NaaS management – Leveraging API-based customer and network insights

The author of this article, Hema Kadia, VP & Head of SDN/NFV, Strategy and Practice at Prodapt, will be at Digital Transformation World next week discussing how to leverage customer networks and API-based networks. Join her and 3000+ of your telecoms industry peers from across the world for three immersive days of inspiration, innovation and networking. As businesses become more and more digitalized, it is imperative for digital service providers (DSPs) to capitalize on opportunities in the digital value chain, while they compete with technology giants (Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc.), cloud service providers and over-the-top service providers (OTTs). With SDN and NFV technologies, the underlying network is getting smarter and standardized, enabling DSPs to rollout network as a service (NaaS)-based products and solutions. But, this brings a fundamental change because now the service providers need to touch customers through different digital channels and provide unified customer experiences across all channels – an omnichannel customer experience. They need to dynamically launch new offers to market that include not only the capabilities they have, but also capabilities from partners. To strengthen their digitalization drive, they must focus on two main constituents of any digital strategy – data analytics for consumer and network insights, and application programming interfaces (API) design. A DSP’s NaaS portfolio needs a robust API strategy which can seamlessly integrate internal views (customer & DSP interaction e.g. IVR, CSR, Notifications/alarms, customer UX portals, UX native apps, advertisements) and external views (network assets – IoT, Amazon Alexa, sales channels, partners, leads and marketing initiatives etc.).

A 360o API platform strategy

It is important to have an API design strategy which facilitates a 360

o

design-view across IT and network APIs design. Hence, it is crucial implement a holistic API design strategy to avoid numerous redundant APIs in addition to supporting future digital initiatives. Key considerations for API platform implementation for NaaS services include:

• Support for existing platforms and new digital platforms
• High performance, reliable and secure architecture
• API management and governance e.g. monitoring, versioning and the developer console
• Analytics and data monetization
• Support for vertical use cases e.g. enterprise CE, consumer broadband
• Intercarrier operations management

Connecting distributed DSP and 3rd party data

The API platform is used to ingest a large amount of customer and network data to generate insights based on DSP internal systems, OSS-BSS, IT applications, etc. from the following data sources: APIs are also used to ingest 3

• Lead and opportunity
• Network assets
• Product and orders
• Interaction with DSP – Customer care/IVR
• Incidents and issues
• Accounts and bills
• Service and usage

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party data sources to generate insights based on external systems/ interactions such as For a DSP, it’s important to have a holistic view of customer insights generated from data sources mentioned above and key statistics include:

• Feedback & likes – social media/content
• Brand following
• Contact analysis
• Social & news update
• Customer’s influence ranking
• Service health score
• Satisfaction score
• Experience index
• Lifetime value
• Predicted delays
• Propensity to buy
• Churn risk

Key business drivers

Exposing the network is becoming a reality though the transformation of core telecom network assets into digital assets. By removing physical operation desks and moving their capabilities to digital omnichannel, customers are more empowered. DSP’s network and customer assets data can be used to generate deeper insights into evolving consumer behavior to achieve the following key business drivers:

Key considerations

Telco network and IT architects are the ones charged with creating the APIs expose the backend systems to various interfaces and applications (which are defined by the business and product management teams). It is vital that all stakeholders understand that the business goals and technical challenges of an API platform are intimately related. Hence, a clear communication of the following considerations aligned with key business goals is important:

• Onboarding
• • Service registration and accounting (e.g. Apache Solr)
  • Security and authentication
• Platform and technology
• • Tools and platforms definition (e.g. Ozzie, Impala, Hive)
  • Client SDK (e.g. Android, MacOS, PHP, NodeJS)
• Collaboration
• • Agile & DevOps (e.g. Jenkins, Ansible, Puppet)
  • Communication (e.g. Atlassian Bamboo, JIRA)
• Delivery
• • Infrastructure, service levels (microservices – Dockers, Kubernetes)
• Monetization
  • Insights and sales channels (e.g. Salesforce for lead generation and targeted marketing)

Key platform services

• API transformation (g. – REST to SOAP, XML to JSON, HTTP to JMS)
• API virtualization and mediation (e.g. Kafka)
• Auditing of transactions from multi-channel (e.g. Apps, Web Portal, IVR, CSR, SMS)
• Monitoring & enforcement (e.g. Tickets, Events, Incidents, Issues, Complaints, Feedback)
• Key & certificate management (e.g. Network Assets – Amazon Alexa, TV, IoT- wearable, etc.)
• API lifecycle management (e.g. Patch, Enhancement, Upgrades)
• Authentication & Authorization (for Personas of Consumer & Business segments)

Key challenges

A fragmented API development strategy has many gaps that need to be plugged before they can support nested layers of service design. Also, it is important to implement an API platform which avoids numerous redundant API implementation across digital enablement programs. The key challenges to overcome in a DSP ecosystem for a successful API-based insights platform deployment are:

Key business benefits

A holistic API-based insight platform enables a 360

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view across the DSP’s IT and network ecosystem. It results in connected APIs that can be reused to design end-to-end services, such as customer-to-network, business-to-network and partner-to-network type of API services. It supports many innovative digital service use cases and therefore enables services integration for revenue generation. Key business benefits include:

Alignment with industry open APIs

Developing new products or enhancing features for a B2B or B2C service is time-consuming as it needs rigorous development, testing, deployment, and production efforts across every interfacing IT system. Hence, to avoid redeveloping various APIs, it makes sense to reuse and align with the standard APIs rolled out by TM Forum and MEF LSO for NaaS-based services and products.

The threats to the telecom industry are now reflecting on financial results – but the right API strategy in conjunction with consumer and network insights allow DSPs to collaborate with technology giants and partners, instead of losing out to them as competition. A holistic API platform strategy advocates that a centralized API design authority should play an important role in transforming CSPs’ businesses into true DSPs. It will ensure that the digital products and the APIs are rich to reuse, granular to gather, and flexible to fit easily.