My ODA Unboxed Story: How SES unlocks operational automation using ODA in SATCOM industry-first

SES is a European-focused SatCo, primarily responsible for providing TV broadcast and broadband services across Europe. SES mPOWER satellite connectivity products, are the SES next-generation medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellite constellation—think of it asfiber in the sky. mPOWER is designed to deliver high-performance, low-latency connectivity across mobility, government, and enterprise markets, with dynamic multi-orbit switching and real-time quality of experience.

By adopting ODA in the SES mPOWER product, SES were able to streamline operations and elevate the customer experience—reinforcing SES’s commitment to agility, quality, and innovation.

What is the market and service focus of your business line for which you have received Running on ODA status?

Running on ODA status has been achieved for SES mPOWER satellite connectivity products, the SES next-generation medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellite constellation—think of it as fiber in the sky. mPOWER is designed to deliver high-performance, low-latency connectivity across mobility, government, and enterprise markets, with dynamic multi-orbit switching and real-time quality of experience.

While mPOWER leads the way with advanced service orchestration and automation, the benefits of ODA extend across all SES product lines, changing the way new or evolved capabilities are put in place—from lead to order to cash.

Why was it important for you to align your architecture to ODA?

At SES, we continuously seek ways to elevate the customer experience, enhance our product offerings and optimize our operations through orchestration and automation, which ultimately benefit customers.

Our customers expect seamless, fast and transparent interactions along their journey with us, including the ability to acquire products and manage their services on their own through the portal or by integrating their systems with ours.. Meeting these expectations required a digitally mature architecture that could scale and adapt.

ODA provides a proven reference architecture that embeds industry best practices, certified support systems, standard interoperability and a proposal on how to better execute strategy ensuring corporate consistency and reducing time to market. These capabilities are essential for delivering consistent experiences at scale.

By adopting ODA, we laid the Digital Architecture foundations that allowed us to deliver a unified customer portal, standardized customer-facing APIs, advanced orchestration and automation, solid service assurance—key enablers for faster response times, frictionless customer experience and efficient operations.

Aligning with ODA was essential to meet evolving customer expectations, drive operational excellence, and future-proof our digital ecosystem.

What tangible benefits did it bring to you and your customers?

By adopting ODA’s modular design principles, we enabled rapid product customization and operational efficiency, achieving 80% reusability of building blocks (CFS & RFS). This has allowed us to deliver services at scale and automate 90% of service activation steps, reducing activation times by up to fivefold.

Service assurance now correlates device alarms into service-level alerts with 99.8% accuracy, limiting manual reviews to just 2%. Performance metrics have been fully normalized across all orbits and infrastructures, ensuring consistency and transparency.
Systems integration through Open APIs has been a game-changer—accelerating end-to-end solution delivery and significantly reducing costs. By adopting around 30 Open APIs, we achieved seamless interoperability across 40 ODA components, creating a robust, standardized ecosystem built largely on off-the-shelf solutions.

For customers, these improvements translate into faster provisioning, greater flexibility, and real-time visibility through a unified portal and APIs. They can manage and monitor services, adjust bandwidth on demand, and open cases directly via our portal or from their internal systems. Customers also benefit from standardized performance metrics across all orbits, while integration with supplier ticketing systems accelerates resolution times.

Ultimately, these transformations streamline operations and elevate the customer experience—reinforcing SES’s commitment to agility, quality, and innovation.

What challenges did you face in adopting ODA as your reference architecture, and how did you tackle these?

Historically, satellite operators relied on bespoke systems and siloed architectures, which served the industry well for many years. However, with the expansion of satellite connectivity offerings, adopting ODA became essential, requiring a significant evolution—not only in systems but also in mindset.

The main challenge was transitioning from established practices to a modular, standards-based approach. We addressed this by demonstrating how ODA principles deliver tangible operational and customer value.

To build momentum, we focused on quick wins that showcased the benefits of standardization and fostered trust across business and technical teams. Key foundations included a reference digital architecture, a data backbone, Open APIs, and standardized service metrics—enabling customer self-service, orchestration, and automation.

We complemented these efforts with targeted training and internal communications, alignment of the Digital Architecture team with ODA value streams, creation of a digital architecture portal, and embedding ODA principles into SES strategy and transformation roadmaps. Strong sponsorship from the CEO and CTO was a critical success factor, ensuring organizational alignment and executive commitment.

Participation in TM Forum Innovation Catalysts further strengthened credibility, with multiple awards and finalist recognitions validating our approach.

Ultimately, adopting ODA modernized our architecture, broke down silos, accelerated delivery, and elevated the customer experience.

How did your staff gain expertise with ODA and learn how to use it effectively?

Our Enterprise Architecture team—now Digital Architecture—initiated the journey in 2018, laying the groundwork with TM Forum’s earlier frameworks. The initial focus was on leveraging eTom, TAM, SID and Open APIs reference documents accessible for TM Forum members. Open Digital Architecture accelerated the progress by simplifying communication and facilitating teams alignment.

To build internal expertise, we produced videos and supporting materials, and organized webinars explaining the benefits of ODA and why it was adopted as our reference model. We launched a Digital Architecture portal organized showcasing available capabilities and planned transformations by SES function. Employees were encouraged to complete TM Forum training and obtain certifications to deepen their knowledge.

External support from TM Forum was pivotal. They provided workshops, connected us with peers, engaged senior leadership, and involved us in member projects and Innovation Catalysts.

These combined efforts ensured that staff not only understood ODA principles but could apply them effectively in their roles. As evidence of this success, SES achieved Running on ODA status last year.

Find out more about Running on ODA here.