Business support systems (BSS) are at the heart of telco B2B operations. BSS provides the information and processing systems required to register new customers, configure their services, account for their usage and generate invoices. As operators race to improve their capabilities to serve a growing number of enterprises, end users, devices and services, BSS plays an increasingly important role in revenue assurance and in delivering superior end-to-end experience for users.

Despite their importance, BSS tools vary greatly in their capabilities. While some operators have access to leading-edge features that allow new products to be rolled out in just days and which can be upgraded and scaled in minutes, others grapple with legacy BSS applications with rigid architectures and which are constrained by extremely long upgrade and development cycles. Legacy BSS also lack automation, with heavy dependency on manual configurations and reconciliations. They also involve in-silo management of customer data, which leads to a lack of visibility into customer journeys and experiences across different channels and touchpoints.

A powerful BSS tool can make or break operator B2B business. Why? Unlike its retail counterpart, B2B business involves highly granular product and pricing strategies. Operator B2C services involve, at the most, three or four different services, namely voice, messaging, data and content services. These are coupled with either a fixed price all you can eat plan or tiered, usage-based plans. Other add-ons such as a connected car and roaming offers merely extend existing voice and data services, and come with standardized pricing. Operator B2B services on the other hand feature an exclusive mix of services that cater to the unique needs of enterprises, which come in different sizes, needs and budgets. Staples such as VoIP, UC, messaging and FTTx are supplemented by newer services such as 5G and SDWAN, and various add-ons such as cloud computing, cloud storage, CPEs, IoT devices, network security and IT integration services.

Breadth of services is not the only complexity faced by operators. Most of these services require dynamic accounting rules and pricing transparency due to complex technologies involved in assembling and delivering them. The introduction of standalone 5G networks and network slicing accords different services such as eMBB, URLLC and mMTC unique computing and networking instances that enable different enterprise customers to be allocated their own virtualized networks. This is supported by cloud-native architectures comprising containerized microservices that allow these instances to be spun up as needed. Similarly, for operators using VM-based architectures, the management of networks and network functions are implemented via VNFs. At the same time, deployment of multi-access edge computing (MEC) for edge processing enables operators to provision computing and networking services closer to the users.

These technologies necessitate a monetization approach that can accurately and reliably rate, charge and mediate an enterprises use of operator computing and networking resources. This enables enterprise needs to be swiftly met, while eliminating redundancies and wastage. This is especially critical when the mix of enterprise services includes both expensive, premium services which are resource intensive, as in the case of MPLS lines and extensive suite of security services, as well as cost-effective hosting services that use public cloud facility and general Internet lines.

More importantly, the breadth of operator services for B2B requires an open collaborative platform that is able to present an expanded inventory listing featuring thousands of third-party vendors and suppliers. This enables enterprises to develop their services using a one-stop platform supporting B2B2X delivery models. An autonomous driving application for example, requires not only a 5G URLLC slice provisioned and billed by the operator, but also MEC capabilities, compute platforms and a wide range of sensors that has to be procured and integrated from third-party suppliers.

Modern BSS supports extensive operator services, and allows flexible, fine-grained charging that accords enterprises from different industries and of different sizes, the plans that best meet their use cases. An enterprise implementing smart manufacturing will require connectivity services in the form of fiber broadband that is complemented with plant-wide LAN services and wireless links such as WiFi and LoRaWAN or NB-IoT, alongside supplementary products/services such as virtual CPEs, smart modules and OT security services. Charging and pricing for these plans will require the imputation of various other parameters, including the number of end users, SLAs, ownership of assets and hardware, type of value added services, plan flexibility, subscriber self-care features and others.

Modern BSS supports product / service bundling by including an open marketplace that allows seamless onboarding and integration of third-party products and services. With built-in billing and monetization mechanisms that facilitate revenue sharing, the marketplace provides enterprises a one-stop shop and at the same time, facilitates the development of B2B2X partnerships and ecosystem.

Modern BSS is essentially a collection of subscriber, service and revenue management modules alongside a host of other innovative features that facilitate productization, subscription and monetization. Service management for example, involves customer relationship management, omni-channel customer care engagement support and omni-channel self-care. Revenue management involves mediation, convergent charging, invoicing/billing, credit limit management and payment management. Diagram 1 lists a plethora of functionalities that make up modern BSS.

Modern BSS solutions leverage flexible digital architectures, combining cloud-based hosting and hosting on virtualized environments. Cloud hosting allows BSS modules to be introduced, run and removed as needed. It uses open APIs and leverages the power of public cloud. Virtualized environments, on the other hand, allow operators to move away from proprietary equipment in favour of standardized, modularized yet open systems that promote a flexible mix of BSS components deployed as VNFs.

