Comviva NewsLetter The Futurist - September Edition, 2019 | Page 6

DIGITAL DISRUPTION
SEPTEMBER 2019
TMF
MAO
TMF
MAO
Is there an element of fear from some communication service providers
(CSPs) about transformation?
I certainly think there is sense of insecurity in many communication service
providers (CSPs). They fear they may be opening their internal data too much.
In many cases, this is because of national laws, with regulators concerned
about data being stored outside their country.
What impact does it have whether your customers use your cloud
or their own private cloud?
Today, most CSPs are using their own private cloud to host services such as
those provided by Comviva. They ask us to bring our application to them, which
is fine, except that they can’t then leverage our central expertise in data modelling
and data analysis. We have a data science practice within Comviva with 15-20
experts based in Bangalore. Maybe we send one or two individuals to a customer
location, but they are not availing our full competency set. Furthermore, it can
be expensive for them because they are paying for dedicated resources.
We have come across certain CSPs who are open, for example, to the idea of
our caching their data. This is, however, rare, as most ask us to deliver our
capabilities within their firewall.
TMF
MAO
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MAO
Is the relationship between CSPs and their vendors changing as a
result of digital transformation?
I’m not sure that the various aspects of this relationship are really changing yet.
Customers are still trying to manage the transformation, which means that it is
not really a partnership. They are still taking a “laundry list”-centric approach to
how we work with them, rather than building a holistic view centred on a
collaborative effort.
You’ve talked a lot about operators leveraging their data. Do you
believe that they can make money from their data?
Yes, we do believe in data monetization. Consider the example of how a telecom operator can
help a bank sign up customers. An operator’s mobile customers may only be generating one
cent per kilobyte. However, if the bank is able to leverage customer data, it creates value that
goes well beyond connectivity. If a bank’s subscriber acquisition cost is, let’s say, $1 per
customer, then they may be prepared to give $0.10 or $0.20 to the operator.
One of the reasons why this data-as-a-service business has been slow to take off is
because the business-to-business (B2B) function in many operators is very
underdeveloped, often generating less than 10 per cent of the total revenue. Furthermore,
there may be tension between the consumer and the enterprise lines of business, as they
feel that they are competing for business. The relationship aspects of transformation aren’t
fully developed yet. Customers are still trying to manage, which indicates the absence of
the “true essence” of a partnership.
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