Amit Dhingra, vice president, Managed Services & Global Service Delivery, Nokia Networks, says outsourcing of network management and other key functions is not new in the telecom industry.
The growing global trend of outsourcing in telecommunication industry demonstrates the evolving nature of the technology landscape in the industry, the continuous focus on efficiency and operators important prerogative to provide differentiated service experience to subscribers.
Technology disruption and network quality focus for customers is driving operators to choose partners who can provide innovative solutions towards these needs. Today’s telecom networks are a complex mesh of GSM, 3G, 4G, Small Cell, Wi-Fi IP, Optics, Transmission and many other technologies, in coexistence.
This growing complexity of networks is also forcing operators to think of simplification and using new technologies like Telco Cloud to their advantage and outsourcing is a good way towards the same. Further, focus on subscriber centric Net Promoter Score (NPS) as an important KPI is driving changes in the operator needs towards outsourcing as well.
With India’s mobile telecommunication continuing to see exponential data traffic growth, the need and transformation in Outsourcing or Managed Services has become apparent. Outsourcing not only implements new processes, drives automation and develops a robust end-to-end network management model, but also helps telecom operators to focus on improving Service and Customer Experience Management.
Outsourcing lets companies get a single point of contact for all of their network related operations which in turn simplify the process of running a multiple vendors that operators have in their network today.
Often in today’s environment the value of outsourcing is augmented through global delivery model of services by vendors – that includes running of networks remotely including monitoring, trouble management, performance management, provisioning management and OSS administration.
But to begin witnessing the benefits that the operators are looking for, it’s important to to be clear about one’s outsourcing approach and choose the right partner.
There are challenges faced by telecom companies when they look for outsourcing:
# Finding the right partner who meets the strategic rationale
# Long term partner strategy rather than a supplier relationship
# Having direct involvement of the promoter of the telecoms and getting very senior level alignment to make the deal happen
Therefore, the important factors to keep in mind while picking up the right outsourcing partner are:
# Telecom network vendor’s competitive advantage in robust network management
# Experience and approach in service & customer experience, in addition to network management
# Professionals trained in next-generation network technologies like LTE and IP
# Strategy of operational excellence, combined with innovation
# Partners with appetite and capability for long term contract, which allow for complete transformation of processes and introduction of new technologies.
For this partnership to sustain, first 6 months are very crucial and needs collaborative handling.
It would be therefore apt to say that Managed Services or Outsourcing in Telecom sector has become a strategic need for customers these days. It’s no longer just about cost reduction, it’s about an innovative way to manage network and result in delightful customer experience.
By Amit Dhingra, vice president, Managed Services & Global Service Delivery, Nokia Networks
editor@telecomlead.com