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Strategies for CSPs To Achieve Success in the Digital Ecosystem

Strategies for CSPs To Achieve Success in the Digital Ecosystem Image Credit: The Fast Mode

Maybe you watch your favorite reality show or sports event on your phone. Or maybe you use your tablet to control your home TV, DVD player, or sound system. If you do, you – and millions of others – are part of the digital ecosystem.

The term “digital ecosystem” is one of those phrases that can mean many things to many people. But if you boil it down to its very essence, it means that companies will no longer be isolated entities, but component pieces of ecosystems that tap a broad array of other digital businesses, digital customers and digital devices at the edge of their networks. According to Accenture’s Technology Vision 2015, today’s enterprises are connected to a digital “fabric” that has the potential to touch all aspects of their business, their customer relationships, and the world around them, providing an ability to connect and scale up in unprecedented ways.

The communications industry is at heart of the digital ecosystem, and is well positioned to play a major role in it. Here’s why: no other industry has an equivalent number of customer touch points, which range from call centers to retail stores, websites, in-home service calls and other modes of interaction. At the same time, many communications service providers (CSPs) may believe that in the competition for digital consumers, they are operating at a disadvantage compared with more innovative products and services companies. And while the digital ecosystem area is certainly competitive, there are, fortunately, some strategies that communications service providers can employ to succeed in it. The strategies are:

Transform operating models

The customer experience is at the very core of the digital ecosystem. The new digital ecosystem will enable customers to be more mobile, more interactive, and more connected, while having a superior user experience across all digital touch points. Because the customer experience standards are being set to new, high-quality standards in all industries, and across all customer interactions, consumers expect CSPs to deliver the same. 

To make progress toward enhanced customer expectations, CSPs need to break down the walls, integrate across the traditional silos, and leverage digital innovations to provide personalized interactions and services. Integration across traditional and digital channels is the obvious, initial response. However, for sustained high performance, any gains realized from focusing solely on customer interfaces are likely to be short-lived. Instead, CSPs should re-examine their entire operating model, because it spans business functions, product lines and external business partners.

CSPs’ focus should encompass business processes, governance and business technology as drivers and enablers of the integration effort focused on omni-channel experiences. They must pursue a customer-centric approach to their operational capabilities by improving and integrating their operations in several vital areas, which include insight and data analytics-driven personalization across the enterprise, integration across all channels, business functions, and products and services to help achieve a complete, customer-centric view.

Remember the omni-channel experience

The “omni-channel” experience is basically a sales approach. It gives customers a consistent, seamless experience, regardless of how the customer shops: online from a laptop or mobile phone, by contacting a call center, or visiting a physical store. This experience is key to operators striving to to reinvent themselves as Integrated Digital Service Providers (IDSPs), standing up core capabilities – both their own and third-party services – to become a platform for all things digital. To make progress, they need to have a fully integrated response to these new customer requirements, which will need to be both customer-centric and omni-channel in nature.

In addition, CSPs’ customers want to feel they are dealing with a single person for all their requirements, across all the product lines and affiliates. They want the service provider (and various parties representing the provider) to know their personal profile and provide relevant solutions for their devices, usage, services and content purchases across the entire portfolio and across all accounts – both personal and business. So a true omni-channel experience is no longer “nice to have,” but necessary.

Change the commercial model

Operators can continue to disrupt traditional business models by fundamentally changing the way they charge for services. For example, they can operate hybrid networks, coupled with new business models, to deliver new use cases like LTE multicast, retail subsidized Wi-Fi, and other services.

What’s more, they can also leverage their “trusted provider” status with their customers to differentiate core device and network offerings. The evidence that supports operators’ roles as “trusted provider” is certainly growing. Take the example of a recent Accenture global consumer survey, where 33 percent named CSPs as their first choice – along with banks -- to handle and protect their personal data. In the same survey, 60 percent of consumers said they prefer CSPs for wireline voice services, and 54 percent prefer CSPs for wireline data. For wireless services, 53 percent prefer CSPs for wireless voice and 50 percent prefer CSPs for wireless data.

Even when it comes to purchasing a wide variety of intelligent devices, in the same survey consumers named telecom operators among their top choices. For, example, when purchasing smart thermostats, consumers view device-makers (52 percent), telecom operators (40 percent) and handset or PC manufacturers (39 percent) as their top providers. Consumers named device-makers (55 percent), handset or PC manufacturers (39 percent) and telecom operators (38 percent) as their leading choices for home surveillance systems. For in-vehicle entertainment systems, consumers view handset or PC manufacturers (53 percent), device-makers (52 percent) and telecom operators (47 percent) as the top three providers. But that’s not all: an impressive 79 percent of respondents said they would prefer a single provider to manage all of their communications and entertainment products and services. Based on these metrics, it’s clear that consumers are considering CSPs as their facilitators for the digital goals they want to achieve in the digital ecosystem.

Monetize insights from big data

Data monetization fueled by “big data” is another area of opportunity for CSPs. The digital operator may have the ability to improve and extend current capabilities by leveraging real-time insights coming from operations, customer behavior, and all the information flowing through their networks. Additionally, the Internet-of-Things, with everything connected, creates an opportunity for digital operators to help drive (and monetize) the ecosystem, and as a result, plays a critical role across multiple vertical industries and a myriad of applications.Consumers’ preferences for a single, trusted provider also place CSP networks in the spotlight. That can be a distinct advantage for CSPs, because they can combine their experience in building and managing IP networks with their increased capabilities to develop and deliver new, customer-focused services that incorporate data analytics for highly personalized services – which is essential, in the complex digital ecosystem.

Some final thoughts

If CSPs are to take advantage of their unique positioning, they must leverage the insights gained from their unparalleled array of touch points. These touch points provide multiple opportunities for growth and innovation, and should extend beyond simply “dealing” with customers’ wants and requirements regarding sales and service, but use data to anticipate what they might want or value, and proactively develop and deliver it to them.

The complexity of the digital ecosystem is creating opportunities for CSPs to claim a holistic role as customer-centric digital facilitators, backed by their inherent strengths in local distribution channels and building and running high-performance networks. The CSP who can be at the helm, helping its customers to navigate the digital ecosystem, is not only providing a valuable service, but helping to drive digital for mass adoption.

Author

Tom Loozen is the Global Managing Director of Accenture’s Communications Industry Group.

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