Digital Transformation: Platforms + Partnerships = Prosperity

The rigid structures of what we used to know as the mobile industry are dissolving as digital transformation takes hold. The industry has become fluid, boundaries have broken down, service and network have become less tightly aligned.

It is no exaggeration to observe that the industry is reforming itself. We might even say it’s changing at a cellular level.

The agents of this change have been Google, Amazon, Facebook, and many others, who have taught end users that services and experiences should be ubiquitous and unrestricted, whatever the location, whatever the circumstance, whatever the connection.

They have created digital native end users, whose needs can only be effectively met by digital native service providers.

What these companies have always understood is the fundamental importance of platform models and partnerships. They have exposed core capabilities via API – internally as well as externally – to empower others to innovate and create successes which can be shared.

So the process of digital transformation which mobile operators have now embraced is one through which they, too, are looking to harness the benefits of platforms and partnerships.

Platforms because mobility itself is no longer the product. It is now an enabling capability which must be made simple to embed in countless other services and experiences, making market entry easier for new players.

Partnerships because those services and experiences will be created by third parties which choose to dedicate themselves to one or other of the multitude of vertical and segmented opportunities which are bubbling up out of all this change.

At Pareteum we have a unique perspective on this process, as our own platform, the Pareteum Experience Cloud, is increasingly relied upon by mobile operators to accelerate their participation in this newly formed marketplace.

Our platform is being deployed horizontally to provide a single source for a broad set of capabilities which can be used by operators’ partner brands and customers to create sector-specific experiences and take them to market fast and with a minimum of fuss.

Our mobile operator customers — and you can expect more named announcements soon — select Experience Cloud because it is already a digital native platform.

Because it is not bound by the legacy operational and functional silos with which many mobile operators are faced. Because It provides API access to a multitude of capabilities from which new services can be constructed.

And because it is supported by a virtualized, unified network which combines Wi-Fi and cellular in over 200 territories to provide local connectivity, as well as location-based insights, on a global scale.

Our platform gives them the ability to empower any number of partners and use cases.

Enterprises or enterprise-focused service providers can have immediate access to a virtual PBX as well as the best available connected experience.

Consumer brands can implement feature-rich contact center solutions, Interactive Voice Response, and multi-channel customer engagement, including A2P messaging and proximity marketing.

IoT service providers and application developers, whatever they need to connect, can build intelligent mobility into their applications and devices, and access sophisticated billing, rating, and device management services.

And, of course, it is used by operators to support the launch of new mobile brands which require maximum agility to deliver highly targeted services to particular segments.

The mobile industry is in a process of evolution which is seeing it reform around flexible platforms and partnerships that can be used to enable a huge range of experiences. A rush of new service providers is inevitable, and operators need the platforms to be able to act as partners to these newcomers, rather than competitors. This is the new opportunity.