Despite their emergence as essential service providers, global communications service providers have faced enormous challenges in the post-pandemic market. At the same time, operators around the world have had to learn to run their businesses in changing social dynamics. Many operators around the world began to shift their focus on introducing more digital services and putting in place improved infrastructure. This cultural shift promises increased demand for data services in the coming years and beyond.
Some of the trends shaping the current telecommunications landscape have been brought about by the rise of the digital way of doing things. According to McKinsey, companies around the world have increased their spending on technologies and services that enable digital transformations of their products, services, and practices, from USD 2 trillion to USD 3 trillion.
When it comes to businesses, this rapid advancement comes with the need to radically reimagine the current operating model.
The rapidly changing trends and significant innovation in the digital economy are transforming how consumers and companies interact and emphasizing the importance of digital channels. In a digitally-enabled world, customers increasingly interact online and expect subscription-based services to offer digital onboarding and self-care services.
With the shifting industry trends, it stands to reason that many communication service providers will choose to continue transforming their operations by digitizing their infrastructure and services.
Speaking on the importance of going digital, Omar Swati, Vice President SME & Consumer, Wateen Telecom, commented, “Finding success in the new and improved digital business model necessitates a fundamentally different approach to working – a much more agile one that is designed to provide ease and convenience for everyone.”
He added, “These changes require a cultural shift in the way of working that empowers not just the employees, but also partners and vendors, as they also need to reflect the new philosophy. For this to happen seamlessly, operators must ensure that they follow the best practices in agile development to make sure that Digital Pakistan leaves no one behind.”
Operators around the world are also starting to introduce the zero-touch network, which completely digitizes customer journeys. This can only be achieved by replacing all physical stores and customer touch points with digital ones that are fully automated.
This would be a win for both, the operators and their customers, as telcos would be able to digitize customer experience with digital customer service, while also saving up on their initial investment and overheads. This way, customers can enjoy full control over their subscriptions, thanks to end-to-end automation for every step of the customer journey. In order to fully support more advanced and digital services, operators are required to make backend operations and systems more flexible and agile. Some technologies capable of this include automated workflows, artificial intelligence, hyperscale infrastructure, digital applications, and more.
Operators from around the world should consider introducing a new streamlined, cloud-native digital brand rather than attempting to transform their existing infrastructure. Just by adopting digitization, operators can save up to 25% of operating costs over a digital and analytics transformation period of three years, along with a significant reduction in customer contact.
That way, operators can reduce their product portfolio and IT costs by a significant margin, too. This kind of transformation is inclusive of both the digitization of core customer journeys and the internal processes and data that drive real insights.