Skip to main content

Long Journey to Reach Digital Transformation Objectives

During 2015, across numerous industries, the quest for a competitive advantage via a Digital Transformation agenda has been a key focal point of strategic planning discussions between concerned CEOs and their executive leadership teams. Making bold moves and implementing big changes requires a huge concerted organizational effort. Besides, it can't be rushed.

However, with their legacy business models already showing signs of imminent disruption, the leaders of major telecom service providers have been moved to action. Many have discovered that they're not adequately equipped to address the forward-looking view of their markets. So, they've now embarked on several momentous experiments -- intended to uncover the foundation for future success.

According to the latest worldwide market study by Technology Business Research (TBR), the telecom service provider sector is entering the early commercial stage for Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) market development.

The latest TBR study highlights a growing number of proof of concept deployment contracts and trial evolution plans for Tier 1 network operators across the key domains within these companies.

That being said, although confidence is rising, the TBR assessment indicates many key questions remain for network operators before NFV and SDN can graduate to mainstream adoption. Once again, the main concerns are related to People and Process; not Technology.

The Slow Pace of Change Management

TBR predicts that a small group of early-adopter telecom service providers will continue to lead the research and development of NFV and SDN applications in the interim, with the rest of the industry likely to follow sometime during 2018.

Clearly, the more conservative network operators are waiting for confirmation that NFV and SDN platforms prove to reduce the cost of delivering network services in high-volume operator networks.

On the supplier side, TBR research demonstrates that the pioneer vendors are continuing to build out their SDN and NFV related portfolio and alliance strategies to help them drive adoption. Meanwhile, eventual monetization remains the main focus, and an ongoing concern.

According to the TBR assessment, more than 50 network operators are engaged in SDN and NFV trials and controlled experimental implementations. The most compelling business case, so far, is network services on-demand delivered to businesses -- either through customer self-service portals, or virtual customer premises equipment (CPE).

Savvy Vendors Offer Professional Services

Some network operators have already been able to demonstrate cost savings in service provisioning time, while also increasing customer satisfaction.

While the case for NFV and SDN is being proved domain by domain, many challenges remain. One very significant obstacle is organizational readiness. Technology is rarely mentioned as the primary roadblock to meaningful progress.

TBR found educating employees on new automated operations is critical to network operator success. Another area of challenge is ensuring interoperability across diverse NFV and SDN implementations. Vendors that are able to offer skilled and experienced software architect resources will have a clear advantage.

Popular posts from this blog

Global Digital Business and IT Consulting Outlook

Across the globe, CEOs and their leadership teams continue to seek information and guidance about planned Digital Transformation initiatives and the most effective enterprise organization change management practices. Worldwide IT and Business Services revenue will grow from $1.13 trillion in 2022 to $1.2 trillion in 2023 -- that's a 5.7 percent year-over-year growth, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). The mid-term to long-term outlook for the market has also increased -- the five-year CAGR is forecast at 5.2 percent, compared to the previous 4.9 percent. Digital Sevices & Consulting Market Development IDC has raised the growth projection despite a weak economic outlook, because of vendor performances across 2022, growth indicators from adjacent markets, increased government funding, and inflation impacts. The actual 2022 market growth was 6.7 percent (in constant currency), which was 87 basis points higher than forecast last year, alth

Mobile Device Market Still Awaiting Recovery

The mobile devices market has experienced three years of unpredictable demand. The global pandemic, geopolitical pressures, supply chain issues, and macroeconomic headwinds have hindered the sector's consistent growth potential. This extremely challenging environment has dramatically affected both demand and supply chains. It has led to subsequent inflationary pressures, leading to a worsening global cost of living crisis suppressing growth and confidence in the sector. In tandem, mobile device industry stakeholders have become more cautious triggering market uncertainties. Mobile Device Market Development Operating under such a backdrop, the development of mobile device ecosystems and vendor landscapes have been impacted severely. Many of these market pressures persisted throughout 2022 and now into 2023, borne chiefly by the smartphone market. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, worldwide smartphone shipments in 2022 declined 9.6 percent Year-over-Year

Digital Talent Demand Exceeds Supply in Asia-Pac

Even the savviest CEO's desire for a digital transformation advantage has to face the global market reality -- there simply isn't enough skilled and experienced talent available to meet demand. According to the latest market study by IDC, around 60-80 percent of Asia-Pacific (AP) organizations find it "difficult" or "extremely difficult" to fill many IT roles -- including cybersecurity, software development, and data insight professionals. Major consequences of the skills shortage are increased workload on remaining digital business and IT employees, increased security risks, and loss of "hard-to-replace" critical transformation knowledge. Digital Business Talent Market Development Although big tech companies' layoffs are making headlines, they are not representative of the overall global marketplace. Ongoing difficulty to fill key practitioner vacancies is still among the top issues faced by leaders across industries. "Skills are difficul