Catalysts dramatically accelerate innovation

As a well-known industry collaboration program, TM Forum Catalysts create a space of freedom for special interest groups to experiment and even fail, eventually bringing innovation to life. In my five years of experience with Catalyst on behalf of AsiaInfo, I see these catalysts bring together champions, participants and tech partners to co-create innovative solutions for important industry challenges, demonstrating how this can be achieved leveraging key TM Forum best practices and standards.

AsiaInfo was invited to join the Catalyst program since 2018 when TM Forum began to promote this program in China. I was designated as the technical lead for the Catalyst New Retail – Intelligent Boutique in Digital Transformation Asia (DTA) 2018. As a freshman, I had to learn the TM Forum assets, from Business Process Framework (eTOM) to Information Framework (SID), and apply them into our solution. The team quickly aligned through effective communication based on these industry standards with the support of TM Forum domain experts. Though the Catalyst didn’t win the award, we were shortlisted for “Best New Catalyst in Show” and “Outstanding Catalyst – Innovation” in DTA 2018. This Catalyst attracted audience attention for its experimentation in rebuilding a telecom shop with data intelligence, and our team gained a lot from our conversations and debates at the event. Today I still remember the chairman of TM Forum saying, "the team is very passionate to have launched these innovative solutions in a short time through efficient team cooperation". This unforgettable experience opened the door for us to promote the company's innovative ideas through TM Forum Catalyst projects.

Innovation can be accelerated to achieve business results by levering TM Forum assets. After DTA 2018, AsiaInfo started to apply the TM Forum Open APIs into a mission critical project, where we construct the biggest centralized data platform in the telecom industry as a system integrator. The Open APIs allow the different partners to follow the same standard for much more rapid development and smooth data integration, which cut off one third of the planned development time and brings the customer’s “big data for big value” strategy to life. The story is presented in the Catalyst Phoenix Tree: Centralized Big Data PaaS Platform and won the “Outstanding use of TM Forum Assets” in Digital Transformation World (DTW) 2019.

Innovation can be accelerated by common industry challenges faced by Catalyst champions. While the COVID-19 outbreak was stress-testing cities’ emergency response abilities in a fast-moving, dynamic situation, we revised our Catalyst 2020 proposal from Smart Livelihood to Trusted Data-sharing for Smart Emergency Management in order to find an effective solution together with all major Telcos in China. The Catalyst demonstrates how key technologies such as blockchain based secured data sharing and privacy computing are deployed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Through trusted data sharing, not only did this dark cloud of the pandemic have a silver lining, but also the digital transformation for cities was speeding up for future operation. Luckily this initiative is recognized as “Best New Catalyst in Show” in DTW 2020.

Innovation can be accelerated by cutting edge technology invention to build a sustainable ecosystem. Telcos have been trying to unlock revenue growth in vertical markets all the time, but are often trapped in case by case solutions instead of cost effective technology. As a general purpose technology, digital twin is deeply investigated and adopted in Open digital twin framework for a smart city ecosystem, which is designed to help communications service providers enter the smart city market in the leadership role of a smart city operator. This Catalyst became the winner of “Industry influencer” and “Sustainability – innovation” in DTW 2021.

I truly believe that innovation can accelerate and flourish in freedom. Innovation happens when people are free to think, experiment and speculate. It happens when people can trade with each other. Year after year, TM Forum keeps refining the Catalyst programs with Showcases, Arena, Innovation Workshop, etc., different approaches to foster the climate of innovation. This greatly inspired our team to polish the Catalyst Customer Avatar unlock Metaverse Experience for DTW 2022.

Looking back at all my experience in Catalysts, I would like to express myself with a quote from Joey in Friends: “It is a love based on giving and receiving as well as having and sharing. And the love that they give and have is shared and received. And through this having and giving and sharing and receiving, we too can share and love and have … and receive.” Catalyst has become the place to go when we need to share a vision with our customers, joint venture for innovations with our partner, and together with our customers and our partners, we are looking forward to bringing more inspiration into reality.