KATANA IPM Analytics

Leveraging advanced analytics and AI engine, IPM predicts and prevents network performance issues before they happen, building Capacity growth models and forecasting user behaviour and traffic load on the network, giving proper recommendations that keep network performance on track with this growth and user behaviour changes.

Figure 1: KATANA Platform Modules

IPM Analytics is the heart of KATANA IPM module, and it offers the below different uses cases.

Figure 2: IPM Main Functionalities sub-modules

Anomaly Detection:employs a machine-learning algorithm to understand the patterns of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), making comparisons and autonomously recognizing deviations. The resulting scores are presented for each instance, facilitating straightforward identification of anomalies and their deviation from the typical cluster or common behavioral patterns within the network.

Forecasting Analysis: iPM encompasses various forecasting techniques within a unified interface, granting users the capability to analyze anticipated future trends in network usage for any counter and Key Performance Indicator (KPI).

Figure 3: DL Traffic Volume Forecast

Capacity Management: As networks expand and experience heightened traffic, there is often a decline in network performance. To prevent this deterioration, iPM Capacity management function becomes crucial to enhance performance and restore it to its initial levels. iPM is Addressing traffic shifts requires the strategic rebalancing of network traffic, ensuring even utilization across the network, thereby deferring capital expenditures on new equipment.

Worst Cell List: The Worst Cell List Report, an integral component of our iPM capabilities, is robustly supported by ranking conditions tied to specific periods for designated Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). This functionality empowers users to assess nodes with the poorest performance through detailed maps and charts.

Worst Degraded List: This module, seamlessly integrated into our iPM suite, efficiently troubleshoots and compiles a list of nodes with degraded performance over a specified period. It conducts in-depth analyses through maps and charts, facilitating immediate examination at the work area for detailed troubleshooting

Figure 4: Creation Criteria for WDL

Benchmark: After implementing an optimization action, users have the flexibility to initiate a benchmark across a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). This benchmarking can be conducted on a Day-to-Day, Week-to-Week, or Month-to-Month basis, allowing for comprehensive performance evaluation over various timeframes.

Swap & Acceptance: In Swap Projects, users are required to compare Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) before and after the swap. iPM provides users with the convenient option to effortlessly compare the performance of vendors, facilitating a streamlined assessment of the impact of the swap on network performance.

MWC 2023 recap & INOS preview

Mobile World Congress 2023, the “world’s largest and most influential connectivity event”, saw over 88,500 attendees join over 2,400 exhibitors, sponsors and partners, and over 1,000 speakers and thought leaders, in Barcelona at the end of February. Gwen Edwards, Digis Squared Marketing Director, recaps the team’s success, and shares INOS previews from the exhibition stand.

MWC is back, in full force

GSMA Mobile World Congress 2023 saw over 88k people visit the Fira Gran Via over 4 days, and with all the halls and the North entrance re-opened, there was a significant change in energy – the magic of MWC was back in full force!

Digis Squared team at MWC23

Digis Squared team at MWC23, end of day 2 – a busy day!

Participating as part of the UK Pavilion, the Digis Squared team had a full schedule of client and partner meetings – plus plenty of surprise opportunities to catch up with former colleagues and meet new connections in real-life for the first time.

The Digis Squared team at MWC23 with, from top left, clockwise, Chris Lundh CEO of client and partner Africell Angola, Abou Moustafa VP at Du, with partner Invigo, with the Tenacity Works team, with Wei Yeang (Max) Toh at Intel, and bottom left, the Omani Regulatory Team.

Work with our partners is vital to the projects we deliver for clients, and MWC23 enabled the Digis Squared team to highlight their INOS solution on the vast Intel exhibition stand. As a Gold member of the Intel Network Builders Program, and a member of the Intel Partner Alliance, Digis Sqaured collaborates closely with the valued Intel team.

MWC23 Intel Network Builders & Digis Squared

As part of the UK Pavilion at MWC23, and in collaboration with the Department for Business & Trade, Digis Squared participated in a Panel Discussion on “VR, AR & Network Optimization”, alongside Mike Jackson from UK Gov, Ed Greig FRSA from Deloitte Digital, and James Lee Burgess FRSA from UrbanXR

AR, VR& Network Optimization Panel Discussion: click through for video

MWC always delivers great networking opportunities, and the “Africa Mobile & Digital Economy Leaders Reception” was a special highlight this year.

African Business: Africa Mobile & Digital Economy Leaders Reception

New INOS hardware & GUI preview

Digis Squared used MWC23 to showcase a preview of the new form factors for INOS*, and the new fully-featured user interface. Watch this space for further INOS updates coming soon!

Thank you MWC23

The Digis Squared team were delighted to be back at MWC23 as part of the UK Pavilion, thrilled to be able to preview the new INOS interface and kits, and grateful to the brilliant Tradefair and UK Department for Business & Trade teams for all of their support.

