Everything is going digital. In 1995, it was music and photography. In 2005, it was print media and TV. Now, the finance and automotive sectors are digitalising their industries to better serve a new generation of consumers.
The most important current digital transformation, however, is taking place in the telecom sector, says Jennifer Kyriakakis, founder of MATRIXX Software.
That’s because everything else depends on mobile service providers to deliver the apps and services that make music, photography, TV and countless others exciting. Everyone knows that Millennials are a bigger cohort than Baby Boomers, but how will mobile service providers (MSPs) put digital transformation into high gear to meet their expectations?
Here are four trends every telecom company should pay attention to and apply in order to evolve and grow in 2017 and beyond:
Digital strategies are moving into the execution phase. Digital leaders are already starting to emerge, and they’re the ones winning customers and making money. Investors and financial analysts will start benchmarking their efforts. What’s at stake? McKinsey & Company research shows telecom companies with robust digital capabilities boast a profit margin of 43%, compared to their counterparts whose margins hover around 21%. That’s why over the last three years, 25% of MSPs hired a chief digital officer to develop and rollout new digital experiences for their customers.
Cloud support for MSP services is going mainstream. MSPs have been very cautious to date about putting the crown jewels of their operational business in the cloud. But in 2017, they will finally embrace cloud software to boost their operational agility. By using the cloud, MSPs gain the agility needed to serve the rocketing Digital Economy by ‘plugging’ straight into technology that allows them to adapt and profit from day one, rather than sticking with their sluggish legacy technology.
Omnichannel is everything. MSPs have been building out the capability to interact seamlessly with consumers no matter what device they’re using, and as they swap between multiple devices. It’s all part of the bigger picture, to help consumers define and manage their own service, on their own terms.
The acquisition of Time Warner by AT&T points to more M&As this year. AT&T also bought DirectTV, and Verizon bought Yahoo and AOL. Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the telecoms sector will pick up the pace during 2017, as bigger companies push full-force into transforming into media and internet companies. This trend is largely driven by the increasing proliferation of on-demand capabilities, as consumers wish to only pay for what they use. We will see an escalation in M&As to meet the needs of this new ‘on-demand’ digital economy.
The author of this blog is Jennifer Kyriakakis, founder of MATRIXX Software
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