As with any other digital application, modern BSS can be enhanced with a wide range of networking services such as load balancing, analytics and DPI. It also borrows IT best practices, with the adoption of DevOps and tactics such as CI/CD, for faster response times and greater innovation.

Another feature of modern BSS is the use of big data, analytics and AI, including the use of machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) algorithms to enable automation. This supports end-to-end automated service management, and ensures scalability and adaptability as operator portfolios keep changing and growing, and as new subscribers are added. Automation reduces the number of tedious, manual, repetitive tasks, and allows agents and sales people to focus on real customer demands more, and this, besides better productivity, also increases employee satisfaction.

Automation greatly enhances operator CX by supporting contextual conversations over customer care channels, offering faster and more relevant solutions to customer queries, with 24/7 availability via self-care and chatbots. It also improves customer experience by enabling operators to craft offers based on user preferences and habits. Rapid, personalized service is becoming a basic requirement from customers, not only in the B2C but increasingly in the B2B segment as well. This automation and personalization feature supports enterprises as they go through different phases of digital transformation to serve their customers better, improving customer satisfaction, loyalty and customer lifetime value.

Emergence of new technologies such as 6G, cloud computing, Web 3.0 and advanced biometrics will redefine service providers operating environment, necessitating cutting-edge features and capabilities across BSS tools entasked with supporting new delivery and monetization models. From low-code technologies to establishing complex billing hierarchies, devising custom support programs, improving self-service capabilities and enabling real-time profitability and ROI analysis, modern BSS is, undoubtedly, the cornerstone of operators B2B success and a tool every operator must adequately invest in.

Etiyas Digital Business Platforms is a modern BSS solution that features advanced data analytics, AI, and business intelligence capabilities across 3 key BSS layers: experience, engagement, and enablement. Etiyas cutting-edge AI methodologies include natural language processing (NLP) and predictive analytics, which enable smart decision-making throughout the customer journey, ultimately driving customer and employee efficiency and satisfaction.

Etiyas Digital Business Platforms offer a comprehensive portfolio of modular, cloud-based components including CRM with campaign management and loyalty management, CPQ, product catalog, revenue management, order management, and omni-channel customer service management, including self-care. With an API-driven, full-stack, microservices-based architecture, Etiyas Digital Business Platforms boast unparalleled agility and scalability, enabling CSPs to quickly and cost-effectively achieve digital transformation.

The Digital Business Platforms suite is compatible with 5G networks and can be integrated component by component or deployed as a complete replacement to a legacy system. Using standardized, open APIs allows not just easy integration and accelerated digital transformation, but also easy operation and monetization of platform-based business models, that is a market necessity for sustainable future growth.

To learn more, visit Etiya Digital Business Platforms.

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A week after Alibaba Group Holdings Limited (NYSE: BABA) announced it will restructure into six standalone divisions, Bloombergreported the Chinese tech giant is seeking companies to test its Tongyi Qianwen AI chatbot.

Cloud computing unit is sending invitations

Bloomberg reported thatAlibabas cloud computing unit is sending invitation codes to selected corporate customers for them to try out its language model, according to an announcement posted on the subsidiarys official WeChat account.

The chatbot's name is partly derived from the ancient philosopher Mencius and can be translated as Truth from a Thousand Questions. Considering that Alibaba Clouds website for the service is only in Chinese, it is possible that it will be used to primarily to process queries in the companys home language.

Upon the news of the Chinese tech giant launching its own AI tool, shares rose as much as 2.5% in Hong Kong on Thursday, with the stock market being closed on Friday due to a holiday.

Standalone divisions with their own boards and CEOs

The six independently run companies that could seek separate IPOs will be divided into cloud computing, Chinese e-commerce, global e-commerce, digital mapping and food delivery, logistics, and media and entertainment. This move will effectively dismantle a business empire built over two decadesby entrepreneurJack Ma. Moreover,the announcement came shortly after its co-founder reappeared in China after spending months overseas and keeping a low profile.

The restructuring of one of Chinas largest private-sector companies who is now worth of a quarter of its highest value of $800 billion comes after the authorities in China decided to tame the tech sector.

Chatbot unveiling

The formal launch of the chatbot that will be facing off Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT)s ChatGPT is expected to take place on Tuesdays event in Beijing asAlibaba Cloud will be hosting a technology summit.

Story continues

Other players are also entering the AI chatbot race

Baidu Inc (NASDAQ: BIDU) will be joining the AI chatbot arena with its Ernie Bot application that is currently open only to trial users. On Saturday, Huawei Technologies will be revealing its natural language processing AI model.