The Digis Squared team are already making plans and looking forward to being back in Barcelona at MWC in 2024 – who knows, maybe next year we can fit the #DeloitteDigitalDog with INOS, and he can test coverage throughout every hall!

If you or your team would like to discover more about our capabilities, please get in touch: use this link or email hello@DigisSquared.com

*What is INOS?

Digis Squared’s INOS AI tool, developed in-house, is a vendor-agnostic, multi-network-technology solution delivering automated assessment, testing, benchmarking and optimisation of networks. Generating actionable reports in just 15 minutes, combined with live-view for instant adjustments, INOS significantly reduces the time taken to complete the work and opex cost, to deliver optimum customer experience.

INOS can be implemented as a public or private cloud, or on-premise solution, and is also available as a “Radio Testing as-a-service” model. Its extensive AI analysis and remote OTA capabilities ensure speedy and accurate assessment of all aspects of network testing: SSV, in-building and drive testing, network optimization and competitor benchmarking, across all vendors, network capabilities and technologies, including 5G, private networks and OpenRAN.

INOS is built with compute resources powered by Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors. Digis Squared is a Partner within the Intel Network Builders ecosystem program, and a member of the Intel Partner Alliance.

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  • Image credits: all images, as stated, and all others are copyright Digis Squared, except first image (Barcelona iStock).

Digis Squared ◦ Enabling smarter networks.

NFV deployment validation using INOS

Network Function Virtualization (NFV), is becoming increasingly important as mobile networks are being asked to handle an ever-growing number of connected devices and new use cases. In this article, Amr Ashraf, RAN and Software Solution Architect and Trainer, describes the benefits of NFV, capabilities and deployment considerations. Plus, we take a quick look at how Digis Squared’s powerful AI-tool, INOS, can help in the deployment validation of NFV.

Network Function Virtualization

Mobile virtualization – also known as network function virtualization (NFV) – is a powerful technology that has the capability to transform the way mobile networks are designed, deployed, and operated.

  • NFV enables the creation of virtualized mobile networks, and the isolation of different types of traffic on the same physical network infrastructure.
  • The creation of different virtual networks for different types of services or different user groups.
  • Multiple independent network operators to share a common infrastructure,
  • And improves the security of the network.

In this article, Amr Ashraf describes the benefits of NFV, capabilities and deployment considerations. Plus, we take a quick look at how Digis Squared’s powerful AI-tool, INOS, can help in the deployment validation of NFV.

The future of mobile network functions is virtual

Mobile virtualization is becoming increasingly important as mobile networks are being asked to handle an ever-growing number of connected devices and new use cases.

NFV & Infrastructure Sharing. One of the main benefits of mobile virtualization is that it allows for multiple independent network operators to share a common infrastructure. This can help to reduce the costs and complexity of building and maintaining mobile networks, and can also help to improve coverage and capacity in areas where it would otherwise be difficult or expensive to deploy new infrastructure.

NFV & Security. Mobile virtualization also helps to improve the security of the network by isolating different functions and providing a secure environment for each virtual network. This makes it an ideal solution for enterprise customers who need to maintain high levels of security for their sensitive data.

Deployment flexibility. Mobile virtualization is supported by software-based virtualized network functions (VNFs), which can be run on standard servers and storage systems, rather than specialized hardware. This makes it easy to scale and adapt the network to changing requirements. Additionally, it also makes it possible to deploy mobile virtualization solutions in a variety of different environments, including on-premises, in the cloud, or at the edge of the network.

NFV & 5G customisations. It’s worth noting that mobile virtualization is a key technology in building the 5G network. 5G network standards are designed to support network slicing, which can create multiple isolated virtual networks on top of a common physical infrastructure. This makes it possible to create customized solutions for different types of users and use cases, such as providing high-bandwidth services for multimedia applications, or low-latency services for industrial automation and control.

NFV is the future, and the future is now. Mobile virtualization is a rapidly evolving technology with considerable potential to transform the way mobile networks are designed, deployed, and operated. In the coming years, we expect to see more and more operators turning to mobile virtualization to meet the growing demands on their networks and stay competitive in the fast-changing mobile landscape.

Orchestration

Implementing mobile virtualization can present a number of technical challenges, including the management and orchestration of virtualized network functions (VNFs) and ensuring network security. Managing and orchestration of VNFs is a complex task, which involves provisioning and configuring VNFs, as well as ensuring their availability and performance. This is complicated by the fact that VNFs are software-based and can be deployed on a variety of hardware and virtualization platforms.

Security

As VNFs are software-based, they can be targeted by cyber-attacks just like any other type of software. Therefore, ensuring network security is vital when implementing mobile virtualization.

Additionally, virtualized networks may be vulnerable to new types of attacks that exploit the virtualization itself.

NFVO. One of the key solutions to these challenges is the use of network function management and orchestration (NFVO) systems. NFVOs automate the provisioning, configuration, and management of VNFs, and they help to ensure that the VNFs are highly available and perform well. They also play an important role in the orchestration of VNFs, which involves coordinating the actions of multiple VNFs to achieve a desired outcome.

