Vendors increase support for AI, analytics, 5G
A number of product launches this week aim to help operators navigate an increasingly software-centric world by better leveraging their networks and moving toward becoming digital businesses.
At TM Forum, Netcracker made its most recent platform release with the launch of Netcracker 12. The new platform expands internet of things support as well as integrated artificial intelligence capabilities in Netcracker’s analytics, incorporates virtualization support in operations management and is generally focused on helping operators speed service deployment and deepen analytics-based insights across customer interactions as well as their own internal ecosystems.
Ari Banerjee, Netcracker’s VP of strategy, said that long development cycles and limitations of physical services have inhibited operators’ ability to compete with over-the-top providers. “The service offering base needs to be broadened,” he added, saying that Netcracker 12 is focused on “helping them move toward becoming digital service providers.”
Netcracker is also focused on 5G service enablement at TM Forum this week, participating in TM Forum’s proof-of-concept Catalyst project for 5G service operations for closed loop assurance of 5G network slices. 5G, Banerjee said, is “not just about how you slice [the network], but how operators work with those 5G layers and orchestrate management of services.
Nokia launches autonomous customer care, new analytics offerings
Nokia launched a new offering that utilizes artificial intelligence and machine learning to support customer care as well as analytics for crowd behavior and operational improvements.
Nokia Autonomous Customer Care relies on bots with natural language processing capabilities and machine learning algorithms from Nokia Bell Labs. Rich Crowe, head of OSS marketing at Nokia, said that the new addition to Nokia’s customer care suit relies on those algorithms to predict and assist customers in resolving common issues before they disrupt a customer’s service. Some customers, he said, will just leave a service provider rather than complain and the autonomous bots are aimed at identifying problems and helping customers resolve them without actually bringing in a customer service rep unless the problem requires human intervention.
Crowe said that in one case with a fixed network operator delivering residential services, he machine learning capabilities were able to predict and resolve up to 70% of residential issues that would lead to service disruptions, such as issues with the home router or television and internet service, and resolve them before a subscriber was aware of disruption. Nokia also found that its interactive bots could handle up to 80% of customer care issues without the need for customer service representatives to intervene. The autonomous customer care application can also be used via Apple’s Siri, Amazon Alexa, Facebook Messenger and other social platforms if a customer enables the capability.
Nokia’s new Cognitive Analytics for Crowd Insight application relies on real-time network data and machine learning to track and analyze aggregated, anonymized user movement. It will be available in the third quarter, and Shelley Schleuter, head of analytics marketing at Nokia, said that the anonymized data offers a new revenue stream for operators by providing data that can be used by retailers and others interested in targeted marketing. A shopping mall was an early customer of the product, Schleuter said, and was able to use demographic data and location tracking to see where its visitors were coming from in order to maximize local traffic. The mall developed a targeted marketing campaign based on nearby neighborhoods and was able to improve its local traffic 40%, Schleuter said.
Nokia’s third new service, Nokia Analytics Office Services, addresses the need for more data scientists than are often available to a service provider with an analytics service offering to help carriers understand and better utilize analytics in their customer engagement and network operations.
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