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For most CSPs, digital transformation will take place within the next five years and during thattime five significant changes will occur, writes Jennifer Kyriakakis

t TC3, the Telecom Council of SiliconValley’s recent annual innovation event,Mark Sherman, the managing director ofTelstra Ventures caused a stir. TelstraVentures invests in technologies that are

strategic to the Australian communications serviceprovider’s (CSP’s) future, so he encounters a lot oftechnology innovation. He predicted that within fiveyears, the ‘heart and lungs’ billing systems of everyCSP in the room would need renewing. Which was astartling pronouncement considering those systemshave managed to survive for nearly two decades.

Sherman can be confident because Telstra has seenthe future and is already adapting to it. The reason heequates such systems with vital organs is that in spiteof years of neglect, they are now technically andstrategically critical to the survival of CSPs. Particularlythe ones who are planning to become digital serviceproviders (DSPs).

This has not gone unnoticed by budding DSPs whohave invited a new breed of executive to join the toptable team: the chief digital officer – sometimes calledthe digital strategy officer. These new digital officersare in for the ride of their lives; they’re charged withtaking the whole business online and enablingcustomers not only to buy whatever they need –instantly and direct from the device – but through anydigital channel with a consistent user experience.Gone will be costly and slow operations; it’ll be up tothe customers what they want, when they want it, andhow they want it.

That’s not to say that the swinging sixties are with usagain. There are some guidelines this time, andalthough those are unique to each and every CSP’soperations, we can draw a general picture.

Five changes in five yearsFor most CSPs, digital transformation will take placewithin the next five years – as flagged by Sherman –and is likely to have five components to it, each withtheir own priority. Firstly, there’ll be digital channelenablement, where every mobile service is made

available direct for purchase from any device. If this issuccessful, multi-million dollar contact centre costsare scaled down as customers use online channels totransact in real-time with DSPs. If they want to changeanything about their account, they do it straight awayfrom their device without having to call someone andthen wait for hours or days for the product to beprovisioned.

Of course, that means that products need to bedesigned by DSPs specifically for digital channels, buthaving a real-time view of customer needs will enablethem to more rapidly model new service and tariffimpacts and tune products accordingly. Customerswill also need a real-time self-care interface that helpsthem understand their usage in terms they canunderstand, and proactively receive alerts whenthey’re approaching their plan limits. They’ll also needmultiple, onward pathways to top-up allowances, andalso to redistribute shared services between families,groups or work colleagues, all at the flick of agraphical slider on their self-care app.

And, they’ll need to see those changes reflectedimmediately, not 48 hours later when either overageshave been applied or the decision is no longerrelevant to them. Self-configuration of their account tosuit their own preferences will be vital to customerlongevity and for DSPs, the push of personalisedoffers in return will complement this freedom.

Repositioning within the value chainThe subtext here of course is not only that CSPs needtechnology working behind the scenes to do this, butthat they need to reposition themselves within thevalue chain. Some CSPs are experimenting withasymmetric business models such as sponsored datawhere a strategic third party pays for the customerdata usage or for example where travel companiesoffer their own roaming packages direct to their owncustomers. The key here is that data moves beyondmere network access and fixed tariffing towardsbecoming a flexible product that meets new customerneeds – putting data at their disposal. And this meansthat CSPs need to shift from being a connection-

Heart, lungs and soul:the coming battle fordigital ascendancy

AThe author, JenniferKyriakakis, isfounder and vicepresident ofmarketing atMATRIXX Software

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based business to being one based on having aunique view of each of their customers.

The sheer force, proximity and resulting magnitude ofthis change is the digital officer’s imperative – becauseit impacts the entire organisation across individual staff,departments, processes and technologies. Thoseheart and lung systems are suddenly elevated fromthe back office to being the key strategic capabilityrequired to enable the change. But, in the rush to pull itall together, quick-fixes have constituted glossymarketing and campaign management tools,questionable analytics and open-ended social portalswhere views are collected but are not actionable inreal-time. They only solve the issue at skin-depth andfrankly the results from these projects represent poorvalue because they don’t deliver the deep change thatcustomers need to dramatically improve their experience.

At the very core, the success of that elevatedexperience – and for CSPs to make the transition frombeing the provider of access to the provider of value –rests on next generation real-time charging, billing andpolicy. These core IT assets must themselves adaptfor the digital world, enabling DSPs to servecustomers through digital channels. But what willthese new systems look like?

Unified functionality, all in real-timeWe know that underlying policy and chargingfunctionality needs to be unified in order to supportdigital business models which are infinitely morecomplex than those needed for voice or text services.These include customer-defined application quotaswhere, for example, parents limit the consumption ofdata specific to particular apps that their kids use.Also there will be partner-defined applications quotas,where OTT players work with DSPs to promotespecific application usage, and then define pricing andrevenue distribution accordingly. Then, there’s the

ability to offer personalised promotional vouchers andenter into contextual upsell opportunities keyed to acustomer’s unique requirements. Subsidised andsponsored content, and the ability to optimise videocontent for, say, an HD-based premium, complete thepicture. On the back of this, the product catalogueneeds to incorporate policy so that offers can betailored both by the DSP and by the individualcustomer.

Critically, everything must happen in real-time. Itdoesn’t matter if a customer can now buy an offerthrough an app if they can’t get the offer they want,have a hard time finding it, have to wait 24 hours for itto provision, or don’t understand how it’s beingcharged for. Unleashing self-care for customersmeans exposing them to the capability of the systemsthat drive our emerging digital economy. Any falsemove here is very visible to the customer. So, DSPs need to be able to trust that they have asingle, 100% accurate view of the customer, theirservices, balances, spending and options. Thiscreates a digital experience for the customer that isconsistent across mobile app, online, and variouschannels by making use of a single set of functionsthat are all looking at the same data.

Ultimately, merely adding a digital veneer front endwithout upgrading the systems that drive it will becounterproductive. There is already an explosion inthe number of customer interactions with their serviceprovider, and these interactions are becomingincreasingly complex. It’s about also implementingreal-time capability in the core to give customer careand billing the injection of new capabilities needed tosupport the end-to-end digital customer processes. Those first digital officers are already assessing how todo this in a way that is cost effective and results inquick wins for the business. And that’s why the heartand lungs also need a real-time soul. www.matrixx.com

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At the very core, thesuccess of thatelevated experience– and for CSPs tomake the transitionfrom being theprovider of access tothe provider of value– rests on nextgeneration real-timecharging, billing andpolicy

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