Innovation Hubs

A new way for the industry to collaborate and address its biggest challenges at speed

Launching our first Innovation Hub with Jio

TM Forum is piloting a new, global Innovation Hub program to tackle the telecoms industry’s most critical challenges with dedicated collaborative teams made up of the brightest talent across the global technology sector.

The initiative is proudly supported by the following founding members:

The exponential change stemming from converging technology trends like generative AI, cloud and data transparency gives communications companies an opportunity for meaningful growth beyond connectivity. Our goal with this Innovation Hub collaboration is to help the communications industry explore the technology, data and talent needed to continuously drive innovation and solve problems with new solutions at pace.

KATHLEEN O’REILLY, COMMUNICATIONS, MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY PRACTICES CHAIR, ACCENTURE

Trust-based collaboration, cutting-edge technologies, life-boosting products, and the best people are the anchors of our self-definition, describing how we do what we do at Deutsche Telekom IT. Therefore, we are not only aligned with but deeply committed to the mission of the Innovation Hub program. With the help of our world-class experts in conjunction with leading talents from the industry, we anticipate great achievements, especially in the fields of Generative AI and Large Language Models. This will drive transformative change within our industry, creating value for all in telecommunications and beyond.

PETER LEUKERT, CIO, DEUTSCHE TELEKOM

We share TM Forum’s commitment to fostering a collaborative ecosystem to accelerate innovation within the telecommunications industry. We developed a Google Cloud instance of the ODA canvas and are exploring the exciting industry-wide potential for generative AI. We look forward to working with our partners and customers in the Innovation Hub to unlock new growth and transformation opportunities, leveraging Google Cloud’s leadership in data, AI and cloud-native networks and technology.

ANKUR JAIN, VICE PRESIDENT, GOOGLE DISTRIBUTED CLOUD AND TELECOM, GOOGLE CLOUD

We welcome the TM Forum's initiative to launch a pilot Innovation Hub program aimed strategically at the global telecoms industry. Orange is proud to be one of the industry's Leaders and to contribute to this pilot, based on the TM Forum's Catalyst program, to which we have already been contributing for several years. ODA is a critical foundation for Orange to bring faster innovative products to the market and more efficiently.

KOEN VERMEULEN, GROUP CIO, ORANGE

The TM Forum Innovation Hub is not merely a collaborative space; it's a catalyst designed to address the telecom industry's critical challenges. By bringing together the best minds from telcos and the technology ecosystem, this initiative is strategically positioned to accelerate innovation across the digital ecosystem. Reliance Jio is committed to this transformative journey, and we're honoured to offer our Mumbai campus as the first physical home for this ground-breaking initiative. Together, we are confident of creating real-world solutions that will significantly impact our industry.

MR AKASH AMBANI, CHAIRMAN, RELIANCE JIO INFOCOMM

The TM Forum is providing an incredible platform for our industry to collaborate and innovate. With the Innovation Hub, we’ll be able to address key industry questions and develop standards to help answer big questions – like the use of AI and cloud for improving customer experience and business operations. In addition the hub will enable us to explore new services in B2C, B2B and B2B2X, unlocking real value for our customers.

AMOL PHADKE, EVP AND GROUP CTO, TELENOR

Vodafone is an active contributor to the TM Forum’s collaboration programmes. Over time, these have continuously improved, from establishing high-level frameworks to co-creating tangible assets like open API and cloud-native architecture specifications. The Innovation Hub takes this collaboration to the next level. It brings together key stakeholders to develop new technologies that will ensure a sustainable future for both our industry and the billions of people we connect worldwide.

