Category: Communicate

Communicate covers the issues enterprises face in the selection, implementation, and management of business communication and collaboration technology, software, and services.

Nokia Shows it Wants to Better Engage Developers with the Acquisition of Rapid Technology Assets

by siowmeng, posted in Communicate, IT Leader
S. Soh

Summary Bullets:

• Nokia’s Acquisition of Rapid’s Technology Assets: The move helps to boost Nokia’s Network as Code (NaC) product development and go-to-market efforts.

• Focus on Developers and API Ecosystem: Nokia is making headway in reaching more developers and expanding its API partner ecosystem.

Communications service providers (CSPs) have been looking at ways to monetize their networks, especially with their huge investments in 5G. One way Nokia has been working alongside CSPs is to simplify the way developers can extract the network capabilities exposed through programmable interfaces and embed them into their applications. This led to the launch of Nokia’s NaC platform in 2023, which provides non-telecoms-specialist developers access to industry standard APIs as well as sample code, SDKs, a development sandbox, and analytics. The aim is to help drive innovation leveraging CSP networks to create new consumer, enterprise, and industrial applications.

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Colt Research Finds UK at Bottom Of Long-Term Sustainability Leaderboard

by Rob Pritchard, posted in Cloud Enable, Communicate, IT Leader, Secure
R. Pritchard

Summary Bullets:

  • Colt research finds UK CIOs behind the curve on having a multi-year plan to minimize their companies’ environmental impact, despite 71% of CIOs having this responsibility.
  • There has been a broad softening of sustainability targets, but service providers lead the way in facilitating reduced emissions, even despite the impact of AI.

Colt Technology Services has conducted a study as part of its annual ‘Digital Infrastructure Report,’ surveying 1,500 CIOs across 10 countries worldwide. Surprisingly, the survey found that only 18% of UK businesses that responded ‘have a multi-year plan to minimize their environmental impact.’ Leading countries were the Netherlands (42%) and Hong Kong (41%).

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Vodafone Delivers Marketing Innovation With V-Hub

by Rob Pritchard, posted in Cloud Enable, Communicate, IT Leader, Network, Secure
R. Pritchard

Summary Bullets:

• V-Hub offers a range of online advice help from digital experts to help SMBs and SOHOs make the most of technology to optimize their businesses.

• Vodafone’s V-Hub is proving popular with small business customers and has helped improve its Net Promoter Score by 18 points, providing extra customer lifetime value.

Vodafone’s update on progress with its V-Hub business customer portal was very positive and should be seen as a rare telco success story when targeting the market for smaller business customers. For example, across the countries where V-Hub has been rolled out, Vodafone Business has seen an average NPS (Net Promoter Score) improvement of 18 points since launch.

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BT’s Launch of Global Fabric Platform Has Not Answered the Question: Is BT Still Global?

by Gary Barton, posted in Big Data, Cloud Enable, Communicate
Gary Barton – Analyst, Business Network and IT Services

Summary Bullets:

  • BT’s comments on its global future have been at best uncertain and have left significant room for speculation that a divestment is coming.
  • BT also has plenty of reason to hang on to the BT Global division, including around 1,000 MNC customers, and it is investing in delivering global network-as-a-service (NaaS) capabilities from 140 PoPs.

Speculation over the future of the multinational corporation (MNC) unit BT Global (formerly BT Global Services) is not new. But recent comments in its financial results, for the year ending March 31, 2024, have set the fires of speculation a roaring once more. Speculation has been further stoked by a BT Focus 2024 analyst event that was both very UK-focused and again non-committal beyond several suggestions that it is exploring its options.* The winds of global competition are certainly blowing against service providers and that BT absolutely must consider its future go-to-market approach, but, despite a few missteps, BT has also been one of the more global service providers.

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Vodafone’s Microsoft 365 Copilot Rollout

by Rob Pritchard, posted in Cloud Enable, Communicate, IT Leader
R. Pritchard

Summary Bullets:

• Vodafone’s multi-country rollout of Microsoft 365 Copilot yielded quantifiable results in terms of productivity and efficiency.

