Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 39 | Page 52

COUNTRY FOCUS : GERMANY
product development process . The number of core IT platforms is being reduced from six to two – one each for the company ’ s private and business customers . This division will enable optimum alignment with the different market requirements and needs of the two customer segments . Instead of its own developed systems , which require a great deal of individual coding , the company will in future rely much more heavily on standardised systems such as those from Salesforce , where changes can be easily incorporated across multiple brands via one user interface . Taken together , these factors ensure that Telefónica / O 2 will be able to save up to 30 % of the costs of operating its IT applications from 2025 compared to today .
All consumer applications of the company ’ s own and partner brands will run on a common , modern IT platform in the future . In addition to mobile communications applications , this also includes the fixed-network connections of Telefónica / O 2 customers – including VDSL , cable and fibre-optic applications . Convergence products from mobile communications , fixed network and other services such as TV products can be better managed and optimised via the joint platform . With these smart bundled products , the company aims to strengthen customer loyalty and sustainably increase revenue per household . The new IT architecture will also enable the provider to launch product innovations on the market even faster than before .
Product launch times – from the idea to development and market launch – should be accelerated by over 50 % in many cases . In the future , suppliers will be able to make new products available to their customers twice as quickly . The costs for these implementation processes will even be reduced by up to 90 % as a result .
The new , standalone IT platform for business and industrial customers combines the tariff world of O 2 business customers and modern industrial and networking solutions such as 5G campus networks , network slicing , SD-WAN and cloud . This also enables the company to drive digital innovations for industry and SMEs faster .
Data centre in the cloud : Greater efficiency through cutting-edge cloud technologies
Telefónica / O 2 is relying on the latest future-proof technologies for its IT transformation . In the future , up to 80 % of all applications will run via the cloud . This improves scalability and accelerates the development process : instead of extensive server configurations , the company can add new applications and additional computing capacity in the cloud at the click of a mouse .
The famous Brandenburger Tor in
Berlin , Germany
Another example of telcos contributing to the technical innovation of Germany is the news that Deutsche Telekom and Ericsson have partnered on renewable energy for mobile sites .
In a German village about 100 miles north of Munich , Deutsche Telekom and Ericsson are pioneering the use of solar energy for mobile broadband sites . The use of renewable energy is increasing in sectors across Germany , but solar modules have not yet been used to power commercial mobile broadband sites . Through the joint initiative , the two companies want to show that independent energy supply for mobile phone sites with solar power is possible .
As part of the project , small solar modules – with a total surface area of about 12 m 2 ( 129 ft 2 ) – were erected at a Deutsche Telekom mobile site in
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