SCOTT PETTY, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, VODAFONE GROUP

The exponential change stemming from converging technology trends like generative AI, cloud and data transparency gives communications companies an opportunity for meaningful growth beyond connectivity. Our goal with this Innovation Hub collaboration is to help the communications industry explore the technology, data and talent needed to continuously drive innovation and solve problems with new solutions at pace.
Kathleen O’Reilly, Communications, Media and Technology Industry Practices Chair, Accenture

Trust-based collaboration, cutting-edge technologies, life-boosting products, and the best people are the anchors of our self-definition, describing how we do what we do at Deutsche Telekom IT. Therefore, we are not only aligned with but deeply committed to the mission of the Innovation Hub program. With the help of our world-class experts in conjunction with leading talents from the industry, we anticipate great achievements, especially in the fields of Generative AI and Large Language Models. This will drive transformative change within our industry, creating value for all in telecommunications and beyond.
Peter Leukert, CIO, Deutsche Telekom

We share TM Forum’s commitment to fostering a collaborative ecosystem to accelerate innovation within the telecommunications industry. We developed a Google Cloud instance of the ODA canvas and are exploring the exciting industry-wide potential for generative AI. We look forward to working with our partners and customers in the Innovation Hub to unlock new growth and transformation opportunities, leveraging Google Cloud’s leadership in data, AI and cloud-native networks and technology.
Ankur Jain, Vice President, Google Distributed Cloud and Telecom, Google Cloud

We welcome the TM Forum's initiative to launch a pilot Innovation Hub program aimed strategically at the global telecoms industry. Orange is proud to be one of the industry's Leaders and to contribute to this pilot, based on the TM Forum's Catalyst program, to which we have already been contributing for several years. ODA is a critical foundation for Orange to bring faster innovative products to the market and more efficiently.
Koen Vermeulen, Group CIO, Orange

The TM Forum Innovation Hub is not merely a collaborative space; it's a catalyst designed to address the telecom industry's critical challenges. By bringing together the best minds from telcos and the technology ecosystem, this initiative is strategically positioned to accelerate innovation across the digital ecosystem. Reliance Jio is committed to this transformative journey, and we're honoured to offer our Mumbai campus as the first physical home for this ground-breaking initiative. Together, we are confident of creating real-world solutions that will significantly impact our industry.
Mr Akash Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Jio Infocomm

The TM Forum is providing an incredible platform for our industry to collaborate and innovate. With the Innovation Hub, we’ll be able to address key industry questions and develop standards to help answer big questions – like the use of AI and cloud for improving customer experience and business operations. In addition the hub will enable us to explore new services in B2C, B2B and B2B2X, unlocking real value for our customers.
Amol Phadke, EVP and Group CTO, Telenor

Vodafone is an active contributor to the TM Forum’s collaboration programmes. Over time, these have continuously improved, from establishing high-level frameworks to co-creating tangible assets like open API and cloud-native architecture specifications. The Innovation Hub takes this collaboration to the next level. It brings together key stakeholders to develop new technologies that will ensure a sustainable future for both our industry and the billions of people we connect worldwide.
Scott Petty, Chief Technology Officer, Vodafone Group

What is the TM Forum Innovation Hub program?

We’re piloting the Innovation Hub program to facilitate a new and exciting way for the industry to collaborate at speed to solve some of its biggest challenges.

The first Innovation Hub, hosted by Jio, will be located on their Reliance Corporate Park campus in Navi Mumbai, India. This Hub will be used as a base for the program, which aims to deliver breakthrough thinking and rapid business impact.

Hub projects will bring together professionals from TM Forum member organizations on a dedicated basis to innovate, experiment, and build solutions to the industry’s foremost challenges at speed. Outputs will include hands-on implementation guidance, working code, and important feedback to improve industry standards. All Hub projects aim to positively impact the entire industry.

The first pilot projects will run until March 2024, following which new contributors and projects will be welcomed.

FAQs

Put simply, industry demand for impactful collaboration is greater than ever. Our industry urgently needs to get fit – simplifying, modernizing, and automating – to meet new customer needs and seize new growth opportunities.

Innovation Hubs represent a new style of multi-company collaboration that captures agile, entrepreneurial thinking, free from the normal constraints of large corporate environments – able to move at speed through its dedicated resourcing. Hub projects will take on intractable industry challenges, or issues where a genuine ‘plan B’ is needed.

