Automation is imperative to manage the growing complexity of mobile and fixed networks. But while individual automations of sub-processes and processes can bring immediate business benefits, it’s essential to consider this within the broader picture of orchestration in order to avoid islands of automation.
Network evolution will transform the communications industry, but it also brings an unprecedented level of complexity. Dynamic provisioning and orchestration of virtualised services, network slices each with their own performance parameters, edge computing, and much more, means that the manual management of processes and workflows is no longer viable. The new network will also need to work in sync with existing, legacy networks. That’s why automation has become the industry’s hottest topic.
The benefits of Automation are clear. It significantly improves process and business efficiency on an end-to-end basis – from service provisioning to billing to customer experience and everything in between – while eliminating human error.
In turn, automation allows operators and service providers to monetise new opportunities enabled by their network investments by gaining the agility and the ability to offer differentiated services and new use cases with a short time to market.
So, operators large and small are seeking ways in which they can automate their networks and operations – across legacy and emerging domains. This means connecting steps in different processes, so that they can function in a smooth flow – which, is how many operators are approaching this challenge.
Avoiding Automation islands
Of course, processes are made up of sub-processes too, so the idea is that any can be automated incrementally and on a granular basis. Importantly, however, the trick is to ensure that related processes can also be connected in the automation flow. If they are not, there is a risk of creating islands of automation.
Let’s look briefly at what this means. Consider a simple service – activating a mobile subscription. Generally, we can refer to this under the category of Service Provisioning – but, of course, there are multiple such services that can be related, or which may naturally be separated.
For a mobile subscription, the service package may (will!) include voice, messaging and data, plus a handset, relevant SIM, and the user account. Another related service which may not be required initially could be an increased data allowance, but let’s keep things simple for now.
In our example, we already know that the customer expects all aspects of their mobile subscription, including device selection and delivery, billing, service activation and so on, quickly and simply.
But from the providers perspective this is a complex process that takes in Order Capture, Account Creation (Accept/Reject), Order Decomposition, Billing Instantiation, Order Processing, Geographic Rules, Porting, Network Configuration, Ready-for-Service, Billing Activation, and Service Assurance, with each process potentially requiring interaction with other sub-processes. This flow must proceed smoothly and without friction.
But, it’s composed of multiple related processes. Each sub-process or process can be automated individually, however, in order to avoid islands of automation, macro-orchestration is required so that each sub-process occurs at the right time, in the right order, and at the right place.
Logically, it doesn’t matter which process is automated first, but it makes sense that it is one that has the greatest business impact or is a significant bottleneck. But the risk is that providers end up with islands of discrete operational processes. That’s where orchestration comes in.
Done right, it means that everything that is expected to happen for this particular service to be provisioned could proceed in a seamless flow without human intervention. Done wrong, manual intervention will be required – potentially for a simple but overlooked task that is actually essential for the delivery of the complete service.
For example, failure to configure the APN of the mobile device before shipping – an error which inevitably leads to maximum customer dissatisfaction at the very moment when it matters most!
Automation requires Orchestration on a cross-domain basis
So, automated tasks can be linked and combined to create workflows, but orchestration is essential to bring these workflows into broader functions, to achieve a consistent workflow process and to avoid these islands. It’s essential, therefore, to consider a broader definition – macro-orchestration vs. micro-orchestration. Orchestration is not just a matter of an end-to-end process, it’s a service lifecycle issue.
So, by thinking on a macro-orchestration, or cross-domain level (in the longer term, while automating discrete sub-processes incrementally) providers can ultimately connect sub-processes, processes, and micro-orchestration islands into truly seamless orchestrated network operations. This is important, because Orchestration must span multiple domains and extend across the entire service lifecycle.
Yes, each automation and orchestration domain can deliver fast, valuable, and incremental benefits, but macro-orchestration needs to have much broader goals.
So, to return to our example, a truly orchestrated automation flow would cover all of the steps of the customer journey, with actions being triggered in response to the outcomes of each step. When the customer orders their subscription to their chosen mobile bundle (or fibre broadband offer), an orchestrated system will create their account, initiate payment checks, verify that the selected device is available, reserve it in inventory, order dispatch, arrange delivery….and so on.
You could automate these tasks separately, but doing so misses out on the benefit of the real macro-orchestration you need. Why not explore this topic in more detail in our latest paper?
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