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Automation Excellence

Vodafone is Europe’s largest fixed network and mobile operator. Vodafone operate with near unparalleled complexity, so Vodafone rely on Enterprise ready orchestration and automation tools like CORTEX to bring productivity, efficiency and capability to keep them in a market leading position .

CORTEX is one of Vodafone’s strategic platforms helping automate and orchestrate processes and platforms which when brought seamlessly together create efficiencies and capability Vodafone help leverage to maintain their market leading position.

“Vodafone have a long-established capability in Automation and Orchestration.
We deeply appreciate the value this offers our business and our Customers.”

About Vodafone Group

Highlights of what Vodafone have achieved:

  • Appropriate deployment of “Zero-Touch” Networks, including “Self-Healing”.
  • Clever use of AI integrated to the customer experience.
  • The launch of an Automation Centre of Excellence (CoE). Material cost savings and avoidance, and class-leading Service.

Joao Da Silva

OSS Orchestration & Automation Manager, Vodafone

“We’re fortunate to have such a deep and meaningful relationship with Vodafone. We see lots of interest in the kinds of objectives Vodafone has achieved already, but from organisations who are just starting to think about them. Vodafone has a clear lead on most we talk to. It’s exciting to be working with forward thinking, ambitious clients who are turning innovation in to reality.”
Graeme Hughes,

Managing Director of We Are CORTEX

Life Cycle Management

CORTEX is used across Vodafone’s Networks. From Edge Networks to Core International Networks. These networks are complex and vast. This is not dissimilar the challenges faced by all telco’s, even if at slightly different scales, but what is important, is that Vodafone recognised an opportunity to bring a significant control and quality to these networks using CORTEX. Life Cycle Management at CORTEX is a milestone of success for Vodafone offering Inventory control, compliance, automated identification, issue enrichment and remediation of the same.

For Vodafone, Life Cycle Management is several years of work so far. Spanning aspects of Automated Inventory, Cyber Security, Service Assurance, the platform is helping Vodafone meet key strategic objectives quickly and efficiently.

Create the future.

“Vodafone has achieved a lot with CORTEX, but our ambition does not stop here. The next phase of our plans are even more exciting. When I walk around our business and see the opportunity Automation and Orchestration offer us, the challenge is not ‘do we do it?’, but ‘how do we do it all as quickly as possible?’. We have a strategic vision for CORTEX which is owed to our success with it, and with team and CORTEX, some of their Partners and of course, our own teams.”

Top secret projects

“Vodafone have three ways of consuming Automation using CORTEX; done for us, or, collaboratively with us and our Partners, or done by us, as we can also self-deliver. Each project dictates what we need so its important we have flexibility and can consume what we need.”

“Importantly, the retention of skill, knowledge and know how allows us to be clear on our objectives, to govern the delivery of them, and to ensure we always achieve get the right outcome.”

“We will continue to invest in this area as it is core to our success. Equally, we have trusted partners who we will choose to support projects and initiatives when its right to opt for that pathway.”

Vodafone attaches a great deal to a platform like CORTEX, so naturally a number of the most exciting projects need to be kept top secret. These projects might be for sensitive clients, or may contain intellectual property Vodafone is developing which could extend its market advantage. Often, these projects start life as ‘top secret’ inside Vodafone itself. This means that Vodafone must have a rich seam of skills so that small, and discreet investigations in to the art of the possible can be undertaken without creating any exposure to the work that may be considered. From conception to proof of concept and value, Vodafone are often able to design, build and deliver a CORTEX solution independent of external assistance.

In a recent piece of work, UK IT referenced an internal project which went from ‘discussion on an internal call for a couple of hours’ to a live solution just three days later.

Strategy and automation

When Vodafone acquired Cable & Wireless in the UK, Automation enabled Vodafone to be able to consolidate its NOC facilities from three physical and staffed locations to just one centralised network operations function.

By automating effectively, this enabled more than 70% of highly valuable and experienced NOC engineers to be redeployed to customer benefiting roles including service and solution design, and technical account management. Importantly, this has led to improved customer satisfaction and a more engaged workforce.

