Adapt fast or decline faster: How telecoms carrier can take on Silicon Valley’s tech giants – Part 2

Frank Paterno, senior director, Global Carriers, PGi

Unified Communication & Collaboration (UC&C) provision is becoming more pervasive, with smart devices supporting clientless unified communications applications, a greater density of commodity video and a reliance on cloud services.

Whether your organisation is aggressively evaluating how to insert collaboration into customer conversations or you have a clear UC&C strategy, there’s no way to avoid the tech industry titans, threatening Carrier disruption. And we know that Silicon Valley is famous for a “move quickly and break things” mindset, so Carriers need to reposition their collaboration offerings effectively, but do so, quickly, says Frank Paterno, senior director, Global Carrier, PGi. (Also see: Adapt fast or decline faster: Part 1.)

Before we outline our top tips, it should be noted that in a strategic partnership, Carrier and UC&C providers can deliver mutual benefit. The UC&C providers can improve the customer experience, open opportunities for upselling and cross-selling and deliver market innovation in a timely and cost-effective manner. And Carriers can gain a competitive advantage by expanding their offerings whilst knocking down obstacles to their own expansion and monetisation.

So, as carriers plan their Unified Communications and Collaboration strategy, here are our key tips to strengthen your role as a cornerstone in the development of your customers’ UC&C practices:

Leverage your brand: It is important to co-brand/white-label the entire solution, including the user interface, so that notifications and audio prompts maintain your relevance in the eyes of the end customer.

(Bring Your Own Network) BYON: 
Network integration allows the Carrier to ‘Bring-Your-Own-Network’ for origination and termination of all calls, which will maximise your existing infrastructure utilisation model.

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Meet them where they live: Using built-in multi-language number sets will complement the Carrier’s network and support other regional requirements.

Go-to-market enablement: Develop marketing templates, product positioning and adoption programmes that provide a quick entrance into the market.

Expertise on tap: Using a team of collaboration experts, and around the clock
customer service agents, will help augment the efforts of your sales and service delivery team.

Audio clarity: Positioning your offer as having crystal clear sound and superior audio, over a dedicated global private MPLS backbone, with multiple access points, dial–in and dial-out options, HD Video and Dolby Voice will ensure real audio quality.

Demonstrate scalability: Showing and explaining that your services are able to scale easily, whether that is, for example, catering for a meeting for 10 people in the UK, or a meeting of 10,000 people across the world is essential

The winning Carriers of the future are unlikely to stand-alone on an island. Increasingly, therefore, CSPs are seeking strategic partnerships to provide greater relevance and enhanced customer experiences while leveraging network assets, creating new revenue streams, improving the “stickiness” of their traditional services and reaching previously untapped markets.

Addressing how to position yourself for future success, against these Silicon Valley technology titans, will help your customers cut costs and propel their productivity. Doing this will enable you to continue as a valuable partner to your customers, for decades to come.

The author of this blog is Frank Paterno, senior director, Global Carrier, PGi. Frank is the senior director of Global Carrier at PGi, the world’s largest dedicated provider of collaboration software and services. Frank helps PGi’s communication service provider partners leverage PGi’s technology along with their own corporate brand and network assets to create an unrivaled UC&C offering. Frank has 17 years of experience in technology product and marketing experience.

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