Investing in Data Quality Is a 'No-Regret' Move: Insights From DTW24 Global Summit

With 70% of the world's population connected to the internet via the telecoms industry infrastructure, telcos must navigate high costs and risks while fostering growth in fiercely competitive local and global markets.

TM Forum, the leading global alliance of telco and tech companies, recently held its biggest and most successful DTW Ignite Global Summit. This annual event attracts industry leaders and experts to discuss challenges, explore emerging trends, and identify innovations to drive future investments.

This year's theme—“Leading the Way to an AI-Native Telco”—was not just a catchy slogan, but a vision for the next stage of digital transformation. But preparing for this requires bold action.

TM Forum CEO Nik Willetts captured this sentiment in his keynote at DTW Ignite 2024, held June 18-20 in Copenhagen. Willetts emphasized the importance of "no-regret" moves for telcos, which he characterized as actions with no downside and significant potential for value creation.

One of the no-regret moves he highlighted is investing in data and artificial intelligence (AI) innovation. He discussed the importance of training AI models effectively and collaborating to address data and AI training challenges. AI-native businesses are set to disrupt the industry, and developing new types of solutions, such as digital twins, will require robust collaborations. By prioritizing data quality and AI innovation, telcos can position themselves at the forefront of technological advancement and industry disruption.

4 key insights from DTW24 - Ignite

1. Good data in means great value out

AI and machine learning (ML) have already made a significant impact on the telecommunications industry in areas like network automation, as well as extending into more innovative uses within mobile networks. Yet this year’s DTW - Ignite event had little to report in terms of immediate returns from Generative AI. Even so, it's clear that this type of AI will be crucial for achieving better business outcomes. As Willetts pointed out, the quality of the data that AI is trained on “dictates how good it is.”

Data quality was a major focus throughout the event. Many discussions highlighted why tackling data quality issues is vital for the success of AI and analytics initiatives. To get there, telcos need a mechanism to ensure data is trustworthy, which means it must be current and contextualized.

So, what does investing in data quality actually mean? The answer lies in investing in technology that fosters a culture and practice of using data to make business-critical decisions every day. This is why the Quantexa team attended the event: to explain the technology we bring to organizations that need to do more with data.

2. Extracting meaning from messy data

Like many industries, telcos grapple with messy data and struggle to turn it into actionable insights. At DTW, our primary agenda was to advocate the core value of helping organizations close the gap between the data they have accumulated and their ability to make data-driven decisions at scale.

Many attendees found our Composite AI stack intriguing. This stack employs a combination of subject matter expertise, domain knowledge, and various AI and ML techniques at each stage of the data extraction and analytics pipeline. Our ability to address data quality issues head-on ensures the propagation of high-quality data, generating business-critical insights that can be trusted.

We showcased our work through demos, discussions of use cases, and partner engagements. These efforts provided diverse perspectives on our two-sided approach of transforming the quality of data inputs and also extracting maximum value from the outputs, and the reason why we describe our technology as a Decision Intelligence Platform.

DTW was the ideal event for Quantexa to enumerate the applications of its platform to address different use cases that mitigate risk, support growth, and optimize costs.

3. Addressing the need for continuous risk monitoring

At the event, we launched a Supply Chain Integrity Tech report in collaboration with PwC. This report highlights the evolving challenges and opportunities within the telecommunications industry's supply chain and procurement functions. The report shares findings from a survey with leading telcos across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, who shared insights into how they leverage data, technology, and AI to manage risks and drive future investments.

The findings were eye-opening, as only 15% of telcos continuously monitor supplier risks, and over 50% still depend on manual processes. However, 75% plan to roll out Generative AI tools in the next 1-2 years, despite 87% admitting they don’t have all the data they need for robust risk management.

PwC’s director of investigative analytics, Stuart McMeechan, joined us at the event, sharing his thoughts on why telcos must harness internal and external data to continuously monitor risks, effectively manage disruptions, and keep supply chains resilient.

4. Decision intelligence as a growth power play

With thousands of attendees at the event, we seized the opportunity to go on stage and spotlight the game-changing potential of our Decision Intelligence Platform for growth strategies. Joining us was Sara Robles Moreno, deputy CEO of Tomorrow Street, Vodafone's innovation hub.

This energetic discussion explored how decision intelligence optimizes, protects, and fuels growth for organizations. We shared insights into Vodafone's innovation journey, learning more about how Tomorrow Street scouts and partners with cutting-edge tech firms, making them visible and accessible to Vodafone.

The discussion reminded us that collaboration isn't just about keeping pace; it's about strongly pushing forward in a fiercely competitive market. Data is everywhere, so harnessing it, processing it, and turning it into insights is crucial for thriving in today's ecosystem.

Growing our partnerships

Partnerships are integral to Quantexa, and we continue to grow our global partner program to develop successful practices and solution frameworks blending world-class services and technologies with our Decision Intelligence Platform.

This is why at DTW - Ignite, we were excited to announce our new partnership with EPAM. This collaboration aims to leverage EPAM's expertise in digital engineering to further enhance data quality initiatives, fostering innovation and improving service delivery within the telecommunications industry.

We also caught up with our friends at Google Cloud and had the opportunity to say more about how we help telcos build trust in their data within a technology environment that enables quicker insights.

Notably, our work with Vodafone, deployed on their Google Cloud environment, is a testament to the power of a unified, integrated data environment, supporting AI and ML capabilities at scale with the security and robustness needed to process vast amounts of data. Ultimately, trustworthy data is critical for accurate reporting and making informed decisions, aligning with revenue goals, and paving the way to explore more areas of the business, such as ESG and sustainability reporting.

Helping telcos get GenAI ready

Finally, there was an in-depth explanation of Quantexa's upcoming GenAI technology stack, Q Assist, designed to prioritize data quality at every stage. This technology stack is poised to prepare telcos for the next generation of AI applications, ensuring that data quality remains a top priority throughout the AI lifecycle. With several leading companies participating in the Lighthouse Program for early adopters, including HSBC, Q Assist helps organizations augment trusted decision-making across teams of front-line and information workers.

Conclusion

Investing in data quality is indeed a "no-regret" move. As highlighted at DTW 2024, high-quality data is fundamental to leveraging AI and analytics effectively, monitoring risks continuously, making revenue-making decisions, and meeting sustainability goals. With the right partnerships and technology stacks in place, telcos can navigate the future with confidence, reaping the benefits of enhanced data quality and robust analytics.

By prioritizing data quality, the telecommunications industry can unlock new levels of efficiency, innovation, and value creation, setting the stage for sustained growth and success.

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