Take the Outside-In Approach

By taking an outside-in approach, putting the customer at the heart of their business, communication service providers (CSPs) can differentiate themselves from the competition and gain new revenue streams.

CSPs are in the process of digital transformation, aiming to improve efficiencies and enhance the customer experience. But there have been pitfalls along the way. CSPs have technology in their DNA, they often respond to the trends on a very technical basis, without a business outcome-driven holistic view of how it transforms either customer or partner interactions and internal processes. That’s not good.

There are three trends I see that CSPs need to modify their responses to:

First, CSPs see the importance of digitizing the business or automating their processes. CSP’s understand it is important to continue digitizing for operational efficiency, but it’s not a differentiator.

·       Unfortunately, digitizing the business often means that legacy processes are digitized with new technologies, thereby defeating the purpose of modernization.

 Second, they see enhancing the consumer experience as the battlefield for differentiation. This is not surprising, as the experience is more valued than the attached material items (like mobile phones). As there are no “net-new” customers, retention is paramount.

·       CSPs are too focused on omni-channel automation – automating the wrong (legacy) processes - instead of a holistic modeling exercise of outside-in, focusing on the business outcome of your processes. They should make the customer central to their business model.

 Third, CSPs are introducing new digital products to gain new revenue streams, preferably via a newly created platform connecting customers and partners (an economy of ecosystems).

·       It is not the new product, but your strategy or revised business model that should be the heart of the transformation effort and a new operating model for the organization. New digital products should be the logical result from that.

 What does “good” look like?

For successful CSPs, platforms have become the new products. It is not beneficial to package applications for upcoming new digital products. That results in a complex, unintegrated and inflexible situation. Besides, CSPs do not even know where their new revenue streams will come from exactly.

I believe that such a platform must contain business and IT transformation capabilities, since it will serve as a foundation for ongoing change. In addition, a holistic approach as integrated risk management uncovers the full scope of your digital business risks paving the way for digital innovation in a controlled way.

Watch the videos to get a better idea of what an outside-in approach can offer.

1.    Video 1: What are the Trends in Communication & Media? Link

2.    Video 2: What does Good look like for Communication Service Providers? Link