World’s largest service providers as well as regional players in Asia, Europe and North America recognized; winners to be announced during Digital Transformation World Series in September.

London, UK — 5 July, 2021 — TM Forum, the industry association driving digital transformation through collaboration, announced the 28 finalists for its prestigious Excellence Awards 2021. The winners will be announced on the first day of the  Digital Transformation World Series global event on 22nd September. 

“Congratulations to this year’s finalists for the prestigious Excellence Awards,” said Nik Willetts, CEO, TM Forum. “The unique challenges and opportunities our industry faces have only amplified the importance of collaboration. This year’s finalists not only demonstrate the accelerating pace of change in our industry, but also highlight the value of driving change by working together. Best of luck to all the finalists!” 

TM Forum’s Excellence Awards recognize the world’s leading companies for their innovative achievements spanning digital transformation, business and IT agility, customer centricity, cross-industry partnering and collaboration, and product and service innovation. The awards are judged by a panel of 22 independent, neutral industry experts. The submissions cover TM Forum’s six core themes: Autonomous operations; AI, data & insights; Beyond connectivity; Cloud native IT & networks; Customer experience & trust, and The human factor.  

Introducing the Excellence Awards 2021 Finalists 

AI, data & insights: This award will recognize companies that can demonstrate how they have overcome AI, data and analytics challenges and can demonstrate a tangible impact on their ability to leverage advanced analytics and AI in customer experience with a specific focus on improving overall operational efficiency  

• Bell Canada with Amdocs: How Bell Canada successfully applied innovative machine-learning approach to fraud management, resulting in 200% improvement in time to identify new fraud schemes 
• China Unicom with Huawei: China Unicom AI-enabled cost reduction and experience improvement from planning to operations 
• Cosmote with Intracom Telecom: Leveraging AI for greener NFV 
• Dialog Axiata Plc: Analytics at the edge 
• Verizon Communications: Verizon’s OnePlanning program leverages advanced analytics and machine learning to optimize supply chain inventory and to save millions in capital spend 

Autonomous operations: This award will recognize companies that can demonstrate how they have overcome autonomous operations challenges and can demonstrate that their specific approach to automation resulted in tangible business improvements such as operational efficiency, improved customer experience, time to market and more. 

• Airtel with Ericsson AB: Airtel’s data-driven transformation journey 
• China Mobile with Huawei: China Mobile promotes AN to deliver superior 5G experience 
• Chunghwa Telecom with Ericsson: ODA-inspired operation automation made easy 
• Reliance Jio Infocomm with Jio Platforms: Autonomous Operations 
• Turkcell with TTG International Ltd: SYNERGY, a smart energy management solution 

Beyond connectivity: This award will recognize companies that can demonstrate how they have overcome beyond connectivity challenges and can demonstrate a quantifiable impact on their ability to develop new revenues and new lines of business beyond connectivity. 

• Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd with Jio Platforms: Smart connected objects over Blockchain systems 
• Telenor with Nokia: Proving the potential of 5G innovation as part of 5G Verticals Innovation Infrastructure (5G-VINNI) project 
• TELUS: Bridging the silos in health in Canada and beyond 

Cloud native IT & networks: This award will recognize companies that can demonstrate how they have overcome either cloud native IT or network challenges and can demonstrate how they made a tangible impact on their ability to leverage cloud native technology or how they have bridged the gap between IT and networks in their business.  

• China Mobile: New-generation data center 
• Hrvatski Telekom (Part of Deutsche Telekom) with Prodapt: Modernization of order management with a cloud native approach: Rapidly launch digital services, scale as needed, increase operational efficiency 
• M1 Limited: ODA and APIs help M1 transform into cloud native DSP 
• Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited with Jio Platforms: Cloud native IT in telecom 
• Vodafone with THIS: Automating API conformance cuts Vodafone’s costs by up to €50m, plus other benefits 
• Whale Cloud with DITO Telecommunity: Intelligent and cloud native IT and network architecture enables commercial launch of green field operator in 10 months 

 Customer experience & trust: This award will recognize companies that can demonstrate how they have conquered digital experience and trust challenges and can prove a definite impact on digital experience metrics such as NPS, churn/loyalty, usage of digital touchpoints, ARPU uplift, or growth in market share. 

• Airtel with Amdocs: How Airtel successfully reduced customer frustration to near-zero levels by achieving digital operations excellence 
• MTN with Tecnotree: Senkyu – CSPs new way of saying thank you 
• Rakuten with Netcracker: Rakuten revolutionizes the customer experience with an innovative, digital-first approach 
• STC with Huawei Technologies: Customer care – digital transformation in a new normal 
• Three Ireland for 48 with THIS:  Trust in Ireland’s first all-digital mobile service disrupts the market, a second time! 

The human factor: This award will recognize companies that can demonstrate how they have solved a human factor challenge and can demonstrate how they have made a noticeable impact on culture, organizational structure, ways of working, employee wellbeing, or employee transparency. 

• AT&T with Salesforce: AT&T responded to stay-at-home orders in a big way 
• The Libyan International Telecommunication Co with Makman Technology Consulting: Building a platform for growth through cultural transformation 
• Nexign: Nexign and NX Ambassadors Club: The human factor nomination 
• Tecnotree: Fragility to agility: A historic turnaround  

About TM Forum  

TM Forum is an association of over 850 member companies that generate a combined US$2 trillion in revenue and serve five billion customers across 180 countries. We drive collaboration and collective problem-solving to maximize the business success of communication and digital service providers and their ecosystem of suppliers around the world. Today, our focus is on supporting members as they navigate their unique digital transformation journeys, providing practical and proven assets and tools to accelerate execution and platforms to facilitate collaborative problem solving and innovation. Follow us on  LinkedIn,  Twitter and  Facebook. Learn more at  www.tmforum.org.  

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