Managed Service Providers Are Vital

Mohamed Elsokkary, head: Managed Services, Ericsson Gulf Countries, explains how managed service providers (MSPs) can help communication service providers (CSPs) to digitally transform their operations.

How can the network be transformed to boost the customer experience?

5G CSPs need to evolve their network operations from technology-centric to service- and customer-centric by focusing on data-driven automated operations. driven by Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning (AI & ML) capabilities. This will improve service performance and customer experience utilising service KPI measures and bridge the gap between Network/IT KPIs and end-user perception.

How can revenue growth be increased?  

MSPs can help to unleash the full value of the investments in the business support system (BSS) and operations support system (OSS) portfolio with fully automated DevOps and lifecycle management frameworks, improving agility and speed of development and testing. This will result in faster time-to-market  for new products and services, which will lead to an increase in market share and revenue growth.

How can subscribers’ churn be reduced? 

ICT studies have revealed that network quality is one of the main differentiators which leads to higher end-user customer perception and helps to reduce the churn rate. Focusing on improving Net Promoter Score (NPS) is the key.

How can operational inefficiencies be reduced?

One of the main pain points for CSPs is related to how to reduce the overall end-to-end operating expenditure. For instance, site energy consumption constitutes between 20–40 per cent of total network OPEX. Reducing energy usage on passive equipment is as important as on the active equipment because 50–70 per cent of site visits and network trouble tickets are related to passive equipment…

A data-driven solution with an innovative business model will deliver energy-related OPEX and CAPEX savings as well as operational efficiencies.

How can security be improved? 

Organisations need to shift how they manage security, moving from a manual, reactive approach to one that is automated, policy-based and intelligent. An automated security management solution that constantly monitors security compliance, detects and responds to new threats, and safeguards products and services will address future security challenges.