AOE at TM Forum DTW 2022 Copenhagen

This year's TM Forum Digital Transformation World (DTW) took place in Copenhagen from 20 –  22 September 2022. For more than 3,000 participants from the telco sector, the conference offered an ideal setting to meet in person again after two years of predominantly virtual meetings. For AOE it was the first participation in a TM Forum event and an opportunity to network and exchange experiences with other members.

Appreciative dialog at eye level instead of fierce competition – this perhaps describes the spirit of the conference best. Against the backdrop of a global crisis, or in the words of Stefan Roehn, Board Member TM Forum, a "gathering storm", collaboration is the order of the day for the international community.

To escape the looming downward spiral, CSPs are forced to further accelerate the digital transformation from telco to tech-co. Open standards provide the blueprints for reusable components, the building blocks for continuous modernization and short time-to-market in the context of a "composable business".

Axiata, Jio and Vodafone were the first service providers to achieve "Running on ODA" status at DTW, the "Open Digital Architecture" jointly designed by over 350 companies. Standardized components and APIs that fully cover the software stack of a CSP enable the rapid development of new business capabilities and thus support the urgently needed replacement of legacy systems.

In addition, the complete definition in software of the protocols required for network operation, for example, lowers the barrier to entry for new providers. Hyperscalers such as AWS or Google Cloud provide the computing power required for this, which can be dynamically adapted to the resource requirements and does not require any own investments in this area..

Shekhar Kulkarni, Chief IT Architect Deutsche Telekom, uses One Shop and One App to impressively demonstrate how a uniform Europe-wide platform can create synergies between national subsidiaries (NatCos) and accelerate the roll-out of new offerings. At the same time, the realities of the local market and the consideration of the associated, individual requirements are becoming an ever greater factor in business success. Striking the balance requires a thorough understanding of customer needs.

While CSPs often already have the data needed to do this, they are not fully leveraging it. The development of data-driven decisions is an important step in the digital transformation; facts instead of hypotheses, prediction instead of diagnosis – knowledge of customer needs opens up new ways to increase customer loyalty and satisfaction.

Due to the shortage of skilled workers prevailing in many countries, the company's own employees are increasingly becoming the focus of interest. Corporate culture, (agile) working methods and opportunities for training and further education create prospects for increasing employee loyalty and inspiring new talent. Cross-team and cross-company collaboration creates innovative concepts that contribute to more growth and success for the entire industry.

The "Action Plan for Telco Sustainability" shows the ambition of many CSPs to become more sustainable, for example by creating CO₂-neutral services based on net-zero clouds. Other important goals for sustainable development are the promotion of inclusion and diversity. Here, TM Forum offers the "Inclusion and Diversity Score" (IDS), the first industry-wide benchmark to make progress internationally measurable and comparable.

The topics of TM Forum DTW 2022 will influence developments in the telecommunications sector far beyond the coming year. As AOE, we accompany our customers through the associated change processes and can actively shape them at the same time. In addition, we will contribute our knowledge to TM Forum's projects and make our contribution to the further development of open APIs and standards.

We look forward to sharing knowledge and experience and to seeing you again in Copenhagen.