The term “disruptive technologies” frightens many organizations, but to companies like Alibaba, Uber, Airbnb and Facebook, it’s the secret to their success. These four companies from unrelated industries have one major commonality: They don’t “own” anything, at least not in the traditional sense. What they provide is a digital service, and these service offerings have transformed their respective industries.
These companies exemplify disruptive technologies because they each identified a way to meet a consumer need that was outside of their industry’s traditional activities (i.e. value chain), or delivered services in a new way. For example, with Uber, instead of hailing a cab you simply punch a few keys on your mobile device and a car is waiting for you by the time you exit your building.
“The value chain is evolving into a complex value fabric of partners – a series of eco-systems”, said Nik Willetts, Deputy Chief of TM Forum, the international, non-profit communications industry association. Sitting in this presentation at TM Forum Action Week, it was easy to see that communications service providers (CSPs) need to recognize the digital transformation taking place in their industry -- and take active steps to influence the evolving value chain with more consumer services and better customer experiences.
Three things CSPs must embrace for their digital transformation to be successful:
- Make sure the network supports digital transformation by using automated, virtually-managed technologies such as NFV (network functions virtualization), SDN (software defined networks) and ZOOM (zero-touch orchestration and operations management).
- Break down organizational silos and create collaboration with internal business partners like finance, customer engagement and marketing.
- Establish a big data analytics foundation for surfacing key insights to guide decisions.
Big data analytics provides the intelligence needed for successful digital transformation. Many CSPs have recognized the need for big data analytics, but still struggle with where and how to proceed. With the guidance of TM Forum’s digital transformation roadmap, and the power of SAS big data analytics, CSPs can bring digital transformation to life and open their world to many new business opportunities.
