Research on the market development strategy of operators under the background of digital transformation

At present, a new round of world scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is in the ascendant, which has a significant and far-reaching impact on global economic development, social progress and human civilization. Global scientific and technological innovation has entered an unprecedentedly intensive active period, and science and technology are driving the economic and social development at an astonishing speed with unprecedented power. The new generation of information technology represented by 5G, big data, cloud computing, industrial Internet, artificial intelligence, and blockchain is accelerating its deep integration with all industries and sectors of the economy and society. The wave of digitalization is sweeping the world, and digital transformation has become the general trend of the times and the inevitable choice for enterprises to deepen reforms. This has prompted operators to embark on the road of digital transformation.

Digital transformation strategies for operators

China Telecom adheres to the strategy of "network as the foundation, cloud as the core, network follows the cloud, and cloud and network are integrated", builds cloud-network integrated infrastructure, accelerates the construction of communication network infrastructure such as 5G and the Internet of Things and computing infrastructure such as data centers, strengthens the construction of new technology infrastructure such as artificial intelligence, and is committed to "cloud transformation and digital transformation", building a digital platform, empowering vertical industries, and building a rich application ecosystem through the combination of "self-research + cooperation" to meet customers' information needs and support customers' transformation and upgrading.

China Mobile focuses on the overall idea of ​​creating a world-class "power building", takes high-quality development as the main line, creates a value management system based on scale of "integration, integration, and integration of intelligence", builds an efficient and coordinated organizational operation system of "capability, synergy, and vitality", comprehensively implements the "5G+" plan, and initiates a strategic transformation of all-round efforts and coordinated development in the "four-wheel" markets of individuals, families, government and enterprises, and emerging markets.

China Unicom focuses on value operation based on the twelve-character policy of "increasing value, seeking development, emphasizing foundation and being passionate", strives to accelerate the three transformations of products, channels and innovation, and strives to improve the three capabilities of network, IT and corporate governance, build digital service capabilities of "leading experience and efficient operation", create a new cloud-network integrated ecosystem, deepen mixed-ownership reform, steadily promote comprehensive Internet operations, and create a new situation of high-quality development.

Market Dilemma Faced by Operators

Cultivating new opportunities in crises, creating new situations in changing situations, and accelerating comprehensive digital transformation have become a social consensus during the period of normalized epidemic prevention and control. For operators, how to meet the urgent needs of economic and social development for a new round of digital revolution, how to fully empower and inject intelligence into thousands of industries on the basis of their own digital transformation, and achieve high-quality and large-scale development are both opportunities and challenges. First, with the rapid development of information and communication technology and the implementation of the policy of speeding up and reducing fees, the public market with traditional connection-based services as the core has become saturated, customer consumption concepts and consumer demands have undergone profound changes, and the information and communication market has long since turned into a buyer's market; second, the demographic and scale dividends are gradually disappearing, business homogeneity is becoming more and more serious, price wars within the industry are fierce, competitive pressure is high, and customer acquisition and retention are becoming increasingly difficult, resulting in very unsatisfactory overall revenue for operators; third, due to competitive pressure, the traditional two-line, ICT and other businesses in the government and enterprise market have both weak growth in customer and revenue scale, and have not yet achieved parity with the public market as a whole; fourth, the demand for digital transformation of government and enterprises has exploded, but the competitive pressure has continued to increase. In addition to competition among peers, they also have to face the strong cross-border presence of Internet companies such as BAT, making market expansion more difficult.

How to achieve value management of existing customers and effectively tap into new customers in the public market; how to grasp digital needs in the government and enterprise markets, integrate resources to enhance capabilities, and strengthen cooperation to build an ecosystem; these are the keys for operators to "grasp both ends and be strong in both ends" and achieve high-quality development.

Operator Market Development Strategy

From the perspective of the public market, operators need to build a "three-in-one" development strategy system to create core competitiveness and advantages in terms of demand profiling, product customization and service transformation.

