Operators: 12 challenges to accelerate your growth

Today, being deprived of an Internet connection means being cut off from a large part of one's customers, partners, but also from one's employees. In an increasingly connected world, connectivity is a key requirement.

This need has become unavoidable and opens up huge opportunities for local operators. Whether they have a local or regional customer base, they can offer their customers tailor-made solutions, an approach centered on people and proximity. These players are able to respond perfectly to the connectivity needs of businesses, which are nevertheless facing many challenges today. 

In this article, you'll find a list of the 12 major issues that stand in the way of your growth in 2023 .

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1) Combating the hegemony of large national operators

The French B2B telecom market is largely dominated by the main national operators. Nevertheless, two giants stand out. According to a study by audit and consulting firm PMP, Orange had a 65% market share and SFR 20% in 2019. This leaves only 15% to be shared between the other players (including Bouygues Telecom and Free)!

Faced with this duopoly, local operators have no choice but to find ways to differentiate themselves: tailor-made offers, responsiveness, availability... All qualities that business customers appreciate and often regret not finding with the giants of the sector.

You think it's an unequal battle lost in advance? Think again! Of course, there is no question of trying to dethrone the two leaders. However, the future looks bright for local operators, and it's happening right now: according to PMP projections, their market share among VSEs will rise from 5.7% in 2019 to 10% in 2034, and from 19.5% to 25% in the SME segment. The B2B telecom revolution has already begun, so don't delay in joining it!

2) Adapt to the new telecom market context on fiber and copper

Good news for consumers: technologies based on optical fiber (FTTH, FTTO, FTTE...) are becoming more and more widespread. In fact, this democratization has had an effect on prices, which are now being lowered. A trend that is expected to continue over the next few years. In this context, how to offer competitive prices? An effective way to do this is to be able to quickly compare infrastructure offers, in order to choose those that best meet your customers' needs, at the best price. It is therefore essential to have easy access to relevant and, above all, up-to-date information.

Moreover, the development of fiber leads to another evolution in the telecom market: the upcoming end of copper (xDSL). Many professionals will be concerned by the migration to fiber. A considerable opportunity for local operators! It is therefore the moment to position yourself with these companies, by responding precisely to their needs and by highlighting your additional services, capable of meeting all their expectations.

3) Streamline your costs

To increase your profits, you have two main levers at your disposal: 

1. Increase your revenues, 
2. Reduce your expenses. 

Let's look at the latter first. To achieve this, you will need to take an innovative approach, for example by automating low value-added tasks. On a day-to-day basis, there is no shortage of possibilities: eligibility tests, comparison of market offers, tracking of orders, invoices, incidents, performance of sold services... Optimizing these processes increases your efficiency and helps you streamline your costs, while focusing on your core business and winning new customers.

4) Offer a variety of telecom services to sign new customers

The sinews of war. The growth of your company will inevitably pass by the commercial development and the development of your customers' loyalty. For this, you will have to deploy sustained efforts in prospecting, marketing, customer relations... but above all, you will have to offer a variety of services.

Acquiring new customers requires a precise response to their needs. It is from the knowledge of your targets that you can define a relevant catalog of offers. Of course, first of all, you have to offer your customers fixed connectivity, especially in optical fiber. But do they have other expectations? Would they need mobile data services, fixed or mobile voice, SMS, cloud...?

However, you can choose to specialize in fixed connectivity, for example. This approach allows you to reduce your catalog and limit the number of your suppliers. Nevertheless, this bet seems risky: if you do not cover all your customers' needs, they will certainly look for a more complete provider.

5) Meet all your customers' geographical needs

As a local operator, your service offers address a well-defined coverage area and you know your sector perfectly : customers, suppliers, competitors... But what happens if one of your prospects has several sites in France, in different regions, or even in Europe?

You may need to call on an operator capable of covering all of your prospect's desired sites and thus extend your strike force to at least the national level. But you still need to be able to access infrastructure offers throughout the country...

6) Easily connect to the infrastructure

It's not enough to know the providers to offer the best connectivity services to your customers. It is better to be able toestablish a functional connection between the network infrastructure and the companies that have subscribed to your service. This interconnection is usually established by means of collection gates, which are network equipment that collects customer data streams from the infrastructure operator.

However, the interconnection modalities are not always the same, depending on the provider or the technology used: xDSL, FTTH, FTTO... This means that as a service operator, you need to invest in multiple collection gates, in order to be able to meet your customers' various needs. For a local player, the associated cost can skyrocket and quickly become an obstacle to growth... See the second part of our white paper to discover the accessible solutions.

