ responsibilities are about to irreversibly change, says Phil Thompson, a vice president and client partner executive at Spirent Communications 5G isn’t just an upgrade of performance and coverage, it’s going to fundamentally shift the role of network operators too. The smart cities, automated vehicles and smart industry that 5G is supposed to bring about all take mobile network technology beyond the marker of mere performance. Operating a 5G network will mean thinking very hard about digital defence and protecting human life. Automated vehicles, for example, will need the reliability of 5G networks to provide uninterrupted coverage wherever they go. The connectivity will be required to map its surroundings and keep its passengers, and other vehicles, safe. In 4G, a service outage might have resulted in annoyed customers and some lost revenue. When it comes to 5G, a service outage could mean a serious threat to customer safety. While previous iterations of mobile network technology were largely hardware based, 5G uses software in an unprecedented way. The network virtualisation and software defined networks that 5G also brings mean that mobile networks are now open to the cyberattacks that they have been insulated from for so long.

New possibilities, new responsibilities

The reality is that network operators have never actually had to deal with anything like 5G before. Getting to grips with it will be a serious learning curve for most network operators. Mobile network operators are often very good at testing for what should happen and often not great at testing for what shouldn’t. For the wide variety of applications of 5G, they’ll need to start thinking about physical danger, accidents, cyberattacks and real world harm. They’ve never had to test a network for its ability to power a city’s physical infrastructure or an automated vehicle for its ability to stay on the road. Furthermore, they’ve been largely insulated from the ubiquitous cyberattack by their historical reliance on hardware that could be easily isolated from the broader internet. Testing 5G networks will be critical to the success of individual networks as well as the success of the 5G project overall and the innovations that it is supposed to bring.

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5G TESTING

technology, 5G radio frequency channel ranges and the densities they are likely to experience. It can emulate base stations, fronthaul devices and the interactions between evolving core networks and the cloud edge. It can emulate networking slicing one of 5G’s main offerings in which parts of the network are “sliced” and virtualised, offering different configurations and performance qualities for different use cases. It can even simulate GNSS satellite signals from any location and under any condition. Where the digital twin really makes its mark is in its ability to emulate those rigorous real world conditions that will allow network operators to see just how safe and secure their network is. It can conjure smart factories, smart cities and any other 5G enabled use case in which networks can be tested in the real conditions which they would be put under in the real world.

Until now, 4G networks have been tested in labs. However, the specificities of 5G make the prospect of lab testing too costly and too complex

Crucially, it can emulate impairments too. so that operators can see how networks operate when part of their infrastructure fails. In doing so, they can establish how to compensate for failure or accidents through network configuration and architectural adjustments. As for the new frontier of security, the digital twin can emulate the kinds of attacks that a 5G network is likely to face including complex multi-vector attacks. It can continuously assess the secure posture of a given network and pre-emptively identify the vulnerabilities and risks that might imperil the network. Operators can also take advantage of continuously updated real-world threat intelligence to further secure their networks.

However, what worked for a 2G, 3G or 4G network will not work for 5G. Capabilities, responsibilities and technologies are all changing. Testing needs to change too. Until now, 4G networks have been tested in labs. However, the specificities of 5G make the prospect of lab testing too costly and too complex. Besides, they can’t recreate the conditions that 5G will be used in.

How to test for the worst

Given the new capabilities, as well as potential risks, of 5G driven innovation network operators can look to a particular testing method which has been used in aeronautics, architecture and manufacturing to great success. The digital twin has been used to test complex systems in which safety and reliability are absolutely critical. As it has worked for these sensitive industries, it can work for 5G. The digital twin’s primary value in evaluating 5G networks is that it provides a software based testing environment that can evaluate those networks continuously and in real world conditions. The digital twin can emulate any condition that the user defines. It can, for example, emulate the millions of devices and intense traffic that a 5G network will experience every day so that performance can continuously be evaluated. It can recreate new RAN

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A digital twin can eventually become part of a continuous integration and continuous delivery environment so operators can continually improve and refine their infrastructure. Furthermore, the digital twin can test devices and assets as soon as they come onto the network. This allows testing to go hand in hand with innovation and scale to match the ambitions of the network operator.

Beyond safety and defence

The possibilities of the digital twin go beyond safety and reliability it can literally help network operators realise the potential of 5G too. The testing process can be a process of discovering value too. Take smart factories, one of the much vaunted innovations that 5G is expected to bring. There will be all manner of variables which can affect how that smart factory can work the efficacy of signals against factory surfaces or the density of devices required in an industrial environment. Testing with a digital twin can inform those smart factory developers how 5G technology can be used, and how it can be improved for their particular use case. It’s hard to overstate the profound obligations that come with 5G technology. It will fundamentally change what it means to be a network operator in the very near future. They’ve never had to deal with the real world risks that come with 5G and its various use cases. However, if they want to seize the opportunities that come with 5G, they’ll have to take the responsibilities too. That means testing in as rigorous and as authentic conditions as possible.

