Digitalisation/Digital Transformation in Telco Industry

Over the last years European telecom operators saw their revenues stagnated or declined. The BEREC annual report for 2018 shows that total telecom revenues (2014-2018f) have decreased from 220 billion euros to 213 billion euros (-3%).
To add even more drama to the situation, it is clear that if we look into the total value chain of the telecom/digital business (telecom operators, content distribution, network equipment, device manufacturers, content creators, etc) the market is growing, the revenues are growing and telecom operators share of wallet
are, thus, reducing. In fact, a study from the World Economic Forum in association with Accenture1 shows that from 2010 to 2018 the market share of the telecom operators has shrunk from 58% to less than 45% of the industry profits:

Figure 1: Telecom operators account for a shrinking share of the overall industry
profit poll despite their central role in enabling digitalization of economy

When we look into the relation with the customer we can see that consumers are not very happy with their CSP’s. In fact, an OVUM study2 shows that average NPS in telecommunications is the worst when comparing with other industries.

Figure 2: Average Net Promoter Score in leading industries

So, we have the perfect storm: declining revenues, huge pressure on costs and capex to cope with the increasing demanding for more bandwidth, more quality in the network and we are losing the customers focus and share of wallet to other actors in the value chain.

Are we condemned to be just pipes? I don’t believe so but we need to transform our business processes, improve efficiency and introduce new services and new digital business models to make sure that we share our fair quota in the value from the world digital transformation. Ericsson forecasts3 that by 2025 data traffic by smartphone will reach 24GB/month (22% CAGR 2019-2025) and
worldwide mobile subscriptions will reach ~9B (2% CAGR 2019-2025). Everybody is and will be more and more mobile and operators therefore need to adapt to people’s behaviour
on mobile. And that means redefining business processes, be more agile, giving consumers what they want when they
want.
We must bear in mind that consumers no longer compare the telco companies only amongst themselves. Consumers compare every company with the best experiences they have. We are measured every day against the experience of getting an Uber ride, opening a Revolut account, buying an Amazon item or a Netflix movie,
etc.

But digitalization is as good as you care about your customers. There will be always the need for personal contact. People need to talk to other people to solve a problem, to negotiate a price, to see and touch the last smartphone model, etc.

In Altice Portugal we believe that is important to balance the digital and the human touch. That’s why in 2018 we changed the signature of our brand Meo to “Humaniza-te” which we can translate to “be more human” to focus on the people and their needs.

To fulfill with this statement we have launched in the last two years a number of initiatives that aim to
redefine the consumer journey. In the “search and buy” we have “Meo Video Chat” (https://www.meo.pt/video-chat), a service where we recreate online the experience of a retail store so that we can offer to our customers a more personalized and close relationship in our Meo website.

The “Meo Video Chat” service offers two possibilities to our customers:
1. A One to One (OTO) video call with an assistant that can talk to you, clarify any doubt that you have regarding our products and services, or can even help to solve a problem in your mobile or other device.
2. A One to Many (OTM) session where we perform demos, unboxing, tips and tricks of our services, etc. You can join any session anonymous and post questions that the speaker can answer to all the audience or you can identify yourself and ask for an OTO session for more detailed questions. Since the beginning we had more then 42K attendants to our public OTM sessions with more that 38K interactions. In the OTO sessions, more than 100K video calls have resulted in ~16K product sales.
In the end, technology is all about what you do with it and how you can help to make people’s lives better.

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Cesar Vistas, Commercial Operations Director at Altice Portugal is a multi-skilled manager with more than 20 years of management experience in the telco environment. Strong know-how of implementation and management of multichannel projects, including online. Extensive knowledge and expertise in Business Strategy, Sales & Marketing, and New Business development.