Compelling marketing strategies for Digital Services in Telecom

Over-the-top (OTT) digital services providers like WhatsApp, Netflix and Skype use telecom operators’ physical telecommunications infrastructure to deliver services that has reduced the demand for voice calls and SMS, which has led to flat or falling revenues for incumbent Telecom operators. At the same time, Telcos have had to make large additional investments in their networks to keep up with the growing demand for mobile apps and data, which they are unable to monetize because of the proliferation of “free” digital services from OTT providers. This combination of stagnant revenues and high ongoing investment requirements initially threatened the viability of telecommunication companies worldwide.

Fortunately, the telecommunications industry now sees the opportunity that digital services represent, either through their own offerings or by partnerships with third parties, but they still have not been able to capture significant value at the scale and speed of digital disruptors. This is even though operators have access to several key ingredients, including millions of customer relationships, their own networks and proprietary data.

This important 2-day training course explores the digital service opportunity for Telcos and drills down on how Telcos can take back control and how these digital services should be brought to the market of a highly demanding customer base. The course analyses the current digital services market, explains the need to digitally transform to be in position to offer such digital services and looks at the multitude of different digital service offerings.

• Business leaders and senior managers, particularly marketing, accounting, sales and general management executives.
• Business analysts, product management and pricing analysts.
• Business unit managers and managers of subsidiaries to whom pricing decisions are devolved.

• Understand the current landscape, and the opportunity for operators in the digital services space.
• Be able to demonstrate an understanding of the formulation of marketing strategies for developing the digital services opportunity in the modern era.
• Will be able to describe how these services are positioned in terms of the development of ecosystems, delivery models, market segmenting and customer targeting
• List the most commercially viable digital services and articulate the best marketing strategies for each of those services.
• Demonstrate a level of understanding of the technology platforms and technical capabilities required to drive the development of these services

Module 1 – Current State Analysis of the Global & MENA Telecom Operator Digital Services Market  

• Current trends and future projections
• Market verticals and market leaders

Module 2 - The Evolving Telecoms Digital Services Value Proposition

• The Digital Services imperative
• The evolving market
• Disruption models and how we take control
• Digital transformation: What, Why, When and How
• A customer-centric marketing strategy: things to consider.
• Making marketing work
• The evolving marketing mix.

Module 3 – Bringing innovative digital services to market

• Market Segmentation and adoption patterns for digital services—drivers and barriers
• Digital services pricing strategies and models.
• Monetising third party partnerships– charging models, revenue recognition and share
• Marketing/Promotion
• The importance of Omni-channel
• The importance of Operator- Content Provider Partnerships

Module 4 – For each of the following digital services, the course explains what they are, where the opportunity is for the Telco and how they are best marketed.

• Intelligent buildings
• Digital Healthcare
• Mobile Financial Services
• The Connected Car Opportunity
• Smart Cities
• Music
• Video entertainment and Content
• Mobile Apps, Games and Images
• Mobile Advertising
• Consumer Cloud Services
• IoT’s

Module 5 – The enabling technologies

• How the BSS/OSS needs to evolve
• Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF)

Developing a Telco Digital Service Strategy

Practical Interactive Stream (running through the three days)

• Identify a Digital Service opportunity
• Exploring possible marketing tactics and strategy
• Consider the Business Model
• Competitor analysis
• Data available and regulatory issues
• Financials
• RoadMap
• Expectations (what does success look like?)

Proof of Learning presentations: Refine Lean Model Canvas for post course implementation.