The enterprise mobility opportunity
The opportunity that exists for the mobile enterprise is huge, without a doubt. A recent Telco 2.0 research report from STL Partners found that less than half of the enterprises surveyed have a formal enterprise mobility strategy or mobile device management solution in place.
The report also found that more than half the enterprise market would consider buying enterprise mobility solutions says Jennifer Fellows of MDS, mobile app development platforms, managed mobility services, enterprise app stores and mobile apps from telcos. Enterprises want to buy from telcos because, in their eyes, enterprise apps belong to telco’s portfolio: telco offers network expertise, one supplier, the ability to add on services and simpler billing.
But crucially, enterprises aren’t buying from telcos because of data security concerns, lack of business process expertise and lack of app development expertise – and because, of course, operators aren’t selling them the services they want to.
Lacking in maturity
Today’s enterprises have an extremely diverse set of digital requirements. Yet, the operators they look for support, in this diversity, often don’t have the systems in place that can offer this level of complexity.
Operators’ enterprise mobility strategies, according to the STL report, are at various stages of maturity ranging from ‘wait and see’ to ‘ad hoc’ and finally, ‘preparing for take-off.’ In addition, telcos’ own mobility programmes aren’t very advanced. This is leading to a mismatch between what services telcos are offering, or planning to offer and, the services enterprises would consider buying from telcos. Telcos are under-rating enterprise demand for custom apps but, “application development simply isn’t regarded within the industry as a suitable activity for an operator.”
Telcos, therefore, have a number of challenges to address in order for enterprises to buy from them, including keeping pace with employee demand, mobile security and delivering digital application development.
Meeting enterprise demand
In order to meet the demands of enterprises hungry for services, telcos clearly need to evolve their own enterprise mobile strategies. At a practical level, they need agile new systems that can compete on a solid technological level, as well as offering flexibility for new business opportunities. Legacy telco billing systems are preventing them from evolving digitally. Traditional systems are unable to respond to increased requests for digital services, resulting in lost opportunities, missed commitments and unmet financial objectives.
In a recent report sponsored by MDS, industry analyst firm Stratecast, examined the current state of cloud-based billing for business customers. Stratecast found that there was a need for telcos to move beyond the traditional business process and systems management, in order to meet the needs of their enterprise customers as they digitise the services they bring to market.
Mobile and cloud technology enables enterprises to manage its users with a variety of new digital business models, yet the support from the mobile networks to enhance, improve and innovate in these areas is often missing, the report found.
The report also found that, “In this environment, change and system redefinition is time-consuming, and generally falls short of expectations. Today’s business needs require solution responsiveness quicker than the weeks or months it took in the past to make system updates.”
Telcos’ inability to respond rapidly is due to the lack of configurable billing and charging systems, and flexible processes. This precludes them from adapting to changing market demands, including new network technologies such as LTE (Long Term Evolution), virtual networking and virtual data centre services.
The solution lies in the cloud
A private cloud-based charging, billing and customer management solution model is one way to meet the expectations and demands of today’s digital marketplace, because it enables enterprises to bring services to market quickly and as frequently as required. To accelerate speed to market, a managed service model can bring a number of advantages over a licence and services approach. Customer management tools, systems and processes delivered as a managed service, including third party interfaces, can help reduce CapEx (Capital Expenditure), improve cost efficiency and enhance overall customer experience.
With a customer management solution that provides enhanced real-time charging and billing capabilities in place, a telco can respond rapidly and meet the changing requirements of today’s digital enterprise.
- ‘Telco 2.0: The $50bn Enterprise Mobility Opportunity: What’s stopping telcos winning 500% more business?’, STL Partners, http://www.telco2research.com/articles/Enterprise-Mobility-Telco-Opps
- ‘Cloud-Based Business Management is a Growing Alternative for Monetizing New Technology and Changing Business Strategies,’ November 2014, Stratecast Perspectives & Insight for Executives (SPIE), Volume 14, Number 43
Jennifer Fellows is SVP of Product Management and Marketing of MDS, a leading provider of convergent real-time charging, billing and customer management solutions