5G MONETISATION

New systems for new 5G opportunities Thanks to its low latency and high speed, 5G is enabling and supporting applications across many different verticals, not just in telecoms. However, to enable 5G to be monetised, operators need to invest in their IT alongside their major operational technology (OT) network investments in 5G, writes Antony Savvas. Only by having IT that is flexible and automated, can they participate in the truly analytics-enabled, data-led and real-time decision-making that new 5G and IoT applications demand. With this is mind, how can communications service providers (CSPs) carve out a bigger role in the 5G-enabled world, rather than just providing the network? And how will they enable the network slicing, edge intelligence and real-time decision-making, to support both their customers and their own operations, to achieve that wider aim of having a bigger role? “5G is not just about the one killer app, but about a multitude of new apps and devices,” says Mats Arvedson, business development manager and

driver of 5G consumer propositions at Ericsson. “We know that consumers want innovative services attached to their 5G subscriptions, but service providers’ core strengths lie within connectivity, not application development. Service providers therefore need to find partnerships that utilise both the great capabilities of 5G, but also the innovation power of the wider ecosystem.” For these partnerships to be successful in bringing new 5G applications to consumers, says Arvedson, the network must be ready to handle them. “When we talk about 5G use cases, they’re often highperformance, low-latency applications. Technology to support these must provide a set of features that

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5G MONETISATION

Tilly Gilbert

Frank Healy

address the challenges of delivering mobile data in a speedy and reliable way, matching the requirement of lag-sensitive apps such as mobile gaming, or augmented and virtual reality.”

data processing. There are plenty of opportunities both in terms of internal efficiencies and revenue generation that can be achieved with existing network infrastructure, and moving early will ensure a strong platform for when 5G-enabled services are widely created.”

STL Partners

Arvedson adds: “With 5G, there is no longer a onesize-fits-all mentality. Instead, services are delivered and charged on a micro-level. 5G will allow for instant adaptations of data plans to better fit consumers’ needs, and technologies such as network slicing will allow for truly customised services that deliver according to their expectations.”

OT and IT together

The nature of changing customer requirements, particularly in light of 5G massive machine-type communications (mMTC), means operational technology (OT) and IT data must increasingly be handled together, says telecoms consulting firm STL Partners. To unlock decision intelligence in real-time and handle the convergence of IT and OT data, says STL, policy management must evolve to handle 5G network slicing, and rating and charging must also evolve to handle machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. In addition, customer monetisation engagement points need to be improved to get the best out of 5G investments. Tilly Gilbert, a senior consultant at STL, says: “Telecoms operators and others within the ecosystem should consider key practical steps to reach their monetisation targets. They should not wait for 5G to explore the value they can unlock with low latency

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Openet

“With 5G, there is no longer a one-size-fits-all mentality”

Gilbert says CSPs should also consider moving to cloud-native networks and IT. By doing this, IT and networks can interface more closely, and silos can be broken down between the network and the monetisation engine supporting it. “A cloud-native architecture can also better support microservices, critical to fostering agility and achieving faster time to market,” Gilbert says. Like Ericsson’s Arvedson, app development is also key for Gilbert. She says: “Ensure that solutions can support agile product development and innovation, since we are not seeing one obvious killer 5G use case – there are many – and operators need to be able to innovate faster and more efficiently than before to capitalise on these opportunities.”

Billing

To make the most out of what they’re delivering to customers in the 5G space, providers must also deploy a dynamic and agile business support system (BSS), to control charging and billing flows to effectively monetise the value that 5G brings to consumers. Data platform provider VoltDB says: “Shrewd telco providers see 5G as an opportunity to supercharge