Strong defences. Another key solution is the use of security solutions such as firewall, intrusion detection and prevention systems, secure VPN, and secure containers to protect the virtualized network, secure communication between virtualized functions, and protect virtualized infrastructure from unauthorized access.

Anomaly detection. Solutions based on artificial intelligence and machine learning can also be used to monitor and detect anomalies in the network, identify potential security threats, and take appropriate action to mitigate them.

Digis Squared recommend involving INOS Probe to undertake anomaly detection 24/7, and send these alerts to the CSP. Read more – Anomaly detection: using AI to identify, prioritise and resolve network issues.

Security strategy. In addition to these technical solutions, it’s also important to have a comprehensive security strategy in place to address any potential vulnerabilities and threats that may arise when implementing mobile virtualization. This can include implementing best practices for network design, conducting regular security assessments, and keeping systems and software up to date with the latest security patches and updates.

Skills & expertise. An often overlooked, yet important security consideration, is the need for skilled personnel who are well-versed in the technologies and best practices associated with mobile virtualization. As mobile virtualization is a complex technology that requires a deep understanding of network functions, security, and software development, it’s crucial to have a team of experts who can design, deploy, and maintain secure mobile virtualization solutions.

INOS & NFV

Drive testing can be used to validate the performance of virtualized network functions and ensure that they are providing the desired level of service. This can help to identify and troubleshoot any issues that may arise, such as poor performance or dropped connections. Drive testing can also be used to compare the performance of virtualized network functions with that of traditional, hardware-based network functions, in order to ensure that the virtualized functions are providing an equivalent or better level of service.

Digis Squared’s AI-solution INOS is an essential tool in the implementation and ongoing optimization of NFV. It helps to validate and troubleshoot virtualized network functions and ensure that they are providing an equivalent or better level of service compared to traditional, hardware-based network functions. Additionally, drive testing provides key information about the environment in which the network is deployed that can be used to optimize the deployment of virtualized network functions.

Conclusion

Mobile virtualization is a powerful technology that has the capability to transform the way mobile networks are designed, deployed, and operated. Key benefits it enables include,

  • The creation of virtualized mobile networks, and the isolation of different types of traffic on the same physical network infrastructure.
  • The creation of different virtual networks for different types of services or different user groups.
  • Multiple independent network operators to share a common infrastructure,
  • And improves the security of the network.

However, implementing mobile virtualization can present a number of technical challenges, including the management and orchestration of virtualized network functions (VNFs) and ensuring network security.

The use of network function management and orchestration (NFVO) systems, security solutions, AI/ML-based monitoring and anomaly-detection systems, and a comprehensive security strategy can help to mitigate these challenges.

Finally, NFV is a powerful, yet complex technology – it’s essential to work with an experienced team with deep expertise who can design, deploy, and maintain mobile virtualization solutions.

In conversation with Amr Ashraf, Digis Squared’s RAN and Software Solution Architect and Trainer.

If you or your team would like to discover more about our capabilities, please get in touch: use this link or email hello@DigisSquared.com

Find out more about INOS

INOS can be implemented as a public or private cloud, or on-premise solution, and is also available as a “Radio Testing as-a-service” model. Its extensive AI analysis and remote OTA capabilities ensure speedy and accurate assessment of all aspects of network testing: SSV, in-building and drive testing, network optimization and competitor benchmarking, across all vendors, network capabilities and technologies, including 5G, private networks and OpenRAN.

INOS is built with compute resources powered by Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors. Digis Squared is a Partner within the Intel Network Builders ecosystem program, and a member of the Intel Partner Alliance.

See INOS in action at LEAP, Riyadh & MWC Barcelona

Digis Squared will be at LEAP in Riyadh at the start of February, as part of the UK Pavilion H4.G30, undertaking cloud-based INOS demos. Plus the team will be at MWC Barcelona at the end of February, with a full suite of all the INOS solutions and form factors on a dedicated exhibition stand Hall 7 B13.

Get in touch to arrange a dedicated time to meet: hello@DigisSquared.com

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Digis Squared ◦ Enabling smarter networks.

Digis Squared announces new company & offices in Riyadh, KSA

Commitment to customers & partners in Saudi Arabia

Digis Squared are pleased to announce the official establishment of their new company and office in the capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

“In establishing a company and offices in Riyadh, the Digis Squared team confirm our commitment to serving our customers and partners in the Kingdom, building on the successful delivery of projects undertaken to date through Digis Squared group HQ in London,” shared Yasser ElSabrouty, Co-Founder and MD of the new KSA Digis Squared business.

Accelerated growth

“Investing in local staff is an important part of the way in which we operate, and we will be launching multiple initiatives to empower and train Saudi talents using the Saudi Government programs including “Tamheer”, amongst others. 2023 will see the continued focus on expanding our business streams in Saudi in Managed Services and System Integration, with a focus on Open RAN, 5G & private networks, and leveraging our vendor and technology agnostic AI network testing tool, INOS.”

