Every industry is experiencing unprecedented disruption, and the telecommunications sector is no exception. But 62% of telco service providers state their existing systems do not meet current and future business needs. To thrive within a fierce competitive market where consumers have a great deal of choice, communications service providers need to tap into technologies—cloud, cognitive, mobile capabilities, and data integration—that will drive exceptional customer experiences, support loyalty and retention, and help them achieve their business objectives.

I caught up with Bluewolf's Industry Go-To-Market Lead, David Trinh, to discuss the challenges and opportunities for the telecom sector, and how telecommunications organizations can leverage Bluewolf and the Salesforce platform to achieve their business objectives. Previously at IBM, David has 18 years of front-end office and digital transformation experience across the telecommunications, healthcare and life sciences, and media and high technology sectors.

Q: What do you see barring telecommunications companies from reaching new levels of customer engagement?

David Trinh: Telecommunication operators today are facing the challenges of empowered consumers, rapid digitization, and increasing operational costs. Amid these rapid changes, providers must successfully engage both customers and network demands. And for many, their service offerings don't actually meet their market presence.

Let me give you an example—telco companies have built an incredible network highway (4G, 5G, LTE) which cost a lot of money to maintain and stay in regulatory compliance. Yet they are not the main purveyors of desired service; it's the content service providers—think YouTube, Netflix, Amazon—that are dominating and benefitting from the highway. 80% of service that customers consume is data-driven; for a telco that only offers voice-based services, they still have to carry the data bandwidth load, with little to no direct benefit from the content service providers.

The legacy, on-premise platforms that many telcos operate on act as handcuffs, preventing them from adapting to this new reality and driving a higher level of customer experience. They simply can't push out new offers or products via geosensing or text messaging prompting. They are limited on their current stack. 

Q: How can they modernize the experience?

DT: Telcos need to transform their offerings to stay relevant in the market and to drive profitability. Market leaders are not just selling content, they are becoming the content providers themselves. To do that effectively, they need to digitize their offers with advanced digital platforms, like Salesforce, to reach their end users—across all channels—at hyper speed. 

Q: How is Bluewolf leading this transformation for telcos?

DT: Bluewolf has been leading Salesforce transformations for the past 16 years. Specifically in the telecommunications space, we have worked with companies like T-Mobile, Vodafone AU, and Spirent. 

We help companies at a strategic level; with our newest telco solution, we start with desktop modernization—making it efficient for agents in the front office, and then we bring their entire billing and metering system online and on the cloud. This is particularly beneficial in areas like EMEA, where there are different carriers for different countries, and multiple carrier charges when traveling across geos. Our solution allows for billing through one carrier, regardless of how many new networks are being charged. 

The solution also provides a rich mobile experience, where telcos can tailor customer-facing applications, and consumers can get personalized offers and access to on-demand content, directly from carriers. 

Our core differentiation is that we bring cognition to AI; no other consultancy can do this in the Salesforce realm. We are making Salesforce more intelligent with IBM Watson, with rich data insights from the cloud, in billing systems, within Salesforce, but also insights from outside the typical environment, like social media data. With deeper understanding of how consumers behave and what they want, companies can better arm their employees with timely action to upsell, cross sell, and to create better customer engagements.

Q: What should companies be mindful of as they plan for growth and embark on a new implementation?

DT: Digital transformation is a step ladder, and must be targeted to current capabilities and functional units. You cannot boil the ocean. 

When looking at market opportunities to transform product or service offerings, be laser focused on that market and strategic on your roadmap. 

And lastly, don't go in it alone. Navigating, building in coexistent technology, or even rip-and-replacing legacy systems is complex business. Find a trusted, and experienced partner that can provide the strategic framework to dramatically improved business processes and get you closer to your customers.

Want to learn more about how Bluewolf can transform your telecommunications organization? We'll be at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, 27 February-2 March—schedule a demo or request an invite to our roundtable discussion. Not attending? Watch our video for a quick overview of our telco solution and connect with us to speak to our experts.