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How Telcos Can Keep Up With Growing Demands for Enhanced Digital Experiences

KPMG conducted a survey of almost 600 telcos decision makers, revealing that leaders are enthusiastic about disruptive technologies to improve products and services, reduce costs, and outpace their rivals, but have concerns that disruptive technologies will harm their business models. 

The study showed that they also fear that their companies lack the organisational flexibility and agility to optimise new technology.

This article serves as a springboard to get started with keeping up with growing demands for enhanced digital experiences amidst disruptive technologies, which is really the new norm for the telecommunications industry.

Evolution of mobile technology

The mobile phone entered the world in 1983, and in less than 40 years of existence, it’s journey progressed from simple to smart. 

Starting as a portable phone, all you could do with it was make calls. However, the first one cost $4000 and was a status symbol of the rich and powerful.

Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was the world’s first portable phone.

1992 saw the portable phone become more readily available to the masses and included text messaging and games.

Between 1995 and 1998, consumers could enjoy a mobile phone with coloured screen, and in addition to text messaging and games, it now included email.

1999 – 2002 is when features of mobile phones exploded, and between 2003 and 2006, users could access the internet via Wifi. 

The period between 2007 – 2010 is when the first mobile apps came along, and mobile phones began getting really smart. Although the portable phone was initially intended for business use, in 2011, it really began to get firmly entrenched into our lifestyles.

Today, the mobile phone is about getting things done on the fly and in super-fast time. It has become an indispensable device, capable of doing anything a computer can do, and perhaps even more. 

People use their mobile devices even when they are relaxing; when they watch TV, they are also checking emails, WhatsApp messages, YouTube videos, and social media.

The push for enhanced digital experiences

With the overall advancement of technology, mobile device users now want personalisation, speed, and simplicity.

In this era, the demand for personalisation leads to the evolution of consumer expectations. Not only do people want to feel less like just a buyer, but they demand relevancy.

Developments around all technology have impacted the telecoms subscriber, and today, in our fast-paced world, people want everything instantly, and what doesn’t come fast, is tossed and replaced with what is instant. 

In line with the need for speed, users also demand simplicity.

As technology has evolved, so too have consumer expectations, presenting an opportunity for telecoms to capitalize on.

With its sophisticated analytics solutions, Adapt IT|Telecoms caters to all three of the top demands of telecommunications subscribers: 

  1. Speed.
  2. Simplicity.
  3. Personalisation.

Challenges & solutions for telcos 

To meet the challenges of their customer’s digital demands, telcos will need to transform their core customer journeys by revolutionising their internal processes and utilising data to obtain meaningful insights that drive decisions and projects.

Details for each company will vary, but there are five primary building blocks to making the transformation:

#1: Vision

Organisations need to conduct an honest audit around the health of the company as well as the telecommunication industry in general. 

This audit in turn must drive the business strategy, business case, and project priorities in order to attain digital transformation.

#2: Product development

Use cases should be identified from a complete view of the entire company and all its departments. 

However, the practicality must prevail so look for quick wins first. Here are a few pointers to achieve this:

  1. Leveraging integrated data across the whole company.
  2. Extracting data that is meaningful and creates real value. For example, root causes of churn in order to take action to prevent customers from leaving.
  3. The best technology to bridge the gap between insight and action. For example, Adapt IT|Telecoms provides analytics solutions for deep insights in order to build activities that positively impact the bottom line.

#3: Digitising the operations model

enhanced digital

Transformation always involves changing the norm; the way things have always been done. 

Real transformation includes changes that go beyond a new way of doing things, to a rudimentary cultural shift that strives to empower employees and focuses on the customer. 

These changes must be incorporated not only by the telecoms business but also by partners and vendors, for if their processes affect the telco’s customers, their processes are also the telco’s problem.

Time to market must be in weeks, not months, and this means setting up multidisciplinary teams who use an agile development approach to speedily create continuous “grandaddys” for new products and services. Tracking product development is vital.

#4: Skills, talent & culture

The telecoms business seeking transformation will require skill sets that have the capabilities of working with new technology and re-engineering business, management, data science, engineering, and IT processes.

This entails re-looking at recruitment processes and ways of attracting top talent (culture plays a big part in this).

Reassess which functions should be outsourced and which should be kept internally.

 #5: Digital & analytics architecture

At the foundation should be the technical engine that drives the operations model. Its made up of business processes, at-scale data infrastructure, IT systems, and other technical enablers. 

Together, these pieces comprise the backbone that is essential for true transformation.

Telcos must create an architecture around real-time predictive insights, data, and analytics to power an integrated 360-degree view of the customer who demands personalisation, speed, and simplicity.

Conclusion

More and more, subscribers are demanding enhanced digital experiences to match their growing desire for speed, simplicity, and personalisation.

To meet these challenges, it is critical for telcos to build on these five elements:

  1. Vision of the company.
  2. Product development based on a complete organisational view.
  3. Shaking up the norm internally, and with third parties.
  4. Focusing on capabilities.
  5. Building a foundational architecture based on digital and analytics.

Adapt IT|Telecoms offers advanced analytics solutions for the telecommunication industry that act as a starting point for true transformation and allow telecoms to offer their users speed, simplicity, and personalisation. 

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