OPERATIONS TRANSFORMATION FORUM 2018: Jean-Claude Geha, chairman of DT Pan-Net, explained it takes “a lot of work, a lot of effort” for a multinational operation to undergo a digital transformation, which is why Deutsche Telekom created Pan-Net to roll out cross-border, cloud-based infrastructure.

Geha (pictured) discussed one of the key themes at this year’s event: the need for cultural change to support digital transformation. “For all of this to work, you have to have the right culture and mindset. If you don’t have the right mindset, no matter what strategy you have, no matter how much you invest, you won’t get there.”

“You always encounter resistance. Technology people tend not to want to let go when it comes to cloudification. There is a concern that if they are not controlling or managing things close to their chest, things can go out of control”.

Pan-Net was created as a separate entity in order to avoid some of the challenges associated with transformation.

“We’re driving agility from the get-go. The reason we set up this Pan-Net entity as a separate entity within the group is to make sure we can build-out fast and hire with the right mindset, and operate in the desired fashion. To make sure that this unit will influence the bigger units in the company, to drive cloudification across the whole company,” he said.

Essentials
Geha said there are three items which are “key” when it comes to digital transformation and cloudification.

“One is speed: customer demands are changing constantly, things are moving fast. Especially when we are competing not only with traditional operators, but also with webscale providers that started with a clean sheet and set up their environment to be agile from the get-go, to be focused on the customer experience, not technology, infrastructure and networks.”

“Another part that is important for us is scale. It’s important because we have operations in multiple countries: scale will give us the opportunity not only to create efficiency through reuse and replication, instead of duplication, but also to replicate fast to improve our time to market.”

“Last but not least, skill: technology is moving fast, new platforms, new software, new APIs are coming out on a regular basis and it’s important to keep up with that. And skills are becoming scarce, there is a lot of competition in that space,” Geha noted.