This article is condensed and originally appeared on MSP Insights.
As communication service providers (CSPs) pivot their traditional focus and decide where to compete and where to consolidate their offerings these five tips can help CSPs navigate and succeed in the cloud.
1. Understand your customers’ needs and adjust accordingly.
It may sound simple, but in the constantly changing XaaS market, it is imperative that CSPs truly understand customer preferences and are nimble enough to innovate offerings in response to changing demands. Customers expect their needs to be met quickly, if those needs aren’t met, they’ll look to competitors. CSPs that leverage cloud-based innovations will be easily and quickly able to expand offerings and build customer loyalty.
2. Adopt APIs to remain agile in the growing CPaaS market.
Evolving customer preferences and improvements in cloud technology have created an opportunity for CSPs to provide more compelling cloud solutions that leverage mobile integration and analytics. CSPs embracing the cloud are remaining competitive and playing a larger role in the CPaaS market by building their offerings or partnering with cloud-based communication technology vendors to integrate APIs that evolve the customer experience.
Utilizing APIs will help CSPs to distinguish services from competitors and provide advanced capabilities that can be directly tied to improved customer satisfaction and revenue growth. For example, telecom APIs allow developers to quickly add calling and messaging capabilities into their existing applications for customers without needing to invest in additional hardware or IT support.
3. Select a CPaaS provider that offers scalability.
According to the Nemertes Research White paper, if CSPs are looking to partner with an existing CPaaS provider, they should evaluate a broad set of CPaaS players to determine who can give CSPs’ customers what they need today, as well as help the company grow over time. CSPs can uncover these elements by assessing a CPaaS provider’s breadth, experience, and ability to rapidly deliver new features using agile, software-based, platforms.
When a CSP chooses to select a CPaaS partner, it’s also important to have a solid understanding of customer preferences and look at the scope of a CPaaS provider’s offerings, geographic reach, reliability and quality of service. For example, if a CSP’s customers need global support, it is best to select a CPaaS partner that has a network and presence in those countries.
4. Shift to horizontal service offerings model to increase customer loyalty.
CSPs that provide horizontal offerings to customers will see increased customer demand for their existing expertise – like access to networks – as well as the opportunity to partner with cloud-based providers to maximize expansion. With a horizontal offerings structure, CSPs can provide a more collaborative model for enterprises to work with partners and be able to take the next step in evolving their go-to-market approach — through bundling services specific to each customer.
5. Increase customer value by reselling your cloud offerings.
CSPs are also competing with traditional CPaaS offerings by expanding focuses and embracing a value-added reseller (VAR) model. The transition of CSPs to VARs and cloud brokers is attractive to enterprises because it provides a one-stop solution, but also can raise issues for CSPs as they need to lower costs and will likely begin to attract new competitors that may have previously been partners or customers.
For CSPs, being agile and adjusting to customer demands equates to remaining viable in today’s fast-paced, digital-driven market. The migration to cloud-based models offer an array of benefits including more enhanced user experience, increased customer loyalty, greater scalability and flexibility of services. Whether CSPs choose to integrate cloud offerings or select a cloud partner, cloud-based solutions are helping CSPs remain competitive and nimble in the XaaS economy.