5G MONETISATION

“Charging plays a critical role in the integration of new 5G networks with business support systems, but that’s only half the story,”

their business support systems, by bolstering their billing processes and policy functions to maximise monetisation opportunities.” But, STL’s Gilbert points out: “The reality today is that many operators’ BSS systems rely upon architecture that is over ten years old, which cannot support the highly automated, highly flexible environment that is now required.” Previously, a mediation layer has enabled information, such as call data, to be imported into a billing system. Going forward, such data types will increasingly need to be aggregated and processed together, in real-time. “It is only through doing this for themselves, with data from their IT and network domains, that operators will gain the skills and technology they need, and prove their pedigree to enterprises in other industries undergoing similar journeys,” Gilbert says. “This will enable operators to be perceived as valuable partners and enablers for industrial IoT solutions, converging IT and OT data within the manufacturing industry, for instance.” Israel Mor, a strategic product manager at Ericsson, says: “Service providers will decide which role they will play in the 5G ecosystem – network developer, service enabler or service creator. Each role demands its own level of investment, while promising more revenue opportunities as CSPs go up the value chain. And they can even play several roles at the same time, depending on the use cases and capabilities needed.  “But there is one thing that is common for all, and that is the foundation that opens the door of BSS to 5G monetisation: the charging layer,” he says. For every session, message or call there is a trigger to the charging function, even if this is a post-paid event that just needs to be summarised in the customer invoice. The function is responsible for generating all CDRs (call detail records), or in turn for triggering the online charging system (OCS) or converged charging system (CCS) for real-time charging.  “Charging plays a critical role in the integration of new 5G networks with business support systems, but that’s only half the story,” Mor says. “In order to guarantee standards and to secure quick access to new services and parameters, the charging function must be flexible enough to allow protocol updates and information normalisation, preferably through a graphical user interface that simplifies the operations, as these tasks are usually quite complex.”  The ability to easily include a new 5G parameter in

an existing service-based interface integration, and then to pull it up from that network interface all the way to the product catalogue will make or break use cases, Mor says.  Frank Healy, the product marketing director at Amdocs subsidiary Openet, says of the new BSS requirements: “A quantum shift in network-driven intelligence evolves from harnessing the real-time flow of transactions and statistics from the network functions. It also evolves by using analytics to selfadapt and respond to these metrics intelligently. Integrated functions bound together, incorporating network, IT and business system functionality, can deliver a seamless and self-managed service flow. It is therefore critical that service providers ensure network functions in 5G are tightly integrated into their wider BSS tools.” This will not only ease the management of 5G services but also allow service providers to be more agile when it comes to service deployment and the creation of new revenue streams. Healy adds: “More use cases equal more revenue opportunities, but service providers cannot expect to capitalise by applying 4G methodologies and technology processes. 5G requires a new architectural design and providers will have to ensure they have the right systems and tools, and adopt the right approaches to make the most of 5G’s capabilities.”

Data processing

To move from post event analytics to real-time processing and decisioning, operators will need to replace batch processing of data with the use of stream processing to improve data management, says STL. Stream processing means that decisions are made as input data is ingested, rather than waiting for a batch of data to be stored before a query is run. “Stream processing is not only about low latency decision-making, it can also help telcos to manage the vast quantities of data they are handling,” says STL, and can also reduce the cost of storing data, ensuring it does not build up into something slow, unwieldy and frankly useless in the world of 5G.” As well as saving on storage costs, more efficient data processing can also generate more sales and reduce losses from fraud. VoltDB says systems must be updated. It says: “By moving away from legacy relational database management systems (RDBMS) and NoSQL database solutions, and embracing modern BSS solutions that run on data platforms designed specifically for the 5G- and IoT-driven era, you are able to efficiently and accurately charge millions of customers simultaneously, even though all of them are interacting with different streaming services.”

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5G MONETISATION

Customer value management

Customers increasingly expect personalised experiences, and often they have to be delivered within milliseconds, if the CSP is to benefit from greater revenue returns. 5G networks and the technologies wrapped around them can make it possible to take a proactive approach to customer value management and serve up personalised offers in real-time, based on pre-defined event triggers. According to research, says VoltDB, CSPs have a mere 250 milliseconds to make a targeted offer during a real-time customer engagement. Capitalising on these opportunities is only possible when the contextual decisioning part occurs within ten milliseconds of the beginning of the interaction – and this is only possible with a highvelocity decisioning engine, adds VoltDB.

Fraud prevention

“To prevent fraud in the 5G era, telcos can no longer afford to wait for information to travel to a data warehouse for analysis, because the fraudsters will already have won by then,”

As technology continues to evolve, fraudulent activities become increasingly complex, making them that much harder to catch without the right tools in place. “To prevent fraud in the 5G era, telcos can no longer afford to wait for information to travel to a data warehouse for analysis, because the fraudsters will already have won by then,” VoltDB says. “Instead, analysis needs to happen rapidly – within ten milliseconds – which again, requires real-time decisioning intelligence.” The good news is that thanks to 5G connectivity and machine learning, it’s possible for CSPs to analyse millions of individual events each second, automatically identify suspicious behaviour, and block fraudulent calls before a connection occurs. And, since behavioural algorithms can continuously learn what bad actors look like, this enables CSPs to become increasingly more adept at preventing fraud over time.

