Automation is an imperative for CSP success. Some are taking an ‘all or nothing’ approach, others are deploying automation incrementally, while still others are taking a more transformational attitude.
The truth is that it doesn’t matter at what stage of the journey you’re at, the most important thing is to get started, and then keep moving forward because automation is a moving target.
Automation is already transforming the telco industry. While the powerful combination of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automation is the end goal, the former technology is still in its infancy. Conversely, automation without AI is delivering significant business benefits – in terms of improved efficiency and productivity and cost reduction.
Automation transforms manual tasks – which are often time-consuming and repetitive – into streamlined operations and enhanced workflows, while eliminating process bottlenecks and human error. However, many telcos, service providers, and MNOs are at different stages of their automation journey. So, how do you get started, and how do you move forward from each stage of the journey?
The truth is it doesn’t matter. Automation is a moving target that can be implemented incrementally, step by step for different processes, or as an enterprise-wide initiative (although this can be prone to business risk and disruption), depending on the risk appetite or strategic goals of the organisation.
But the most important step is the first one. After that, even enterprise-wide projects will need to be honed, optimised, expanding, and able to integrate with legacy systems, new vendor technologies, additional automation projects, and of course, ultimately, AI.
Automation is an on-going journey, no matter where you are
For example, some telcos have taken an ‘all or nothing’ approach, engaging consultants to drive the deployment of automation across all domains and organisation departments. However, this can be a high-risk approach. While it can provide significant benefits, it is a significant undertaking that can be prone to risk and operational disruption. One poorly implemented automated process could lead to a knock-on effect that could disrupt adjacent automations.
It can also lead to a short-sighted approach, as it’s based on ‘network as is’. Aligning with your current vendor portfolio can bring significant benefits in the current regime, but any change in technology supplier, equipment functionality, or strategic goals could severely impact the existing automation ‘status quo’, meaning that a new enterprise-wide automation deployment may be required.
Other operators and service providers have adopted a more incremental approach. We Are CORTEX believe that this is a more pragmatic and gentler approach to automation. Each step — which could be a sub-process, a broader process, or a specific domain — enables gradual automation to be achieved, building up as more tasks and routines are linked in logical workflows.
Take Service Provisioning as an example of a domain. It consists of a number of processes, such as Order Capture, Account Creation, Billing Initialisation, Ready for Service, Service Assurance, and other steps along the way.
Each process then consists of sub-processes. Costs may vary according to customer usage, while the billing system may also need to handle one-time charges, such as activation charges or other service-specific costs. So, for example, Billing Initialisation might include Payment Accounts, Usage Accounts, and One-Time Charges. At the same time, Service Provisioning might need to incorporate Revenue Assurance processes and sub-processes.
An incremental or ‘all-or-nothing’ approach to automation?
The important point is that automation can be applied to an individual sub-process initially – depending on which automation might provide the largest immediate business benefit or cost reduction, or represent the most painful bottleneck. Over time, each automated sub-process can be optimised, as the business learns about and hones that specific automation, and then linked to an adjacent sub-process to create a chain of automations. Each additional integrated automation in the chain combines to provide benefits that start to become ‘greater than the sum of the parts’.
Consider a much more complex automation – network slicing. Each slice needs to provide different performance parameters and meet individual KPIs and SLAs. The resources required for each slice need to be dynamically orchestrated, which in turn requires knowledge of resource availability and a request for resources if they are not available. Once established the appropriate billing must be put in place, with the correct charging scheme applied. Similarly, the SLA and the mechanisms to ensure compliance activated – not just at the outset, but throughout the lifecycle of the slice.
This is where automation without AI can excel – automating individual sub-processes and events, and then creating chains of sub-processes to ultimately automate the entire process.
Another fallacy that is important to correct is that operators often hold off from automating sub-processes or broader processes as they believe that each process must be fully documented and perfected before automation can be applied. This is not the case.
In fact, it’s the other way round – automation can help to optimise an ‘imperfect’ process over time. The important point is that taking that first step – whether processes are perfect or imperfect – leads to optimised automations over time that can be integrated into chains to bring even greater business benefit.
Again, taking that first step is the beginning of the journey. As the famous Chinese proverb notes: “”A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.
Reusable automation process fragments, chains, and function blocks
So, the answer to the question: “How far are you on your automation journey” is, in fact, “It doesn’t matter”. Automation is a moving target – business strategies may change, technologies may change, market demand may change. By adopting an incremental approach, CSPs are armed with a pragmatic, flexible, and future-proof way to automate as many sub-processes, processes, or domains as required, at any point in time, reducing risk and business disruption.
It means that that multiple projects can be initiated in parallel at a micro level as opposed to huge, risky transformation projects. The We Are CORTEX automation platform employs reusable function blocks that enable you to take the first step on the automation journey and quickly gain momentum. Each block, or process, can then be joined up, meaning that ROI is enhanced as each benefit and efficiency feeds into another.
The We Are CORTEX automation platform enables process fragments, chains, and function blocks to be reused across multiple areas, making the process of automation repeatable by domain, process, or project. It enables a pragmatic and repeatable approach to automation.
To find out more about how to start on your automation journey – or, if you’ve already started, how to move it forward, download the latest We Are CORTEX paper by clicking below
