Over the 10 years, Communications Service Providers (CSPs) have explored new ways to improve customer relationships and maximise revenue generation in an extremely competitive marketOver the 10 years, Communications Service Providers (CSPs) have explored new ways to improve customer relationships and maximise revenue generation in an extremely competitive market
The rise of digital media has created opportunities to achieve both and although CSPs have been quick to realise the need to put in place new delivery models, the question of how to connect end-users with cutting edge content, without missing out on revenue, has been one all CSPs have sought to answer.
The development of new integrated billing and CRM technologies, however, have enabled CSPs to analyse customer purchase patterns and build better customers profiles at an individual level. At the same time, CSP have also understood the need to gain customers trust in order to convince customers to share personal information they otherwise wouldn’t. As a result of these strategies, CSPs have developed more complete profiles of their customer base at an individual level, which in turn has enabled them to target end-users with more specific offerings and drive revenue.
As a result of their billing capabilities, CSPs have positioned themselves as the ideal link between end-users and content developers. A recent example of this is Vodafone who announced that it has begun rolling out direct operator billing for apps sold through the Android Market, allowing users to charge purchases direct to their phone bill instead of being charged separately. This not! only provides CSPs with a slice of the revenue also ensures they have complete visibility into what specific content individual customers are purchasing so they can target them with offers accordingly.
Unified platforms
The rise of the Wholesale Application Community (WAC) is another example of how CSPs are trying to work with developers to create a unified and open platform that will allow mobile software developers to more easily write applications usable on a variety of devices, operating systems and networks. By doing so, CSPs are ensuring they develop a platform on which content developers can easily supply them with new, innovative, and monetisable content for their customers.
Significantly, recent findings from Canalys highlighted the massive revenue potential surrounding the sale of apps, in-app purchases and subscriptions across Smartphone’s and tablets to be worth $14.1bn (€9.7bn) next year and $36.7bn by 2015. As such, applications have the ability to play a very important role in driving margin for CSPs who will be able to generate more revenue by efficiently charging third party developers and enterprises that wish to use their networks for distribution.
What’s more, is that as more third parties approach CSPs with content to distribute across their networks, the CSPs will not only benefit from a slice of the revenue pie but also from the incrementally built profiles they will gain from customer purchases – all of which will be used drive CRM initiatives, maximise customer loyalty and drive revenue growth.
By Gordon Rawling, Senior Marketing Director, Oracle Communications, EMEA