“With so many Vision 2030 projects requiring expertise in digital transformation, AI and enhanced connectivity, this is the perfect time for the Digis Squared team to be investing in Saudi Arabia. We are excited to be working together with our clients and partners to play our part in achieving the Kingdom’s ambitious strategy.”

Offices in Riyadh

Digis Squared Arabia for Information Technology LLC

Imam Saud Bin Abdulaziz Bin Mohammed Road, Nimr Al Nakheel centre,

Building A 1st floor, Riyadh 12381, Saudi Arabia

If you or your team would like to discover more about our capabilities, please get in touch: use this link or email hello@DigisSquared.com

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Digis Squared ◦ Enabling smarter networks.

Intel® Network Builders Winners’ Circle 2022: GOLD

Gold membership

The Digis Squared team are thrilled to be a part of the Intel® Network Builders Winners’ Circle, and delighted to be awarded GOLD membership this year!

Digis Squared AI telecoms tools deployed as cloud-based solutions utilise Intel® Xeon® Gold processors, delivering optimised performance and enhanced speeds. Digis Squared’s AI-tools are also available as a ‘Radio-Testing-As-A-Service in the Intel Network Builders Edge and Networking Testbed.

The team are excited to be recognised by Intel for accelerating customer excellence and advancing 5G and virtual Network Transformation with the vibrant Intel Builders ecosystem.

“Working together with Intel, Winners’ Circle partners are driving the next generation of solutions and transforming the network from edge to core.”

Intel Network Builders, December 2022

Find full details of the Intel announcement here.

Digis Squared to open new business and offices in Riyadh

Riyadh, KSA – The Digis Squared Team met last week with the Ministry of Investment in KSA, and initiated the process to open a new business and offices in Riyadh.

Digis Squared, the UK-based managed services, system integration and telecoms consulting specialists, continues its business expansion, and initiates the process to open a new business and offices in Riyadh, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. With a London HQ, Technology and Global Customer Support Centre in Cairo, and businesses in Luanda, Angola, and Dubai, UAE, this fifth new company is a significant milestone in the sixth year of business.

Ziad Khalil, Co-Founder & CEO, said “This is a key strategic region for Digis Squared. I am delighted to meet with the Ministry of Investment and progress our plans to open a new office here in Riyadh.”

“This milestone will enrich and expand our current business in Riyadh and supports our Tier 1 CSP clients in the region”, shared Yasser Elsabrouty, Co-Founder and KSA Managing Director. “As we deliver on our plans to open a new company and our own offices here in Saudi, the Digis Squared team will deepen its local investment, and expand our existing capabilities.”

“This step is another key delivery against our GTM strategy, and we are on target to achieve a doubling of our market share in the region,” shared Mohamed Hamdy, CCO.

Left to right: Yasser Elsabrouty, Digis Squared Co-Founder & KSA Managing Director, Mohammed K. AlShalfan, KSA Ministry of Investment, Ziad Khalil, Digis Squared Co-Founder & CEO, and Mohamed Hamdy, Digis Squared CCO.

About Digis Squared

Managed Services, System Integration & Consulting. We transform telecom networks, deploy new technologies, and manage vendors, for network operators, service providers and regulators. Apply our vendor-agnostic expertise, automated AI-led tools and processes to transform your technical and commercial capabilities. We work with agility, deep experience, and our in-house cognitive tools to optimise and manage multi-vendor networks across all technologies. Headquartered in the UK, Digis Squared has offices in Angola, Egypt and UAE.

Digis Squared ◦ Enabling smarter networks.

If you or your team would like to discover more about our capabilities, please get in touch: use this link or email sales@DigisSquared.com .

Digis Squared, independent telecoms expertise.

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  • Image credits: Digis Squared, Shutterstock
  • Also reported by: TelecomPaper

Mobileum and Digis Squared Announce Partnership to Provide Comprehensive Edge-to-Edge Network Testing and Analytics

New partnership empowers operators to navigate the rapidly changing 5G, IoT, and OpenRAN ecosystem for better service performance.

CUPERTINO, CA and LONDON, UK – 24 May 2022 – Mobileum Inc. (“Mobileum”), a leading global provider of analytics solutions for roaming and network services, security, risk management, testing and service assurance, and subscriber intelligence, and Digis Squared, a market leader in network services and AI-assisted tools, announced today that the companies have entered a strategic partnership to bring a comprehensive set of network testing and cognitive optimization solutions to market.

The collaboration brings together Digis Squared’s deep expertise in developing cognitive tools to automate and analyze radio network and edge-to-edge performance, and optimizing networks and capacity management to benefit the customer experience, and Mobileum, whose highly scalable and flexible telecom analytics portfolio enables operators to improve business performance, monitor customer experience, and access new monetization opportunities.