Edge computing

As organisations increasingly invest in IoT devices and infrastructures, the need for a corresponding edge computing infrastructure to support them becomes a necessity. Organisations need to make sure they have the infrastructure needed to process, analyse and execute on data within the aforementioned ten milliseconds of an event, which is where 5G edge technology enters the arena. VoltDB says: “CSPs can’t afford to wait for data to travel anywhere. If it’s not acted upon immediately, it’ll lose all of its value by the time it gets to your data lake or data warehouse, which is why workloads need to be captured, stored and analysed at the network edge, or whichever location is closest to the point of data ingestion.” The need for edge deployments is illustrated by analyst house Gartner, which estimates that 75% of data will be generated and processed at the edge by 2025, in response to the widespread take up of IoT networks and the ramping up of 5G connectivity.

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Three takeaways • Database and stream processing must be brought together, at the edge, to address the entire event data management cycle from ingestion to storage to decision. •

CSPs must apply sophisticated rules, algorithms and machine learning models to massive streams of event data, applying that analysis to help them make decisions.

•

All of the above needs to be applied in real-time – within ten milliseconds – both consistently and accurately.

INTERVIEW

CSPs are in a rush to complete digital transformation, ZIRA is here to help ZIRA, the provider of business support systems (BSS) for customer, revenue and risk management has more than 50 communications service providers (CSPs) in over 30 countries among its customer base. As a specialist provider to the business-tobusiness market the company’s products handle more than 2.5 billion transactions each day, enabling 200 million end users. Here, Sabina Selvic-Orucevic, the chief executive of ZIRA, tells George Malim, the managing editor of VanillaPlus, how the company’s 25 years of experience have set it up for the challenges ahead as multiparty business models and a complex ecosystem of communications, cloud, IT and adjacent services becomes the new model for telecoms Sabina Selvic-Orucevic ZIRA

George Malim: What is ZIRA’s current strategic direction and what is in your future roadmap? Sabina Selvic-Orucevic: The past two years have been a period in which we truly realised the importance and value of digital infrastructure and the sustainability of digital business models. Digital infrastructure keeps us connected, collaborating and producing as we used to. Communications service providers (CSPs) played a crucial role as providers and enablers, showing to all the importance of the communications industry.

The past two years have been a period in which we truly realised the importance and value of digital infrastructure and the sustainability of digital business models

The pandemic has underlined the need for digital transformation globally. Business interactions have moved online, and digital channels have become the key option. Both, consumer and enterprise customers are increasingly choosing digitally enabled self-care or fully automated ways of communication using (Open) API2API or M2M. This rapid shift has accelerated the need to introduce more digital touchpoints, the move to cloud-based infrastructure and digitalise traditional services, forcing innovations in digital engagement. Such transformation was normal for established digital businesses, but others have had to do it in a way that is sustainable and has been built from scratch as a foundation for the so-called new normal. Traditionally, CSPs have focused on capturing growth in the consumer segment but the B2C market is under pressure due to increasingly saturating mobile markets, overthe-top (OTT) disruption, and intense price competition combined with ongoing digital transformation imperatives. However, the increasing demands of small business and enterprise clients for end-toend IT services present a growth opportunity in B2B2x more than ever before. Demand for IT services is the current goal as businesses

must go digital. CSPs have the customer base, platforms and understand business models and needs, so it is the right time to step wisely and prepare new offerings for SME or enterprise customers in terms of BSSas-a-service, ERP-as-a-service, and many other propositions. The other direction that is important for strengthening of B2B2x offerings is establishment of bi-directional digital channels for business partners acting as suppliers or customers, or both at the same time. To deliver and manage such diversity of relationships, traditional BSS must be changed and carefully decoupled to easily on-board partners – suppliers and customers – and to handle telco and non-telco services. It must also fulfil orders in the CSP’s own or a partner’s network or organisation, to assure the partnership lifecycle, to monetise service utilisation in a multi-party environment, and to settle revenues and expenses in the case of bi-directional partnerships. A totally new B2B2x BSS for the telecoms marketplace ecosystem is our key target and strategic direction for this year. GM: How do you see ZIRA’s role in the future as CSPs’ needs and the market they address continues to transform? SSO: ZIRA is small enough to be flexible but at the same time big enough to deliver great results. Our core values are agility and flexibility to deliver the right solution to the right customer at the right time. We see ourselves as challengers ready to become leaders in near future. Our current portfolio covers management of the partner relationships paradigm powered by open APIs and cloud-native deployments. This is not a traditional BSS for B2C or B2B, it covers a wider scope and contains functionalities needed for truly digital business models.