What Happens To A Telco When Networks Get Autonomous

Evan Kirstel (0:02)

Hey, everybody, fascinating chat today. We're talking about why reinventing IT has become the CIO's most important job.

The head of TM Forum, Innovate Americas, with a true industry expert and thought leader. Willie, how are you?

Willie Stegmann (0:17)

Evan, I'm very well. Thank you very much for the invitation. Really looking forward to our conversation.

Evan Kirstel (0:22)

Likewise, and really excited to dive in. Before that, maybe introduce yourself, a little bit about your journey and bio, and the TM Forum for those who may not be familiar.

Willie Stegmann (0:34)

Let's start with the interesting part, and that's the Forum. I mean, I represent a very credible industry body. TM Forum has been around since the late 80s, can you believe? And it's there by members for members. So it's a non-for-profit member organization. It serves the needs of 800 members globally. And so it's a very powerful platform. We have a very credible board, and all the leaders that are present in our projects, and our initiatives, and our board discussions are captains of industry. They are CTOs, CIOs of the largest operators and telcos globally.

My own journey as a CIO, I've been in business for many, many years. I've worked in four different industries.

My last two industries, financial services and telecommunications, the longest. I spent a good 15 years in banking in South Africa as CIO. And then I joined Vodacom, an operator across the African continent in 2018 as a group CIO. And I also had a stint in London for three years for Vodafone as the corporate CIO before I joined the TM Forum October of last year. And it's really been a lot of fun the last six months with so much changing, but I'm sure we'll explore all of that in our conversation.

Evan Kirstel (1:51)

Well, it's going to be a great one. And let's set the scene here. I mean, we've been transforming, I think, for a decade or decades even.

We've had digital transformation on top of mind for many years. Why now? Why are we again talking about reinventing IT?

Willie Stegmann (2:08)

I think you're 100 percent right. I mean, if I think back to my career, many, many years ago, I was one of the most complex modernization transformation programs. It was a core banking replacement, 50-year-old legacy.

And way back when, it was very, very painful. The reality is in telcos, the modernization challenge has been very intense, and it's been very painful for most operators to actually get rid of legacy. I mean, through the digital transformation, through the cloud area, a lot of those projects, many of them failed. And I think, as we know, two, three years ago, with the advent of AI, the pressure on the CIO is very, very different from our perspective. All of the conversations that we have with CIOs, and at our last conference in Copenhagen in July, we had 18 CIOs in our CIO circle. And you can actually hear them verbalize the pressure that they're feeling from the board, from the shareholders to say, CIO, how do we, how do you enable and accelerate our AI ambition at an organization level? So all of those hard questions and pressure points are coming back to the CIO.

And our sense is given the fact that legacy transformation initiatives have been very painful, this immense pressure coming from the board externally, is that the CIO needs to really, really rethink and reimagine how they approach this challenge. They don't have the benefit of time, they don't have the luxury of deferring this pressure point. It's here, it's now, that AI technology is shifting so quickly. And the reality is, and I think this is a positive spin, is that the CIO has a fantastic opportunity to really show the impact and the power of that seat at the table. Because they've been invited now to join the highest echelons of leadership and all of the corporates and say, let's discuss, how are we going to embrace this AI opportunity and make it real for us in terms of cost, in terms of custom experience, in terms of employee experience. And then the conversation invariably turns to the CIO seat. How do we do that? And I think that's the genesis of this reinvention call to action. And in fact, we call it an imperative.

It's very urgent.

Evan Kirstel (4:27)

Great intro.

Willie Stegmann (4:28)

Wow.

Evan Kirstel (4:28)

And it wouldn't be a tech podcast if we didn't talk about AI. But how specifically is AI changing the job of the telecom CIO today?

Willie Stegmann (4:40)

Well, I think at the outset, we have to say that globally, and of course, we have market nuances in the Americas, in Europe, and in the East, and Africa around skill and regulatory environment and legacy, etc. But that aside, the fact of the matter is AI is not cheap. It doesn't come for free. You have to pay for it. And yes, there are lots of benefits and upside, etc.