Ron Haberman, Mobileum Chief Product Officer, commented:

“Finding meaning in data is what we do. Mobileum’s Active Intelligence platform enables Communications Service Providers (CSPs) to connect deep network and operational intelligence with real-time actions to increase revenue, enhance the customer experience, reduce costs, and streamline operations. The partnership with Digis Squared extends the edge-to-edge network testing, optimization, planning, and management capabilities we can deliver. In addition, the in-house expertise and capabilities that the Digis Squared team brings in machine learning analytics is a great fit with our predictive analytics and automated actions approach.”

AbdelRahman Fady, Digis Squared CTO, commented:

“Digis Squared is pleased to partner with Mobileum to provide a more comprehensive testing solution across legacy 2G and 3G technologies through 4G to 5G, Private Networks and OpenRAN. With 5G, IoT, and OpenRAN deployments already underway, this new ecosystem will see CSPs working with a distributed value-chain of stakeholders and information silos that require a new approach to monitoring digital risk and analysing data. AI tools that can swiftly identify issues and automatically solve known problems will be vital to ensure the smooth operations of the highly complex multi-technology, multi-vendor systems, which CSPs rely on today.”

Mobileum’s Active Intelligence platform provides the actionable insights today’s communications service providers require to unleash the power of 5G and next-generation networks. Powering Mobileum’s roaming and network services, risk management, testing and monitoring, and customer engagement and experience solutions, the Active Intelligence platform delivers the advanced analytics, AI/ML, and DPI capabilities carriers need to enhance the customer experience, increase revenue, cut costs, reduce losses, and streamline operations.

The Digis Squared INOS solution provides Single Site Verification, network benchmarking, and optimization capabilities and is fully configurable live in the field. Fully customizable reports are delivered within 15 minutes of completion of data receipt, with access to 200 different network KPIs, network QoS, and customer QoE analysis. In addition to 5G analysis, there is considerable interest in Digis Squared’s OpenRAN capability as optimization, interoperability testing, and benchmarking with legacy systems begin to move from PoCs toward commercial deployment.

Mobileum and Digis Squared Announce Partnership: a graphic with a lot of text, some outlines of partial shapes, top right a partial image of two hands shaking, and bottom right, a transparent curved shape with two corporate logos

About Mobileum

Mobileum is a leading provider of Telecom analytics solutions for roaming, core network, security, risk management, domestic and international connectivity testing, and customer intelligence. More than 1,000 customers rely on its Active Intelligence platform, which provides advanced analytics solutions, allowing customers to connect deep network and operational intelligence with real-time actions that increase revenue, improve customer experience, and reduce costs.  Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Mobileum has global offices in Australia, Germany, Greece, India, Portugal, Singapore, UK, and United Arab Emirates. Learn more: Website, and follow on Twitter.

About Digis Squared

Managed Services, System Integration & Consulting. We transform telecom networks, deploy new technologies, and manage vendors, for network operators, service providers and regulators. Apply our vendor-agnostic expertise, automated AI-led tools and processes to transform your technical and commercial capabilities. We work with agility, deep experience, and our in-house cognitive tools to optimise and manage multi-vendor networks across all technologies. Headquartered in the UK, Digis Squared has offices in Angola, Egypt and UAE.

Digis Squared ◦ Enabling smarter networks.

If you or your team would like to discover more about our capabilities, please get in touch: use this link or email sales@DigisSquared.com .

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Digis Squared, independent telecoms expertise.

Simultaneously published by: Mobileum

Image credits: social media [Mobileum], page header: Cytonn Photography on Unsplash

Business Insider: “Discover Five of the Most Innovative UK Telecoms and Technology Firms”

“Connecting the world. As the UK expands its investment in STEM sectors, these firms are developing cutting-edge technology and building new ways to stay connected.”

This text is taken from a post by Business Insider / Insider Studios, which lists Digis Squared, what3words, CommAgility, pureLiFi and Speechmatics as five of the most innovative UK telecoms and technology firms. Read their full article here.

 

 

The telecoms and technology industries are likely to keep up their rapid rate of expansion over the next decade. This presents an opportunity for investment and development in the companies that are driving progress forward.

These 5 UK-based firms are highly innovative in their fields, from using light to enable wireless internet, to deploying artificial intelligence (AI), to removing bias in speech recognition. These are the companies whose pioneering technology will capitalize on an increasingly connected world.

 

Digis Squared

Digis Squared enables telecom operators and communications service providers to optimize, upgrade, manage, and enhance their networks. Its clients include the likes of Vodafone, Telefónica, and Telecom Egypt, and it has offices in the UK, Egypt, and Dubai — as well as a new site in Luanda, Angola, which opened in October.

“Our new office in Luanda will on-board a team of over 40 engineers providing managed services for the entire Africell Angola network,” Mohamed Hamdy, the company’s chief commercial officer, said. The new office will also support “the commercial launch of [Africell Angola’s] new network to the public in 2022.”

