PORTABILITY as a service !

Way back in 2013, during my tenure in the Telco industry, we were mandated to roll out the 8-Digit numbering from the standard 7 digit numbers that were being used in MSISDNs [Phone numbers]. One hell of a cut over night i must say, with the change in all legacy platforms associated...

That night, I still remember having a chat with one of my colleagues about the possibility of having number portability [Use of same phone number onto another local operator's network] as the next mandate from the local regulatory body. Though, we are 7 years down the line and this is yet to be a reality in Mauritius. Inertia surrounding this change in customers behavior might be a big reason! 

Nevertheless, now this concept of portability is becoming more and more real in Banking landscape as well, with the advent of PSD2 directives with more openness in Banks' data issued since 2018 and it’s a reality now to maintain a single bank account number whilst switching among peer banks using PAD switching in EU region at least for now.

Though completely not Portability concept in its full set, In Mauritius, the banking regulatory entity has already embarked on an interesting journey to establish a level playing field for all local banks, financial service providers and mobile financial services to be at par in terms transactional exchanges. This will help in at least having a digital channel portability in its own.

Interesting fact in this case is that from a channel perspective, any bank account holder will be able to register his account onto another service provider’s digital channel and this will be a game changer in its own. The customer acquisition onto a particular provider’s channel might be an interesting data analysis to demarcate the readiness and adaptability of the channel with the PII being only the MSISDN. The increasing volatility in customer’s behavior these days will for sure conclude on the readiness of a service provider’s digital channel.

This game changer will create another competition amongst all service providers in steering the customer base onto their channel in the forthcoming days and it’s up to the providers to come up with strategies to acquire customers. Things i can think of are the simple UX hacks as far as number of clicks in getting out a payment, ease of biometric authentication, simple loading and movement of funds onto the accounts, ease of loading funds in cards etc.

Gone are those days, where customers loyalty are unquestioned. Today, the primary focus remains in customer retention and acquisition. The oligopoly in our market is what makes the game interesting and i sincerely believe that Portability as a service or option is what customers desire in the end. Atleast, i do and affirm..without a dose of innovation of course !

Atishay Sookun - 07 June 2020