Since the announcement of the Digital Telco Maturity Map (DTMM) at the last Mobile World Congress, Whale Cloud has been overwhelmed by the enthusiasm from telecom operators as well as other industry stakeholders. We are encouraged to know that DTMM, both its framework and the individual KPIs, has supported these companies who are embarking on the digital transformation journey.

Meanwhile, the fast-moving market and technologies are driving us to take the whole concept of digital transformation to the next level, to develop a blueprint for digital telcos of 2025. The main drivers include two sets of related themes. The first set is Technology Evolution, which is mainly composed of three key technology trends, i.e. the accelerated rollout of 5G services, the critical significance of analytics and intelligence, and the ascendancy of the blockchain technologies. The second set is Business Model Transformation, which includes the transformation to platform model, and the transformation beyond traditional telecom business into support for vertical industry demands.

Propelled by and in response to these leading drivers, Whale Cloud has worked with the world’s largest and most technologically advanced telecom operators to undertake projects and catalyst programs with real-life applications. These catalyst programs are designed to both test the new capabilities afforded by the new technologies, and to demonstrate to the industry the benefits that digital operators can bring to both consumers and business customers.

In a direct response to the increasingly important role of intelligence and analytics, Whale Cloud and its telco partners have launched New Retail projects. To ride on the ascendency of 5G, we work with the telcos to simulate the whole service offering lifecycle. The network as a service project is being carried out as a showcase of how teclos can serve the demand from other vertical industries. The prominent role of cloud computing is supporting the project on blockchain-based data sharing.

1. New Retail:
In collaboration with China Telecom and China Unicom, this project is built on the rich consumer data owned by the operators combining with Whale Cloud’s data-centric platform, including artificial intelligence, to produce actionable analytics. The output is then applied to integrate consumer data, product offerings, and online and office channels, to deliver a personalized retail solution.

2. Maximizing Engagement with Predictive Customer Journeys:
This multi-market catalyst project is designed to use data analytics to predict consumers' behavior on their digital journey. Whale Cloud partnered with Orange, Deutsche Telekom, Ncell and China Telecom to understand the target client groups, measure and predict their preferences, engage them in online and offline social contexts, and gather real-time feedback, which will be used as input to the engagement loop. All through the journey, GDPR-compliant privacy policy is built in the data collection, analysis and usage solutions.

3. 5G Services Validation & Practices:
On China Telecom’s multivendor 5G trial network, Whale Cloud and partners go through the whole process of validating different use cases, from network planning, service provisioning, system assurance, to dynamically assessing and managing commercial models. The catalyst project also tests network fault detection and self-remedies to optimize telcos’ 5G operation.

4. 4G/5G NaaS for Business Ecosystem
This “Network as a Service” project is focused on B2B or B2i (“business to individual”) use cases, where Whale Cloud’s deep understanding of different vertical industries helps China Unicom optimize the development and deployment of agile services and monetize its network and IT assets. Open ecosystem using the latest technologies and open APIs is critical to the success of such cases. In this case these include, among others, 3GPP and ETSI-compliant NFV/SDN standards, TM Forum Open API, as well as China Unicom OSS 2.0.

5. Blockchain-based Data Sharing:
The project, championed by China Unicom, supported by academics in communication and Internet technologies from China’s leading education and research institutions, aims to build a data sharing and data access control system for telecom operators using blockchain and smart contract technologies. Use cases addressed by the catalyst project include Masked Data Circulation, Privacy Data Sharing, and Internal Data Access Control.

These catalyst programs, among many which Whale Cloud is undertaking with partners, are concrete use cases which could help the telcos of today to transform into the digital orchestrators of tomorrow. They have been shared as industry catalysts at the recent TMForum in Nice, France, and were well received by the event participants. The “New Retail” project in collaboration with China Telecom won the Excellence Awards from the Forum for its “Outstanding Customer Centricity” category.

This content is sponsored by Whale Cloud.