7) Easily interconnect to... infrastructure providers' IS

Interconnection to the infrastructure is essential, but it is not enough! Even before choosing a supplier, you need to know their offers, associated tariffs, technical characteristics, etc. Then, during your partnership, you will have information to exchange, regarding billing elements, order tracking, incidents... It seems absolutely necessary to link your information system (IS) to that of the infrastructure operators. This is not an easy obligation, as each player has its own way of working, its own tools and procedures... This is why the IS interconnection between a service operator and its suppliers can quickly become a real headache.

In order to avoid this, you need to find a way to easily exchange data with your partners and to always have up-to-date information. For example, you can opt to develop a specific interface for each infrastructure operator. Or you can opt for a turnkey tool, which will exempt you from this laborious and costly work (go to the second part of this white paper to learn more).

8) Responding quickly to a customer's location in the event of an incident

Even with the best service offer or infrastructure provider, an incident can occur. In this case, it is important tointervene as soon as possible. However, as a local operator, you do not always have the possibility to easily dispatch someone on site. Firstly, because you do not necessarily have the necessary human resources, but also sometimes because of the distance, especially if you offer your services throughout France.

However, it is essential toanticipate the occurrence of breakdowns and to plan an efficient procedure in case of failure. A too late intervention on site may affect the activity of your customer and his appreciation of your services...

9) Ensure continuous connectivity to your customers, without service interruption 

A network failure can cause substantial losses for a company. As a service provider, your customer will undoubtedly count on you to help him limit the consequences of this mishap. If you have nothing to offer, they may interpret your failure as a lack of consideration. Especially since in the B2B telecom market, companies expect a tailored and responsive service, especially from a local player.

Backup solutions exist. You can anticipate incidents by deploying fixed back-up links for each customer. But this costly (and not always effective) method is fortunately not the only one. Indeed, if the problem concerns fixed connectivity, why not call the mobile network to the rescue?

10) Simplify exchanges with suppliers and customers

The previous 9 points highlight the importance of effective communication with your suppliers and customers. Let's take the example of a network failure at the latter. How can you intervene as quickly as possible if you have to :

• find the right phone number / email address to report the incident to the infrastructure operator,
• Track the progress of the incident resolution, without having to call the supplier every day,
• ...

It seems to be in your interest to make your customers' and prospects' lives easier. Companies want to optimize their time and fluidify the relationship with their operator in order to make the best decisions quickly. You must therefore provide them with a tailor-made service while showing a great reactivity. Ideally, you should offer your customers the possibility to subscribe to a connectivity offer directly online in complete autonomy while ensuring simple communication throughout the customer relationship.

11) Easily manage portability requests

Responding favorably to a portability request is a legal obligation. The portability of fixed and mobile numbers is a right, also for companies. For example, a customer who moves or changes operator can ask you to keep all his phone numbers. This avoids having to update all his contact details, notify all his partners, suppliers, customers, etc. 

However, this procedure can be very complex, especially for operators who do not have a dedicated tool. It is not always easy to predict the cost of the operation, as the price depends on a multitude of factors. Therefore, even if this activity is not part of your core business, it is wise to set up a simple process to facilitate the management of portability requests.

12) Maintain your autonomy

You have the opportunity to develop your own solutions to each of the issues listed above. However, this requires many financial and human resources. Why not take advantage of the experience of players who have already developed tools that can help you? The use of aggregators or external software can help you on a daily basis.

Be careful when choosing a solution! Using an external player can sometimes lead to dependency. For example, does your aggregator require you to use its own tools? What will happen the day you want to change provider? Will there be barriers to exit?

Beware of options that involve giving up a significant amount of freedom. The ideal solution should satisfy a dual objective: simplify your life while preserving your autonomy.

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Things to remember:

1) The current context is favorable to local operators who can more easily make themselves heard and establish their legitimacy.

2) The migration from copper to fiber opens the way to more competitive offers.

3) The centralization of data within a single management platform helps to rationalize your costs.

4) A perfect knowledge of your targets allows you to enrich your products and services catalog. 

5) A local operator hasundeniable assets to gain the trust of its local customers.

6) Easily interconnecting to infrastructure and having access to multiple collection ports is a real productivity issue for companies.

7) The partnership with infrastructure operators is fully effective when the information system interconnects with those of its customers.

8) No service operator is immune to an incident. Having a clear and efficient procedure is essential to respond quickly to your customers.

9) Ensuring continuous connectivity is THE priority for telecom operators, regardless of the events they encounter.

 10) The watchword for exchanges between suppliers and customers: SIM-PLI-CI-TÉ.

11) A telecom operator isobliged to respond favorably to a portability request .

12) Depending on a single information system can be a source of dissatisfaction. Using external aggregators or software can save a lot of time and be a source of autonomy. You want to keep this list and contact us later?

Download the white paper summarizing the 12 challenges and the dedicated Netwo support.