Huawei told operators the key to true digital transformation lies in the development of digital skills within workforces, with every penny invested into even entry-level employees, predicted to be returned tenfold to organisations.
Delivering a keynote speech at Huawei Global User Group Meeting 2020, Wang Yifan (pictured), president of service and software marketing and solution sales department, highlighted the importance of digital transformation in light of the current Covid-19 pandemic.
He noted most carriers had been able to continue uninterrupted services due to new operations and maintenance (O&M) methods such as automated service deployment and automated preventive and predictive maintenance.
“It also made us realise automation and intelligence had become an irreversible trend of digital transformation” stated Wang.
In his speech, Wang highlighted key challenges and changes for carriers as vertical industries continue to evolve and demand services in new technologies such as 5G, which Wang noted will further intertwine carriers and such industries.
Wang forecasted, amid digital transformation among industries, networks will produce extensive services and see explosive growth in connections but also face the challenge of increasing complexity in network architecture.
“Complexity is growing exponentially so traditional tools and platforms are inadequate. Carriers must seek new O&M models to overcome the traditional O&M efficiency curve. Deployment of new technologies such as Big Data and AI, make more efficient O&M possible.
“With unified platforms and man-machine collaboration enabling automated and intelligent network management, based on specific service scenarios, this will greatly improve customer experience and carriers will achieve business success.”
As services diversify through new technologies, carriers have to become more flexible and agile to improve customer experience and satisfaction, said Wang. These challenges will spur carriers to adjust strategies and with the support of new technology such as 5G, will bring significant change to organisational structure, organisational positioning, functions, positions, and roles.
But as carriers digitally transform, Wang argued the real challenge in this change lies in its execution. He said the key to successful digital transformations is whether convenience can be provided to employees particularly those on the frontline. But there is a challenge also in convincing employees to accept new ways of operating and turn them into pushers for change and eventually innovators during the transformation.
New skills needed in the digital age such as basic programming and cloud operation and management (O&M), will become essential to staff, said Wang. Staff contributing new skills will become key to successful digital transformations, which is why carriers need to improve capabilities of more junior employees to a strategic level.
Wang believes the introduction of new digital platforms and technologies such as AI and big data, should spur carriers to urgently build O&M design, development, data, and AI capabilities.
New world, new roles
He tipped carrier workforces will evolve with new roles such as: policy design engineer, data analysis engineer, and orchestration engineer. These roles will go from projects outside company periphery to becoming central to operations, he predicted.
Policy design engineers are mainly responsible for converting business scenarios into flowcharts, rules, and logic. The data analysis engineer is responsible for further analysis and design of service processes using AI and big data technologies to generate service design results. While the orchestration engineer, ultimately, orchestrates the service design on the digital platform.
By making workforces more digitally capable, frontline, second-line, and third-line O&M staff can gradually take up roles as policy design engineers and data analysis engineers depending on the strategy of "major internal transformation and a small number of external introduction."
“Digital transformation has a long way to go, Huawei will continue to work with carriers to explore platform-based and scenario-specific digital O&M practices and help carriers transform traditional o and m talents into new digital talents based on future talent profiles. By working with carriers, industries and ecosystem partners we will foster a learning community and achieve digital transformation success together”, concluded Wang.
