TM Forum, the industry association behind digital business transformation through collaboration, reports that Amdocs, Netcracker Technologies, Nokia and Oracle Communications are adopting the collaboratively developed Open Digital Architecture.
BT, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica and Telenor are also among 11 new signatories to TM Forum’s Open API and Open Digital Architecture Manifesto.
This new approach to building software to run service provider businesses creates a market for innovative, standardised and interoperable software components, enabling the industry to invest in IT for new and differentiated services instead of customisation and integration.
Along with Chunghwa Telecom, Videotron and Globetom, 30 organisations are now committed to transforming from legacy OSS/BSS to cloud-native software components and replacing traditional IT architectures with the Open Digital Architecture’s standardised plug-and-play components, data model and Open APIs.
This commitment opens the pathway a new software model and rapid innovation for the industry as described in a new white paper authored by TM Forum members and published today. (Read: “A Future Vision for the Software Market the Telecom Industry Needs to Survive and Thrive.”)
Investing in innovation, not integration
According to a recent TM Forum report Time to Kill the RFP?, CSPs spend about US$90 billion (€80 billion) each year on IT. On top of that, the process of selecting and procuring software alone costs the industry approximately $1 billion (€0.8 billion) per year.
The Forum’s Open Digital Architecture provides the foundation for service providers to cut these costs while significantly reducing time-to-market for new services and delivering cutting-edge digital experience – factors which are crucial to remaining competitive and unlocking growth in the 5G era.
Thierry Souche, group chief information officer and senior vice president, Orange Lab Services, Orange, noted that flexibility and agility are key to meet rapidly changing business needs.
“As we shift to the infrastructure-agnostic cloud native IT architecture needed to underpin a multi-service operator like Orange, it’s imperative that we are able to invest in the things which make a difference rather than spending millions of euros in integrating again and again legacy solutions and customisation,” he says. “The Open Digital Architecture offers a modern approach and the standards required for the industry to thrive, avoiding rigid, complex customised solutions. This is not about commoditisation of IT software. It’s about freeing us to focus on delivering new and differentiated services.”
“Telco operators are evolving from a traditional mindset to truly embrace modern ways of working,” added Enrique Blanco, chief technology and information officer, Telefonica Group. “The Open Digital Architecture is a true enabler to accelerate this digital transformation, allowing limitless scaling and multi-tenancy while remaining agnostic to the choice of underlying compute platform. This architecture paves the way to leverage cost-effectiveness, flexibility and scalability avoiding infrastructure lock-in while embracing true continuous integration and continuous deployment cycles.”
“As a key technology for telcos to transform to digital ecosystem enablers, the Open Digital Architecture and associated design guidelines truly help us follow and evolve dozens of in-house BSS/OSS to a cloud-native, secure and componentised architecture. By leveraging Open APIs as the glue to integrate with a variety of ICT solutions from industrial partners worldwide, Chunghwa Telecom is able to accelerate the development of an innovative and thriving 5G industry chain and ecosystem,” noted Heychyi Young, vice president, Chunghwa Telecom Labs.
Increasing momentum for change
“With the new major service providers and suppliers signing the manifesto for change announced today, TM Forum members are transforming IT and operations to be fit for the 2020s,” said Nik Willetts, CEO, TM Forum.
“Today we’re taking the next step in the journey to ensure our industry can survive and thrive, building on the success and impact of our Open APIs,” said Willetts. “The momentum building to collaboratively deliver the Open Digital Architecture is the software market foundation our industry deserves, instead of sinking resources into maintenance and integration of customised legacy solutions that are blocking agility and innovation.”
Industry alignment that includes vendors on the new approach to standardised software components is key to its success.
Bhaskar Gorti, president of Nokia Software and Nokia chief digital officer, said, “Nokia is pleased to give its added support to our TM Forum partners. Telecom networks and the supporting business, operations and experience systems are rapidly changing to one that is software-based, automated, intelligent, and customer- and experience-centric.
In short, a network architecture that gives CSPs many new opportunities and use cases, like network slicing, that allow them to better serve their customers. And those endpoints are what we are driving towards with the announcement today.”
“By adopting the TM Forum Open Digital Architecture and Open APIs across our Oracle Communications applications portfolio, Oracle is providing operators with the business and IT agility to compete in fast-changing markets,” said Jason Rutherford, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Communications, Applications. “Oracle is pleased to be a signatory to the Open API and Open Digital Architecture Manifesto and to continue collaborating on defining these standards.”
“TM Forum represents a strong voice for the industry, defining standards that drive both agility and openness – two essential characteristics required for great customer experience and strong industry economics. In an era of continuous development and integration, having open APIs and IT interoperability is critical to a dynamic and vibrant IT landscape – bringing service providers speed and optionality,” said Gary Miles, chief marketing officer, Amdocs.
“As a long-standing member of TM Forum and a supporter of the critical role standards play in the communications industry, Netcracker is pleased to be a part of this important initiative,” said Ari Banerjee, vice president of strategy, Netcracker. “The new software model enabled by the Open Digital Architecture will facilitate transformation within operators, which will help them quickly introduce and monetise new and innovative services, deliver an outstanding customer experience and optimise their systems for the 5G era.”
About the Open API and Open digital architecture manifesto
To date the Open API and Open Digital Architecture Manifesto is supported by 30 companies, including 14 global service providers. A total of 59 companies have committed to support TM Forum’s Open APIs, a necessary first step on the path to Open Digital Architecture’s standardised software component model.
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