It seems that the AI chatbot arena will soon become like Alibabas core e-commerce business that has been filled with intense competitions such asJD.comInc (NASDAQ: JD)andPDD HoldingsInc.s (NASDAQ: PDD) Pinduoduo who did a great job in snapping Alibabas market share. Despite the companys efforts to better engage with customers, Alibaba has been facing challenges the Chinese version of TikTok,ByteDanceLtd.s Douyin with Alibabas revenue growth in the past two quarters performing below the overall growth in Chinas e-commerce sales of physical goods.

The groups current CEO, Mr. Daniel Zhang, will continue to lead the cloud-computing division, as all six divisions of the Alibaba empire gear up to grow globally and in the artificial-intelligence arena.

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Just like the overall broader tech market, cloud computing took a hit in 2022 amid inflation fears, but as the space continues to rebound in 2023, short-term obstacles could provide opportunities for traders such as the latest probe by Ofcom, the U.K.s communications regulator.

A Financial Times story noted that the regulator is looking specifically at Amazon and Microsoft, which constitute the two biggest players in the cloud computing industry. The probe on these two names is substantiated, given that they comprise between 60%70% of the market share in cloud computing, according to the Financial Times.

More specifically, Ofcom is looking at the business practices of Amazon and Microsoft. The move is eerily familiar to Chinas regulatory scrutiny of retail internet giants that helped to slow the second-largest economy down over the past couple of years.

Last year, Microsoft changed its cloud licensing policies in Europe an effort to head off potential antitrust action from regulators in Brussels, the Financial Times reported.

As mentioned by FT, the move comes amid cloud computing revenues falling as of late. The ISE CTA Cloud Computing Index is down 29% over the past year, but up almost 12% this year as tech looks to make a comeback.

Weve...uncovered some concerning practices, including by some of the biggest tech firms in the world, said Fergal Farragher, the Ofcom director responsible for the market study. High barriers to switching are already harming competition in what is a fast-growing market. We think more in-depth scrutiny is needed.

The probe could make for a potentially bearish move in cloud computing, which opens an opportunity fortheDirexion Daily Cloud Computing Bear 2X Shares (CLDS). CLDS seeks 200% of the inverse (or opposite) of the daily performance of the Indxx USA Cloud Computing Index, and invests in swap agreements, futures contracts, short positions, or other financial instruments that, in combination, provide inverse (opposite) or short leveraged exposure to the index equal to at least 80% of the funds net assets (plus borrowing for investment purposes).

Like all leveraged ETFs, these Direxion products are intended only for investors with an in-depth understanding of the risks associated with seeking leveraged investment results, and who plan to actively monitor and manage their positions. There is no guarantee that these funds will meet their objectives.

For more news, information, and analysis, visit the Leveraged & Inverse Channel.

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Susanne Tedrick currently works as a cloud computing technical trainer at Microsoft. In her work, Susanne delivers skills-based, outcome-driven training on the Azure platform for some of Microsofts leading enterprise clients. Susanne is a Microsoft Certified Educator, Trainer and Azure Solutions Architect. She is committed to increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the tech industry. She is the co-author of Innovating for Diversity: Lessons from Top Companies that are Disrupting Old Practices to Achieve Inclusivity, Equity and Business Success (Wiley, 2023) author of the critically acclaimed Women of Color in Tech: A Blueprint for Inspiring and Mentoring the Next Generation of Technology Innovators (Wiley, 2020).

Roads are likely to buckle and fail if they cannot handle a growing number of motorists. In online terms, more and more remote IT workers, fueled by the global pandemic, are finding they lack in-house skills to handle more than half of their current operational tasks. Even more important, this deficiency is making it difficult for employers to build and maintain resilient and secure clouds and other technological services.

Heres what business leaders, C-suite executives, and HR, can do to bridge this gap and keep their own roads from buckling and failing. Recommendations for employers include:

Involve multiple stakeholders in discussions.

Establish a cross-section of finance, HR, and other departments (In addition to IT) in cloud and other technological discussions. This not only ensures that critical decisions are not being made in a silo, but representation from different departments can also help identify where skills gaps exist, and in turn help organizations develop a strategy for addressing them. This can particularly be useful in terms of cost and attracting and retaining IT talent.

Attract and retain IT talent by understanding the organizational values that are most important to them.

This point is crucial since IT employees, especially those in infrastructure and operations (I&O), are more likely to be job hunting than non-IT staff. Employers can help buck this trend by recognizing what IT candidates look for most.

Make sure employees have sufficient time to study.

It may not be enough to retain IT talent if employers dont provide the time for them to expand their knowledge. Designating and protecting study time is paramount for skill development. There will be times when study time is not possible, but it is vital for business leaders to instill the importance of job-relevant training and make it a priority. Without emphasis from leadership, time-crunched employees may worry that studying will keep them from completing their regular work.

Find out what specific skills IT employees are lacking.

