Why feature management makes a lot of sense for telecom companies

In the telecom industry, feature management is a big deal. With market demands and regulations changing at lightning speed, it’s crucial to keep up. Feature management solutions help telecom chief technology officers (CTOs), tech leads, and engineering heads stay agile.

Feature management is all about being in control of your system’s new features. It gives developers the power to deploy features efficiently, allowing for experimentation and quick adjustments on the fly.

They make software deployment a breeze, boost security, save costs, and make customers happier. It’s all about driving innovation and growing your business.

If you’re in telecommunications and feature management is new to you, this article is a great place to get started. We’ll dive into what feature management is, what its benefits are, and why it’s important for telecommunication companies.

What is feature management

Feature management is a modern approach to software development based on feature flagging. It pretty much separates feature releases from code deployments.

Feature mangement is designed to improve system stability, enhance agility, and reduces risks. It also offers benefits like improved security, cost optimization, and customer satisfaction.

Feature management can be applied to all kinds of industries, from finance and healthcare to retail, transportation, and more. Particular to the telecoms, feature management is a great fit for the sector’s constant need for innovation.

So why is feature management a big deal to telecommunications?

Let’s dive into how the telecom industry handles software development and why they do it that way.

Telecom companies tackle software development by teaming up with in-house teams, third-party contractors, and tech partners. As a rule, they’re not afraid of taking on hefty projects that require serious skills and collaboration from multiple parties.

It may sound a bit complicated, but it’s all part of the game to stay on top in a fiercely competitive environment driven by rapid tech advancements.

That’s why telecoms are all about embracing agile, DevOps, and continuous integration/continuous deployment. These approaches help them develop and deploy new features fast while maintaining quality and reliability.

And yet telecoms face a bunch of obstacles that can slow down the adoption of these types of modern software practices. One of the primary challenges is the need for robust security measures to protect sensitive customer data and maintain compliance with stringent regulations.

This means they need to be extra careful and take their time with development. They need to balance security and innovation.

Another hurdle is the legacy infrastructure and systems that many telecom companies still rely on. Integrating them with the modern software world is no easy task. It can hinder innovation and increase costs.

And let’s not forget the massive complexity of telecom networks. Adding new features without messing up the existing infrastructure can be incredibly intense.

Oh, and here’s the kicker: Telecoms usually have a crazy mix of players involved—internal teams, outside partners, and regulatory bodies. Getting everyone on the same page and using new software practices? Now that’s a challenge.

Thankfully, there’s a feature management solution that can tackle all these obstacles (wink).

Feature management benefits for the telecommunications industry 

Unleash offers a reliable and effective feature management solution. It’s totally open source and designed with privacy in mind. It offers a wide range of features that specifically cater to the needs of the telecommunications industry, helping them deliver better customer experiences. 

With Unleash, telecoms can manage feature lifecycles dynamically and control the behavior of application runtime. This translates to a lot more frequent releases. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Let’s take a more in-depth look at why Unleash is an ideal tool for the telecom industry.

Telecom companies need to evolve quickly

The telecom industry really is a rapidly changing whirlwind. New technologies and standards pop up left and right. Keeping up can be a tough challenge.

That’s where feature management comes in handy. It’s like a secret weapon that helps you adapt and stay competitive.

Picture this: A telecom company wants to introduce a cool new feature like an AI-driven chatbot. With feature management, you can easily make it happen and stay one step ahead of the competition.

And that’s where Unleash comes in. It’s the perfect addition for telecom companies who want to bring agility into their software development. 

With Unleash, you can quickly respond to market changes and easily tweak your products and services. It’s all about being efficient and making things smoother so you can hit those DevOps research and assessment (DORA) metrics and ensure a faster and smoother development process.

Scalability is critical

As telecom networks keep expanding and getting more complex, managing features across all those systems can be a real challenge. It’s like trying to keep track of a million moving parts.

Feature management offers a centralized approach to control and organize features. This makes it super easy to scale operations without compromising efficiency and quality.

Flexibility is everything for telecom companies

Telecom companies know that each client is unique and has their own special requirements, making it essential to offer tailored solutions.

With feature management, you can fine-tune your offerings to meet each client’s needs. It’s all about going the extra mile to keep your clients happy.

But that’s not all. Feature management also gives telecoms the freedom to experiment with new features in different market segments to study their impact and possible business opportunities.

Unleash offers flexible hosting options, including private instance software as a service (SaaS) or self-hosted solutions. This flexibility allows telecoms to optimize their infrastructure and reduce costs while still benefiting from Unleash’s powerful features.

Security and compliance should be a no-brainer

As previously mentioned, telecom companies have to play by the rules when it comes to strict security standards and regulatory requirements.

Feature management helps make sure you’re complying with these rules by providing granular control over software features. You can quickly update and patch things to fix any vulnerabilities and maintain security. 

For instance, this granular control lets you quickly disable a feature that violates a regulation or that is causing problems for a service.

Since Unleash was built from the ground up with security and privacy in mind](https://docs.getunleash.io/tutorials/unleash-overview), it’s the ideal solution for enforcing security policies and complying with regulations like GDPR and Schrems II. 

This extends into critical privacy-focused features, like private instances, data residency, and role-based access control (RBAC).

Experimentation tests user-responsiveness and security risks

Because feature management allows DevOps teams to enable new functionality on demand, it makes it easier to perform A/B testing or give a sneak peek of new features to a select group of users. This allows telecoms to assess security risks and fix bugs before a feature is released to production.

Unleash offers canary release and features that help facilitate A/B testing.  They let you test your new features and updates in a controlled environment before rolling them out to their entire user base.

This helps build user-centric feedback loops, ensuring that new features are well-received and effective, and minimizes the risk of negative customer experiences.

Less rework means less costs

Feature management reduces the risks associated with deploying new features, leading to fewer rollbacks and less rework. This, in turn, reduces development costs, operational expenses, and resource allocation, promoting cost efficiency across the organization.

Cross-team collaboration in telecoms is critical

You know how telecoms have all those different teams working together? They’ve got their in-house teams, third-party contractors, and technology partners. 

Feature management brings everyone together by providing a unified platform for managing features. It’s all about smooth communication and coordination.

Because Unleash is open source, telecom developers have the freedom to dig in, understand how it works, and even customize it to fit their needs. 

With this transparency, developers can build code that has a real impact on creating better products. It’s a unique benefit that brings with a tremendous amount of potential and flexibility.

Conclusion

Feature management can be a total game changer for telecom companies. It offers so many benefits, including enhanced agility, improved security, optimized costs, and increased customer satisfaction.

As the telecom industry continues to face rapidly changing market demands and regulatory requirements, you need to stay on top of it all. It’s your ticket to staying competitive.

Thankfully, with feature management, you can tackle those ever-changing market demands and regulatory requirements.

Ready to dive in? Play around in our live interactive demo. We think you’ll like it a lot.