Bringing in the 5G Revolution DIGITAL REPORT 2021
IN ASSOCIATION WITH:
VERIZON BUSINESS
BRINGING IN THE 5G REVOLUTION 2
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Verizon Business’ SVP and Chief Product Officer Aamir Hussain discusses the role of 5G in the company’s digital transformation offering
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elecommunications giant Verizon’s Business division was restructured in 2019 in order to provide better services for its enterprise public sector and business customers, which range from SMBs to wholesale customers. As Aamir Hussain, the company’s SVP and Chief Product Officer explains: “We combine both wireless and wireline entities, products, and customer sets together for business, and in 2020 we generated around $31bn of revenue.” The company’s success rests on its extensive investments in its own networks. “We've gone through a major transformation,” says Hussain. “We are making a huge amount of strategic investment in our network platform, solutions, people and processes. It’s now a place where partners and employees are innovating hugely on behalf of our customers. We are building a 21st century network, which is there for mobility or fixed networks. And we call that Broadband Anywhere.” On top of that, the company is spearheading the 5G revolution. “In terms of 5G, we’re making massive investments in the 160 megahertz nationwide C-band spectrum. We’re building that out to enhance our millimeter wave 5G investments and to give us the ability to provide fiber-like services to our customers.” verizon.com
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Nokia and Verizon’s Transformative Private 5G Solution Nokia’s David de Lancellotti, Vice President, Global Verizon Sales, discusses the close partnership with Verizon and the private 5G offering that has resulted. Nokia is a key technology partner of Verizon’s, with the two companies teaming up to offer a 5G Private Wireless Network solution, a highperformance, end-to-end enterprise network and edge computing platform. “The Nokia Verizon Private 5G Solution gives enterprises the power to manage critical assets through a simple web portal, eliminating the need for complex management systems,” says David de Lancellotti, Vice President,Global Verizon Sales at Nokia. “The Nokia Verizon 5G solution is critical for our customers because it provides them with a single, reliable, secure 5G data network.”
The utility of a private network in particular is to enable the agile connection of enterprise assets over wireless networks, enabling new possibilities and applications. “Over 260 enterprise customers have deployed Nokia private wireless solution globally in a variety of vertical segments,” says de Lancellotti. “Nokia’s 5G ‘factory of the future’ in Oulu, Finland utilises a private network that drives an 80% reduction in the time it takes to send out a specific product line.” The Verizon partnership sees both sides combining their individual strengths for the benefit of customers. “The partnership with Verizon is really the critical piece that brings this entire solution together. We excel in the technology that drives industrial-grade private wireless and brings it to the cloud, while Verizon brings deep experience in the design, building and operation of mobile networks and extensive industry experience.
“5G is more than just the next generation of products” — David de Lancellotti, Vice President, Nokia, Global Verizon Sales
Watch David De Lancellotti discuss 5G and Verizon
Looking to the future, de Lancellotti sees Nokia and Verizon continuing to lead private 5G transformation. “5G is more than just the next generation of products - It’s really about a fifth generation for people and for enterprise. We’ve been focused on private wireless for several years and have led the move to Industry 4.0. That and our end-to-end capabilities uniquely positions us to manage really every piece of a customer’s network.”
Discover Nokia Industrial-grade Private Wireless
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It’s thanks to this combined offering that the company is a leader in enabling digitalisation. “We are very well positioned to be the digital transformation partner of choice for our customers,” says Hussain. “We enable the digital economy through our services, connectivity platform and solutions and we are totally focused on enabling customer digital transformation. That's what we do every day - enabling experiences and making them predictable so that our customers know what outcome they'll achieve. That means they can focus on their business while we focus on their communications suite.” The possibilities of 5G are hard to overstate, and Verizon Business is dedicated 8
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to enabling its customers to take full advantage. “We see an immense opportunity to help our customers on their journey towards the fourth industrial revolution. Everybody is wanting to connect to the cloud and build innovative applications and connectivity is a cornerstone for everything. I believe that 5G is the mechanism that helps them get there.” There are a number of concrete capabilities connected to 5G. “What we call the ‘currencies’ of 5G, a set of performance attributes for this next generation of wireless connectivity include high-speed mobility, reliability, network energy efficiency, higher bandwidth, very low latency and the ability to connect a significantly larger number of devices to
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AAMIR HUSSAIN TITLE: SVP AND CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER INDUSTRY: TELECOMMUNICATIONS
the network. Imagine having all that in a technology that you can use to innovate in your own business.” With its mm wave 5G network, available in parts of more than 65 US cities, customers are already experiencing speeds that reach beyond a gigabit per second. “We are well positioned as the 21st century platform for innovation and growth thanks to our 5G ecosystem. That’s not only in terms of connectivity, but also providing applications through partnerships on top of that platform.” But 5G is not just a technology for the future, and Verizon Business is already working on transformative realworld use cases. “We’re involved in the automation of inventory replenishment to
EXECUTIVE BIO
LOCATION: UNITED STATES Aamir Hussain is senior vice president of business products, joining Verizon in December 2019. Aamir has nearly three decades of experience implementing global technology operations, innovation, complex infrastructures, consumer and business solutions and digital transformation. He is responsible for Verizon Business Groups holistic enterprise product families - including IoT and 5G services, networking solutions, security, advanced communications services, and managed and professional services - and will lead product management across all customer segments. A veteran international technology executive with experience in operations and technology functions within the cable and telecom industry, he is an investor, advisor and board member with a focus on the consumer and financial enterprise, wireless industry, technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) sector. Aamir has also held senior leadership roles at Liberty Global, Covad, TELUS and Qwest. Aamir sits on several startup and non-profit boards, is technical advisor to technology companies and holds 11 patents in telecommunications.
