How Telkomsel is supporting a Super App partner ecosystem

With around 160 million customers, Telkomsel is the largest service provider in Indonesia, and has played an important role in the country’s rapid digitalization through investment in 5G and fiber networks. And it is also targeting revenues from services beyond connectivity, as Joyce Shia, Telkomsel’s Director of IT, explains in an interview with TM Forum’s Inform.

One of the key strategic areas for the company is the MyTelkomsel Super App, an interface that provides access to features such as health, travel, payment, entertainment, and commerce. The Super App represents an important change in how Telkomsel serves its 160 million-strong customer base. And the app’s success will rely heavily on the skills and tools of the IT teams led by Shia.

“We really see ourselves pushing the boundaries, not just focusing on connectivity,” says Shia, who joined Telkomsel from Singtel in May 2024, where she was Vice President of Digital and IT. “We want to be the one stop shop for every customer and provide the SuperApp for Indonesia. “

Partnerships and the services they create for customers lie at the core of the app.

“We are curating a lot of partnerships for Telkomsel. We want to give the customer not just reloads or data packages, but also focus on their daily life,” explains Shia. “So, we have a lot of adjacent verticals that we are working on, whether it is financial services, lifestyle services booking flights, paying bills, playing games, listening to music … we are experimenting with our Hyper AI connected ecosystem."

To enable this connected ecosystem, the Super App needs to be easy for Telkomsel’s partners and customers to use. This means “our front end is agile for all these new ideas and innovation, while making sure that back end is kept secure,” says Shia. "For instance, this has been implemented by improving our Digital Smart Care ecosystem – a platform to support our front ends in assisting Telkomsel customers with AI chatbot and smart knowledge management systems."

Agile architecture

"Telkomsel’s IT directorate has implemented a composable architecture to support partner ecosystems. Standardized and reusable APIs play a significant role in accelerating our business and are integral to our ecosystem strategy," explains Shia.

Now, she is building on this work, including in areas such as the integration layers for the front end, core billing and charging. At the same time, Joyce is looking at how Telkomsel can use AI in developing and operating the Super App ecosystem as part of a wider adoption of predictive AI and GenAI to improve operations, also including AIOps.

Like many telcos, Telkomsel is already using GenAI to enhance the performance of internal and external chatbots, optimize its call center, assist in software coding or facilitate Finance and HR mundane tasks. It is also considering how it can sell AI solutions and services to enterprises.

Striking a balance

“While AI is really innovative and we are keen for all employees to really experiment and test with the different AI models, we also need to make sure that we secure our data and our AI models” says Shia.

Indeed, many telcos are currently weighing how to strike a balance between keeping data safe and making it accessible to AI models, particularly as they seek to make greater use of data.

Cost is another factor. “In terms of managing costs … putting that single source of truth in one place is ideal, but I also believe that introduces many risks as well,” says Joyce. “There are choices that we need to make, whether we are fully converged in terms of data, or whether we segment out different data to minimize the risk of exposure.”

Security starts at the top

Telkomsel is continually investing in a landscape where potential attackers are becoming increasingly sophisticated.

"Everyone is becoming more intelligent and efficient in their attack strategies, and as telcos, we hold vast amounts of data, making us prime targets," says Shia. "We must approach this challenge from multiple angles, not solely relying on technical systems and tools," Joyce elaborates. Recognizing the human element as a potential vulnerability, Telkomsel has implemented extensive awareness programs and company-wide education initiatives. Additionally, we are committed to continually enhancing our employees' skills to stay ahead of threats.