Open ROADS Research

TELCO  

 
 
 

HOW OPERATORS CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE

WORLDWIDE ROADS EXPERIENCE TRENDS

How the world is discussing the elements

of the ROADS experience

November 2016
    

INTRODUCTION

The world that we live in is moving towards digital transformation. Consumers

expect Real-time, On-Demand, All-Online, Do-it-Yourself and Social interactions
with companies and the world around them. As people become increasingly
connected, services, offerings and interactions are expected to move in that
direction as well.

A business that can link the needs of the emerging market to the voices of the
customers would be able to expedite industry transformation. The constant
changes in the market have brought forth new opportunities for the partners to
support in the growth of the increasingly "connected world”.

This paper is designed to capture the voices of people around the world so as to
better understand how they discuss the five elements of the ROADS experience -
Real-time, On-Demand, All-Online, Do-it-Yourself, Social. This helps to identify
trends that are affecting your customers’ behavior and how new operating models
will affect your industry.

We have analyzed over 10 million conversations in English over the past 6 months
globally and looked at the five elements of ROADS by analyzing platforms such as
Twitter, Blogs, Forums and News sites.

In the later pages, you will find a snapshot of some of the key topics that has been
driving the ROADS conversations around the world. You also will gain a better
understanding of how these topics relate to your business. This paper looks to
encourage thoughts and conversations within your organization and inspire you to
create better experiences for your valued customers.
REAL-TIME            

Real-time technology is improving how businesses are being run, how people are communicating with each other
and how media is being consumed. It opens up a number of opportunities for operators to provide the
infrastructure needed to bring the ROADS experience to not only their customers but also other industries such as
retail with new payment services, agriculture with crop monitoring and other areas requiring instant connections.

The key topics around real-time include :

INTELLIGENT FARMING
Conversations surrounding real-time data for agriculture and farming for
businesses has been growing significantly. Drones, IoT and satellites are
being used for precision farming. This opens up opportunities for us to
bring the ROADS experience outside the cities into the rural areas.

“Crop and seed data made available in real time enables researches to use big
data to expand options for sustainable agriculture.”
@acmckhwana

REAL-TIME TRANSLATION
Exciting new innovations such as real-time translation via in-ear devices
are breaking down barriers in communication. Google and Microsoft
are also adding image translation features to further improve their
language translator apps. This technology has the ability to increase
communication around the world.

“Pilot Earbuds translates a Foreign #language in real time #translation #tech

#travel”
@HandShakeVanc

VIDEO PRODUCTS
Video consumption continues to increase in popularity as new real-time
video products are launched from companies such as Twitter, which
used to be just a text and image based platform. We can now explore
using real-time videos to communicate with customers across
platforms, instead of mere text.

"Tw it ter is planning to concentrate on live vi deo, aiming to be the go-to place
for real- ti me opinions" REALLY? 1/2
@MarylaOssowska
ON-DEMAND          

On-demand technology has made a huge impact in the transportation industry with the help from companies like
Uber, and the experience continues to transform other industries such as healthcare and retail. As on-demand
becomes an instilled behavior among people around the world, all industries including operators are becoming
expected to provide this service. Although, it’s important to remember that this doesn’t have to be approached
alone. Partners can play their part to support by delivering this experience via leveraging existing infrastructure or
value chains.

The key topics around on-demand include:

‘ON-DEMAND’ BEHAVIOUR
Due to the increase in “on-demand” service and offerings, there has
been a change in people’s expectations and the way they behave. This
has led to discussions surrounding how one should behave in the on-
demand world, for both consumers and companies. This topic highlights
the importance of incorporating these features into your service delivery,
in order to provide your customer with an optimal experience.

“Cool scenario – how customers behave in on-demand journey. ow.ly/gddOg

via @davidedelman”
@barreitz

ON-DEMAND BANDWIDTH
With the constant desire to reduce costs and create business efficiencies,
there is an increase in discussions around on-demand bandwidth.
Operators such as AT&T and Verizon are supporting businesses to
implement flexible bandwidth capacity and traffic management. This type
of innovation is helping operators standout from competition, as they
provide a unique customer centric offering.

“@ATTBusiness is using #NFV to bring dynamic b and wi dt h on d ema nd,

virtualized layer 3 #sdn #analystsummit”
@JohnFruehe
“

ON-DEMAND GAS
The hype for on-demand services does not seem to be dying down
anytime soon. More and more start-ups, such as Filld, which
provide on-demand gas filling services, are heading into this
business segment. As customers now expect on-demand services,
operators have to learn how they can integrate this into their
businesses. E.g. trouble shooting or service upgrade.

“On-demand…petrol. “This is a disruption to a fuel industry.””

@SuB8u
 ALL-ONLINE
         

The world is moving towards all-online whereby information, communication, media, shopping and more are
becoming increasingly digitalized. As cities push for digital transformation, partners should be looking to play their
part by aligning themselves with the agenda, otherwise they may eventually find competition from unexpected
players looking to reshape the way people connect. This means that by ensuring your infrastructure, you have the
ability to scale and deal with peaks in demand through cloud computing, while also providing efficiencies to
reduce barrier and costs for people to connect.

The key topics around all-online include:

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AGENDA

Cities are pushing for connectivity via digital transformation. India’s
Prime Minister Narendra Modi actively discusses this topic. In light of
these events, it is essential for companies to align themselves to the
agendas in order to support the development of the country and also
reap the benefits that stem from this ecosystem.