Africa is a huge market for the firm, which also plans to open a new facility in Saudi Arabia in 2022. Key priorities for the year include expanding its footprint in its target markets and doubling its revenue. The rollout of 5G — and planning for 6G deployment — means the need for communication technology is likely to dramatically increase in both scale and complexity. This will lead to increased demand for Digis Squared’s services over the next five to 10 years, according to CEO Ziad Khalil.

“The ability for our business to work internationally is vital — communication is both constrained and unlimited by boundaries,” Hamdy added. “Digis Squared was set up as a multi-country operation and international trade has been at the heart of our approach right from the start. Working with DIT has been a key pillar of this.”

 

As new technology and demand for innovation leap forward, new ways to communicate will also need to accelerate. An international approach for telecoms and tech companies is crucial, and with support from the public sector to build relationships and provide investment, there is a bright future ahead.

 

 

Digis Squared, independent telecoms expertise.

Differentiation through operational excellence

Differentiation through operational excellence.   ◦   Ahmed Zein, Digis Squared Co-Founder and Chief Operations & Delivery Officer, shares his experience and thoughts on the vital role the Operations function plays in differentiating your business. Plus, as his new Managed Services team gets ready for the commercial launch of a network, he shares insights into key areas of current focus.

Differentiation and success

What differentiates leading organizations from their less successful rivals? More often than not, it comes down to how they manage their Operations. No matter how great the business strategy, or how large the investment, the Operations Team, the efficiency and customer experience they can achieve, can ultimately determine which business wins and who is left behind.

A workplace philosophy where problem-solving, teamwork, and leadership are core to the way people work together and collaborate, results in the continuous improvement of an organization,” shared Ahmed. “Focusing consistently on the customers’ needs, keeping employees positive and empowered, and continually improving the current activities in the workplace to deliver a better outcome in the future – all of this requires energy and commitment. However, this is a virtuous circle of improvement – keep doing it, and you’ll keep improving, the more energy and commitment you put in, the bigger the improvement you’ll get out.

There are five key areas I’ll be focussing on with the Digis Squared team during this phase. Working together, the team in the Digis Squared Delivery and Operations Centre in Luanda, backed up with staff in our Technology and Customer Support Centre in Cairo, will ensure an on-schedule, optimised network launch, and maintain smooth operational performance throughout.

One: Preparing the Squad

As with any project we work on, preparing the squad for this mission is our top priority. Designing a complete program, and establishing a high achieving attitude and sports-behaviour in the team and its structure, help us all to succeed. The squad needs a dynamic attitude to problem-solving, and an ambitious target to achieve success together.

With all our projects, we carefully consider the specific skills, experience and expertise we need. In recruiting the squad it’s also critical to our success together that we have a strong and aligned sense of purpose, and a strong fit with the Digis Squared culture and sports-team ethos. It’s vitally important to the way in which we operate that we work together as a squad – we help each other, we share knowledge, we learn from and help each other. It’s about both leadership and personal accountability, as well as knowledge sharing. In an area as complex as network technology, almost all issues can only be solved by working together, asking questions, and listening to the experience and ideas of others. We achieve and learn more together.

And this is one of the key differences between Operational Efficiency and Operational Excellence. Efficiency focuses only on how things are done, and doing them better – faster, cheaper, fewer errors, continuous improvement. These are the basics. But Operational Excellence is far wider, it aims to create a culture within the team and company that is conducive to efficient and sustainable long-term growth. The strongly aligned sense of purpose, solving problems and succeeding together as a squad, that is vital to achieving Operational Excellence.

Some of the Digis Squared Luanda Squad, February 2022

Two: Multi-Vendor Management

Vendor management is not as simple as monitoring a mathematical set of KPIs, and a lengthy document filled with SLA words. As a team, we know that the success of any operations is reliant on sound relationships, and clear communications. The Digis Squared way is to always try and bridge the gaps in understanding, to clarify discussions, to identify a mis-fit in technologies, or a gap within a contract and resolve misunderstandings before they become problematic – and critically, to propose a solution.

Yes, of course we report on KPIs, and when an SLA isn’t being hit, but we also work hard to bridge that gap between the vendor and the operator. We work hard to build connections with the vendor’s teams, and work collaboratively together, running user acceptance tests and handovers across all domains.

Three: Performance & Field Management through NOC

Digis Squared’s Managed Services will ensure we achieve full monitoring of the network, corrective and preventive maintenance, network configuration and change management. All of this will be accomplished with operational excellence strategies by improving network availability, maintaining all network KPIs, enhancing quality of service to end customers, improving customer experience and reducing operating cost, as well as capitalizing on network automation and automating all automatable network procedures, across both front and back-office activities.

Read more about INOS here – and the bottom of that page also has links to using INOS in LTE 450 or 600MHz network, 5G and customer case studies.

One of the most important KPIs in Managed Services contracts is the focus on Network Performance KPIs as one of the most important goals. Digis Squared’s cognitive tools are used to provide active monitoring of the network. We use INOS for drive testing, and there are plenty of recent blogs about that!  [See list at end of blog.]

