Over the past few years, the telecom sector has come under increased pressure as traditional value pools fail to contribute to growth. While this sector has constantly been working towards building greater connections, it must now focus more on delivering digital-native (Uber and Netflix-like) experiences and redefining interaction models.
The rate at which telecom suppliers need to roll out products has increased dramatically as we step into the age of customer-backed disruption. The market for next-gen services is also growing, and business rules are changing – telecommunication has to do more than connect calls.
The pandemic further upended the world of telecom and brought about further disruption in this sector as customers wanted self-service, omnichannel interactions, and instant communication, with solutions offering them greater levels of personalisation and security.
Along those lines, realigning business strategies to accommodate market and customer demands has compelled telcos to operate like digital service providers. Some of the common challenges facing telcos today can be listed as:
- Delivering quick and personalised, omnichannel customer service.
- Navigating complex operational processes to accelerate the pace of service delivery.
- Ensuring network security with the right technical, network, and operational upgrades.
- Identifying revenue leaks through grey routes and improving the security posture
- Driving elevated customer experience that mimics digital platform experiences like those offered by messaging services like WhatsApp.
- Navigating the complex regulatory and compliance, and security landscape with ease.
Telecom products have to get a complete facelift now as broadband markets get more competitive and enterprise markets for private cellular networks and edge computing gain momentum.
The industry has embraced new networks, services, and applications such as 5G, distributed computing, and as artificial intelligence. These are driving enterprise interest in multi-access edge computing and private cellular networks.
Given the accelerating pace of change and disruption, telcos are identifying ways to fulfil the demand for ever-increasing communication speed, security concerns, and more interconnectedness.
Indeed, with constant and dynamic market shifts, telcos need dynamic and cutting-edge telecom products to help drive competitive differentiation and stay ahead of the curve. But what does it take to build these cutting-edge telecom products? Let’s explore.
Technical Depth
Building next-gen telecom products entail exploring the depth of technology and sustaining exhaustive technical knowledge. This involves being technology agnostic and using the best technology for the function rather than chasing the latest and shiniest new technology on the block.
Depth of technology also ensures the creative use of technology and the capacity to engage it to do more. AI and Machine Learning, for example, are technologies that are best suited to improve the security posture of telcos. Developing robust security products using these technologies helps telcos recognise and protect operators from all known types of voice fraud.
These technologies further provide complete 360-degree network protection for SMS traffic and give mobile operators and end-users a safe and secure messaging environment.
Innovation Focus
Having an unwavering focus on driving future-ready innovation is also essential to developing telecom products today. As the pace of technology change accelerates, telcos need to access products that can help them meet the needs of the present and also scale and meet the needs of the future.
Making the right technology considerations and using the right technologies and frameworks becomes a crucial contributor to these capabilities. Besides that, they have to know how the industry, market trends, customer demands, and technology competencies will evolve to ensure the longevity of these products.
A Comprehensive and Customisable Suite of Solutions
Technology products that can be leveraged as a comprehensive suite of solutions stand to gain an additional advantage. A stack telco operation and enterprise commercial communication services suite will consider all aspects that start from fraud management, regulatory compliance, and business intelligence and extend to customer engagement.
A full stack suite drives greater interconnectedness and elevates customer interactions. These products, however, should be completely configurable and meet the evolving needs of the business.
As such, these products need to be powerful, scalable, and flexible all-in-one business solutions and must blend quality with productivity. Well-designed, unified communication platforms also become crucial to this mix and drive meaningful customer interactions. They facilitate seamless and superior customer experiences across multiple channels.
Domain Knowledge
Profound domain knowledge of developing cutting-edge telecom products is non-negotiable to building products fit for today’s market. Understanding consumer needs and customer behaviours, the way customers want to engage with the product, comprehensiveness of solutions, security considerations and frameworks etc., are some factors that get organically covered with domain expertise.
While any software development company can build a telecom product, a development company that specialises in building telecom products will have greater experience.
They can identify all possible loopholes that impede product experience and find the best ways to secure the security perimeter. They can also discover ways to enhance customer experiences by driving omnichannel customer engagement to make conversations relevant and contextual while reaching them on their preferred channel for a richer experience.
Years of experience in telecom solution deliveries, market expertise, and implementation experience are factors to consider. Deep roots in voice, messaging, and data services with attention to regulatory compliance and security vulnerabilities are critical capabilities that further contribute to developing cutting-edge, robust, and secure telecom products.
The Bottom Line
International experience in developing trusted telecom products and solutions and efficient service delivery expertise skills to look for to ensure that products are comprehensive, capable, and well-suited to meet the evolving needs of modern telecom providers. Connect with us to know how we can help.