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The study, entitled State of Readiness, follows on from an Oracle report in 2009 in which a panel of global experts looked at how CSPs and media companies could prosper in the digital age amidst rapidly changing consumer behaviour. The strategies recommended included fostering consumer trust, getting closer to the consumer and tailoring offers accordingly, preparing for new revenue models, ensuring security and building value added services around content.

State of Readiness set out to determine the level of priority CSPs accorded these measures, along with their progress in delivering on them.

Systems Unable to Deliver on Personalised Customer Experience

The research showed that telecoms firms have, on the whole, begun to focus on many of the strategic goals identified in the previous report. Their top priorities revolve primarily around reassuring customers and offering them a richer, more personalised experience:

· Tailoring offerings to customers’ needs is highlighted as a major focus by 82% of respondents

· Information security (80%)

· Building value added services around content (70%)

· Providing a compelling, intuitive user experience (68%)

· Deepening specialism in core areas of expertise (68%)

The trend towards personalisation is also reflected in the specific services telcos were planning to launch in the next three years – three-quarters (76%) intend to deliver content personalised to each individual, while seven in ten (70%) plan to provide content based on users’ behaviour and preferences.

However, subsequent findings revealed that the majority of telcos’ customer management systems lack the sophistication to deliver tailored experiences based on customer insights:

· Just 12% are able to run detailed analyses of customer behaviour to spot trends and identify customer segments

· Only 16% are able to provide detailed insight into individual customer behaviour

· Fewer than half (44%) are able to track marketing and loyalty programmes across all channels for specific customers

· Only 46% are able to provide recommendations to customers based on the context of their current interaction

Gordon Rawling, Director of EMEA Marketing, Oracle Communications, said: “Intelligence on the customer base’s habits, and the different segments that exist within it, is fundamental to delivering any kind of genuinely tailored user experience. The customer management systems many organisations have in place will be more than capable of delivering this insight. It is a case of integrating customer data and systems across the organisation and using this wealth of information to provide genuine insight into customer behaviour and how the business can profit from it.”

Orchestrating the Dance

The previous report foresaw how, in the long run, digital media will be characterised by alliances and partnerships between companies that specialise in their own areas. A particular opportunity was identified for companies that could become ‘orchestrator of the dance’, helping customers to navigate the sea of digital choice.

State of Readiness revealed the scale of CSPs’ ambitions in becoming the ‘orchestrator’ – 78% are planning services to support consumers in navigating the vast range of content.

The new report also confirmed a huge appetite among telecoms firms for providing customers with richer content through partnerships. Many telecoms firms already have in place partnerships with IT and internet firms (82%) with 94% having plans to do so. The research revealed however a number of other growth areas for content partnerships:

· Mobile apps developers (54% have existing partnerships with 84% planning for this)

· Internet portals (58% currently to 78% planning for this)

· Media and entertainment companies (52% currently to 76% planning for this)

· Content aggregators (42% currently to 76% planning for this)

· Social media companies (38% currently to 76% planning for this)

· Creative consumers or ‘pro ams’ (24% currently to 62% planning for this)

Gordon Rawling said: “It’s clear that a rich network of partners is a fundamental strategic pillar for many CSPs in providing customers with a broad range of content. There is a huge opportunity for the company that can offer the best content experience based on the individual’s tastes and lifestyles, but again this requires a deep level of customer insight.”

Inability to Cater for Full Range of Billing Options

Despite these plans for a rich content experience, the research also revealed that a large number of telecoms firms currently lack the ability to bill customers for content and value added services when the opportunity arises – 40% of telecoms firms are unable to process micropayments, 28% can’t cater for subscriptions while 12% are unable to process one-off payments.

Gordon Rawling said: “Telecoms firms occupy an enviable place in the digital world in owning a billing relationship with their customers, along with having insights into their lifestyles, preferences and even location. This puts them in prime position to create value for themselves, their partners and their customers – but only if they have the capabilities to turn this unique customer access into revenue and prove themselves deserving of the customer’s trust.”

A Head Start on Media Firms

The survey simultaneously questioned 50 media executives from the same countries and found that media and telecoms firms share many of the same objectives in delivering richer content through a network of partnerships. Despite some of the challenges identified, the research also provided some encouragement in showing that telecoms firms are on the whole more advanced than media firms when it came to delivering on their goals:

· Telecoms are more agile – 86% of telcos are able to respond to rapid change in business models in a matter of weeks compared to 72% of media companies

· 62% of telcos are able to allocate revenue from content sales to partners and different areas of the business within one week compared to 50% of media firms

· 66% of CSPs are developing their billing systems to collect and allocate payment for value added services compared to 46% of media firms

· Just 20% of telcos are wasting resources through manually integrating information across multiple customer management systems compared to 30% of media firms

One area where media firms had the edge however was in using social media channels to support customer engagement – 64% of media firms use social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to gather and respond to views from the public compared to just 34% of telcos.

Gordon Rawling said: “Digital convergence is bringing companies from previously distinct sectors – such as media, telecoms and IT – into increased competition for control of the customer relationship. Communication Service Providers are ahead in many regards, which makes it all the more important for them to enhance their capabilities and capitalise on their unique relationship with the customer. The recent announcement of Facebook’s messaging service highlights the scale of the competition telcos now face to maintain their positions as the ‘gatekeeper’ to the customer’s communications.”