CSPs Well-Placed to Manage Enterprises' Digital Solutions

Communication service providers are well-positioned to operate enterprises' digital solutions, taking market share from IT integrators, due to CSPs' broadband deployments, investments in software-based infrastructure and expertise managing diverse technical assets, suggests a recent report.

In "Major Strategic Choices Ahead for Telcos: Reconfiguring for Value," consulting firm Arthur D. Little predicts the B2B2x market -- or the market for operating clients' digital solutions -- will reach $276 billion by 2020, representing 8% of information communication technology (ICT) spending. This includes responding to end-customers' questions; invoicing on an event-driven basis; monitoring delivery, installation and service performance; and managing licensing and configuration, Arthur D. Little said.

While Internet of Things and smart-home solutions start to permeate, providers such as car-makers typically don't have this type of capability in place. Telcos, however, have a legacy of providing these services. Their recent and ongoing investments in efficiency -- SDN, open source, CORD and analytics -- make them attractive partners to automotive companies, IoT-equipped furniture makers and appliance manufacturers, among others, said ADL.

"About two-thirds or more of the executives we have interviewed have stated that customer experience is very important to them. Customer experience is broken into three areas: customer interaction, service usage and network experience," Bela Virag, partner at ADL, told UBB2020. "All operators are trying to find economic means to provide faster and better services to their customers. Some will master the B2B2x opportunity, while others may ignore it altogether."

Beyond speed
With their investments in ultra-broadband well underway, operators need new ways to differentiate themselves from competitors.

"It is these choices that operators face regarding their configuration that will drive them to be less look-alike than they are today," Virag said. "In our report, we are outlining the options operators need to ask themselves. These revolve around stepping up the game in B2B2x, deciding on how to transform their production model and, finally, reconfiguring their assets."

Many industries are ripe for operator assistance in digitization and customer support. These include: transportation, building automation, healthcare, media, energy and utilities, commerce, IT, agriculture and government. In healthcare, for example, providers have long battled with their inability to monitor the surge of personal wellness devices and terabytes of data generated by health trackers. With a history of capturing, storing and analyzing reams of data and equipped with high-performance bandwidth and efficient infrastructures, service providers are well-positioned to partner with health institutions and device makers.

As service providers continue to deploy ultra-broadband, analytics and open infrastructures, their ability to offer new services opens the door to incremental revenue and an accelerated return on investment for their transformational technologies.

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  — Alison Diana, Editor, UBB2020. Follow us on Twitter @UBB2020 or @alisoncdiana.