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How do telcos know if they’re on the right path to maturity?

Communications service providers often mistakenly equate digital transformation with application of technology, and the newer the better. In fact, digital transformation is about becoming more operationally like digital natives whose staggering success is built on customer centricity from the ground up. Technology is just the mechanism.

Annie Turner
10 Nov 2020
How do telcos know if they’re on the right path to maturity?

How do telcos know if they’re on the right path to maturity?

Communications service providers (CSPs) have been urged to digitalize their operations and businesses for about a decade now. From TM Forum’s research over those years, it seems many have yet to set foot on the path at all, and those that have are mostly finding it hard going. Our new report, Digital maturity: Are we on the right path? looks at how digital maturity models can help. CSPs often mistakenly equate digital transformation with application of technology, and the newer the better. In fact, digital transformation is about becoming more operationally like digital natives whose staggering success is built on customer centricity from the ground up. Technology is just the mechanism.

Over the last decade, CSPs have been severely criticized for “not being more like Google” and holding onto old-fashioned approaches like 99.999% network reliability, but that reliability and operational agility are providing the critical infrastructure we need in the era of Covid-19 when working from home is a must for many people.

It is unimaginable that just five years ago they could have handled what Scott Petty, CTO of Vodafone UK, described as the equivalent of a year’s increase in data volumes within days as countries went into lockdown, accompanied by huge shifts in where capacity was needed. So, progress has indeed been made on the network front at least.

Lack of strategy

Even so, our research for this new report reveals that strategy remains a fundamental weakness in most approaches to digitalization. This suggests an overall lack of strong leadership and vision, which leads to what Nathan Ott, Chief Polisher at The GC Index, describes as “pockets of digital capability everywhere.” Data is a great example of “digital pockets” as generally CSPs’ efforts to collate, analyze and act on data are piecemeal, while to be a truly data-driven business, easy access to useful data is needed on-demand right across the organization.

Culture is not a cost

Another serious issue holding back CSPs’ digitalization efforts is culture. As Erzsébet Malzenicky, Director Talent Strategy and Processes at VEON observes, “Everybody in the industry talks about the need for a transformation, but when it comes to the organizational and human aspect of it, it is too often seen as about costs and not investment.”

There is evidence of progress here too. Perhaps the single biggest problem with digital transformation, though, is that it is just so all-encompassing that many CSPs prefer to focus on the considerable and urgent issues involved in day-to-day challenges. Just figuring out where to start can seem like a huge barrier. The simplest and fastest solution to that dilemma is to gain an accurate picture of where the entire organization is now, digitally speaking, to prioritize the next steps. Digital maturity models can provide that hugely informative snapshot as a starting point, and if repeated at intervals, they can act as invaluable guides to monitor progress and realign priorities with changes in the market. Some changes are to be expected, such as new technologies, others less so, such as a pandemic. Either way, resetting the course as necessary is an essential part of achieving digital maturity.

Download the report