Business solutions provider NTT is working with US software firm ServiceNow to introduce an “AI-enabled end-to-end workflow automation platform” to its private 5G proposition. The idea is enterprises will be able to migrate business processes onto the cloud using ServiceNow’s cloud platform, which incorporates some machine learning into workflow management, and set their cloud-based private 5G system from Celona to plug more effectively into their operations.
NTT said the deal will enable enterprises to “realise the benefits of private 5G”. Between the lines, the message from the Japan-based firm is, as always, that the data that is supposed to drive transformation too-often gets stuck in business silos, or fails to be made available in analytics platforms in the cloud – and that disjointed business processes do not make the most of the new go-faster 5G, even as it is made bespoke and easy for enterprises.
Enterprises can, with properly-optimised and 5G-connected workflows, solve business issues with “simple cloud-based economics, faster time to market, and an enhanced service management experience”, said NTT. Santa Clara-based ServiceNow calls its Now platform a “platform of platforms for the digital workflow revolution”. In a supplied quoted, analyst house Omdia went so far as to declare the partnership “a gold standard in 5G service delivery”.
Shahid Ahmed, group executive vice president of new ventures and innovation at NTT, said: “Digitising workflows is a prerequisite to any digital transformation journey. By combining the simplicity, control, and security of NTT’s P5G platform with the strength of ServiceNow’s industry-leading workflows, we can accelerate the value creation of private 5G for our clients and the industry at large.”
Lara Caimi, chief customer and partner officer at ServiceNow, said: “Through our AI-powered workflow orchestration capabilities, ServiceNow is driving the control-tower for digital transformation by bringing people, processes and systems together to deliver powerful business outcomes. Together with NTT, ServiceNow will bring new use cases empowered by secure private 5G connectivity in a turn-key, ‘as-a-service’ consumption model. This will accelerate key business initiatives across various industry verticals.”
NTT’s new private cellular as-a-service platform, launched last August, uses a cloud-based LTE and 5G core network from US-based CBRS-champ Celona. Its in-house brands NTT Transatel and NTT Data are providing the global roaming and IT services functions alongside. Celona calls the NTT proposition a “convergence of enterprise networking, old-school telecom, and cloud native infrastructure.”
The core network in the P5G offer is offered as containerized microservices to operate on Microsoft Azure and AWS, confirmed NTT. A number of industrial IoT applications are being integrated with the service. “We are working with a number of IoT application partners to bring high value use case applications to market such as AGVs, AR and VR based digital worker platforms, and video analytics using machine vision,” the company told Enterprise IoT Insights.
Over 80 percent of chief information officers and “senior leaders” plan to deploy private 5G networks within the next 24 months, according to a survey of 200-odd “top executives” by NTT. Their motivation to deploy private 5G, it finds, is to improve security, reliability, and speed. Ninety percent of executives in Germany, Japan, the UK, and the US expect private 5G will become the “standard network choice”, it says.