Demand visualization . When the market shifts from incremental development to stock management mode, telecom operators aim to reduce customer churn, extend the network life cycle, and enhance customer value. Based on the customer age, gender, years of work experience, occupation, interests, preferences and other information, they create accurate clustering portraits for customers, thereby obtaining customer needs, matching and maintaining resources, and achieving marketing breakthroughs.

The value of customer portraits is mainly reflected in three points: first, its value to the product, which helps to understand customer needs, determine product function design, and make continuous iterative adjustments; second, its value to the market, which helps to adjust marketing content, marketing strategies, and channel selection; third, its value to sales, which helps to adjust the sales team structure and sales strategy and improve conversion rates.

In the era of big data, simple customer portraits can no longer meet the needs of development. We should make full use of technologies such as big data and AI, rely on digital platforms, and build a three-dimensional and multi-dimensional customer demand portrait based on customer portraits, focusing on the trajectories and information of customers and their related persons such as consultation/inquiry, handling, reporting, complaints, opinions and suggestions, so as to accurately locate and intelligently predict customer needs, and win the favor of customers through product customization and intelligent services. Especially in the era of large-scale commercial use of 5G, there will inevitably be a large-scale wave of phone replacement. On the basis of network coverage, whoever can accurately locate and grasp the timing of customer phone replacement through customer demand portraits, innovate the customized system of 5G business products, and create 5G intelligent service advantages will be able to take the lead.

Product customization . The complexity of operator packages has always been criticized, and there are more or less problems such as "uninformed customization", "too many packages, incomprehensible, difficult to choose", "different rights for new and old users, false propaganda" and so on. To this end, operators have also carried out centralized governance, accelerated the cleaning of packages, removed products that do not meet market demand, optimized package rules, streamlined packages, and let customers consume clearly. Compared with the past, although the number of operator packages has decreased significantly, the root cause is the lack of product innovation and the lack of customization of products based on customer needs. Operators have always been at a disadvantage in the competition with Internet companies, and there is no sign of a comeback at present.

With the development of new-generation information technologies such as 5G, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence, product forms will inevitably undergo profound changes. New product forms mean new demands, and new demands mean new market opportunities and space. Adhere to the development of both single products and integrated products, meet customers' simple needs with single products and improve customer stickiness; meet customers' diverse needs with integrated customized products and enhance customer value. The realization of all this requires the powerful ability of the operator's own digital platform to aggregate various technologies and data and enable applications.

Intelligent service . Service is the key to the survival of operators in the market competition. The construction of the service system of operators reflects the customer-centric concept, but the traditional service model has major drawbacks. The number of customers received by manual service is small, customers have to wait in line, service perception is poor, and communication efficiency is low, which wastes time and consumes a lot of labor costs.

With the popularization of the application of new generation information technology, the service of operators is now transforming to intelligence on the basis of standardization, transparency and Internetization. First, focus on key businesses, carry out full-process, end-to-end online service processes and service function experience penetration testing, optimize and improve the intelligent capabilities of service touchpoints; second, make full use of new technologies such as 5G, big data, and omnimedia, innovate service models, focus on building video customer service, comprehensively improve service capabilities, and enhance customer service perception; third, establish and improve the omni-channel integrated collaborative service system, reshape and innovate online key service processes, break through the barriers of online and offline service collaboration, realize the collaborative display of online business information, the collaborative handling of offline business discounts, and the unified customer perception of various channels, so that customers can enjoy omni-channel service collaboration and obtain a complete, consistent, fast-response, and effective service experience that can solve problems; fourth, strengthen the innovation and application of intelligent service tools, such as intelligent service robots and intelligent customer service assistants.

From the perspective of the government and enterprise market, we will build a "five-in-one" development strategy system to create core competitiveness and advantages in terms of organization, team, product, support and ecology.

In an environment where overall revenue growth is slowing and the public market is saturated, it is an inevitable choice for operators to shift their operational focus to the government and enterprise market to solve the current revenue dilemma and achieve high-quality development. On the one hand, with the development of new-generation information technologies such as 5G, big data, and cloud computing, government and enterprise informatization and digital solutions are becoming mainstream demands, and the booming demand in the government and enterprise market has brought broad market opportunities and development space. Operators can highlight their personalized and differentiated competitive advantages only if they reasonably formulate digital solutions based on their own capabilities and resources. On the other hand, competition in the government and enterprise market is becoming increasingly fierce, and the three major operators are stuck in the quagmire of price wars, while Internet companies have entered the government and enterprise market with their cloud and big data products.