“Smart Cities are going to revolutionize the way we live. Here is a look into the
future of the connected community. #DigitalTransformation”
@danielnewmanUV

LIVE STREAM SPORTS

Live streaming apps are changing the way that we watch sports. They
are breaking down the barriers for people to purchase pay-per-view
content. While people would require faster connection to ensure that
they can upload and download these videos seamlessly, it does look to
further erode an additional revenue stream for the Telco industry.

“Hockey Night in Canada: Free live stream on CBC Sports app Watch live
stream of Saturday’s HNIC games on mobile…”
@Derek_777

WIFI & CHARGE STATIONS

Telcos such as AT&T are making a conscious effort to keep people
online by placing charge stations and providing Wi-Fi around the cities
and at events to ensure that they can continue to add value to their
customers, while increasing usage rates.

“New @AT&T cellular phone charge station sprouted up in #FortFreenePark.

Pretty cool. Like some lonely modern tree.”
@ScottReiburn
DO-IT-YOURSELF        
Developing a DIY ecosytem provides Telcos with a number of ways to drive innovation and create opportunities to
monetize existing data. To create a DIY ecosystem requires openness and the ability to provide a responsive
environment where customer or partners can leverage data intelligence and additional services. Operators can now
enjoy new growth and cost reduction across the business if they’re willing to work in this way. DIY is currently coming
in the forms of platforms, apps, kiosks and more, to allow people easy and quick access to information and service
offerings.

The key topics around do-it-yourself include:

SELF-SERVICE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

One of the key conversations surrounding DIY is regarding how
business owners can make use of self-service business intelligence
to enable new growth. This provides opportunities for third parties to
monetize the data that they currently have access to. Operators are
uniquely placed to take advantage of this trend due to the increasing
amount of intelligence they have access to.

“#Self-service #Analytics Tools Leave The Future Of #Business #Intelligence

One Without Boundaries | @BIChicago”
@IE_Megan

DIY DEVELOPER PLATFORM

The developer community is actively discussing Cloud-based DIY
platforms, such as Microsoft Azure, as test beds for innovation.
Supporting these environments with APIs would bring forth opportunities
for operators to bring innovation to the market faster.

“#IoT Developer Prototyping Kit Google Cloud Platform Available

hfn.me/2djSWMO #HFNactu #DiY”
@Hotfirenet

ONLINE SELF-SERVICE SITES

Businesses are increasingly driving their customers to online self-
service environments due to the increase in the amount of
conversation. Interesting developments in this area include the
Cognitive self-service engine from IBM. By implementing a self-service
experience, you will have the ability to reduce cost by re-tasking man-
hours and improving customer satisfaction when executed effectively.

“I love the online web self-service, it simplify life #Ucount #StandardBank

#PrestigeBanker”
@Kenylikiz
 SOCIAL          

As the world becomes increasingly social, social technology and features are becoming further integrated into the
customer journey. People are expecting the ability to have a two-way conversation on every engagement whether
with a customer service representative or friend. Operators should be looking to see where they could incorporate
social elements into the customer journey to allow customers to share experiences, insights, and views about
online services. By adopting this behavior, operators will be able to differentiate themselves from the competitors
and at the same time satisfy their customers.

Key topics driving social conversations include:

SOCIAL BANKING
The State Bank of India is launching a social banking app called
“SBI Mingle”, where the people can complete simple transactions
through Facebook and Twitter. On top of differentiating the business
from competitors, it also provides opportunities for users to complete
their transactions. What if customers could purchase pre-paid data
packs through social?

“#SBIMingle – a social banking platform that lets us manage our banking

activities thro’ fb and Twitter #BankingUnbound @TheOfficialSBI”

@mazedaarcat

SOCIAL GAMING
Social gaming is becoming more popular with new features from
Microsoft Xbox and Zynga launching recently. These new types of
features bring a next level to gaming and one that looks to further
connect people from home. Social gaming requires a high-bandwidth
as the quality of gaming increases through VR technology.

“They’re really pushing for the “social gaming” aspect that’s been missing
since the rise of Xbox Live. Their idea is new age LAN party”
@Glendermonium

SOCIAL SELLING
There has been an increase in the amount of conversation around social
selling. Platforms like LinkedIn are driving the discussion through helping to
educate companies on the correct way to engage customers along their
buying journeys. Social selling is applicable to both B2B and B2C
customers, in which both requires a unique approach. Operators have the
opportunity to use social media to identify new business opportunities and
to attract new customers; they just need to develop a strategy first.

“S ocial sell ing has to become an integral part of sales methodologies +

processes along the entire customer’s journe y”
@cnundy
  

CONCLUSION

In order for operators to continue to increase existing customer value while

attracting new ones, they’ll need to start motivating customers to actively seek out
their differentiated products and services. This requires constant innovation and
relentless focus on customer centricity.

As the world moves towards digital transformation, it is clear that the ROADS
experience plays a big part in this process. As people expect more real-time
information, industry disruptions, connectivity, self-service platforms and
enjoyable social interactions with the world around them, businesses and cities
are expected to move in the same vein. Operators can play a vital role by
supporting this revolution by providing the connectivity that would allow
businesses and cities to deliver an enhanced customer experience.

In order to remain relevant in this age of ROADS and meet the demands of the
consumers, operators require the right partners to help them with the
implementation of infrastructures and operation processes. Collaboration among
businesses, cities, citizens and telecom partners is pertinent for us to achieve
digital transformation. Our industry should join hands and lead the change as we
have the power to do so.