• Eventually, generative AI (genAI) will not just deliver productivity improvements but corporate efficiencies – i.e., lower employee numbers.

Vodafone has extended its strategic agreement with Microsoft to roll out Microsoft 365 Copilot AI to up to 68,000 Vodafone employees across several countries. The goal is to further improve productivity, innovation, and digital efficiency. By freeing up time normally spent on monotonous tasks, employees will be allowed to focus on more varied and interesting work, enhancing services, and supporting Vodafone’s 350 million customers worldwide.

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Small Businesses Buy Differently to Corporates

by Rob Pritchard, posted in Cloud Enable, Communicate, Network, Secure
R. Pritchard

Summary Bullets:

• With 47% of small businesses using WhatsApp, telecoms service providers can become disintermediated from their customers as anything other than a connectivity provider.

• Service providers must understand the complex nature of the market and target value-added solutions selectively to meet changing needs of small businesses as they evolve.

Small businesses are the focus of many telecoms service providers for growth as the corporate, MNC, and public sector markets suffer from hyper-competition and as solutions providers keep winning managed services contracts. The problem is that the dynamics, needs, and go-to-market strategies are not the same for small businesses as for corporates. Most importantly, small businesses are tending less and less to see the traditional portfolios of carriers as relevant to their needs.

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Air5 Aims to Run 5G Over Cable

by Yousef Almadani, posted in Communicate
Y. Almadani

Summary Bullets:

• Air5 aims to be the first on the market to enable 5G over cable networks. A feat, if successful, could disrupt the market.

• While it’s currently the only vendor pursuing this, a similar initiative is led by CableLabs, so the idea might end up making sense after all.

Just as everyone has settled on the understated collective agreement that cable is hobbling along before being replaced with fiber, a new company believes that the cable infrastructure is here to stay. Air5 says current cable networks can be adapted to fulfill the demands of future 5G and 6G technologies.

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UK Business Bodies Call for Automatic Compensation for Broadband Outages

by Rob Pritchard, posted in Cloud Enable, Communicate, Network, Secure
R. Pritchard

Summary Bullets:

• Leading UK business associations have asked Ofcom to establish an automatic compensation scheme for companies affected by broadband outages as connectivity is lifeblood of modern enterprise.

• Major broadband providers have backup options and enhanced service levels available, which they use in part to justify the premium they charge to business customers.

Leading British business associations have called on UK regulator Ofcom to establish an automatic compensation scheme for enterprises affected by broadband outages.

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Telcos Recognizing Indirect Sales Partners for their Contributions

by Rob Pritchard, posted in Big Data, Cloud Enable, Communicate, IT Leader
R. Pritchard

Summary Bullets:

• Most service providers hold annual awards events to celebrate successes and thank their indirect channel partners.

• Although ostensibly glamorous and occasionally boisterous, they play a crucial role in cementing key relationships with this vital group of sales partners.

Vodafone Business recently “recognized the invaluable contributions made by its UK sales partners through the Indirect Partner Awards 2024.” This line could be repeated by almost every major telco as they rely on third parties playing a key role as a means of maximizing their addressable market and optimizing their go-to-market strategies. These indirect partners help telcos meet the wide and varying needs of target enterprise customers of all sizes.

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B2B Advertising Campaigns Underline Importance of SMB Market

by Rob Pritchard, posted in Big Data, Cloud Enable, Communicate, IT Leader
R. Pritchard

Summary Bullets:

• BT, Orange, and Vodafone have launched significant multi-channel advertising campaigns targeted at the small and medium-sized business (SMB) market, underlining its importance to future growth.

• They all emphasize the evolving role of the service provider beyond connectivity, with a focus on security and digital business-enabling solutions that characterize the future of enterprise.

Traditionally, telecom companies have focused mass media advertising campaigns on the consumer market. But now major European service providers are advertising to target the enterprise market, focusing on smaller businesses (e.g., SMBs). This reflects both their strategic shift toward SMBs as offering the best potential for revenue growth, and that their portfolios of technology solutions have become far more relevant in running businesses of all sizes – the market has moved beyond connectivity.

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