Customer focus in enterprise telecoms

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As connectivity commoditizes, service providers in the enterprise market the world over are having to evolve their propositions more closely to align with customer needs. These needs continue to evolve, driven by external trends like changing work practices, evolving supply chains, operational efficiency goals, and environmental issues. All these point towards improved business agility – and the pandemic is proof positive that enterprises and organizations can adapt rapidly – usually through the successful deployment of ICT. This is the key element. Connectivity is still about connecting A to B to C and the rest of the alphabet. It’s just that it has to be more dynamic and customers want automation, visibility, and control to meet their changing needs.

Service providers are doing well in making their offerings more flexible – and secure. They must, because it is a highly competitive world not just in the provision of connectivity, but in the services, applications, and data that drive commercial outcomes, with new players coming from left of field.

This is a challenge for telco organizations and cultures that have tended towards conservatism and years-long planning cycles, but it does not mean that fixed and mobile connectivity is not important – it is the foundation of all the services that get delivered to customers, so it cannot be dismissed. All the value-added offerings from unified communications, to cloud services, to the Internet of Things (IoT), through big data, AI, and maybe one day metaverse services, rely on connectivity, but also increasingly rely on understanding the enterprise customer itself.

So, if as a service provider you have your legacy and brand-new communications networks, platforms, and associated processes, systems, and support in place, how do you differentiate? The answer, as demonstrated by numerous but not universal test cases, is a transition from selling technology products to customers, to understanding their strategic drivers, then interpreting these in terms of technology solutions that can address their business needs.