The culture wars of transformation: The big picture
While many respondents remain optimistic about successfully transforming, some express frustration borne out of hitting roadblocks or not achieving the results they expected.
28 Feb 2020
The culture wars of transformation: The big picture
TM Forum began conducting the surveys in 2017, publishing the first digital transformation tracker (DTT), DTT 1: The race is on in September 2017, DTT 2: How to fix the cultural divide in May 2018 and DTT3: Why is network transformation so difficult? at the end of 2018.
For our new fourth edition, we have returned once again to the crucial issue of culture. Since we published our DTT 2 report, almost two years ago, the industry has started to accept that transformation is more about cultural change than the adoption of new technologies. Or rather, the true benefit of new technologies can only be realized with cultural change.
For our new fourth edition, we have returned once again to the crucial issue of culture. Since we published our DTT 2 report, almost two years ago, the industry has started to accept that transformation is more about cultural change than the adoption of new technologies. Or rather, the true benefit of new technologies can only be realized with cultural change.
As with previous DTT reports we based our research on a large survey of communications service providers (CSPs) and their technology suppliers. Indeed, CSP respondents included nearly 150 executives from more than 75 unique companies. About 40% of responses were from executives working in IT and operations, while 16% came from people working on the network side of the business. The map below shows which countries responses came from.
In addition to identifying the main issues around culture, we sought to come up with potential remedies. The transition to Agile software development has been inching forward within CSPs for the last five years or so, but rolling this out at scale is a different matter entirely. In this report we assess the pros and cons of several Agile approaches.
Skills availability is closely aligned with Agile software development. After a long period of costcutting in IT, many CSPs are now bringing in new software skills in a bid to insource a greater proportion of their technology requirements. This does not necessarily mean that the total size of the IT team is increasing – within many CSPs jobs are still being cut as part of topdown cost savings – but overall numbers are fairly flat as CSPs step up their recruitment of developers, data scientists, architects and cloud specialists.
While culture is the specific focus of this DTT, we also revisit the same survey questions that we have been running since 2017. These give us insight into the status of CSPs’ transformation programs and, more broadly, views from executives about the prospects for their own businesses and the telecoms industry as a whole.
The biggest takeaway from responses to these questions is that very little has changed since 2017 with regards to the status of transformation programs or expectations for the telecoms business. Three years after our first survey, a third of operators have still not started their transformation programs, and most that have are in the very early stages.
How are we to interpret this mixed data? It could be that respondents are in denial, given that telecoms operators’ revenues globally are generally stagnating and evidence suggests that most transformations fail. Or perhaps they just don’t have the information to provide a more realistic set of responses, although interestingly, suppliers tend to believe CSPs are doing better than CSPs judge themselves to be.
Even so, while very little has changed since 2017 in the way of transformation, respondents retain their optimism about the likelihood of successful transformation and about the short- and medium-term prospects for their businesses. But many who have started transformation have expressed frustration borne out of hitting roadblocks or not achieving the results they expected.
Access the related webinar for some lively insights and discussions around what can be done to change the working culture of telecoms operators.
Skills availability is closely aligned with Agile software development. After a long period of costcutting in IT, many CSPs are now bringing in new software skills in a bid to insource a greater proportion of their technology requirements. This does not necessarily mean that the total size of the IT team is increasing – within many CSPs jobs are still being cut as part of topdown cost savings – but overall numbers are fairly flat as CSPs step up their recruitment of developers, data scientists, architects and cloud specialists.
While culture is the specific focus of this DTT, we also revisit the same survey questions that we have been running since 2017. These give us insight into the status of CSPs’ transformation programs and, more broadly, views from executives about the prospects for their own businesses and the telecoms industry as a whole.
Very little change
The biggest takeaway from responses to these questions is that very little has changed since 2017 with regards to the status of transformation programs or expectations for the telecoms business. Three years after our first survey, a third of operators have still not started their transformation programs, and most that have are in the very early stages.
How are we to interpret this mixed data? It could be that respondents are in denial, given that telecoms operators’ revenues globally are generally stagnating and evidence suggests that most transformations fail. Or perhaps they just don’t have the information to provide a more realistic set of responses, although interestingly, suppliers tend to believe CSPs are doing better than CSPs judge themselves to be.
Even so, while very little has changed since 2017 in the way of transformation, respondents retain their optimism about the likelihood of successful transformation and about the short- and medium-term prospects for their businesses. But many who have started transformation have expressed frustration borne out of hitting roadblocks or not achieving the results they expected.
Access the related webinar for some lively insights and discussions around what can be done to change the working culture of telecoms operators.
