In an effort to capture a greater share of the managed services market, Huawei unveiled the latest addition to its digital operations services portfolio, which it says will help MNOs with the management of complex hybrid ICT systems.

The AUTIN (AUTomation and INtelligence) technology offers new functionality and machine learning for intelligent operations, and includes applications to support workforce and service desk management, operations intelligence, fault management and automatic behaviour discovery.

“AUTIN’s launch marks a new chapter for Huawei,” said David Shen, the company’s director of assurance and managed services. “The software reduces manual work by automating simple and recurring tasks, together with providing actionable insight using real-time analytics to faster fault resolution through root cause analysis.”

However, Shen warned that implementing technology with these capabilities was not without issues: “It requires a cultural change in management thinking, where everything will be online and visible. Leadership is critical to making this level of digital transformation a success.”

The new AUTIN technology, which builds on Huawei’s existing Operation Web Services (OWS) product set, is claimed to differentiate itself by enabling operational staff to build apps to automate daily task, or take advantage of the 900+ apps available from the company.

“We already have OWS in operation with 100 MNOs, and have demonstrated the capabilities of AUTIM to many potential customers, and we expect up to 50 contract to be signed by year-end,” Shen said.

Hong Kong centre

Earlier this week Huawei and operator HKT announced plans to set up a centre of excellence in Hong Kong, with the aim of sharing the operator’s experience and best practices gained during its digital business transformation journey.

The operator, the largest mobile player in Hong Kong, is working with Huawei on an end-to-end digital business transformation project, covering service and operation transformation, and after 18 months announced the pre-commercial launch of the first phase.

HKT aims to set up the Digital Transformation Practice Centre by mid-2018 to help guide the digitalisation process of other operators. Its digital business transformation project team will provide on-site sharing with visitors, it said in a statement.