Digis-One is a key tool for any Operations team.  We typically passively monitor the network performance using Digis-One, our cognitive, multi-vendor, multi-technology Unified Fault Management (UFM) solution delivering centralized dashboard and alarming monitoring system for the Front and Back Office Teams. Digis-One facilitates all systems/interfaces monitoring, in addition to automating the most time-critical manual work, including automated generation and assignment of Trouble Tickets to the team responsible for solving the network issue. Digis-One delivers a significant impact on SLAs and Mean Time to Repair.

Generally, when undertaking a Managed Services contract, field maintenance is one of the top priorities. Responsive teams on the ground undertake corrective and preventive actions across the network, fixing issues before they become a problem. The Operations Squad assess KPIs, and proactively lead the way to ensuring improved customer experience. Working together, this delivers efficiency, expansion and business success.

The field maintenance service will utilise available data (network, environment, events etc.) and our cognitive tools to schedule preventive maintenance plans and optimise resource utilisation. Mindful of the various contractual SLAs and targets, together, I field maintenance and NOC teams will ensure complete coordination and alignment for all field and site access activities.

Four: Clear Change Management

A newly launched network encounters a lot of dynamic changes and interactions across all domains. I’ve experienced the dynamic situations new network deployments encounter many times before, and know that creative thinking, sound analytical practices and strong teamwork can together solve the issues which will arise. Actively managing and considering the sequence of changes require deep consideration and experience. Careful planning is needed to consider how unforeseen risks or incidents will be handled, what processes will be followed, and how unplanned changes will be addressed.

We’re at a really exciting stage of this project. Combining the skills, expertise and experience of our staff, and our AI-led tools and processes, we’re confident the squad we are building will deliver differentiation through operational excellence.

Five: Application Development Management

As a greenfield mobile network, benefits from the high demands and expectations of the commercial teams to launch ambitious, state of the art products & services to the market, pushing at the competitive and technological edge of possibilities.

With this in mind, the Digis Squared team believe it is important to bring the concept of Application Development Management, ADM, with a DevOps flavour to this Managed Service contract. Merging the development and IT/BSS operations, the goal of our ADM team is to reduce the time between a system needed development or change and its deployment into the production environments. In turn, this reflects on and enhances the time to market to materialize a commercial requirement into a real technical output, deployed on the product IT/VAS nodes. To put that another way, we’ll be using ADM techniques to develop, test and deploy rapid, noticeable improvements in an ongoing continuous loop, perhaps even before the end customer notices there was ever an issue.

Working in this way, as a DevOps team, both the development staff, and the staff in charge of operations, are in deep communication with each other – they are ONE team! There is enhanced cross-knowledge and collaboration between the developers and IT operations, assessing and solving issues together, and a more seamless workflow that eliminates sizeable knowledge silo’s which are found in traditional models. The result is the smooth deployment of technology, such as software and updates in the safest, most reliable way possible.

Differentiation through operational excellence

It’s an exciting time for the Digis Squared team globally, and we’re ready for this. It’s great to work with clients with clear ambitions, and high targets for excellence. Sharing knowledge, ensuring utilisation of cognitive systems and clear processes, building a superb team. We’re working closely with our client and the other partners to ensure this new network achieves commercial success, and one of the secrets in how we will achieve that together is with differentiation through operational excellence.

In conversation with Ahmed Zein, Digis Squared Co-Founder and Chief Operations & Delivery Officer.

If you or your team would like to discover more about our capabilities, please get in touch: use this link or email sales@DigisSquared.com .

Digis Squared, independent telecoms expertise.

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Image credits

  • Digis Squared social media and blog banner image: Fabian Plock (Shutterstock)
  • Luanda bay in article: Manual Carreia COSTALOPES
 
 

Strategic Sourcing ◦ Total spend optimisation, it’s not all about direct price

In this blog post, Ahmed AboulGheit, Head of Sourcing at Digis Squared, shares his insights into the Strategic Sourcing Consultancy we deliver. This capability is just part of the Consultancy work we undertake, and this blog provides an insight into how we help our clients bridge the gaps between service providers and new technologies, and enable smarter networks.

What is Strategic Sourcing Consultancy?

“An efficient and capable multi-purpose multi-tool in your toolkit!,” explains Ahmed.

The Strategic Sourcing Consultancy we deliver covers six key areas,

  1. Spend optimisation planning – using different scenarios to forecast and plan.
  2. Communication and alignment across departments and multiple operating businesses.
  3. End to end Sourcing process review and tuning.
  4. Scope formalisation, to ensure end-to-end coverage, and eliminate gaps in delivery and support.
  5. Terms and Conditions review and validation, ensuring appropriate vendor liability is defined and avoiding any risks to the client.
  6. Tender process validation and governance: everything from process definition to tender documentation writing and issuance, selection processes and assessments, regulatory obligations, and all aspects of governance.

