There is no question that organizations, particularly those in the telecom industry, have been tested in the last several years. Our latest HFS Research Pulse survey revealed that changing consumer expectations, a talent shortage, and cybersecurity are the top three macro-environmental factors currently impacting the telecom industry.

As this industry has evolved, so too has its complexity. The systemic problem of high operational complexity, legacy network infrastructure, fragmented data, and excessive operating costs has, in many cases, slowed the progress of digital transformation. As a result, many organizations have embarked on a wide range of simplification initiatives to support digital transformation objectives. For the purpose of this study, we define simplification as how easily an organization’s customers, partners, and employees can get to desired and conclusive fulfillment, with full transparency, in a cost-effective and timely manner.

While most initiatives have focused on functional simplification, our research indicates that driving end-to-end organizational alignment across the front and back offices will be the focus of simplification initiatives in the next two years. HFS, in collaboration with Tech Mahindra, interviewed a wide range of operations-focused executives in the telecom industry to understand what key principles should underpin simplification initiatives at the enterprise level. Leaders in the telecom industry should take note of and leverage these principles to help them succeed.

In addition to the information captured during our interviews, we leveraged data from our latest HFS Research Pulse survey to enrich and, in many cases, validate the findings of this study.