Why 2016 is the Year of the Perfect Digital Company

In 2015, Comptel encouraged operators to embark on their own Operation Nexterday and re-imagine their sales, marketing and service playbooks in reaction to new digital opportunities. This year, we’re asking operators to take the next step and work on designing the perfect digital company.

What does such a company look like? Broadly speaking, it’s a business that is built not only to serve customers’ unique needs, but one that seeks input from those customers to inform its decisions. In other words, the prefect digital company is built for and with its customers.

Digitalisation makes this possible. Generation Cloud demands highly personalised and instantly available services from operators, and they want more say in how these products actually serve them. That means customers want to be able to set service terms and avoid hard-and-fast tiered packaging that, for a long time, has defined the telco industry and limited service disruption.

Customers are also increasingly surrounding themselves with a variety of apps and digital content that address their needs. This digital service ecosystem includes products from traditional telcos and non-industry players like Google and Amazon, and it’s always evolving as customers add new apps or drop services that no longer excite or intrigue them.

The devices on which these services exist also play a role. The emergence of connected devices, from smartwatches to smart cars, adds a new layer – and a new level of complexity – to the digital ecosystem.

Ultimately, operators must determine how they fit into all of this. Digitalisation introduces a bevy of new consumer and network technologies for operators to leverage, and it also allows telcos to think creatively about how they can serve their customers. In a bid to become the perfect digital company, operators need to open their minds to new ways of thinking and address key growth factors in various areas of their business.

In a predictions piece for The Fast Mode, “Telco in 2016: Build the Perfect Digital Company For, and With, Your Customers,” we outlined four focus areas operators will need to address if they hope to achieve the dream of becoming a perfect digital company.

Deliver Real-Time Decisions and Automated Customer Actions

The speed at which consumers evaluate and buy digital services is faster than ever, meaning operators need to keep pace. In 2016, operators must leverage the customer behavioural data they already have, plus customer action automation technology, to create better customer experiences. The Four Cs will define these experiences: by applying the right Context, the most appropriate Content can be delivered to the right Customer through the best possible Channels.

Accelerate Product Delivery to Enable a Digital Service Ecosystem

Speed is also a critical factor when it comes to product delivery, and in 2016 operators will need to learn how to configure, test and launch services faster so that customers can build their personal digital ecosystem at a pace that works for them. To achieve this pace, operators will need to eliminate friction in the service lifecycle process, invest in tools that recognize demand quickly and embrace creative monetisation models.

Understand the Purpose of Open Network Integration

Network functions virtualisation (NFV) already forces operators to re-imagine how the network is built to serve new market realities, but it’s about more than flashy new technology. This year, operators need to recognise that the true potential of a flexible, agile network infrastructure is its ability to deliver a frictionless, dynamic and elastic service delivery experience for customers. As always, technology is supposed to serve human interests.

Embrace Data to Enable Smarter Living

Finally, operators this year must consider how the Smart Living movement will affect the development of personal digital service ecosystems. Connected devices are introducing new use cases for technology that telco may have previously lost sight of: the benefits of real-time data in improving education, the environment, personal health or global security. Operators have an important role to play in the development of these services, because they can offer the immediate data insights that power a smarter world – if they are ready to step to the plate.

To date, operators have wondered how they could leverage the industry’s megatrends to benefit their own bottom line. In 2016, many will realise that the real goal should be on working for and with their customers to improve their daily lives. In taking this fresh outlook, operators will not only better serve consumers, but they’ll also unlock routes to new revenue-driving service opportunities that will shore up their relevance in the rapidly evolving digital world.