Customer-centric roadmap for telco challenger

Establishing and maintaining a competitive advantage is a never-ending challenge across all industries, and the ICT sector is no exception. The client in this case is a prominent European ICT services provider who operates in different telecom-related spaces, including cybersecurity and cloud services targeted towards SMEs and large corporations. It also offered mobile services in one of its foreign markets through a local subsidiary.

As a market challenger, the subsidiary aimed to capitalise on emerging opportunities. With high growth ambitions, it was looking to outpace the leading operator in the market, particularly in expanding fixed telecom services such as networking and voice. Advances in local technology presented opportunities for an ambitious growth strategy. SDN was gaining momentum with early adopters, just as the market leader was shifting its network to IP. This enabled potential customers to explore the market for alternatives. However, our client lacked the necessary business and technology expertise required to develop and offer new value propositions that would help them to capture potential growth opportunities.

Drawing on previous experience in market strategy and product management with similar technologies at European service providers, our Addestino team was a natural fit to help propel the client from a market challenger to a sustainable leader. The client was looking for a hands-on interim product owner with a practical approach to connect emerging technology opportunities with a viable business case and value proposition. Our next task would be to implement and execute the proposed plan. To accomplish this, we recommended a dedicated team with a blend of experience levels in product management and technology, drawing on relevant expertise from previous projects.

To get up to speed on the project’s context and dynamics quickly, our tiger team worked closely together with all stakeholders across the client’s business units to analyse the current situation and prioritise all roadmap pillars. Some of the key tasks included the following:

• Assessing the current (as-is) situation and prioritising roadmap items through our proven Addestino methodologies, like the value/risk matrix, set-based design and user personas.
• Modelling the business case based on current market conditions, technology trends and competitor analysis.
• Aligning business units throughout the organisation, including engineering, marketing, legal and finance departments.
• Defining attractive value propositions and shaping offers with sales teams.
• Sharing best practices on product management and technology from previous projects in new markets.

Product management implies navigating the complex intersection of business, technology and people. Strategic prioritisation often makes the difference between success and failure. Let’s have a closer look at two key challenges:

SDN: converging network and applications

Leveraging our expertise, we were able to share key use cases on scalability, cost optimisation and digital transformation. To deepen our understanding of the local market, we combined desk research with interviews. We found that typical SME clients in the market weren’t seeking complex network backbones, but rather preferred bundled solutions from a single telecom and ICT service provider. At the time, our client didn’t offer any such packages. This realisation led us to draw up and launch a bundled SME offering within a three-month time frame. For higher-end customers, we selected appropriate solutions from existing technology vendors that met local market needs, while offering a competitive advantage at an attractive price point. A critical factor in this decision was the need for robust vendor support, as the client’s internal teams had limited expertise in this area and would need to be engaged to sell, deliver and run the new service.

VoIP opportunities

As the incumbent operator began to phase out legacy voice technologies and opened up the network to new VoIP entrants, there was an opportunity to acquire new customers – with upsell potential in other areas. However, the expertise of the customer operations and in-house engineering teams had been focused on bespoke projects for a select number of customers. Therefore, we focused on establishing a USP by harnessing the capabilities of the subsidiary’s parent company, while prioritising key use cases for in-house engineering teams and vendors. The goal was to manage costs effectively and remain profitable at high volumes. Consequently, we delivered a product offering that featured a standardised value proposition and technical architecture, supported by a scalable operational model. This, too, was delivered within three months.

Within a few months, we’d achieved the following key outcomes according to plan:

• Prioritised roadmap, aligned with market opportunities.
• Revamped go-to market strategy, ranging from sales collateral (including training materials, outbound call scripts and website content) to marketing campaigns.
• Delivery of new products and bundles to start serving new and existing customers immediately.

As a result, our client soon saw a noticeable uptick in leads, which translated into increased orders – exactly as we had anticipated with the new roadmap. Combining commercial and technical expertise, we were able to continuously challenge and reassess ideas to come up with a more customer-centric product offering with each iteration of the client’s new roadmap.