FEATURE: DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
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Ahmad Sayed, Regional
Director, MEA at Nexign,
looks at what is needed to
make the transition from
communication to digital
service provider.
W
e are all part of Digital
Transformation – governments,
companies and consumers.
But while some feel like they are on the
back of a runaway train, others have taken
control of their destinies. Manufacturers
are using the Internet of Things (IoT)
to enable predictive maintenance and
servitisation business models. Retailers are
generating 360-degree views of customers
to forge agile, individualised service. Banks
are offering their customers the ability to
conduct almost all transactions either from
the comfort of their home, via a mobile app
or website, or at their nearest ATM, all in an
effort to improve customer satisfaction and
stay one step ahead of the competition. This
is Digital Transformation in action; it offers
the potential to ride the wave of revolution
and come out on top.
But what of communication service
providers (CSPs)? Ovum’s latest ICT
Enterprise Insights report tells us that the
telecoms sector is farthest along in its
digitisation, with a maturity-progression
index score of 43.9%, beating all those
innovative manufacturers and retailers,
and even outpacing the banking sector,
which has an index of 42%. It is worth
noting that by 2021, almost all Tier 1
and most Tier 2 telecom operators across
EMENA, APAC and the Americas will be
either running on the cloud or in the midst
of migratory programmes. These operators
will have recognised that digital business
models can drive monetisation. They will
have become digital service providers
(DSPs). Indeed, a 2017 Ernst & Young study
revealed that 71% of operators around the
world consider this issue their top priority.
So how should CSPs approach this
transformation journey to become DSPs?
Customer experience is, of course, key.
Deep-dive analytics can deliver actionable
insights, to be sure. And introducing
agility across multiple areas will allow that
actionable intelligence to be enacted before
opportunities dissipate. But the top-line goal
should be to ensure that business support
systems (BSS) solutions can support a three-
pronged strategy.
Faster Time to Market
Time-to-market is of extreme importance.
The right BSS solution will allow telecom
operators to configure new products and
services quickly and efficiently, stripping
development lifecycles down to a bare
minimum without any trade-off in quality.
True DSPs must be able to take full
advantage of transformational technologies
such as cloud architecture, Blockchain, IoT
critical
success factors
The
for a successful transformation
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