IT leaders responding to the Gartner study said they are particularly deficient in the areas of security, networking, compliance, and dev-ops (a hybrid of development and operational skills). Cloud development is another concern. More than half of respondents to the Gartner survey felt they wont meet their companys cloud adoption goals this year due to the scarcity of in-house skills and experience. Take the time to do an internal skills assessment of your current staff. This can be done through surveys or even through informal talks.

Leverage free or low-cost training opportunities.

Enhancing security, networking, and other job-relevant technological learning does not need to be an expensive or an entirely formal endeavor. In fact, many major platforms offer free training resources, including best practices and assistance in preparing for formal certifications.

Emphasize experiential learning.

Experiential learning reaps the most benefits from training because it reinforces subject matter. As noted, major cloud platform providers offer free credits or discounted pricing so newer learners can obtain experience with their offerings. Allow employees the opportunity to leverage their learnings in their day to day wherever possible, including conducting presentations to colleagues on what theyve learned.

In conclusion, its crucial that HR and C-suite executives develop a better cross section in developing technology strategies, not only cost but also in terms of attracting and retaining IT talent.

Business leaders also need to empower managers and supervisors so that, with the exception of mitigating work circumstances, employee study time for enhancing IT and other job-relevant skills is protected.

Training time needs to be an organizational must-have and not a nice-to-have when other work is done. Better understanding IT needs, and prioritizing training will go a long way toward addressing the skills gap that currently exists and, in turn, benefit the company as a whole.

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Bridging The Cloud Computing Skills Gap: Six Recommendations ... - Digital First Magazine

New Jersey, United States, Apr 15, 2023 /DigitalJournal/ An enterprise cloud is a unified IT operating environment that melds private cloud, public cloud, and distributed cloud, providing a single point of control for managing infrastructure and applications in any cloud.

The global Enterprise Mobile Cloud Computing Market is expected to grow at a Robust CAGRduring the forecasting period of 2023 to 2029.

Get the PDF Sample Copy (Including FULL TOC, Graphs, and Tables) of this report @:

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Enterprise Mobile Cloud Computing Market research is an intelligence report with meticulous efforts undertaken to study the right and valuable information. The data which has been looked upon is done considering both, the existing top players and the upcoming competitors. Business strategies of the key players and the new entering market industries are studied in detail. Well-explained SWOT analysis, revenue share, and contact information are shared in this report analysis. It also provides market information in terms of development and its capacities.

Some of the Top companies Influencing this Market include:

Amazon Web Services, Inc., AT&T, Inc., Cisco Systems, Egenera Inc., Google Inc., IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corporation, Salesforce.com Inc., SAP SE, V2Soft Inc., Vodafone Limited, Rackspace, Inc, iLand

Various factors are responsible for the market's growth trajectory, which are studied at length in the report. In addition, the report lists down the restraints that are posing threat to the global Enterprise Mobile Cloud Computing market. This report consolidates primary and secondary research, which provides market size, share, dynamics, and forecast for various segments and sub-segments considering the macro and micro environmental factors. It also gauges the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, the threat from new entrants and product substitutes, and the degree of competition prevailing in the market.

Global Enterprise Mobile Cloud Computing market segmentation:

The market is segmented based on the type, product, end users, raw materials, etc. the segmentation helps to deliver a precise explanation of the market

Market Segmentation: By Type

Software as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service

Market Segmentation: By Application

Large Enterprises, Small and Medium Enterprises, Others

Global Enterprise Mobile Cloud Computing Market research report offers:

For Any Query or Customization:

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This report studies the global Enterprise Mobile Cloud Computing market, analyzes and researches the development status and forecast in North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East & Africa, and Latin America. Various key players are discussed in detail and a well-informed idea of their popularity and strategies is mentioned.

The cost analysis of the Global Enterprise Mobile Cloud Computing Market has been performed considering manufacturing expenses, labor cost, and raw materials along with their market concentration rate, suppliers, and the price trend. It also assesses the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, the threat of new entrants and product substitutes, and the degree of competition prevailing in the market. Other factors such as supply chain, downstream buyers, and sourcing strategy have been assessed to provide a comprehensive and in-depth view of the market.

The report answers questions such as:

Contents

Global Enterprise Mobile Cloud Computing Market Research Report 2022-2029

Chapter 1 Enterprise Mobile Cloud Computing Market Overview

Chapter 2 Global Economic Impact on Industry

Chapter 3 Global Market Competition by Manufacturers

Chapter 4 Global Production, Revenue (Value) by Region

Chapter 5 Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions

Chapter 6 Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type

Chapter 7 Global Market Analysis by Application

Chapter 8 Manufacturing Cost Analysis

Chapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy, and Downstream Buyers

Chapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders

Chapter 11 Market Effect Factors Analysis

Chapter 12 Global Enterprise Mobile Cloud Computing Market Forecast

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