How the Global Backend is changing our business

Everyone is aware that our business as we know it is changing. A future in which Internet rules and telcos are relegated to simply owners of infrastructure is one possible prediction. It’s due to this scary story that we are challenged to find a new role for ourselves in an increasingly Apple-, Google- and Internet service dominated playing field.

But what does it take to go head-to-head with the Internet power players? Well, according to Torgeir Hovden, the CTO for Telenor Digital Services and Comoyo, the answer is simple: A Global Backend that will provide our customers with better Internet services, faster.

“The key is to operate the way the Internet companies operate. We need scale, agility, speed and the ability to leverage local innovation around the entire Telenor Group. The Global Backend is our way of using our global assets to fuel this new Internet-based service arena to compete with the Googles and Apples,” explains Hovden.

A repository of services

Hovden describes the Global Backend as a cloud infrastructure, where all the services and partnerships are integrated, allowing the business units to “plug in” and distribute these services in their markets. This is an attractive model for partners such as Google, who are looking for a single endpoint to reach Telenor’s millions of global customers.

“We are giving business units access to different services – one example is our partnership with Google to create a Telenor storefront in the Google Play store. Telenor can then control the app selection in their local Google Play store, as well as enable customers to pay for applications via their mobile phone bill. Our partners, including Google, are very interested in billing customers via the operator, which makes our billing relationship highly relevant,” says Hovden.

Building a single user-base with Global ID

Hovden also talks about the concept of Global ID, which is a key part of the Global Backend. This is part of the strategy to build a single user-base, in which users have a single ID to log into any service. To demonstrate, Hovden shows how he uses his Global ID to log into both Comoyo’s site in Norway and in Sweden. The Global ID can be used to access a range of new services, even SMS+ (now an internal Telenor pilot) a future service from Comoyo that enables text messaging on web-connected devices, regardless of the presence of a SIM.

Innovating on global scale

“The Global Backend is Telenor’s answer to how we can compete with the Internet players. It’s an infrastructure that makes us relevant and able to offer services to the Group at large. We are building standard solutions, working at a rapid pace and focusing on the needs of our customers in order to innovate on a global scale,” concludes Hovden.