Organizational reform . Accelerate the reform of the government-enterprise organizational system, establish an organizational structure system that runs through the three levels of province, city, district/county from top to bottom, and comprehensively strengthen the organization and marketing power of the government-enterprise market. In particular, enrich the government-enterprise organizations and teams at the district and county level, empower the district and county, strengthen local support and service capabilities, and achieve "where the customer is, the organization is there". With products as the basis, organization as the starting point, and customer needs as the core, strengthen the organization to drive scale development.

Team building . For many years, the government and enterprise market of operators has always been in a state of "boiling frogs in warm water" and a passive mentality of "waiting, relying and asking for help". The understanding, recognition, empowerment and application of the new generation of information technology by the government and enterprise teams are still in the primary stage, and it is difficult to meet the urgent needs of government and enterprise customers for digital transformation. Operators should accelerate the construction of digital teams for government and enterprises, strengthen the introduction and training of professional talents based on cloud, big data, etc., strengthen the training and reserve of experts who are proficient in industry development trends, accelerate empowerment training, and improve the professional knowledge and capabilities of front-line digital transformation; district and county government and enterprise customer service support and guarantee teams should be established, and professional departments at the provincial and municipal levels should directly penetrate and assess local teams, empower grassroots teams, and support the front lines.

Product standardization . Basic products in the government and enterprise market have low added value and strong substitutability, and are mainly sold through direct sales channels. We must change the traditional development model, focus on social hot spots, technology development trends, industry dynamics, etc., focus on the government's social governance needs and the rigid needs of the market segments, create standardized, cloud-based, packaged, and omni-channel government and enterprise products, focus on launching N flagship standard products, strengthen omni-channel collaborative marketing for the public and government and enterprises, and quickly achieve scale breakthroughs. We must fully recognize and understand the positioning of self-developed products and cooperative products at different stages, and by strengthening the supply of cooperative products, supplement the lack of self-developed capabilities, so that self-developed products can smoothly pass the window period and help government and enterprise businesses grow rapidly.

Support systematization . The first is the sales system. Build a professional empowerment team, and continuously improve the marketing capabilities of digital products for government and enterprises through empowerment training on digital technologies and solutions, especially strengthen practical training for "front-line personnel" in districts and counties, build integrated support capabilities for pre-sales, sales and after-sales of government and enterprise products, condense capabilities into norms and resources, create a customer-centric government and enterprise empowerment think tank, stimulate organizational vitality, and release the reform multiplier effect. The second is the customer management system. Through customer demand, establish a stock retention system with customer management as the core, including the construction of stock management teams, stock performance evaluation standards, and high-risk early warning models. The third is the omni-channel marketing collaboration system. Transform the traditional "single-soldier combat" marketing method of the government and enterprise market, carry out the "joint + collaboration" model research, and realize omni-channel integrated development and collaborative marketing through the "dual-wheel drive" of the public and government and enterprises, and help the scale development of the government and enterprise market.

Ecological cooperation . The digital age is an era with platforms as the core and cooperation as the theme. No "single-handed fight" can gain an advantage in market competition. Building an open and shared platform for digital capabilities based on its own resources and advantages is the core advantage of operators, and it is also the basis for operators to achieve their own digital transformation and empower the digital transformation of the economy and society. Adhere to the basic principles of openness, sharing, and win-win cooperation, gather and build an ecological cooperation circle with the platform as the core, clarify the positioning, abide by the boundaries, implement the "platform + ecology" strategy, strengthen ecological construction, and strive to become the builder, leader and enabler of the new ecological system, break the vicious cycle of closed competition, create ecological cooperation through the platform, and form an orderly business model of "benefit sharing"; through integration and being integrated, continuously empower partners, collaboratively create value for customers, and maximize the overall value of the ecosystem.