Based on Analysys Mason’s Digital eXperience Index (DXi), no operator in Asia-Pacific has reached the ‘digitalised’ zone yet. Insights from this research will be shared in an upcoming webinar on Thursday, 13 September 2018.

Analysys Mason’s Digital eXperience Index (DXi) research is designed to support operators with the above aspects of their transformation initiatives. It focuses on helping operators to understand the competition in local and global markets, and assesses operators’ current maturity and progress. Furthermore, because all operators take digital initiatives, the DXi research identifies the functional capabilities that operators can focus on to differentiate themselves within their markets. This article outlines the DXi study and provides learnings and insights from our research on operators in the Asia–Pacific (APAC) region.

Figure 2: Analysys Mason’s Digital eXperience Index, Asia–Pacific, 2018

Source: Analysys Mason

We placed all of the operators studied in the ‘beginning’ or ‘transforming’ stages of their journey, based on their DXi scores (see Figure 2); none have entered the ‘digitalised’ zone as yet. Our research highlights that the smartphone apps of nearly all operators in the APAC region offer:

• the ability to view usage information
• the ability to purchase basic top-ups or bundles
• the delivery of ecommerce offers from third-party businesses (such as retail outlets or restaurants).

The above features demonstrate that operators are enabling digital engagement. However, very few operators have adopted a ‘digital-first’ strategy, that is, one that moves customers to digital channels and focuses on improving in-app engagement functionality. For leading-edge operators, a digital-first approach includes enabling advanced functionality such as message-based support within the smartphone app (as used by Digi and Optus), the ability to purchase new services (implemented by Spark and XL Axiata) and the offer of personalised deals based on customers’ usage (Optus has enabled this). Very few operators have enabled these capabilities. In addition to these, operators also need to improve the performance of their apps in order to achieve digital-first status. End-user reviews on smartphone app stores are a reflection of app performance, and in our study, only DTAC averaged 4 or more (out of 5) on both Apple’s and Google’s app stores.

Most operators scored highly in our DXi assessment for their websites, as these have historically been the primary self-service channels, and as such, operators have enabled them with advanced engagement capabilities. However, customer service features, such as live chat agents, were used by only a few operators despite their ability to reduce customer effort and improve customer experience.

Insights from this research will be shared in an upcoming webinar on Thursday, 13 September 2018 at 15.00 (Auckland/Wellington) / 13.00 (Sydney)/ 11.00 (Singapore/Malaysia/Hong Kong)/ 10.00 (Indonesia/Thailand/Vietnam).

In this session, Atul Arora, lead analyst for the Digital Experience and Customer Engagement programmes, will discuss: 

• key engagement capabilities that operators can focus on to deliver differentiated digital experience
• why ‘digital-first’ and ‘mobile-first’ strategies are necessary for success
• insights about the current digital maturity and progress of operators in APAC
• how operators can understand the competition in local and global markets
• case studies of leading-edge operators in the region.

This session would be useful to Chief digital officers (CDOs), chief information officers (CIOs) and their staff who seek to upgrade the digital experience offered to consumers through IT transformation projects, Telecoms operators that are defining their digital transformation strategies and vendors focused on supporting their operator clients to deliver a rich digital experience.

Source: Analysys Mason