From defence to attack: CSG’s blueprint for telco AI transformation

Telcos risk losing the B2B battle to nimbler competitors if they don’t act now on AI readiness.

That’s the view of customer engagement, payments and revenue management platform provider CSG, speaking with TelcoTitans ahead of Mobile World Congress. While AI conversation builds, the SaaS provider believes delivery must accelerate, and operators need to position themselves to capture fast-evolving benefits, particularly in strategically vital B2B services.

CSG identifies three pillars fundamental to AI-ready growth:

1. Simplifying enterprise systems.
2. Accelerating service innovation.
3. Creating scalable ecosystems.

“It’s time to move from defence to attack mode”, says Simon Gleave, VP for UK & Ireland at CSG. “Telcos have been focused on the wrong things for too long, and it risks becoming a race to the bottom”.

In interviews with TelcoTitans, Gleave and Greg Tilton, VP for Quote & Order at CSG, outline how operators need to reinvent themselves now, because playing it safe only creates opportunity for competitors ready to move faster.

Getting on the front foot with simpler systems

As Tilton explains, CSG sees CPQ order management as a perfect place for operators to embrace this shift in competitive mindset, including addressing challenges that can feel overwhelmingly complex.

Gleave guides that significant pressure is being placed on over-stretched and under-performing legacy billing systems, while more capable modernised product and order management takes out complexity and inefficiency to make billing the “brains” of the operation — “less monolithic, and therefore less costly”.

More effective CPQ helps telcos simplify not only processes, but also their catalog of products, the way they are composed, and the way frameworks are built, he says. “When you drill down, a lot of BSS problems come down to these areas, and can be addressed by improving these processes”.

Gleave cites Orange Business as a major multi-geography player that is fundamentally refreshing its outlook, starting from a rethink of fundamentals.

The €8bn ($9.5bn) B2B connectivity services business is redesigning its product portfolio, customer journeys, and platforms, essentially creating a cloud-first greenfield IT ecosystem that can deliver fully digital-native, AI-powered experiences in conjunction with key partners. Working alongside other vendors, CSG is providing its catalog-driven CPQ as a critical component.

Even where not on the scale of Orange Business’ ambitious overhaul, the key takeaway for telcos is action, with quick wins possible once areas for improvement are identified.

“This doesn’t have to mean massive billion pound projects over several years. If telcos can identify areas where gains are available, they must put budget against them to make sensible, incremental change. ”

Gleave.

PLDT, the Philippines’ leading integrated telco, consolidated five on-premises billing systems into CSG’s unified cloud-based platform, with immediate quantified impact: 68% reduction in bill run time, halved dispute volumes, and strengthened enterprise customer satisfaction. The transformation demonstrated that modernisation delivers measurable opex and CX gains without multi-year mega-projects.

Driving forward at digital speed

Traditional service providers face growing competition from nimble new entrants.

Gleave notes the accelerating growth of eSIM and travel SIM MVNO disruptors as one example of this challenging trend. Incumbent players are competing with newcomers focused on strong marketing, unburdened by decades of telecoms legacy and willing to embrace innovation to throw down a gauntlet to traditional approaches.

Inroads are evidently being made, with global growth in travel eSIM demand predicted to treble segment revenue over five years. “You see them advertising on mainstream television now”, Gleave observes, “that would have been unthinkable three years ago”.

In this environment, speed matters. Operators need platforms that can rapidly deploy new services and partner integrations. CSG’s cloud-native SaaS approach enables continuous testing and iteration, accelerating service launches without traditional development cycles, reducing time-to-market from months to weeks.

A CSG engagement that has seen simplification deliver transformative effect can be found in Three Group Solutions. The CK Hutchison international wholesale, enterprise and IoT solutions provider works with its parent company’s network operators across Europe and Asia.

In collaboration with CSG and Amazon Web Services, the SP adopted a modern, cloud-native environment to prepare the groundwork for evolving and scaling new business models. Three was able to dramatically reduce the time taken to onboard MVNOs onto its networks, from as long as nine months to less than six weeks.

In the four years since the collaboration began, Three has tripled its customer base of substantive MVNO partners.

This speed advantage becomes even more powerful when combined with ecosystem partnerships, enabling telcos to extend beyond connectivity into value-added B2B services.

Partnerships as competitive advantage

Gleave sees AI as “the final piece of the jigsaw” in longstanding telecom industry efforts to embrace automation, predictive systems, and optimisation.

CSG is in conversation with multiple customers about the future role of AI, with an eye to medium- and long-term strategy, and is already delivering AI-integrated solutions. It sees particular opportunity to clarify complex ecosystem relationships, with the promise of more effective and scalable partnerships.

The enterprise market spans diverse needs, ranging from small office home office (SOHO) customers, through small and midsize enterprises (SME/SMB), to multinational corporations (MNC) and other organisations. As overseeing communications and device arrays becomes more complex, enterprises seek partners to help manage their assets. Gleave suggests it is important for telcos to be able to bundle more services around devices, security, and support.

Serving this demand effectively — particularly in the high-volume smaller business segment — requires channel-friendly ecosystem approaches. Telcos can’t build every capability in-house, but they can orchestrate partners effectively.

“ Demand for more sophisticated solutions, which smaller businesses need just as much as larger ones, is driving the market and creating an opportunity for telcos with the right systems in place. ”

Gleave.

CSG’s relationship with European unified communications service provider and ‘techco’ Gamma Communications has seen the channel-focused player assisted in entering a new phase of growth.

Following implementation of CSG’s Quote & Order, Gamma was within a year able to introduce multiple new partner offerings, such as Cisco’s Webex. The service provider has since seen a significant boost to its business. Gleave praises the Gamma approach, describing it as a good example of “not starting from the perspective of ‘we need to throw everything out, and start again’ with a BSS transformation project”.

“ Gamma focused on the core challenge, which was launching new products that integrate with existing customer portals effectively. Our work flowed from there, and we were able to make a difference with less upheaval on the customer side. ”

Gleave.

CSG sees its Quote & Order as a powerful first move in automation for telcos preparing for business at the pace of AI and opening what Tilton describes as “a really big opportunity for telcos to mean a lot more than ‘just connectivity’ for B2B”.

The more manageable product catalog that helps streamline a modern billing platform also enables the replicability, uniformity and predictability that is crucial to unlocking AI benefits. This creates potential for progress towards automation, and the innovation that accompanies it.

Momentum for further gains then continues because, once automation minimises portfolio and billing complexity and resource, opportunities will emerge to enhance customer experience.

“ The prospect of a single automated AI-driven platform is an exciting one. It could have revolutionary benefits for telcos because it could completely alter the opex model and their ways of working. ”

Gleave.

Fortune favours the swift

As Mobile World Congress approaches, CSG’s message is clear: AI readiness isn’t a future state, it’s now a competitive requirement. The technology is already transforming how leading operators serve B2B customers, but only for those willing to act.

Simplifying systems, accelerating innovation, building scalable ecosystems, and operating AI internally should not be aspirational pillars. These are the foundations that separate AI-ready operators from those at risk of being left isolated, defending declining positions.

The question CSG poses for telcos is not whether to reinvent themselves, but whether they do it fast enough to lead rather than follow.