Automation takes data management to a new level in Telco
Automation takes data management to a new level in Telco
Independent Journalist Pat Brans and Asad Khan, Head of Data, Analytics, and Automation at Telenor Sweden.
Currently Head of Data, Analytics, and Automation at Telenor Sweden, Asad Khan has been working with data for the last 16 years. He uses information to help the organisation make quick and accurate decisions.
“My experience so far has been focused on analytics, data, and AI within telcos as an industry,” says Khan. “It’s a passion of mine to convert data into something tangible and with actionable outcomes. I never get tired of that.”
Automation lowers costs and enhances customer experience
“One example of where we’ve used automation was that we wanted to improve the process of changing user roles,” says Khan. “An enterprise customer asks to have the roles of one of their employees changed, and they expect the change to be effective immediately within the telco. But this was a process we had outsourced. So not only did it turn out to be slow, but we also got charged for every request.”
Telenor decided to automate the process—and by doing so, they lowered costs and improved customer experience in the process. Users wanted to immediately access the new role they requested. “An automated process doesn’t sleep, eat, drink, or waste time,” says Khan. “It gets the job done right away—and reliably.”
Automation increases resilience
“My definition of resilience is one that is probably shared by anybody who depends on a lot of data,” says Khan. “Your data is integral to decision making. You need to make sure it stays good despite disruptions—and especially when your data is on the cloud. Resilience is about making sure the data you use is reliable. To achieve resilience, you need redundant systems. You need backups, disaster recovery, and fault tolerance.”
While resilience was not Telenor’s primary goal when they started using automation, it was a welcomed by product. The principal reason they began using automation tools was to give people time to work on the most productive tasks. “The idea was never to replace anybody,” says Khan. “It was always to relieve them of mundane and repetitive tasks.”
At the same time, automation helps Telenor ensure data is complete and factually correct. By removing human error and using tools that make sure things get done on time, the company achieves resilience.
“We see the same thing in many different industries,” says Martin Hulbert, Technical Director at Ignite Technology. “Whether or not an organisation starts out with resilience in mind, it becomes one of the key outcomes. They automate processes for one set of reasons, and they quickly find out the automated processes are also more reliable.”
The interview forms part of Ignites Insights Series. You can attend the first Webinar in our series entitled Building Operational Resilience: Harnessing Automation for Business Success, by clicking the banner below.