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All-in-one cloud contact centER solutions Providing valued interactions to build a great customer experience with trust and empathy
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"We also have integration with major tech partners, including Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, Adobe, Zoom and Amazon." Bruce Rosen, SVP, Genesys Great customer service improves brand loyalty; valuable interactions build the trust to facilitate that. “At Genesys we provide our customers with a way to manage and implement the qualities of empathy into their customer experience,” explains SVP Bruce Rosen. “We can drive a new level of personalization; our Experience As a ServiceSM offering allows every company, big or small, to deliver that personalization at scale.”
Genesys Cloud
Cloud accounts for 65% of the Genesys customer base with 85% of its business operating on a SaaS model with the flexibility to meet developing customer needs. “Our technology transformation highlights a cloud -first strategy,” says Rosen. “Our digital marketplace AppFoundry offers 400 applications that can be integrated to enhance Genesys solutions. We also have integration with major technology
partners, including Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, Adobe, Zoom and Amazon.”
Hyper Personalised Experience
Built for mission critical reliability and redundancy, the enterprise grade solutions Genesys deploy help companies like Verizon in their quest for the agility to be available for customers 24/7. Reacting to changing market conditions with the ability to add new features in real time is key. “We’re also seeing a rise in digital self-service,” notes Rosen. “Genesys chatbots driven by AI and Machine Learning, as well as our predictive engagement, support companies with the ability to deliver a hyper-personalized experience for their customers with every interaction. And as we've all seen and experienced during this past year, the support of remote working from home and customer experience is now becoming the new normal.”
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“ W e are well positioned as the 21st century platform for innovation and growth thanks to our 5G ecosystem” AAMIR HUSSAIN
SVP AND CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER, VERIZON BUSINESS
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ensure planogram compliance, and we’re adding tremendous value to manufacturing and logistics by helping large businesses streamline their operations with realtime machine vision applications. We also provide gaming companies with a platform that enables a rich, console-like experience on smartphones.” Existing trends in digital transformation have only been supercharged by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and Verizon Business has risen to the challenge. “I really have seen five years worth of transformation in the last year, quite literally. That has also changed the behavior of our customers, our employees, and ourselves in terms of how we show up on behalf of society.” Customers are now urgently looking at how they can transform their networks,
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Verizon Business’s Technology Solutions in a Digital World
as Hussain explains: “De-centralisation of resources, the densification of the network, adoption of mobility and cloud security, and virtualisation are just a few of the trends we’re seeing. Businesses now want to use more advanced communications technologies. They want to use home networks and still remain secure and they want access to all of their corporate infrastructure in the cloud. We are helping provide all of those capabilities.” Verizon Business’ work is enabled by the support of a number of key partners, slotting into the company’s conception of three product layers: connectivity, platform and solutions. “We're seeing a lot of customers move to the cloud,” says Hussain. “They're using the cloud for their communications needs. We, as a global services provider, have
the opportunity to work with partners such as Genesys for our end customer contact center needs. We also work with Cisco across our portfolio to provide networking, collaboration and calling solutions to our customers as they migrate their businesses to the cloud – taking them out of IT closet and towards the edge.” Partners are also a vital part of the company’s 5G provision, as Hussain explains. “Nokia, Samsung, and Ericsson are part of our 4G and 5G networks, and we continue to build with them. We are also building private networks with them, which will help enable 5G’s industrial automation capabilities.” On the solutions side, partners include the likes of IBM and SAP. “IBM has obviously their cloud offering. They also have AI and ML platforms, and we are working with them very closely verizon.com
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Deploy services your customers want, when and where they need them Meet your customer’s needs and create new revenue. The open, flexible, software-defined Cisco 5G architecture will help you maximize 5G profitability and create premium connected experiences.
