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Jakarta Post

Transformative power: IT’s vital role in Indonesia’s digital transformation

Inforial (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, May 7, 2021

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Transformative power: IT’s vital role in Indonesia’s digital transformation

W

hen you think of an IT (information technology) department, you might imagine 1s and 0s scrolling across a monitor in a climate-controlled room, accompanied by the hum of server towers.

While it is an undisputed fact that IT teams are very much part of the technology industry, how does it contribute to the country’s digital transformation?

To find the answer, The Jakarta Post recently spoke with Bharat Alva, the IT director at Telkomsel since May 2019. Alva has over 30 years of leadership experience with top ICT (information and communications technology) companies around the   world.

In the context of the digital telecommunications industry, Alva said Telkomsel’s IT people are the company’s greatest asset in driving digital transformation both internally and externally.

“We have Indonesia’s most accomplished technical talent, largely home grown. We are also supported by a number of global leading technology partners. Our people and partners enable us to bring depth and expertise across a range of areas, analytics, digital enablement, cybersecurity, etc.,” he said.

“Our focus on supporting digital transformation and customer experience gives our internal and external customers greater control and personalization,” added Alva, and that this was accomplished by using cutting-edge technology for apps as well as the Telkomsel ecosystem.

Its reliable technology and infrastructure has afforded Telkomsel the ability to process billions of customer transactions each day, while consistently achieving service levels over 99 percent.

Alva said the company’s approach was simple: “We strive to become not just a ‘good’ service provider but an ‘excellent’ service provider for customers.”

Telkomsel’s IT team enabled this by constantly improving operational efficiency and enhancing service capabilities to refine customer experience.

Alva noted that Telkomsel’s apps like MyTelkomsel and DigiPOS Aja! were among the  most popular apps in Indonesia and consistently scored high customer ratings. They incorporated new self-service and convenience features that made them attractive to users.

Many of Telkomsel’s processes are automated through artificial intelligence (AI) to quickly address customer pain points, such as by enabling chat bots in order to reduce customer wait times.

Additionally, it has introduced a digital overlay strategy through a digital core initiative that allows collaboration with other digital industries (e.g., e-commerce, fintech) to provide a seamless shopping experience for customers through third-party channels.

“We have enabled a personalized experience for all our customers across all engagement points, including network, app and other channels,” explained Alva, adding that this personalized experience was supported by an advanced and ever-improving data and analytics platform.

As a trusted innovation partner, Telkomsel has created architecture systems, an agile operating model and a partner ecosystem that enable innovation.

“We believe that partnerships are key to successful digital transformation and digital services,” said Alva.

“We have multiple strategic partnerships as well as ongoing initiative-level engagements. Our focus always has been to improve time to market with the best customer experience.”

Bharat Alva, IT director Telkomsel
Bharat Alva, IT director Telkomsel

Partnerships

Among Telkomsel’s partners are some of the country’s biggest industry players, like homegrown on-demand services superapp Gojek. Since embarking on that partnership in 2020, Telkomsel has maximized the use of technology to provide a wide range of services, including an integrated B2B advertising platform. This partnership will provide new opportunities to expand market share through digital advertising analytics.

Along with digital advertising, Telkomsel has diversified into other sectors with gaming and pop culture portal Dunia Games and video streaming platform MAXstream.

“We’re also expanding into edutech (education technology) by providing an AI-based digital learning platform, and health tech to drive the health and wellness revolution that Indonesia needs,” said Alva. “This will be possible with partnership, building localized content and bringing communities together.”

What’s more, Telkomsel has prioritized investing and partnering with Indonesian start-ups and younger, energized local talent.

“We work closely with these partners on integrating their capabilities to enhance the breadth and depth of our service offerings,” said Alva.

In light of technology’s outsize role amid the pandemic, Alva said data and analytics capabilities were maximized through partnering with government agencies to provide fast and reliable statistics. Telkomsel also provided data allowances to support online learning for students whose classrooms had been replaced with screens and webcams.

In addition to Telkomsel being a key force in the organization’s digital transformation and in supporting the government’s pandemic response, we also discussed preparing for 5G and IT’s role in supporting this transition with Alva.

As technology in Indonesia continues to progress at a rapid rate and 4G coverage gradually expands outside metropolitan areas, other countries were implementing 5G, with many 5G-ready devices becoming available for purchase.

Alva expected 5G to lead a transformational shift in the Telkomsel network, and the company was keen on being at the forefront of the 5G rollout.

“Together with our network teams as well as our technological partners, we are laying the groundwork for this generation of technology,” he said. “We are focusing on three areas: infrastructure, architecture and technology, and experimentation and partners.”

In terms of infrastructure, Telkomsel is deploying converged, 5G-ready hybrid cloud architecture to create new opportunities in the market while upgrading its data centers.

On architecture and technology, the company is working closely with its partners on technological support for the 5G rollout, such as service orchestration and charging solutions for both consumer and enterprise use. For consumers, this might mean enhanced mobile broadband and cloud gaming, while for enterprises, it would mean 5G fixed wireless access (FWA), network slicing for different verticals (manufacturing, mining, ports), video analytics, virtual reality (VR) and 5G drones.

As for experimentation and partnerships, Alva believes that 5G will be a new era of co-creation with Telkomsel’s customers. Plans so far include the opening of a 5G experimental center in the Telkomsel Smart Office, which will allow customers to experience 5G’s “transformative power.”

“For experimentation, we’re working closely with our enterprise and retail customers. We believe this is the area where we need to cooperate and cocreate with our customers,” he said.

Asked about the developments Telkomsel customers can expect to see in the near future, Alva said faster connection speed would bring more services than ever before, even smart cities.

“IT forms the basis of all digital transformation. They provide the people, the technology and the platform to be able to implement all the services that we will provide as we move to be the leading digital service provider for the people of Indonesia,” he said.

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