Unlocking value in B2B at MWC

Telecoms.com periodically invites third parties to share their views on the industry’s most pressing issues. In this piece Anders Lindblad, Communications & Media Industry Lead for Europe at Accenture, looks at unlocking value in B2B connectivity.

Growth in the communications industry has stalled and competition continues to intensify. CSPs know they must act and rethink their business models, but for too long there has been a lot of debate and very little action. We expect the buzz will continue on this topic at MWC. While some have put some form of change programs in place before, most of those have failed because they have been trying to patch up specific problems rather than taking a much bolder move to reinvent the way the whole business works.

Right now, CSPs are trapped, stuck in current operating models and the same old ways of doing things which make it hard to monetize investments and drive new growth. They are not ready yet to get rid of their legacy network and services since they still generate most of the (declining) revenue. This is preventing them to leverage their biggest asset: the capillarity and proximity to the customer. But the roll out of fibre and 5G could be the catalyst that encourages them to make drastic changes in the way they function and the products and services they provide.

The route to new growth is most likely to be in the B2B space, so expect to hear more about connected B2B possibilities and the importance of collaboration across vertical industries and value chains than ever before at the show. Discussions will be about the most efficient way to move from their legacy network and infrastructure and transition to a hybrid (cloud and on premise) software defined services portfolio, how to push the network intelligence at the edge, while embedding the OTT platform at the edge instead of being “embedded” by OTT, reinventing the device ecosystem leveraging the ‘decade of device divergence’ we are facing. Connected cars, connected health, augmented and virtual reality, is the prize of the game – the entire organisation will need to become much more agile and flexible to allow for front and back office supporting processes and technology to keep up with the possibilities.

The biggest B2B opportunity for CSPs could be in the SME segment. To succeed, they must adopt a bundling approach to services towards the customer, paired with intelligent pricing of their core services and drive simplicity through a digital-first approach and self-service capabilities. CSPs may have tried this approach in the past without success, but this time they can take a digital, platform-based approach to allow them to successfully simplify and standardize their offering portfolio, enable their own and third-party sales and services to effectively go to market and significantly bring down the cost to serve these customers. CSPs must have the courage to act now and renew their service portfolio quickly if they are going to retain and win market share.

Transforming the operating model toward customer centricity and agility, pushing the intelligence at the edge of the Network and injecting automation (Robotic Process Automation, AI) into the core culture, will provide a future-proofed foundation for communications companies to scale the value of their service portfolio for the B2B market and re-gain a central orchestration role in the device ecosystem that they currently don’t have.

The CSPs that understand the huge potential that B2B brings and move fast on new agile ways of working to adapt to these new capabilities will take the biggest share. If the opportunity is not captured NOW, using the newest and most innovative technologies available, and before the 5G ecosystem power game is settled, the market will find different winners, mostly coming for each vertical industry from over the top players.

Anders Lindblad is Accenture’s Communications & Media industry lead for Europe, responsible for business development and operations in the region and for helping clients form and deliver large-scale transformation programs.