Huawei, Middle East carriers discuss digital wave and techniques to accelerate operations transformation

Forum highlights the right path for operations transformation working with carriers and industry leaders in the Middle East region

ISLAMABAD, MAR 2: Huawei hosted a high-profile Operations Transformation Forum for leading Middle East carriers on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. 

The Forum aimed to create a platform for close communication with carriers and industry partners to share knowledge, experiences, and best practices to continuously create value for service providers and help carriers accelerate digital transformation.

With the advent of the digital economy, 5G, new digital services, and digital operations transformation are becoming important factors for carriers' business success. In addition, there are challenges in service monetization, user experience management and O&M. 

In attendance were senior Huawei executives, including Steven Yi, President of Huawei Middle East and Bill Tang, President of Huawei Global Technical Service Department. 

Additionally, more than 15 telecom carriers and industry partners in the Middle East were present at the Forum to discuss new digital services and digital operations transformation. 

Bill Tang, President of Huawei Global Technical Service Department, shared Huawei Service and Software strategies. 

He said, "Based on carrier's transformation trend, Huawei provides carriers with three transformation journeys in 2022: Convergent & Intelligent Digital Service, Data-driven Ultimate Experience, and Intelligent Predictive O&M."

JazzCash, Omantel and STC shared their digital operations transformation strategies and best practices. 

Ahmed Shahab Nasir, CTO, JazzCash Pakistan, said, "We will continue to focus on building a robust payment ecosystem, and products drive continuous development." 

Dr. Ali Al Hashmi, General Manager of Networks at Omantel, added, "Customer experience-driven 5G precision marketing and closed-loop network issues are the most critical to 5G commercial success." 

Khalid Attia, consultant of STC CCEx Program, Saudi Arabia, believes, "STC has entered the deep-water area of experience transformation. It is evolving to convergent data-driven smart operations through enterprise-level metrics throughout the CCEX lifecycle."

Industry partners such as TM Forum, Ernst & Young, Roland Beger, and Analysys Mason were also at hand to share their expert opinion on industry trends and transformation.

Aaron Boasman, Vice President, AI & Customer Experience, TM Forum, said, "The operator's priority should be to enhance the customer experience and prove its commercial value." 

Jose-Luis Garcia, Lead of Global Telco Solution and EMEIA Tech Sector, EY, said, “The rollout of 5G technology has pushed the telecom CXOs to rethink their investment strategies and focus more toward upgrading network and technology platforms. 

Given MENA is at the helm of 5G revolution and is expected to account for 10% of total mobile subscriptions by 2025, the operators are impelled to commence OSS/BSS overhaul to monetize 5G effectively.” 

Kushal Shah, Senior Partner Middle East, Roland Berger, added, “COVID-19 impact on customer demand, technology advancements, and improved regulatory conditions have led to a substantial increase in the number of fintech startups in MENA.”

Jacky Zhou, Vice President, Marketing & Solution, Huawei, closed the Forum. He said, "Operational transformation is an important foundation for business success.

At the same time, aligning with the planning, construction, maintenance and optimization process, using digital platform tools to strengthen market and network side capabilities, developing digital business, and improving revenue, efficiency and user experience are the common perceptions of the direction of digital transformation. 

Huawei hopes to become a trusted partner of operators in digital operations transformation and continue to contribute to the commercial success of operators."

---------------------------------------------------------