A new joint center aims to share best practices gained by Hong Kong Telecom during its digital transformation process
MUNICH, GERMANY — Chinese vendor Huawei and Hong Kong Telecom have already advised a number of Asian operators in a joint Digital Transformation Practice Center, said Henry Wong, HKT’s head of strategic wireless technology and core network, during a press conference.
The executive declined to identify the Asian telcos which had been advised in the new facility, which is located in Hong Kong.
The joint center was officially announced in February of this year, with the aim of sharing the experience and practices which HKT gained during its digital business transformation journey and to help guide the digitalization process of other carriers, Wong said on the sidelines of the Huawei Operational Transformation Forum 2018, held in Munich this week.
“We are glad to cooperate with Huawei to carry out the digital transformation project. During the process, we have encountered many challenges in terms of user experience, business processes, business support systems and network infrastructure. Thanks to the joint team, the company has launched new services through the transformed cloud platform and gained a lot of valuable experience in the process. We hope to share our digital transformation experience with the industry around the world through the DTPC,” Wong said.
At the DTPC, a cross-function team will focus on different scenarios through the different stages of digital transformation, to explore the capacity of building digital transformation in a more agile and low-cost manner.
The digital transformation practice facility aims to offer consultancy from half a day or a full day to chief executives, through to several weeks with specialist staff, said Derry Li, Huawei’s vice president of consulting and systems integration.
“The center will support the construction of solutions. We will uncover user pain points,” Li said. The process will include prototyping of front-end and back-end solutions, he added.
By the end of this year, the facility will also advise on other technologies such as internet of things (IoT), the executive said.
Li also said that Huawei and Hong Kong Telecom plan to extend the scope of the new facility to include 5G services in the first half of 2019.
HKT had previously worked with Huawei to carry out the end-to-end digital business transformation project, covering service and operation transformation as well as infrastructure cloudification.
During his keynote presentation at the opening of the event, Huawei’s board Chairman Liang Hua said that a full digitalization process can take at least 18 months to get through the toughest period of the implementation.
