Digital Transformation World Series, London, UK — TM Forum, the industry association driving digital transformation through collaboration, announced eight winners for its prestigious Excellence Awards 2020. Spanning intelligent network diagnostics, culture changes, customer experience, network assurance in the public cloud, smart grid 5G, and autonomous programmable networks, the winners showcase the success of real-life digital transformation projects undertaken by communications service providers (CSPs) and their suppliers around the world.

TM Forum announced the Excellence Awards winners during its Digital Transformation World Series opening Headliner sessions, October 7-8. With 9,000+ attendees, Digital Transformation World Series is the first time the industry has come together at this scale since the Covid-19 pandemic began. The digital series runs from October 7 through November 12 and covers today’s most pressing industry challenges, including business and cultural transformation, AI, autonomous networks, edge computing, cloud native IT and more.

**TM Forum’s Excellence Awards ** The annual Excellence Awards recognize the world’s leading companies for their innovative achievements spanning digital transformation, business and IT agility, customer centricity, cross-industry partnering and collaboration, and product and service innovation. The awards also recognize the organizations making a significant contribution to the acceleration of digital transformation throughout the industry.

“The eight winners of this year’s Excellence Awards demonstrate some of the most unique digital transformation projects in the industry today,” said Judging Chair Camille Mendler, Chief Analyst, Omdia. “Our decision was not an easy one. All of the entries we reviewed exemplify extraordinary commitment to the evolution of the industry through digital transformation, and the adoption of TM Forum’s suite of best practices and standards.”

“Congratulations to the winners of this year’s prestigious Excellence Awards,” said Nik Willetts, CEO, TM Forum. “The winners selected by our impartial judging panel showcase the pace of change in our industry, with bold yet pragmatic transformation programs delivering tangible business results. I commend all the finalists for their hard work in turning their ideas into reality, making workable solutions and being true agents of change.”

Excellence Awards winners

Autonomous Networks and the Edge

This category focuses on deployment of autonomous networks and edge computing solutions as essential ingredients of monetizing 5G:

• Winner: Building a Scalable and Autonomous Programmable Network to Empower Customers with On-Demand Services and Intent-Based Networking – Windstream, Prodapt
• Highly commended: Joint Innovation Automatic Driving Networks – China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

**Beyond Connectivity ** This category focuses on how 5G and AI-enabled IoT cyber physical systems and B2B2x services are creating new growth opportunities.

• Winner: 5G Use Cases in Vertical Industries Represented by the 5G Smart Grid of China Southern Power Grid (CSG) – China Mobile, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
• Winner: Smart Water Integrated Management System (SWIMS) – Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd, Telekom Research & Development Sdn Bhd
• Highly commended: Telia Division X Embracing Advanced B2B2X Digital Services Growth and Accelerating the Transformation of Businesses and Industries by Taking a Digital Platform Approach to Successfully Innovate and Co-Create Within a Partner Ecosystem – Telia Co., BearingPoint/Beyond

Cloud Native IT and Agility

This category focuses on how hyper-converged infrastructure can deliver faster time-to-value and dynamic zero-touch operations.

• Winner: How Globe Telecom Implemented the First Network and Service Assurance Platform in the Public Cloud in South East Asia – Globe Telecom, MYCOM OSI

Customer Experience and Trust

This category focuses on how companies are creating and managing complex digital services to deliver greater customer satisfaction, build trust and loyalty, and ensure business growth.

• Winner: Building Customer Experience and Trust through Digital Transformation – Axiata Digital Labs, Dialog Axiata PLC
• Winner: Vodafone UK’s Digital Transformation Journey to Enhance the Customer Experience in Partnership with Infosys – Vodafone, Infosys

AI, Data and Analytics

This category focuses on how businesses are managing data and AI to get useful customer insights and real-time operational efficiencies.

• Winner: Intelligent Network Diagnostic and Expert Advisory System for Service Desk (IDEAS+) – Telekom Malaysia Berhad, Telekom Research & Development Sdn Bhd

The Human Factor

This category focuses on how organizational structures, behavior and culture are changing from analog to digital, as a new generation brings business and agile technology skills across the organization.

• Winner: Transforming Amdocs’ Global Organizational Culture to Embrace Change: New Ways of Working and Thinking in Order to Deliver a Re-Imagined, Seamless Customer Experience – Amdocs
• Highly commended: BT Reduces Network Planning Time by 70% Using TM Forum Open Digital Framework – BT, Tech Mahindra Ltd.

**Excellence Awards 2020 judges ** This year’s judges include some of the industry’s top thought leaders, including: Judging Chair Camille Mendler, Chief Analyst, Omdia; Maria Adamczyk, Standards and Industry Alliances Director, AT&T; Dan Bieler, Principal Analyst, Forrester; Shoma Chakravarty, Vice President of Enterprise Architecture, Verizon; Martin Creaner, Former CEO and President, TM Forum; James Crawshaw, Senior Analyst, Intelligent Networks and Automation, Heavy Reading; Michelle Davies, Global L&D Technology Manager, Vodafone; Sandra De Zoysa, Group Chief Customer Officer, Dialog Axiata; Sheryl Kingstone, Research Vice President, Customer Experience and Commerce and General Manager, Voice of Connected User Landscape, 451research; Christian Maitre, Director Global Operations Transformation, Orange; Nancee Ruzicka, Founder, ICT Intuition LLC; Vincent Seet, Head, Enterprise Architecture, Globe Telecom; and Jay Shah, Partner, Data and Artificial Intelligence, &How Intelligence