VimpelCom: Go for Virtualization

VimpelCom is an international communications and technology company headquartered in Amsterdam. It is one of the largest mobile network operators in the world by subscribers, with more than 200 million customers in 14 markets. VimpelCom’s brands include “Beeline” (in Russia and CIS), “Kyivstar” (in Ukraine), “Wind” (in Italy), “Djezzy” (in Algeria), “Mobilink” (in Pakistan), “Banglalink” (in Bangladesh), amongst others. Recently, ZTE Technologies interviewed Yogesh Malik, Group CTO of VimpelCom. He shared with us VimpelCom’s innovation initiatives; his hopes for the virtualization technology; challenges in digital transformation; and priorities for the next few years. He also talked about his expectations for ZTE.

I think VimpelCom is thinking of innovation in a very different manner than the rest of the telecom industry. In my opinion, what we want to do is not to innovate within the current model, but to change the total telecom model. By that, I mean coming closer to the customer, so we are implementing a lot of initiatives on the customer end, and decoupling data out of the current architecture in a way that will allow us to really bring data science into life.
In addition, we are looking at systems, not only from the system point of view, but from the globalization point of view. By doing that, we can become leaner and faster to operate in the telecom market.
These are a couple of innovation initiatives that we have engaged in across the VimpelCom group.

Well, first of all, I’m very happy that virtualization is not a myth, but a reality. It is happening here and now.
We have launched our virtual packet core with ZTE in two countries so far, but VimpelCom is planning to launch virtualization in other countries as well, in the future.
My biggest hope is that virtualization can really de-couple hardware and software. De-couple hardware and applications in such way that we can become application agnostic, while the redundancy and the performance would still stay at a carrier grade or higher. I think that is my biggest hope.
The future is about virtualization. I believe it will be available in the very near future, so we should start embracing it everywhere. I would say my hope is to go more virtual.

We have already started the journey of digital transformation. We think of the architecture in a very different manner, and we think customer engagement first, hopefully to the extent where we can implement the internet-like model. We have taken competence, skillset and enhancement measures to promote the digital operating transformation and we are serious about it.
Moreover, we have recruited top notch talent and invited them to use their experience to help us lead the transformation of VimpelCom into a digital technology company.

What are the main challenges faced by VimpelCom in the digital transformation? How do you overcome them?
I think the biggest challenge we are facing is mindset, because when companies operate in a certain way for many years, let’s say, for ten, fifteen or twenty years, it is really hard to change it quickly.
The challenge we are facing is not a technology challenge or a process challenge, but people’s mindset challenge. We have people that need to think differently when we move into the digital world. It’s thinking beyond network, and about customers’ lives and their digital lifestyle. To achieve the transformation, we need to implement this mindset.
Customers are more ready than we think, because in most of our markets, even in emerging markets, they are on Facebook, they are on WhatsApp, and they are banking online, so I can say with confidence that the customers are ready. However, our organization needs to be ready to completely reinvent the current model. It’s quite a challenge, but I believe we can tackle it.

We have three priorities for the next few years. First, we will bring out the next-generation operating structure of VimpelCom as a group. Second, we plan to deliver digital proximity to customers, and to become a part of the customers’ lifestyle. Third, we are going to enhance customer experience with the knowledge we have from transactions, locations and other kinds of data.