It was clear enough during the virus-ridden year of 2020 that physical sales channels rather than digital ones made it hard for all industries, including the ICT industry to operate at an optimal level. Despite the best efforts, delivering result-oriented customer engagement initiatives suffered, to say the least.
Infrastructure outages and disruptions have become commonplace in any organization. In 451 Research’s recent Voice of The Enterprise, Data Management and Disaster Recovery 2020 study, 30% of respondents reported suffering an outage in the past two years. Nearly half of the respondents said outages cost their organizations over $100,000. Outages mean a loss in revenues for businesses.
Geographically, a recent report by the Technology Innovation Council showed fewer than 30% of the MEA region's telcos have a digital transformation roadmap in place as compared to LATAM and Europe (70%) and the Asia-Pacific region (80%). It also pointed out that only 55% of telcos in the Middle East and Africa had carried out a technology needs assessment- a critical component in the digital transformation journey.
In building a roadmap toward a digital-centric future, ICT service providers must invest in partnering with the government, industry leaders, suppliers and technology vendors who are reliable and have a global presence and expertise. Analysts say the trend toward cloud and open software solutions is inevitable. To deliver and manage intelligent network and processing functions at the network edge, ICT players must get their acts together to strengthen flexibility and agility to respond to diverse and complex technological trends across verticals.
ICT service providers’ ability to react and adapt quickly will help them build an extensive portfolio of important clients and grow their business.
A recent report predicted a massive shift in ICT supply and service provision. “By 2024, 80% of enterprises will overhaul relationships with suppliers, providers, and partners to better execute digital strategies for ubiquitous deployment of resources and autonomous IT operations.” To meet these demands, ICT service providers will most likely have to shift to more platform-based models which allow them to focus their attention on the global deployment of resources and ensuring consistent service quality worldwide.
To survive the changing landscape, modern ICT services providers need to be strategising their digital transformation agenda in the following areas:
Focus on customer needs
ICTs can increase their value to customers by providing solutions suited to individual needs rather than one-fits-all options. As an apt example, Vodafone recently urged the UK government to draft policies that would protect SMEs from the hazards of cyberattacks.
A report by Vodafone - Protecting our SMEs: Cybersecurity in the new world of work, shows almost a quarter of SMEs in the UK, the equivalent of 1.3 million businesses, say a cyber-attack could cause them to cease operating. By proactively identifying the pain points of its customers, Vodafone’s proactive efforts are directed towards a genuine concern to help their one set of customers. If need be, ICT players must raise concerns and collaborate for government intervention to address the hiccups faced by their customers to enjoy their trust and loyalty.
Create sustainable revenue
The global market for ICT services is accelerating and the cut-throat competition is a challenge for the ICT services providers to maintain profitable margins. However, despite the tough times, some providers have been able to meet the challenges and report profitable growth by seizing the opportunities presented before them. The case in point is Saudi telecom operator Zain KSA who reported net profits for the 4th consecutive year. In the Q4 2020 results, the company managed to secure SAR 2,061 million in total revenues compared to SAR 1,928 million for Q3 2020, with a growth rate of 6.90%.
The group attributed its achievement to the combination of efficient operational strategy implementation and a balanced financial approach aimed at benefitting shareholders whilst building the national ICT sector. Additionally, the company’s diverse business verticals helped it to reduce accumulated losses by 96.6% from about SAR 1,608 million in 2019 to about SAR 54 million in 2020. According to its leaders, the same strategy allowed Zain KSA in achieving quality investments that enhanced the quality of services provided to customers while increasing their reach and accessibility.
Strengthen innovation capacity
The adoption of new technologies is not going to end any time soon. ICT providers have to win the trust of their customers with the target-based implementation of ICT services and products to assure the safety of their assets from hazards of cyberattacks and operational malfunctions. The service providers must back their implementation with proven case studies to establish the specific metrics of the benefits of news tech such as AI and ML to encourage adoption in their organizations. Embracing new technologies is the only way to stay competitive and service providers must always strive to increase their innovation capacity that will help customers save operational costs and risks. Partnering with government and industry leaders to establish innovative offerings has to be at the core of the ICT service providers’ framework.
Advanced development of staff
The quality of human capital is essential to innovation and economic growth. Advanced technologies empower us to stay connected globally but without investing in nurturing the ICT talent ecosystem, the benefits of the development cannot be realized. Skilled human resources are strategic assets in the ICT industry. Knowledge-building programs such as Huawei Cloud Partner Network Program (HCPNP) facilitate collaboration among partners to work and create service experiences leveraging the industry leader’s global capabilities in the latest in Cloud technology. ICT providers’ contribution towards achieving a digital economy and smart communities across the Middle East and globally has to begin by arming their staff with the best of education and training in AI, big data, IoT, and 5G to explore their dynamic capabilities. Only multi-skilled certified professionals and intelligent IT infrastructure can deliver the highest quality of ICT services.