How Telecom Argentina is turning to teamwork

Greater cost efficiency is on every telco’s digital transformation wish list. But rampant hyperinflation in Argentina makes lower-cost operations of particular concern to local communications service providers (CSPs).

In April 2022 the country’s annual inflation rate hit 58%. In its most recent financial report, Telecom Argentina stated that the economic situation is having a direct impact on the CSP’s clients’ incomes. The country’s economic situation is also impacting the CSP’s purchasing power, since technology investments are made typically in foreign currencies such as the dollar, while income is in pesos.

“Increasing efficiency is a very key issue in this economy,” according to Miguel Angel Fernandez, chief technology officer, Telecom Argentina. “And as we look to the future, traffic is growing year by year, as is the complexity of the network, so we need different kinds of solutions.”

Telecom Argentina hopes that “technologies like analytics AI and automation will help us to deal with some current challenges.”

But that does not mean it is seeking quick technological fixes. Instead, Telecom Argentina is investing considerable effort in laying durable foundations for growth, notably in the form of deep-seated cultural change.

“One of the main things that we are working on today is not directly related to technology; it’s related to our culture and organization,” says Fernandez. “We will not be able to incorporate new technologies (such as 5G) with the current silos of responsibilities.”

Fundamental to the company’s transformation is a move from a hierarchical, process-based organization towards a network of multi-disciplinary teams that use end-to-end platforms to deliver customer-centric solutions.

Changing mindsets is not easy, however, so Telecom Argentina is working with Red Hat to adopt a framework called Team Topologies to create a more efficient way of collaborating.

“When the new way of doing things is better than the previous one, then people move forward, and that is happening right now in our company.”

Telecom Argentina is already applying Team Topologies within its network division and putting in place end-to-end platforms for facilities, the transport network, fixed and mobile access and the core, with the aim of having all the platforms up and running by year end. Networking people will work with other areas across the business, including marketing and IT to create services for customers.

“The teams in charge of the evolution and operation of the technological platforms ensure the creation and delivery of services for the customer-facing product and marketing teams. “We have one brand for the fixed and mobile services, so people thinking about subscriber needs are in direct connection with this platform,” explains Fernandez.

Not only is Telecom Argentina replacing functional silos, “we are replacing the C-level silos because … having one group of people in charge of marketing and another in charge of technology … is not good for discovering new services.”

Platform teams will have freedom in their technology choices. However, there will also be cross-platform support to enable company-wide initiatives such as the development of increasingly autonomous networks.

In-house automation

For example, Telecom Argentina has developed its own in-house automation platform, using open technologies.

“Previously we spent several weeks manually setting up new mobile sites. Now it’s a matter of a few minutes because we have an automation platform ... that we developed ourselves using open technologies,” says Fernandez.

“As we began to automate some parts of the network configuration, the [networking] people involved started to learn about the relevant technologies,” explains Fernandez. As a result, they picked up new software skills and “today we have a platform, built without any external support.”

One of the advantages of insourcing development was the possibility of making it truly open source.

“We saw some solutions on the market from different vendors, but they were closed; we prefer an open solution.”

At the same time as developing its own automation platform, Telecom Argentina is working with Google to apply AI to operations and analyze different parameters from the network related to DOCSIS.

“We’re working with Google to apply artificial intelligence to identify in advance what will happen with services and which subscribers will call us,” using TM Forum’s AI Ops framework, says Fernandez.

One step at a time

Given the extent of the transformation and its impact across the business, Telecom Argentina is taking an incremental approach to creating new delivery platforms.

“For each platform we have trained around 40 people and implemented it bit by bit, increasingly delivering more new services, while turning off services in the traditional organization.”

Employees have had to reskill, but Telecom Argentina has encouraged their buy-in by ensuring “people participate in the construction of this process. It is different to traditional approaches where the management is in charge and defines what is happening with consultancies,” says Fernandez.

They also participate in shaping the future direction of the company - new services developed under the new organization include Telecom Argentina’s virtual wallet, called Personal Pay, which has been in a pre-commercial trial involving 60,000 users since 2021 and is set to launch this year.

Telecom Argentina is also relying on its new cross-functional organizational structure to develop enterprise services, including in the areas of process controls and connected assets.

“When we look at current and future services, all the new ones will come out of this kind of organization,” says Fernandez.