NTT teams with ServiceNow to help enterprises realise benefits of private 5G

Building upon its Private 5G (P5G) offering, global technology services provider NTT has entered into a partnership with ServiceNow to develop artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud-based workflows that will help enterprises digitise work that is foundational to realising the benefits of private 5G deployment and adoption.

The two companies believe that to extract value from private 5G, customers need to digitise new and existing business processes to bridge the gap between their existing workflows and private 5G network. The benefits of doing so are plenty.

According to research from NTT in December 2021, there has been significant interest in private 5G networks, with 90% of executives surveyed expecting private 5G to become the standard network choice, with the most popular reasons to implement private 5G being to improve security, reliability and speeds. It also found that just over half of companies (51%) that were planning to deploy a private 5G network said they would do so in the next six to 24 months.

“To truly benefit enterprises, private 5G cannot operate as a silo divorced from other digital workflows,” said Camille Mendler, chief analyst, service provider enterprise at leading analyst firm Omdia. “Using proven and familiar management tools, enterprises can accelerate and de-risk their digital transformation while gaining deeper insights about their business.”

NTT says that working with ServiceNow will enable organisations to streamline the deployment and integration of private 5G, adding that chief information officers and chief digital officers can solve business issues with cloud-based economics, faster time to market and an enhanced service management experience. Building upon NTT’s recently launched P5G Platform and end-to-end stack of services, NTT and ServiceNow are partnering to simplify the digitisation process. As a result, they say, clients can shorten their time to market with cloud-based economics and an enhanced service management experience.

“Our global clients are looking to reach the next level of customisation, personalisation and operational efficiency necessary to continue competing in an increasingly fast-paced digital environment,” said Eric Clark, chief digital and strategy officer at NTT Data Services. “Building this workflow engine with the power of ServiceNow and the end-to-end capabilities of the NTT family will expedite the support and activation of business processes that are critical to the private 5G journey.”

Lara Caimi, chief customer and partner officer at ServiceNow, added: “Together with NTT, ServiceNow will bring new use cases empowered by secure private 5G connectivity in a turn-key, ‘as-a-service’ consumption model. This will accelerate key business initiatives across various industry verticals.”

A recent study from Dell’Oro Group calculated that total private wireless radio access network revenues, including macro and small cells, are projected to more than double between 2021 and 2026. LTE technology dominated the private market in 2021 and 5G was on track to surpass LTE by 2026, approaching 3-5% of the total 5G private plus public RAN market by 2026.

The pace of growth was slower than expected, driven mainly, said the analyst, by the challenges of converting these initial trials to commercial deployments, and although 5G awareness was improving, Dell’Oro Group cautioned it will take some time for enterprises to fully understand the value of private LTE/5G.

That said, the analyst added that the successful launch of private 5G services by suppliers with strong enterprise channels could accelerate the private 5G market at a faster pace than expected.