Mariam Abdullahi, Telco Industry Lead at SAP Africa, has identified four major digital transformation priorities for telecom operators in Africa.
African telecoms operators (telecoms) are facing the converging forces of digital disruption due to: easy access to broadband internet, popular over the top (OTT) services such as WhatsApp, and changing consumer needs.
Telecom operators are shifting away from simple communication services delivery to become digital service providers (DSPs) seeking additional revenue streams. This is because telecom operators will lose out on $386 billion between 2012 and 2018 because of over-the-top VoIP services cannibalizing voice revenues, according to research firm Ovum.
Operators are looking at owning more of the customer mindshare by creating great brands built on practical usefulness, reliability, innovation, cost, and entertainment. Telecoms are no longer simply looking for revenue-generating customers; the focus is now on creating new revenue opportunities that allow them to sell business and lifestyle services at higher margins.
Digital transformation for telecoms
Improving the customer experience
Consumers demand personalised services and products to match their lifestyles. Telecom operators’ focus has shifted away from customer relationship management (CRM) to personalised engagement across any device.
82 percent of telecoms consider customer experience (CX) management as a top three priority for the industry. The increasing demand for personalisation has given rise to the development of unique experiences delivered to match individual customers’ interests, according to a EY telecoms industry study.
As customers interact with telecoms through their channels such as email, voice call, social media, or another channel, operators will need to take a non-linear approach to customer engagement. Telecoms need a platform that can integrate all channels and provide a single accurate view of a customer. Telecoms can leverage analytics to improve product development. Telecoms can enable smarter selling by increasing the relevance of their offer based on individual customer behavior.
Big Data and real-time analytics
There will be an internet population of 3 billion and an expected 30-50 billion connected devices by 2020.
By adopting in-memory computing platforms, telecoms can leverage big data from mobile devices, sensors, usage patterns, social media, and geolocation to create a single integrated data set that can inform improved business processes and create optimal customer experiences. This can also drive real-time insights and unlock new revenue streams.
Effective workforce engagement
Workforce management is critical to Afican telecoms due to the digital skills shortage. Operators are relooking how they recruit, retain, and manage employees in a market where talent is a key commodity.
Telecoms that digitise their workforce gain the benefit of total workforce management supported by advanced analytics.
Enabling machine learning capabilities to drive innovation
With an estimated market value of $47 billion by 2020 according to the IDC, machine learning is bringing new innovation capabilities and improved operations to data-heavy industries around the world, spanning from supply chain to retail to telecoms.
Machine learning can unlock new operational efficiencies by automating manual tasks and speeding up time-to-resolution. This can play a transformative role in the way telecoms conduct finances (through automated payment matching, for example), recruit for top talent (through intelligent job matching), and improve customer service (by gathering, analysing and responding to feedback quickly and efficiently).
Mobile operators should take a platform approach to ensure they have the tools to innovate and deploy machine learning solutions at speed and scale.
40 percent of the potential value locked within IoT demands interoperability between IoT systems, which requires a strong platform, according to McKinsey report.
SAP Leonardo is a digital platform that brings together technologies such as machine learning, IoT, analytics, big data, and blockchain. SAP Leonardo enables telecoms to launch new innovations at scale while unlocking additional revenue opportunities from historical data and processes, and helps to redefine business models.
By Mariam Abdullahi, Telco Industry Lead at SAP Africa