As communications service providers (CSPs) start to move into adjacent areas and take new approaches to delivering services, they are starting to become digital service providers (DSPs). Here George Fraser, the vice president for EMEA at CSG International, tells VanillaPlus how DSP demands differ but remain aligned with CSP requirements.
VanillaPlus: We saw CSG International launch its new Ascendon concept at MWC. Can you bring us up to speed with that proposition?
George Fraser: Ascendon launched at MWC and got a lot of interest from analysts and from our customers. Simply put, it’s a digital commerce platform, designed to help CSPs and other businesses reach customers more easily with digital service offerings. It’s getting a lot of interest from CSPs, but not only from CSPs. Ascendon customers already include digital content producers who want to sell their product directly to the market and digital retailers, which increasingly moving from a high street presence to an online presence and selling digital alongside physical services.
VP: Does this mark a departure from CSG International’s traditional CSP and cable operator markets?
GF: Only in the sense that those traditional communications and cable markets are themselves broadening, diversifying and in some cases merging to explore new kinds of digital propositions, many of which are only tangentially related to their traditional communications services. Some of these are based on delivering content and entertainment, some on cloud-based applications and services, others based on collaboration with other industries in the IoT or industrial internet space. The common factor is that all are based on combining the reach of the network with the potential that IP technology allows to develop and deliver very new kinds of services.
It’s starting to feel like anything you’d describe as a traditional CSP will soon have protected species status, so in some ways we’ve just been anticipating a clear trend in the market as CSPs look for new ways to monetise their network capabilities and customer reach.
We’ll continue to support CSPs in the management and delivery of communications services, of course – which we anticipate having a very long tail indeed – but we’re excited about supporting CSPs as they transition into digital service providers (DSPs). The solutions that we’re developing, because they support digital as well as network services, are equally applicable to other kinds of digital service providers – those that don’t own a network – so it’s allowing us to broaden our addressable market.
VP: How do the demands of the DSP differ from those of traditional CSPs?
GF: They differ in two key areas which are really fundamental to the Ascendon proposition. One is supporting digital commerce, which relies on being responsive to market opportunities, on flexibility in the business models which underpin the proposition, and on speed to market with new ideas and propositions. The second is supporting what we’re calling the evolved consumer, who has very different expectations of what a service is, how it should be paid for, how it should be accessible across multiple devices, accessible by a number of users – such as in a family group – and so on.
To deal with different kinds of propositions and business models, and to meet the expectations of digital natives – as well as their parents and employers – the supporting platform needs to be very flexible and usable.
The problem that a lot of CSPs still have is that they’re reliant on systems that were designed to support traditional services and much more static business models. In the digital economy, service providers are facing up to the need to package, offer, deliver and charge for new services using many different business models – but they don’t want to have to develop new systems and risk a lot of investment to support each offering.
VP: That sounds quite different from traditional communications service provision, and from traditional BSS. Is it an area where CSG has credibility? We associate you more with traditional BSS for traditional subscribers.
GF: That traditional capability isn’t going away – the services that it supports will remain part of most CSP’s portfolios for many years and will continue to be part of ours. But CSG has been rolling out and supporting new kinds of business-supporting functionality for a number of years now, and that experience is the basis for Ascendon. Many of our customers are now in the digital entertainment retail spaces from which we’ve learned a great deal. Take for example Comcast’s Xfinity-On-Campus proposition that allows university students to watch TV and on-demand content on their laptops, tablets and smartphones while on campus, using their university credentials to validate a wide range of payment options. Another example is Cineplex, which has worked with us to blend the user experience of both its digital download services and physical cinemas in a way that promotes both channels.
VP: How will you persuade CSPs to replace that deeply embedded legacy BSS – which in some cases is your own software?
GF: There are two approaches – Ascendon is an overlay solution which actually works with legacy systems but provides the CSP with a smarter way to deal with new services and new customer expectations. It’s a lighter and more agile approach that’s quick to deploy and use, and far less disruptive than any conventional replacement approach, but still leaves open the possibility of a complete transformation later.
The second is that we’re offering Ascendon as a managed services proposition, which is a big part of CSG’s go-to-market these days – it’s something we’ll be talking about at TMF Live! in Nice. The option to introduce overlay functionality, and the Ascendon delivery model, based on cloud-based software and managed services, offers the service provider a low-risk upgrade with relatively little capital outlay. Customers can enhance their existing architectures quickly but retain the potential to completely transform their environment further down the line. As for our managed services, you’ll be hearing a lot more at TMF Live! as our vice president Alam Gill will be talking about that at the event.
VP: It looks like it’s going to be an interesting year or two for CSG International. Is CSP
transformation now a reality?
GF: We certainly think so. We’ve always talked about this industry being in a state of flux and change, but now it’s more than hyperbole. The change going on in terms of consolidation and innovation is seismic, but we think the combination of our long heritage in communications and services, coupled with some pretty innovative thinking of our own has readied us to help our customers meet those challenges and opportunities.
