Everything on the Netcracker platform is cloud native and is driven by machine learning and artificial intelligence
Last week, Netcracker announced Filipino mobile operator Globe Telecom has chosen the company’s Managed Services offering to achieve a higher level of operational efficiency. Globe Telecom will use the platform for things like order fulfillment, proactive monitoring and performance management. Netcracker’s Head of Strategy and Portfolio Marketing at Netcracker. Susan White spoke with RCR Wireless News about the role that this new digital platform will play in the evolving telecom ecosystem.
White explained that Netcracker combined elements of its OSS and BSS portfolios with two main objectives in mind: to help service providers to make their network a lot more agile and automated; and help them digitally transform their services and how they offer these services to customers. New business models are emerging, and subscriptions services are increasing, and these services are moving to the edge of networks.
Everything on the Netcracker platform is cloud native and is driven by machine learning and artificial intelligence. It also supports open APIs and has “tight” security mechanisms, according to White.
Automation is going to be essential, she said, adding that operators need to automate more so that they can push out new services faster and take costs out of running the network. And when it comes to digital transformation services, Netcracker is hoping to assist the telco market grow into new, different areas.
“For that, we want to help stimulate innovation,” White continued. “Enabling them to build new apps on the platform and to build their own applications and not just rely on vendors doing it themselves.”
The final, but widely critical piece, according to White, is partnerships, which Netcracker aims to help facilitate. “Going forward, there are going to be a lot more partnerships needed, not just at the technical level, but at the service level as well to address new markets,” she said.
These partnerships are of particular importance when considering certain 5G applications like private networks, which White claimed will happen “with or without the telcos.”
“What’s key there is how they can get a chunk of that market and differentiate themselves. Lack of agility and skillset is stopping them there. We are seeing telcos working more with partners in certain areas,” she explained, stating simply that this is new territory for service providers and as a result, they need “a lot of help and knowledge.”
“Service providers are making many different investments,” reasoned White, listing things like 5G, network slicing and cloud capabilities and RAN disaggregation. “All these aspects are coming, and they will unlock innovation and opportunities, but it’s costly and complex,” she continued, adding that Netcracker expects its digital platform to be a valuable tool for service providers as they work through some of these promising, yet challenging opportunities.