Total spend optimisation, it’s not all about direct price

You might be surprised to read that, but it’s true! Often, there are times when gaps in the contract reveal themselves partway through project delivery, meaning that extra budget needs to be granted for the project to be successfully completed. To mitigate this, your Sourcing Team need to have a deep understanding of the technical requirements, as well as their commercial implications and the contractual liabilities that have to be set on vendors. Achieving a good contracted price on the front page of the contract is often defined as success, but Strategic Sourcing looks at the optimisation of total spend, across the entire project lifecycle.

This blog focuses on scope formalisation, as that is a hot topic with many of our clients currently.

Scope formalisation

This subject is critical to ensuring robust, practical and well drafted contracts. No-one wants to work within a contract framework that is full of gaps, ambiguity and misunderstanding – relationships will quickly unravel, co-operation become strained, and ultimately customer experience will be impacted and extra budget needs will pop up. This is particularly true within telecoms infrastructure projects, where different generations of technologies from multiple vendors are sitting alongside each other, and technical interoperability problems are a normal part of the scope of all projects. Additionally, internal and external scope responsibilities intersect, and compromise and priorities need to be balanced.

To avoid this, scope formalisation plays a vital part of the development of the contract framework. Identifying the correct stakeholders and setting the project lifecycle helps manage expectations and boundaries. Defining the requirements with all stakeholders, while challenging them to ensure there are no gaps is vital to ensuring a successful project. Keep an open mind, be curious and explore ambiguity: what if this happens?, what about that situation? Revealing uncertainty in the scope, and clarifying or mitigating for it is an important component of scope formalisation.

Methodically classifying the scope into internal and external responsibilities helps reveal a clearer understanding of the stakeholders’ interests and priorities. The detailed work of translating their requirements into meaningful contractual conditions, while retaining clear engineering objectives is critical to scope formalisation. All of these elements are key aspects to consider and take care of, and the skill and expertise of Strategic Sourcing staff are vital to help you to best design and achieve them.

Scope formalisation requires a deep understanding of both Engineering and Contractual languages. Strategic Sourcing staff in the Telecom industry provide the vital role in understanding, challenging, clarifying and formalising the translation. A sound knowledge of Engineering language is needed to understand the end-to-end scenario from the technical guys in the team, and then translate it into contractual conditions that would make the vendors fully liable on the targeted scope with full protection to the client if not fulfilled.

Addressing unforeseen issues

Having done all of that work, we should also be realistic – we are usually dealing with new systems and technologies being integrated into unique and complex telecoms ecosystems. As the project progresses, there will be issues that even the best brains cannot imagine in advance! So how to solve this and ensure there are no gaps in delivery or support?

It is vital to define an issue resolution path from the beginning. Good Project Governance, alongside an issue resolution process, goes hand in hand with project KPIs and milestones, and helps ensure that the total cost of the project is managed. These pragmatic steps are a core part of scope formalisation, and together ensure that excellent working relationships are achieved throughout this project, so that the next project becomes even easier!

Strategic Sourcing Model

The total spend optimisation activity I’ve shared here is just a part of the work undertaken within Strategic Sourcing; the model below illustrates other typical components. However, this type of model is simply a starting point, as sourcing and vendor management should ideally be seen as an ongoing relationship, in which there are sometimes discrete projects and activities, which form a part of a bigger picture.

At Digis Squared, some of the work we undertake for clients helps to bridge the gaps which can arise when a project is defined too narrowly. In these situations, the rush to optimise a price can cause friction and misunderstanding within the project team; gaps in scope definition and project requirements can lead to project delays and increased costs further down the line. Our deep undertaking of multi-vendor systems and technologies, and our ability to understand both the technical and commercial language of contracts helps ensure that our clients avoid these gaps, or resolve them if we are brought in later.

Use our expertise to assist your team

The team here at Digis Squared have significant experience and expertise in strategic sourcing, vendor management and project commercial governance. Indeed, the executive team which founded the Digis Squared business almost 5 years ago, all felt passionately that addressing these gaps between vendors and network operators, was vital to ensuring improved customer experience and efficient business operations. I really enjoy being part of this team, and working with clients so that together we can optimise their contracts and processes.

AI enhancement of capacity management: what’s next?

Today, we use an open-loop control system to apply our AI methods. However, as predictive model accuracy improves, we anticipate transitioning to a fully automated Self-Organized Network (SON) – enabling closed-loop network management with self-planning, self-configuration, self-optimization, and self-healing – system in the near future.

In conversation with Ahmed AboulGheit, Head of Sourcing at Digis Squared.

Ahmed has worked in and led international procurement teams in the telecoms sector since 2005 working alongside major consultancy firms, within multidisciplinary, agile teams. At Digis Squared he manages our contracts, sourcing, partner management and pricing activities, and supports our teams with consultancy in this field.

If you or your team would like to discover more about our capabilities, please get in touch: use this link or email sales@DigisSquared.com .

Digis Squared, independent telecoms expertise.

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Image credit: Mohamed M