Capacity management ◦ Now more than ever, handle unpredictable demand with agility

Across the globe Communications Service Providers (CSPs) and Mobile Network Operators have faced enormous, dynamic changes in capacity and demand this year.

“In this “new normal,” CSPs are leading the effort for remote working, online learning and social distancing.”

Source: Forbes (1)

Home working, with its heavy use of video conferencing and collaboration, combined with a surge in demand for digital entertainment, home studying and intensive use of multiple devices simultaneously, has led to a previously unimaginable surge in demand for capacity on both fixed and mobile networks. The changes in mobile network demand have highlighted difficult to predict anomalies – in many cities, as people stayed at home, significant demand was off-loaded to home wifi networks (Deloitte (2): “some telcos say they have seen a 300% increase in the use of these voice-over-WiFi services.”), in contrast with rural areas and other poorly served broadband-black-spots, mobile data demand has soared.

“The five largest operators in Spain reported a 40% increase in overall IP traffic, a 25% increase in mobile traffic and a 50% increase in mobile voice traffic since the start of the outbreak.”

Analysys Mason (3)

Now that the initial rush to support business employees working from home has passed, more countries are starting to consider slowly re-opening business premises – with staggered start times, and changes in working practice, this will bring with it a new set of behaviours and capacity requirements. But the need to maintain agility in capacity is vital, as countries anticipate lockdowns will be enforced dynamically over the months and years ahead.

Planning ahead

In the short term, service providers are addressing four key challenges,

  • With dynamic changes in customer behaviour, and the lack of revenue from roaming charges, many are experiencing significant pressure on operating expenses, and taking quick business decisions to remove costs
  • Capital expenditure plans are being rapidly re-assessed to ensure they are re-prioritised to meet the new revenue and business continuity needs
  • Re-assessing supply chains, in terms of equipment procurement issues, safe social distancing in the workplace, and staff absence levels
  • Rapidly addressing revenue and cash management, as economies global experience a massive downturn

In the longer term, plans need to be made to manage the “next new normal”, as changes in society and working patterns continue to evolve. At Digis Squared we believe this next phase is even harder, as “Business As Usual” will mean a constant need for agility and flexing to meet demand,

  • Accelerate digital transformation: use AI and RPA to manage higher customer service call volumes to support remote working, and handle mundane repetitive tasks and digital self-service via automation
  • Revise Business Continuity Plans: review assumptions, re-plan and re-scale
  • Accelerate 5G deployment and integration to better handle high demand dynamically
  • Implement autonomous capacity management, to ensure that your mobile networks work efficiently.

“…the way to consider a crisis of this magnitude is to identify three phases: Respond, Recover and Thrive.”

Deloitte (2)

Whilst many short terms solutions have been rapidly implemented, now is the time to ensure they are robust and resilient enough to continue to handle the longer term, and to re-assess Business Continuity Plans.

Autonomous capacity management

We can help communications services providers and mobile network operators to achieve more with your network resources: absorb new traffic demands, and optimize the expansions you need by using Digis Squared’s vendor-agnostic, off-the-shelf solutions.

Use our expertise to dynamically assist your teams

Our areas of focus are,

  • Vendor agnostic capacity modeling for all network technologies (2G/3G/4G/5G)
  • Machine learning algorithms on network data enriched with multiple data feeds from radio access network, Customer Experience Management (CEM), geolocation systems and crowdsourced data
  • Predictive traffic growth based on AI-power algorithms followed by degradation preventive actions and expansions prediction
  • Action-Centric BM reports including KPIs, KQIs and Customers QOEs
  • ROI calculations for network investments

Many of our clients use modular capacity management modules developed by Digis Squared team, with bespoke adaptations if needed, to,

  • Balance the traffic between cells & technologies
  • Recommend soft actions needed
  • Activate & reshuffle sites licenses
  • Capacity enhancement feature recommendations
  • Physical changes
  • Network expansions and reshuffling required

Our teams can use these capabilities to deliver value to service providers and mobile network operators,

  • Start the smart CAPEX journey, and identify pathways to OPEX saving
  • Maximize network investment ROI and help operators make well-informed, data-centred investment decisions
  • Speed-up network capacity plans through our automated-predictive solution

We can assist you right now with our ready-to-go, adaptive-modular capacity management modules, developed by the Digis Squared team to,

  • Balance the traffic between cells & technologies
  • Recommend soft actions needed
  • Activate & reshuffle sites licenses
  • Capacity enhancement feature recommendations
  • Physical changes
  • Network expansions and reshuffling required

Discover more about our Digis-Capacity, AI & ML capabilities.

Now more than ever, capacity management ensures you can handle unpredictable demand with agility.

To discuss how our capacity management expertise can help your business, please use this link or email sales@DigisSquared.com to arrange an informal conversation.

Keep up to speed with company updates, product launches and our quarterly newsletter, sign up here.

