TM Forum Innovation Engine: Driving Breakthrough Thinking to Solve Industry Challenges, Fast

TM Forum, the leading global alliance of telco and tech companies, has unveiled the TM Forum Innovation Engine in response to the industry’s increasing demand for rapid prototyping and implementation of solutions to common challenges. The TM Forum Innovation Engine integrates TM Forum’s co-innovation capabilities, including Catalysts for rapid prototyping, Innovation Hub to accelerate software delivery, Next20 to showcase critical start-ups, and Enterprise Hackathons to put the latest standards to the test.

By uniting these capabilities, member companies and individual professionals can foster large-scale experimentation, achieve breakthrough thinking, and maximize RCD investments, swiftly transforming ideas into tangible outcomes.

Significant progress has been achieved across the capabilities of the new Innovation Engine, evidenced by the rapid growth of the Innovation Hub, the diversity of the Catalysts and more broadly, the commercial impact and breadth of problems being solved.

Since it launched in December 2023, the Innovation Hub has seen a 106% increase in member participation. Established as a physical lab hosted by Jio at the Reliance Corporate Park in Mumbai, membership has grown to 68 professionals from eight member companies: Accenture, Google Cloud, Jio, Orange, Telenor, T-Mobile, Vodafone, and Microsoft, who joined in April. Focused on accelerating the development of Generative AI (GenAI), Large Language Models (LLM) and Open Digital Architecture, two major capabilities developed by Hub members have been announced at DTW24 – Ignite:

TM Forum AIVA is a GenAI-powered multi-model search tool designed to enhance how members access and interact with TM Forum’s extensive library of assets and content. Built leveraging Google’s Gemini models through Google Cloud’s Vertex AI, TM Forum AIVA has been designed for multiple use cases, the first of which is integration into TM Forum’s website to make content discovery both faster and more contextually relevant. A beta version is now available on the TM Forum website and will be demoed on the TM Forum Industry Showcase stand at DTW24 – Ignite.

ODA Reference Canvas Significant progress has also been made supporting TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA) and Open API programs, including the development of an ODA Reference Canvas. AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft, Oracle and Red Hat are demonstrating commercial versions of the Canvas at DTW24 – Ignite.

Similar momentum has been achieved across the Catalyst projects. With a 16% increase in member participation since DTW23 – Ignite, the Catalyst projects demonstrate the power of global collaboration to solve critical industry challenges. More than 1,100 professionals from 208 unique Member companies, including 272 champion Communication Service Providers (CSPs) and 11 vertical enterprises, are working together on 50 projects being demonstrated at DTW24 – Ignite.

The DTW24 – Ignite Catalysts are increasingly focused on driving commercial impact as can be seen in the three Moonshot Challenges: Leveraging GenAI to Drive 30% Increase in EBITDA, Driving 20% Revenue Growth For Partner Built Businesses, and a sustainability challenge to Enable CSPs to achieve Net Zero ambitions by 2030. These Moonshot challenges, along with the Catalyst projects, demonstrate the breadth of innovation from the Forum’s members, from deep technology through to customer-facing solutions.

“By bringing our innovation vehicles under one roof, we want TM Forum’s Innovation Engine to help turbo-charge the industry, delivering breakthrough thinking that will drive real change and accelerate growth.” said Nik Willetts, CEO, TM Forum. “Our member companies and professionals are already making remarkable progress through the Innovation Hub and Catalyst projects. I’d like to thank everyone for their commitment and focus, and I look forward to seeing how, through collaboration and co-innovation, we can help get our industry back to growth.”

A prominent supporter of TM Forum’s collaboration initiatives, and a founding member of TM Forum’s Mumbai Innovation Hub, Scott Petty, CTO, Vodafone Group said: “The Innovation Hub has provided a focal point for greater collaboration, which in turn, has enabled us to experiment, learn fast, and introduce new customer-focused software more quickly and at scale. The quality of resources provided by each team is impressive, and we look forward to contributing towards future projects.”

“As a founding member of the Innovation Hub, we’ve seen first-hand the value of collaboration and co-innovation to tackle industry challenges and unlock new growth opportunities,” says Ankur Jain, Vice President of GDC Engineering and Global Telecom Industry, Google Cloud. “We’re excited to accelerate industry adoption of gen AI solutions and the beta launch of TM Forum AIVA. We look forward to seeing the innovations from the Hackathon to expand the capabilities of TM Forum AIVA beyond contextual search.”

More than 20 startups are also taking part in the Next20 program, building connections with CSPs and technology suppliers to strengthen the ecosystem and inspire the next wave of innovation and growth. On display at DTW24 – Ignite are solutions from startups addressing use cases such as automation for operations, AI software as a service, sustainable digitization with web3 blockchain data platforms, quantum-secure technology, optical communications, and cloud security.

Finally, DTW24 – Ignite sees the inaugural Enterprise Hackathons. The first is sponsored by Google Cloud where teams will use TM Forum AIVA to address enterprise business challenges, from designing ODA components and APIs through to tackling autonomous network design. The second is in collaboration with Jio Async API where telecommunication industry leaders will collaboratively develop and showcase cutting-edge solutions using Async APIs.

To find out more about TM Forum’s Innovation Engine and how to apply to join the Innovation Hub, Catalysts and other projects, visit the TM Forum Industry Showcase at DTW24 – Ignite, or visit the TM Forum website.

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