By Nir Asulin,
CEO, FTS.
2015 promises to be an exciting year for the telecoms market.
#1: THE RISE OF DIGITAL
The rise of digital will be one of the biggest trends and it will bring about a major sea change in the way communications services providers operate. Traditionally siloed and unable to talk to each other, now networks, IT and businesses must all talk to each other in order to survive in today’s world of digital goods and services. The rise of 4G and smart devices and the corresponding increase in the importance of data means that now consumers expect all these things to work seamlessly. Service providers need to ensure that the ecosystem is more integrated so that they can meet the demands of being a digital service provider, which include: doing a high proportion of customer transactions online; offering the same service experience across any device at any time; thinking of users as accounts rather than individuals, with multiple devices and services at their disposal; and being capable of rolling out new products or propositions in much shorter timeframes. They’ll have to manage relationships with partners including OTT players, app developers and more. The same issue will be faced by MVNOs and MVNEs, who need to be able to offer innovative branded telecom services through real-time promotions and pricing plans, loyalty programs, and more.
#2: MOBILE MONEY
Mobile money is another area that will continue to grow in 2015. There are more than 250 operators in almost 100 countries around the world providing these types of services, and another 100 operators are planning their deployment in the near future. Customers need a simple and effective experience in which they can conclude a purchase, make payments, or transfer funds through a mobile device with a few simple steps. On the flip side, operators need to be assured of increased revenues from various streams such as retail services and financial transactions. Cooperation among mobile network operators and with banks will be crucial to ensure continued customer confidence as the sector grows.
Nir Asulin,
CEO,
FTS
#3: IOT/M2M
M2M and beyond that, the Internet of Things, is another growth area for next year. According to Gartner, there will be nearly 26 billion devices on the Internet of Things by 2020. The expectation will be on service providers to be able to offer new deals, services and pricing models quickly and easily to keep pace with this fast growing sector. Service providers will also be looking for ways to manage their relationships with an ever-expanding number of business partners in complex value chains. They will need to be agile enough to support a great variety of M2M verticals, each with its own business model, to ensure overall low TCO in a low-revenue, high-volume transaction environment.
#4: PARTNER MANAGEMENT AND REVENUE SHARING
The final prediction we make for 2015, and the one that will enable operators to deliver on all the above and more, is partner management and smart revenue sharing. More than ever before, communications, content and payment service providers must integrate smoothly and seamlessly with all the partners within their ecosystem. Whatever the industry, the challenges are the same: being able to quickly onboard new partners and launch new, personalized contracts; being able to make rapid adjustments to existing contracts; understanding the specific needs and business logic of each of the different industries; and being agile enough to create revenue sharing schemes which fit each of these different segments. The relationships between each and every partner and user must be personalized as the new industries become increasingly sophisticated, irrespective of whether they are subscribers, OTT providers, content aggregators, mobile money and payment service providers, utilities or banks. By implementing a real-time solution that enables this complex network of partnerships and revenue-sharing relationships, service providers will grow their revenues, increase their attractiveness, improve business relationships, reduce total cost of ownership and ultimately, be able to cope and scale with the challenges and demands that the trends of 2015 present.
About The Author:
Nir Asulin is CEO of FTS. FTS provides convergent billing, charging, customer care, policy control and payment solutions that have greater flexibility and provide greater independence for communications and content service providers, resulting in a dramatically lower total cost of ownership.
