concerns finally started to catch the attention of telecom execs. CX has now become the last-standing competitive differentiator. At the same time, those who were raised – and steeped in – the old utilitarian environment have since assumed leadership positions. Other service providers hired executives with no understanding of telecommunications or networking. Each poses its own unique set of cultural challenges and, depending on where you are, they may still be there as they key or primary decision-maker. For several years, this has created a culture war between the old-guard dinosaurs and the onboarding next-generation digital natives. But there’s light at the end of the tunnel and a changing of the guard is underway, as the dinosaurs begin to leave, retire, or die. 

Now is the Time for Transformation

The old process for designing network services hasn’t worked for more than a decade. This has led to declining market share and eroding revenues with communications service providers struggling to survive. Enterprise customers won’t wait for the configuration, pricing, and delivery of network services. They want it in minutes, not months, or they can (and will) get it somewhere else.

In today’s click-to-deliver world, this presents a massive disconnect between network service providers and enterprise customers. However, service providers in some regions have begun to transform. For example, in Singapore, you can order mobile-phone service through an app or website, and a SIM card simply shows up at your door. All you have to do is slide it into your device, and you’re up and running. But mobile phone services are a relatively simple example. Complex enterprise network services are a whole other story.

It’s time for service providers to embrace the same digital transformation mindset embraced by leading enterprises to deliver a customer-centric approach that streamlines customer interactions and simplifies network consumption. There’s a perfect opportunity to do so right now, as the guard shifts from the dinosaurs to the digital natives. However, transformation simply for the sake of CX may still be difficult to sell within some service provider organizations, but the potential business benefits such as harnessing and consolidating existing siloed systems, accelerating revenue, and laying the foundation for AI, should sell themselves. And if that’s not enough of an incentive, digital transformation has never been easier than it is today.

Even if the old dinosaurs are still wallowing around the water cooler and non-telecom execs can’t fully grasp the complexity of network services, they both can buy into transformation for the automation, efficiency, cost savings, access to data analytics, and new revenue streams digital transformation enables.

Build it Better and They Will Come, and Stay

By beginning with the tried-and-true business benefits, and beginning to build your business better, you can kick start your transformation. Not only will you be able to rapidly realize, capitalize upon, and profit from these results, but you will soon find that you will attract more customers, who will consume more network services, and stay for the superior experience. Sounds easy, but it requires a sophisticated platform, visionary culture, and innovative mindset to deliver a modern, one-click, self-service CX for enterprise network services.

The Acumen360^TM platform from CloudSmartz provides a digital customer experience solution for network service providers, offering a unique experience tailored to each enterprise customer and end user. Acumen360 aggregates network information from various networks and existing internal systems into a unified platform, creating a data-driven customer portal and single source of truth. It unlocks tremendous automation, data analytics, and personalization features, and provides both enterprise and small-business customers with a one-click, self-service experience for rapid pricing and zero-touch network service activation. It also features partner ecosystem management for value-added services and accelerating new revenue streams.

Combining its Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) and self-service capabilities with its near-instant service delivery, the Acumen360 platform drives down service provider operational expenses while delighting today’s digital enterprise customers. The platform is highly extensible, with the ability to integrate with existing systems leveraging an API Core (Acumen Transformation Engine) allowing for standards-based APIs, such as supporting TMF & MEF standards, as well as proprietary APIs including Business Support Systems (e.g., Dynamics or Salesforce), Operational Support Systems (B/OSS), and other significant operational platforms such as global connectivity providers (e.g., ConnectBase), customer support (e.g., ServiceNow), order management (e.g., TransUnion/Neustar), and network inventory (e.g., Ni2).