Experiment, learn fast.

“Vodafone is an ambitious business and grows not just organically, but through acquisition. Automation helps us as we move through the phases of an acquisition and means that as we welcome new customers and colleagues to our family, we can transition services and functions more effectively.”

“Automation and Orchestration for Vodafone is more than technology. Its about sharing experiences, upskilling our colleagues. For Vodafone, it’s about connecting for a better future” says Joao. “Improving the lives of our customers, our colleagues and our communities is part of how we create the future. It allows us to get it done, together.”

Where to start?

Every journey needs a start, and ours started with the NOC. NOCs operate in a particular way, and very often it is full of noisy data; false alarms, repeated alarms, ghost issues.

It is very hard, and sometimes impossible to see the real issue you need to handle. Adjoined to this is the depth of skill you then need to have on-hand to help deal with the real issues. Experienced, intelligent people are needed to deal with mundane, highly repetitive, often false issues. At scale this is almost unmanageable in traditional way, and it leads to high turn over of employees who leave through frustration, stress, low stimulation or similar factors.

“Vodafone is a people business. From Customers to our colleagues, we use Automation to improve what we do and how we do it. The first step was the NOC and automating the Trouble Ticketing process more effectively; automate trouble ticket creation, automate ticket enrichment, automate root cause analysis. Focus your freed-up technically skilled resources elsewhere. The detail underneath this is where Vodafone have significant investments and expertise. That’s for us to know about and that others need to think about”

“The biggest win is eliminating the noise, allowing our experienced and knowledgeable colleagues to focus on what needs their attention. This in turn gets us to a quicker resolution of issues, and overall, we improve our service delivery and customer satisfaction and in turn, we hope they reward us with loyalty.”

Connecting
for a better
future.

Start small and expand value

Vodafone has a sensible model to any development it undertakes. Having built a great solution once, it has now replicated its initial fault-handling use case across its international networks. CORTEX has become central to many areas of trouble ticketing inside Vodafone. Once established or matured, Vodafone then applied CORTEX to additional challenges:

  • Automated testing cycle as part of service provisioning
  • Use of that testing cycle in customer support
  • Design and Assign’ service-provisioning capability


On completion of any engineering visit, CORTEX performs automated back-to-service testing of the affected systems to ensure that the configuration is fully policy and service compliant. This alone mitigates many of the resulting incidents that are caused by poor configuration, and lack of quality assurance testing. CORTEX delivers Vodafone end-to-end event driven automation, replacing legacy alarm and ticket based manual workflows.

Vodafone can execute both at speed, and scale, across network operations securely through CORTEX’s centralised governance and controls. The unique capability of CORTEX continues to power automation in even the most complex of environments.

Get it done,
together.

“Confidence comes with time and achieving, or over-achieving against the objectives you set out.”

“It’s great to hear and to see platforms like CORTEX being used in this way. It embodies our corporate ethos. We’ve been able to better leverage our talent, and to make automation happen quickly.”

“The technology enabled us to try things and move our business on rapidly. This was not only great for Vodafone, and for the individuals who created the new ground, but we clearly lifted our customer experience.”

“CORTEX has a strong set of tools for an Enterprise. This is complimented by our skills programmes, our support network through the Centre of Excellence, and collaborative culture, meaning we can foster Vodafone colleagues through the journey, and how to leverage all of the innovation and ideas, and solutions we have already built, and can help us to create the future.”

Background

Vodafone have developed automation ‘products’ based on and around CORTEX. These assets are leveraged consistently and routinely to enhance the processes, the people and service. For more than two decades a successful relationship has seen consistent roll-out of innovation, and thanks to Vodafone’s Centre of Excellence and continued commitment to enriching and enhancing through Automation, many years of success appear to be ahead.

Vodafone and CORTEX now operate a Global Agreement for all Vodafone businesses, and any associated Vodafone business. The innovations and success, the know-how and capability offer Vodafone significant opportunity to revolutionise where others can’t.