Until recently, communications service providers (CSPs) globally depended on robotic process automation (RPA) for tackling repetitive and routine tasks. RPA allowed CSPs to transform operational processes, achieve organizational growth and leverage customer service by enhancing agility and scalability, improving data communication and transmission, and maintaining high levels of data security and cost-effectiveness. With a large chunk of time-consuming tasks slashed, employee efficiency increased, giving way to innovation and a focus on customer well-being. However, with rapid 5G deployment worldwide and the promise of enhanced mobile broadband experience for users (as well as next-gen use cases for digital services and complex processes), CSPs are embracing hyperautomation to deliver an unparalleled network experience and greater cost savings to both customers and enterprise segments.
Hyperautomation is an extension of automation with an added layer of advanced technology, making it possible to do more with this effective combination.
“5G comes with cloud-core architecture which requires managing the performance to bring and map together the data from the world of IT, cloud, and networks. This is exactly what we are doing. We are eliminating these silos to enable end-to-end network and service quality assurance for both consumers and enterprises,” says MYCOMOSI’s Founder and CEO, Mounir Ladki, speaking about his company’s collaboration with cloud service providers to deliver advanced automation solutions for the enterprise.
Indicating the growing popularity of the technology, recent market research predicts the global hyperautomation market will reach $118.66 billion by 2030, with a CAGR of 16.5% from 2022 to 2030.
Hyperautomation as a Differentiator
With the orchestration of multiple technologies, tools and platforms such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, event-driven architecture, RPA and advanced analytics, hyperautomation is poised to take business process automation to the next level, with special consideration in the following areas:
Cost reduction: Streamlining workflows through automation is bound to benefit a company’s profit margin. With a focus on valuable and crucial activities, CSPs can deliver their service offerings to a wider customer base and ultimately expect better ROIs. Investment in hyperautomation across functions such as customer service, finance and HR can result in better cost savings.
Interoperability: With the integration of leading technologies, such as AI, ML, RPA and business intelligence systems, hyperautomation allows a large section of enterprise-level users to harness the best virtual workforce that is resilient and intelligent. It also enables process optimization by enabling the discovery, design, build, enhancement and self-learning features for various use cases across functions and domains, allowing clunky on-premise technology and distinct data systems to communicate seamlessly.
Competitive positioning: Companies in the dynamic telecom market find it difficult to predict what types of use cases will be deployed on future networks or the types of devices that will be connected. Hyperautomation can bridge this gap through AI-enabled learning and data exploration for forecasting mobility and different usage patterns, anomaly detection, and IT data analysis. As such, CSPs can develop future-proof operations and be in control of their competitive advantage in the ever-evolving market.
Strategizing for Hyperautomation
With massive digital transformation journeys taking place across industries, hyperautomation is expected to become a driving technology through 2023 and beyond. With the technological capabilities currently available with hyperautomation, CSPs can transform their core business operations and thus usher in the coming Industrial Revolution 4.0.
In strategizing a watertight hyperautomation implementation plan, CSPs would do well to consider the following suggestions from the automation experts.
Identify: Identify potential opportunities for automation with expected business outcomes in terms of revenue, expenditure and business risks; redesign processes to maximize benefits; and follow a detailed assessment to finalize a strategy for automation.
Evaluate: Devise and develop automation solutions and deploy them in the production environment. Optimize the existing processes and standardize data inputs and decision logic.
Automate: Implement process automation with AI as augmented intelligence. Determine how well the company is realizing the aforementioned business outcomes and plan further steps for the automation program.
Successful implementation of the hyperautomation technology should result in the following operational efficiency gains for CSPs:
- Detailed valuation of processes with data-based process assessment
- Effective prioritization for process automation as determined by key metrics
- Efficient tracking initiatives with cloud-based and platform-agnostic tracking tools
- Centralized real-time reporting with a one-stop-shop for monitoring the entire automation program
Hyperautomation and AI are at the core of digital transformation for operational efficiency, and CSPs wanting to accelerate their digital transformation in today’s technologically advanced era should focus on partnerships and long-term collaboration with stakeholders to innovate and design solutions that can add business value for them as well as for their customers. Automated IT processes will lead to easier identification, assessment, and innovation in IT processes. With AI and ML at the core, supported by the cloud, networking silos can be collapsed, leading to enhanced interoperability. Ultimately, an experimentative and innovative team will result in an agile organization that is capable of tackling the challenges of the future head-on.