The founding members involved in the pilot phase of the program are; Accenture, Deutsche Telekom, Google, Jio, Orange, Telenor and Vodafone.

These companies are pioneers from our Board who are committed to supporting the Innovation Hub Project through the pilot phase. This support takes the form of contributed expertise and resources to launch the program, as well as professionals dedicated full-time to deliver business impact at the speed our industry’s transformation requires.

A new TM Forum Innovation Hub team will facilitate Hub projects as part of TM Forum’s CTO office. This team will provide management, support, and technical guidance to Hub projects.

Innovation Hub projects will provide a new way of collaborating to a deeper level. They can be thought of as an extension of the collaboration capabilities of TM Forum and will draw from the Forum’s extensive experience in remote and in-person industry collaboration.

For the majority of our member organizations, India is the epicenter of software development talent. This is why it made sense to base our first Hub in Mumbai, a location in a time zone that’s accessible to talents in India and around the world. The Mumbai hub has capacity for 20 full-time staff, with facilities to scale upwards for much larger teams as required by the projects. Satellite Hub locations will extend this capacity further, enabling small teams in other locations to participate in Hub projects, without the need for talents to relocate.

TM Forum has a long-standing commitment to the Indian market with more than 37,000 active member professionals and 7,000 individuals with TM Forum professional certifications located in the country.

The outcomes of Innovation Hub projects will benefit the entire TM Forum membership, and the wider industry in several ways:

Providing a new way for the industry to collaborate at speed, solving intractable industry challenges with ‘real’ results that can be practically implemented – including working code or concepts proven at scale in operational or shadow-operational environments
Testing and iterating TM Forum standards, providing valuable implementation experience to core standards development teams
Accelerating the development of code assets (for example, Open Digital Architecture components and Open APIs) to be contributed towards TM Forum collaboration projects
Industrializing concepts explored in the Catalyst program, sharing the learnings with the broader industry

Innovation Hub projects are a new way of collaborating for the Industry that act as an extension of TM Forum’s existing collaboaration capabilities. The globally-disparate resources from member companies are dedicated to Hub projects on a full-time basis, and co-located where practical, allowing for breakthrough thinking at a speed previously not possible.

We expect Hub projects to test and iterate relevant standards, propose improvements, extensions, or new standards. For output from the Innovation Hub to become a TM Forum standard it has to be contributed into the relevant Collaboration project, where it will undergo the normal validation process of team approval and then member approval before formally becoming a TM forum standard, or published under Apache 2.0 by agreement of the project leads.

We anticipate many Hub projects will be inspired by Catalyst rapid proof-of-concept projects but be capable of industrialising concepts explored by the Catalysts through longer-term, dedicated resources.

There are many benefits for both companies and member professionals of participating in a TM Forum Innovation Hub:

For companies

Collaboration with an all-in team from select organizations to collectively solve a shared business challenge faster than ever before
Ability to benefit from the knowledge or experience in different markets to develop the most flexible, future proof, solutions
Work on/with emerging technologies (e.g. GenAI) to develop innovative solutions that can be practically applied to common business problems

For member professionals

Profile-raising opportunity to demo work to industry executives and showcase at TM Forum events
Learning opportunity to work with peers also meeting the stringent selection criteria and passing the interview process
Working on the industry’s foremost challenges, to co-create innovative and potentially disruptive solutions for the greater good of our industry
Internal recognition as part of a top talent program or equivalent of the sponsoring members company

How can I get my company involved in the program?

After the pilot phase, member companies will be welcome to join an existing Innovation Hub project or propose a new one.

To be considered to join a project, member companies will need to bring distinct expertise, as well as meeting the minimum dedicated resource commitment set by the project.

During the Innovation Hub pilot phase (to March 2024), members can learn more through their TM Forum engagement manager and from early 2024 can begin to propose new projects.