Research Report | Beyond Connectivity, Financial services, 5G Monetization, B2B2X, Connectivity as a Service (CaaS), Open APIs, Business models, Marketplaces, B2B services, Open Digital Architecture (ODA)

Exploring marketplaces for software & services

CSPs are interested in creating marketplaces for their own, and 3rd party products and services. But what is a marketplace and what are the business models?

Tim McElligott

Dawn Bushaus

13 Jul 2021

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Exploring marketplaces for software & services

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Exploring marketplaces for software & services

The Amazon Marketplace has forever altered how people (and companies) buy goods and services. Access to a huge number of sellers and lightning-fast fulﬁllment are now standard expectations for customer experience, and communications service providers (CSPs) have been taking notes. This report explores the development of marketplaces as a way for CSPs to protect and expose their value as providers of not only connectivity, but also networking and operations assets, management capabilities, and perhaps most importantly, data. During our research, we surveyed 80 CSP executives from 67 unique companies around the globe and their suppliers to find out what the drivers and challenges are in creating marketplaces, and whether one approach is favored over another. Job roles of the CSP respondents include CIO, senior VP of strategy, heads of engineering and IT, and senior and enterprise architects, among others. We also conducted many in-depth interviews with executives from CSPs and suppliers. Read the report to understand:

Why the time is right for CSPs to build and participate in marketplaces, and what the drivers are
The models telcos are using to deploy marketplaces and where they are offering them
Why CSPs still want to control the relationship with customers
Why they prefer a neutral third-party marketplace operator over one hosted by a hyperscale cloud providers
What the advantages are of a software marketplace for components that comply with the TM Forum Open Digital Architecture
Why suppliers are skeptical about killing the RFP (request for proposal)
Challenges to implementing marketplaces and why the mental shift to the marketplace business model may be more difficult than the technical shift

Tim McElligott

Dawn Bushaus

Contributing Editor

Dawn began her career in technology journalism in 1989 at Telephony magazine. In 1996, she joined a team of journalists to start a McGraw-Hill publication called tele.com, and in 2000, she helped a team at Ziff-Davis launch The Net Economy, where she held senior writing and editing positions. Prior to joining TM Forum, she worked as a contributing analyst for Heavy Reading.