“In the words of one the telecom operator we spoke to: ‘ideally we never go back to the way we operated before this crisis’.”

Source: Deloitte (2)

Sources

Image credit: Mike Kononov

RPA ◦ Now more than ever, automate to manage rapidly changing demands

Organizations around the globe are turning to Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to become faster and more agile in the face of increased demand and rapidly changing environments.

From managing the high changes in network traffic, supporting the increased demand in customer call centers, to preparing and enabling a remote workforce, organizations are realizing the benefits of automating right now.

“RPA: one of the 7 biggest technology trends that will transform telecoms in 2020”

Source: Forbes (1)

What is RPA?

Robotic process automation (RPA) is a type of software productivity tool that enables users to configure bots, which manage specific dedicated tasks within software applications – no actual physical robots are involved!

The bots can be programmed to mimic key strokes enabling actions to be concatenated, delivering complex macro-like functionality. They can work across multiple systems in a session (different applications, spreadsheets on different operating systems and so on), for example, extracting data from one system, merging it with another data set, and then importing it into a different application.

Working together, bots can handle complex and sophisticated processes, not just removing the risk of human error, but driving down costs and speeding up time taken to complete tasks.

“To increase business agility, IT leaders need to maximize the breadth of RPA use cases and stay ahead of market trends.”

Source: Gartner  (2)

RPA in businesses today

Today, RPA is being used across businesses to optimise repetitive and time-consuming tasks, and eliminate errors.

RPA can speed up analysis of demand fluctuations and sales intelligence, streamline revenue assurance, accelerate order activations and assist with call centre queries.

There remain many opportunities to introduce it in more departments, and use it more widely across functions.

Boost your automation level

The “new normal” has created massive changes in demand, as both home-working and communications between friends and family impact the networks. We can help your teams adapt their network strategies, adjust operational support, and implement new technologies to support the changes we see now, and those we can anticipate as the situation continues to change.

Digis Squared can provide remote resources to automate many of your processes, and facilitate your teams’ working-from-home tasks. The Digis Squared team have extensive experience of implementing and optimizing RPA.

“Process automation will define the telco of the future”

Source: EY (4)

We can help your teams to,

  • Design and implement RPA solutions and methodologies to automate any repetitive process
  • Review and optimize existing RPA processes and infra-structure, and identify additional opportunities
  • Processes assessment reflecting the business value of any implemented automation
  • Complete optimization on UiPath license utilization

We can also help you identify and target potential areas of improvement,

  • Creating base level of RPA awareness
  • Deep dive with all teams to identify business challenges
  • Propose new ideas of automation
  • Posting RPA-related updates
  • Monitoring and analytics of all automated processes

Using project-proven methodologies, and RPA process-driven workflow, together with your team we work to understand and discover your issues, identify efficiencies, design solutions and then develop and implement automated solutions. But that is only part of the process, ongoing assessment of the implementation to identify further enhancements and optimisations is a key part of the work we do.

Off the peg, and bespoke RPA solutions

We have more than 50 ready-to-use RPA process developments, varying between complex, medium and simple scope,

  • Site halt and activation
  • Down sites repetition handling
  • Network fluctuations monitoring and reporting
  • Alarm monitoring and reporting
  • Services testing
  • Outages handling
  • Configuration management execution
  • Configurations audit
  • Trouble Tickets handling
  • Customer complaints handling
  • Special events monitoring
  • International traffic optimisation
  • Warehouse management
  • Inventory management
  • Field expenses monitoring
  • Disaster recovery audits
  • Consistency checks
  • Data synchronisation and integrity
  • Licenses renewal handling
  • Network elements backup system
  • OSS/BSS accounts management
  • Managed services KPIs monitoring
  • Operations KPIs monitoring and reporting

Our teams have the skill to precisely address your business demands: we can adapt these ready-to-use RPA developments to rapidly meet your needs, or create a bespoke solution from scratch.

Now more than ever, RPA can increase your agility to manage rapidly changing demands.

To discuss how our RPA expertise can help your business, please use this link or email sales@DigisSquared.com to arrange a convenient time for an informal conversation.

Keep up to speed with company updates, product launches and our quarterly newsletter, sign up here.

“By 2024, organizations will lower operational costs by 30% by combining hyperautomation technologies with redesigned operational processes.”

Source: Gartner Predicts 2020 (2)

Sources,

Image credit: Philipp Katzenberger

Working safely, to keep communities connected

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Digis Squared team ensured that all our staff are able to work safely and are equipped to work remotely.

The “new normal” has created massive changes in demand, as both home-working and communications between friends and family impact the networks. We can help your teams adapt their network strategies, adjust operational support, and implement new technologies to support the changes we see now, and those we can anticipate as the situation continues to change.

 

We are here to support your teams in ensuring that they can do their work safely and securely, and that together we can keep our communities connected.

 

#StayHomeSaveLives                                                                         #خليك_في_البيت