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Getting up to speed with Cisco's 5G architecture
Watch: Cisco - 5G Pioneers
Cisco's Bob Everson, Senior Director of 5G Architecture talks about what it's like being one of the pioneers of 5G technology and Verizon's trusted partner Founded in 1984 in San Francisco, it is the worldwide leader in technology that powers the internet. Cisco is a market leader in advanced technology solutions for Enterprise, Service Providers and Cloud, helping their customers and partners to achieve their intended business outcomes. As Verizon builds its 5G network, Cisco continues to act as a trusted partner. However, before anything further is said about the benefits of 5G for telecom, it is important to understand what the 5G architecture encompasses. Speaking on the extent of implementation, Bob Everson, Cisco’s Senior Director of 5G Architecture says “5G is not a singular technology. For us, it's really important that we take a systems approach on the components that deliver a 5G system, but then also look at the whole ecosystem of the applications and the users, and how all that ties together.” Being a pioneer in 5G technology and applications, Cisco focuses on maximising the use of technology to improve business operations for its customers in order to
deliver tangible results. Everson states that although 5G is the future, it also makes systems vulnerable to threat. Owing to the deep-rooted nature of 5G integration, one of Cisco’s key tasks is developing a holistic approach in understanding these operations and providing solutions that predict and prevent any threat. Speaking in conclusion on the application of 5G across different operations, Everson adds that organizations will see an increasing overlap in environments between enterprise and direct consumers, so having a protected connection and an infrastructure built to last will and should be any organization’s top objective. As organisations look to the future of work and move to a more hybrid work model, service providers must ensure that their customers are well-connected with multiple levels of security and have a seamless environment to operate within.
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“ I really have seen five years worth of transformation in the last year, quite literally” AAMIR HUSSAIN
SVP AND CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER, VERIZON BUSINESS
to create the revolutionary industry of the future that allows our customers to be nimble and really helps them in their digital journey. We bring the network, we bring our security, advanced communications, IoT, and other things, and IBM provides the applications. We do the same thing with SAP. SAP has some fundamental vertical solutions in the retail and manufacturing segments that we combine as part of our 5G network and provide really innovative solutions to our customers.” 16
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Another trusted partner is Mutualink. “Working together, Verizon and Mutualink can instantly provide interoperability to any public safety stakeholder and bridge voice, video systems, data, alarms and sensors (including body cameras and fixed sensors) to enable real time collaboration and 360 degree situational awareness to
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support our Verizon Frontline Responders,” says Hussain. “Verizon recently announced Verizon Frontline as a continuation of our commitment to public safety - Verizon has supported first responders for our entire 21 year history, leading the way on priority voice calls, virtual segmentation and network reliability. With well
over 10 years of commitment to first responders, Mutualink has led the public safety communications industry in the innovation of solutions for interoperable communications, and created the only platform available today that allows for the instant sharing of voice, video and data regardless of device or network.” verizon.com
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“We enable the digital economy through our services, connectivity platform and solutions” AAMIR HUSSAIN
SVP AND CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER, VERIZON BUSINESS
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Aside from assisting its customers with COVID-19 disruption, Verizon Business has also embraced the changes it has wrought internally. “I started in Verizon in December of 2019, says Hussain. “And we went to work 100% from home in March of 2020. I haven't been back to the office since. Despite that being unthinkable a year or two ago, we've been very effective and have learned how
to carry on with advanced communications and virtual meetings. We’ve figured out how to be much more effective working from home. That means additional communications with employees, and making sure that we are doubling down on emotional intelligence.” That experience has informed the solutions it offers customers. “We’ve begun to offer all kinds of secure verizon.com
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5G: partnering to innovate Ericsson’s 5G technology and your networks deliver unprecedented speed and flexibility, carrying more data than ever before. Our 5G is made for innovation.
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work from home solutions. If we had taken that solution to a customer two years ago, they would have thought long and hard about adopting it. Now, our customers are driving us to create more and more solutions.” Looking to the future, the company will continue to be guided by a number of key and unchanging principles. “The first is digital experience and putting the customer first. Second is simplification. The third is about focusing on life cycle, managing what's out there, not just building it and sending it out, but also enhancing it over time. Last is 5G leadership. 5G is our future. It helps us create leadership on many fronts - not only providing high-speed connectivity, but also creating new applications and experiences
that can use the capabilities of 5G.” Hussain emphasises that even despite its successes, Verizon Business is only at the middle point of a continuing journey. “We’ve built a great network. We have a great team, we have great processes, and now we need to enable others to come use us as a platform to innovate for their own businesses and their own solutions. That is key to our success. We are forging large partnerships, and we feel that we have the assets, we have the tools, we have the capabilities and the platform for us to innovate together with our partners and customers.”
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