Service innovation and operational excellence in the digital world

In the wake of increased innovation in the cloud, mobility, DevOps and advanced analytics, a new reality has emerged for businesses in virtually every industry: the subscription economy.

In this context, the relationship experience – more than just customer centricity – will increasingly be driven by service innovation as is being demonstrated by the rapid changes in business models in many industry sectors.

Telcos have long struggled to strike a balance between operational excellence as a network operator and innovation as a service provider.  Here, two levers can unlock value for the transforming service provider.

Micro-segmentation and Service Aggregation

Micro-segmentation helps Service Providers identify unmet customer needs in a more precise approach, while service aggregation can help them create personalised value propositions.

The key to successful execution is operational excellence – defined mainly by network performance and quality in an earlier era, but substantially more complex and difficult to achieve in the digital era.

‘Operations’ can be applied to different areas – sales operations, network operations, billing operations and so forth – and excellence requires to be in the DNA of the organisation.

However, the confluences in technologies  (e.g. 5G and fibre, Cloud-native and NFV, IoT) – and various business models (e.g. xVNO, municipal telco, hybrid service providers) compel a more nuanced perspective.

Operational excellence is thus realised through several value levers.

Digital Value Fabric and the Virtual Organisation

Two of these levers are the Digital Value Fabric and the Virtual Organisation.

The Digital Value Fabric is the clustering of value-adding components (to the customer) which could lie within or outside the organization; the components are identified through micro-segmentation.

The Virtual Organisation refers to the seamless automation which allows the customer to experience the service provider as a single entity through service aggregation.

In the final article of the series, the aspect of relationship experience will be explored further.