The Quiet Revolution Inside the Service Operations Centre

Running a national telecom network has never been a simple job. Customers expect reliable connectivity every minute of the day, whether they are working, streaming, paying bills, or simply trying to stay connected. Behind that expectation is a growing operational challenge. Networks are more complex, services are more interconnected, and security threats move faster than ever. Digital resilience is no longer optional.

That is why the shift toward AIOps matters. It is not about adding another layer of technology for its own sake. It is about giving operations teams the visibility and intelligence they need to spot issues earlier, respond faster, and keep services running smoothly. Australia’s TPG Telecom’s work with Splunk shows what this can look like in practice at scale.

That shift is already changing how quickly teams can act. Activities like root cause analysis, which once took anywhere from minutes to several hours, can now be completed in a fraction of the time when the right data and context are brought together.

Bringing operations and security closer together

For too long, network operations and security operations have often worked in parallel rather than in sync. But in a live service environment, those worlds are tightly linked. A fault in infrastructure can quickly affect customer experience, and a security issue can become an operational issue just as quickly.

A more integrated model also changes how security teams operate day to day. With centralised threat detection and response, supported by automation, organisations can shift from fragmented monitoring to a more coordinated defence. Signals that once lived in separate tools can be brought together into a single, unified view, giving teams the context they need to act quickly and decisively.

This not only improves response times but also strengthens overall resilience. When security and operations share the same view, teams are better equipped to identify emerging threats, contain issues before they escalate, and maintain service continuity in the face of both technical faults and malicious activity.

That is why a more unified model is becoming essential. By bringing together real-time observability, incident correlation, predictive insights, and security response, service providers can start to see the full picture rather than fragments of it. Such visibility helps teams move from reacting after the fact to acting with greater confidence and precision.

It also creates a stronger bridge between technical operations and customer-facing teams. When network insights can be surfaced in real time, frontline staff are better equipped to understand whether an issue is local, service-related, or network-wide, and respond with clarity while the customer is still engaged.

At TPG Telecom, that shift is helping create a more modern Service Operations Centre. With a stronger view across critical services and infrastructure, teams are better placed to identify problems sooner, reduce time to resolution, and support more reliable service delivery across the network. These are tangible business outcomes.

AIOps works best when it solves real problems

There is a lot of being said about AI in enterprise technology. What matters most is whether it helps teams do their jobs better. In service operations, that means reducing complexity, improving decision-making, and helping skilled people focus on the issues that matter most.

Used well, machine learning and predictive analytics can help teams detect patterns that would be hard to catch manually. They can highlight early warning signs, surface likely causes, and help prevent issues from becoming customer-facing incidents. That is where AIOps starts to become practical rather than theoretical.

This is also where the value becomes easier to explain in business terms. Better operational awareness can mean fewer disruptions, stronger service assurance, and more efficient workflows. It also plays a critical role in reducing alert fatigue and preventing team burnout by filtering noise and prioritising meaningful signals. In sectors like telecom, where performance and trust are closely tied, those outcomes matter.

Used well, this kind of operational intelligence does more than improve internal efficiency. It can also support proactive customer communications, allowing organisations to identify affected users in real time and keep them informed before issues escalate into service calls. In some cases, this can significantly reduce avoidable contact centre demand while improving overall customer experience.

Reliability and resilience go hand in hand

Service reliability can no longer be separated from digital resilience. Customers do not distinguish between a network problem, a system issue, or a security event. They only know whether the service works. That puts pressure on leaders to think more broadly about how resilience is built into operations from the start.

A more resilient operating environment comes from connecting data, tools, and teams in a way that supports faster and smarter action. It also comes from simplifying where possible. When analysts are forced to jump across too many systems, response slows down. When signals are brought together in one place, action becomes clearer.

This is one of the most important lessons from transformations like this. Modern operations are not just about scale. They are about clarity and intelligence. The ability to understand what is happening, what matters most, and what needs to happen next is becoming a real advantage.

What leaders should take from this

For leaders, the message is straightforward. Modernising service operations is not only a technical upgrade. It is a strategic move that can improve customer experience, strengthen security, and support long-term growth.

TPG Telecom’s collaboration with Splunk, a Cisco company, is a useful example of how that journey can take shape. When real-time data, intelligent automation, and security capabilities come together in a practical way, operations teams are better equipped to deliver the reliability customers expect and the resilience organisations need.

The broader lesson is that meaningful progress does not require a single, large-scale transformation. Incremental improvements, grounded in real use cases and supported by the right data, can compound over time into measurable gains in efficiency, service quality, and customer trust.