Customer-centric transformation, the key to success for CSPs
A digital platform can respond quickly to customer needs by providing a strong foundation layer with commerce, marketplace and omnichannel capabilities. But how do you choose the right platform?
17 Dec 2019
Customer-centric transformation, the key to success for CSPs
Sponsored by: Born Group
Communications service providers (CSPs) have been at the forefront of innovation from the time the first telephone call was made over a century ago, to today where telephone calls are just one part of their bouquet of offerings.
The initial set of innovations were technology-led with new network technologies aimed at improving the quality of services and convenience to customers. The next set of innovations were led by the augmentation of services like bundling plans and devices where the focus was on delivering maximum value to customers while continuing to focus on the core.
Today, the role of CSPs is expanding from that of a communications provider to a customer digital lifestyle partner, orchestrating a collaborative model to augment their products and services with new offerings from a wide array of partners. Most successful CSPs are striving to co-innovate offerings in a partnership ecosystem that involves providing complementary products and service offerings to customers, from multiple partners, through an omnichannel digital platform.
Declining new customer acquisitions due to market saturation, falling average revenue per user (ARPU) putting heavy pressure on margins, years of legacy resulting in a loss of agility and momentum, and finally, the lack of strategy in generating economic value in new unpredictable business models and partnership ecosystems are some of the challenges that CSPs are facing today. To add to this, there is the added pressure of continuously upgrading to new technologies like 5G, at an increasing cost, with an ever-shortening runway, to maximize ROI before the next wave of investments hit them.
While the challenges continue to mount, so do the opportunities presented by the newer technologies and changing business models. It is imperative for the CSPs to adapt to the changing business landscape by focusing on changing the needs of customers, and quickly responding with better products and offers - thereby generating economic value for themselves.
A digital platform provides this ability to respond quickly by providing a strong foundation layer with commerce, marketplace and omnichannel capabilities. The capabilities of this foundation layer can be leveraged to create a new product offering or onboard a new partner or combine an offering from a partner with an existing offering and provision it quickly in a channel. The success of this digital platform lies in:
A strategy is only the starting point. Only a mere 26% of CSPs are actually in the execution stage. A survey by Bearing point states that one among the major challenges that CSPs face in execution is having the right technology and digital business platform to manage the partner ecosystem.
BORN has been a pioneer in creating digital platforms and ecosystems for clients globally across many industries. With a clear focus on agility, the BORN transformation model aims at generating value quickly and iteratively by building the foundation of digital ecosystem, then improving it iteratively, maintaining the agility to adapt to the ever-evolving global CSP landscape.
“We look at creating a foundation layer which essentially acts as the digital platform for the future,” explains Prakash Gurumoorthy, BORN’s MD (APAC). “The foundation layer then becomes the catalyst to onboard new channels for the CSPs. It could be a web channel; it could be a mobile channel; it could be a subscription channel – any new channels a CSP looks for.”
In multiple projects with leading industry players, BORN has helped by setting up an omnichannel experience with unified product catalogs across channels, and a digital marketplace for creating partnership ecosystems, using a common CMS for better branding and consistent messaging. We enable understanding of end customers’ behavior and needs across channels holistically to customize offerings, and resolve customer queries and complaints faster.
In addition to technology, BORN helps to realign organizational processes and operations to the new ecosystem, building long-term capabilities through team specialization.
Visit the Born Group website or contact me directly for further information: prakash.gurumoorthy@borngroup.com
The initial set of innovations were technology-led with new network technologies aimed at improving the quality of services and convenience to customers. The next set of innovations were led by the augmentation of services like bundling plans and devices where the focus was on delivering maximum value to customers while continuing to focus on the core.
Today, the role of CSPs is expanding from that of a communications provider to a customer digital lifestyle partner, orchestrating a collaborative model to augment their products and services with new offerings from a wide array of partners. Most successful CSPs are striving to co-innovate offerings in a partnership ecosystem that involves providing complementary products and service offerings to customers, from multiple partners, through an omnichannel digital platform.
CSPs must adapt
Declining new customer acquisitions due to market saturation, falling average revenue per user (ARPU) putting heavy pressure on margins, years of legacy resulting in a loss of agility and momentum, and finally, the lack of strategy in generating economic value in new unpredictable business models and partnership ecosystems are some of the challenges that CSPs are facing today. To add to this, there is the added pressure of continuously upgrading to new technologies like 5G, at an increasing cost, with an ever-shortening runway, to maximize ROI before the next wave of investments hit them.
While the challenges continue to mount, so do the opportunities presented by the newer technologies and changing business models. It is imperative for the CSPs to adapt to the changing business landscape by focusing on changing the needs of customers, and quickly responding with better products and offers - thereby generating economic value for themselves.
Platform power
A digital platform provides this ability to respond quickly by providing a strong foundation layer with commerce, marketplace and omnichannel capabilities. The capabilities of this foundation layer can be leveraged to create a new product offering or onboard a new partner or combine an offering from a partner with an existing offering and provision it quickly in a channel. The success of this digital platform lies in:
- The ability to provide omnichannel experience across online and offline channels
- Enabling the front (digital) to quickly adapt to market realities without having the back (BSS systems) to undergo major changes
- Consistent information of products and offers across all channels
- The ability to onboard and bundle new partners and their offerings quickly
- The ability to track customer behavior and achieve personalization at scale
- Re-aligning business processes and people to a new way of life
Choosing right
A strategy is only the starting point. Only a mere 26% of CSPs are actually in the execution stage. A survey by Bearing point states that one among the major challenges that CSPs face in execution is having the right technology and digital business platform to manage the partner ecosystem.
BORN has been a pioneer in creating digital platforms and ecosystems for clients globally across many industries. With a clear focus on agility, the BORN transformation model aims at generating value quickly and iteratively by building the foundation of digital ecosystem, then improving it iteratively, maintaining the agility to adapt to the ever-evolving global CSP landscape.
“We look at creating a foundation layer which essentially acts as the digital platform for the future,” explains Prakash Gurumoorthy, BORN’s MD (APAC). “The foundation layer then becomes the catalyst to onboard new channels for the CSPs. It could be a web channel; it could be a mobile channel; it could be a subscription channel – any new channels a CSP looks for.”
In multiple projects with leading industry players, BORN has helped by setting up an omnichannel experience with unified product catalogs across channels, and a digital marketplace for creating partnership ecosystems, using a common CMS for better branding and consistent messaging. We enable understanding of end customers’ behavior and needs across channels holistically to customize offerings, and resolve customer queries and complaints faster.
In addition to technology, BORN helps to realign organizational processes and operations to the new ecosystem, building long-term capabilities through team specialization.
Visit the Born Group website or contact me directly for further information: prakash.gurumoorthy@borngroup.com
