Across the connectivity industry and its broad ecosystem of Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), service providers, industry influencers and technology innovators, there is a war waging to conquer the enterprise. The motive, as Appledore reports in a recent forecast, is clear: enterprises are expected to spend $232 billion on services and solutions globally by 2027 – and everybody wants a piece of the pie. But few players are as poised to dominate as much as MNOs. Equipped with their unmatched industry expertise, extensive 5G investments and existing network of enterprise relationships, MNOs have a valuable foundation for success with which newer market entrants simply cannot compete.
Yet despite these advantages, operators have been unable to truly seize an enduring hold on the opportunity. More troubling still, as Pablo Tomasi, Principal Analyst at Omdia, reported just last summer, this multi-billion dollar opportunity is in fact “fading away” from operators. The challenge, it seems, lies in acquiring genuine, lasting and business-driven interest from enterprises across high-value industries such as mining, energy and manufacturing. And overcoming the challenge to once and for all command the enterprise mobile networking market will demand evolution from MNOs on two fronts.
A Differentiated Solution
MNOs have maintained an essential and enabling role in business across industries because they hold largely exclusive control over the world’s communications infrastructure. Virtually every service an MNO provides and every solution they offer relies upon this infrastructure. As such, it may seem intuitive to guard the inner workings of their operations behind walls of complexity to maintain their seat at the negotiation table.
Yet by guarding their operations so closely with understandable reluctance to work with new partners that may seem to threaten “business as usual,” they’re actually preventing quicker paths to innovation and success fueled by collaboration. ABI Research reported as much in July 2022, explaining that “operators must restructure business and operating models with a look toward openness and partnerships across the industry…to drive cross-business service continuity.” Yesterday’s telecommunications business models are incompatible with today’s enterprise needs for the kind of real-time mobile network visibility and control that will support the rapid deployment, testing and implementation of next-gen applications and wide area use cases. And the operator that is first to market with a differentiated enterprise mobile networking solution that delivers this type of visibility and control to enterprise IT teams will pave the way for sustained market success.
Importantly, giving enterprises more control need not be so intimidating for MNOs. The truth is that enterprises do not want to hire new networking teams to establish, maintain and manage mobile connectivity – it increases costs, inefficiency and complexity. Rather, enterprises want solutions that fit seamlessly into their IT-defined environments, allowing them to leverage their IT teams to improve existing mission critical workflows and drive new outcomes. By utilizing innovative partners to help translate telecom complexity into IT simplicity, MNOs can effectively provide enterprises with real-time mobile network management control without jeopardizing their status as an essential and enduring enabler of enterprise success.
A Differentiated Relationship
Equipped with a differentiated solution, all that remains in the way of MNO success is delivering that solution. Enterprise C-suites are not interested in talking networking jargon, and in fact often use the same words to mean different things. This befuddles negotiations with confusion that slows, or even prevents, enterprise interest and adoption. But if MNOs can begin to speak the language of the enterprise – a language defined by tangible outcomes, proven success and real results – then they will find enterprises more interested in what they have to say.
By shifting the language surrounding enterprise deals, MNOs can focus the conversation around the innovation, efficiency and/or safety needs of the enterprise. And with their needs established, enterprises will see MNOs as sympathetic, trusting and mutually invested partners. In a market where few convey understanding of the enterprise’s demands for mobile network control, visibility, deployability and affordability, the first MNO that actually encourages this kind of Enterprise First®mobile networking solution will certainly stand out.
A Quicker Path to 5G Monetization
As the enterprise mobile networking market becomes increasingly flooded with competition and hype, MNOs must react tactically to remain outcome-focussed and ensure sustained success. Partnering with Expeto, MNOs can establish a repeatable, software solution that utilizes existing MNO infrastructure to create Enterprise Mobile Networks (EMNs) that converge private and public networking within a single, simple Enterprise First platform. By giving enterprises the power of control to design, orchestrate and manage mobile network connectivity across public and private cellular networks, MNOs can actually offload duties like support and maintenance to the enterprise itself – thereby reducing cost and effort while meeting enterprise demands. And by embracing a software-only solution purpose-built for enterprise, MNOs can rapidly scale across high-value industries to once and for all seize the enterprise opportunity.
By taking these evolutionary steps to transform their culture and execution, MNOs can uniquely enable enterprises to achieve revolutionary outcomes. Taking action, however, is required.
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