Asia/Pacific Telecom Summit 2016: IDC expects 2017 to be the year of digital engagement

11 Nov 2016

SINGAPORE, November 11, 2016 – IDC Asia Pacific recently held its fifth Asia/Pacific Telecom Summit titled “The Rise of Asia’s Digital Service Providers” at Sofitel Singapore Sentosa Resort & Spa, Singapore on 11^th November 2016. Over 60 senior level executives from the region joined the event to discuss and share insights on the telecom industry’s increasing focus on going “Digital”, from effecting major transformations in their networks and internal processes to building new platforms for offering a new generation of digital products and services to their customers, while IDC provided its latest commentary on the direction of the industry.

IDC dubbed 2016 as the year of platforms as service providers across the region as service providers make investments and focus on building the new platforms and capabilities they need to execute on their digital transformation (DX) visions. In 2017, the focus will shift rapidly to Digital Engagement, as service providers begin to deploy new products and services and reinvent the traditional engagement model with their customers, across consumer, enterprise and soon to new target segments. Digital engagement will not only enhance the customer experience but will also validate the service portfolio and strategic direction of the service provider.

“The industry has begun the hard journey towards becoming “digital”. Having built the necessary platforms, service providers are already rolling out new products and services along with significantly enhanced customer experience across the Asia-Pacific region. We believe that 2017 will see the rise of meaningful digital engagement as service providers usher in a new paradigm,” says Shiv Putcha, Associate Director, Telecom Practice, IDC Asia Pacific.

Within the context of a Year of Digital Engagement for 2017, some of the key predictions include:

• By 2017, more than 50% of enterprises will engage 3^rd party SPs to implement real-time communication APIs.

• By 2018, SD WAN will be adopted by 30% of enterprises as a critical component of remote branch connectivity.

• By 2018, despite hype on the benefits of low power WAN, such as LoRa and Sigfox, unlicensed spectrum and inability to offer QoS causes companies to focus IoT on non-critical business deployments.

• By 2018, OTT linear TV subscriber growth will start to drive traditional pay TV overhaul via cloud migration.

• By 2019, Enterprises will require analytics as a service enabled by intelligence/analytics in the network edge.

“Asia’s service provider community is undergoing rapid change and transforming themselves in order to provide next generation digital services to their customers. This transformation is necessary and crucial not just to keep pace with the more progressive service providers but also to fend off “competition” from the web-scale Internet companies like Amazon, Google and Facebook,” Putcha adds.

The summit also underscored the need to focus on network transformation that is crucial to helping service providers implement and execute on their digital transformation visions. Other areas discussed included the need for service providers to open up their network with APIs to enable the next wave of applications and services. Finally, there was a lot of discussion around visualizing, designing and implementing new models for customer experience.

“Communication service providers are faced with a new breed of challenges borne out of a fast-evolving and increasingly unfamiliar market environment. To overcome these, the industry must effect operational transformation that delivers complete, bottom up, employee inclusive solutions that position a service provider for a fast, agile and responsive future,” says Hugh Ujhazy Associate Vice President, IDC Asia/Pacific.

Figure 1

From left to right: Shiv Putcha, Associate Director, Telecom Practice, IDC Asia/Pacific; Tanaphon Manavutiveth, Director, Customer Happiness & Relationship, TRUE Corporation; Tuan Le, Managing Director, ASEAN, Orange Business Services; Trung Kien Hoang, Executive Vice President/Deputy CEO, FPT Telecom; Lopes Lu, Director, Internet & Commerce Division, FarEasTone

The summit closed with the announcement of the winners of the Asia/Pacific Telecom Awards 2016 namely:

Digital Service Provider of the Year

Orange Business Services

Digital Transformer of the Year

FPT Telecom

Excellence in Customer Experience

TRUE Corporation

Best Telco-OTT Partnership

FarEasTone

The Asia/Pacific Telecom Summit Awards promote telecommunication industries by recognizing distinguished service providers that have made extraordinary achievements in telecommunication industries. Award winners serve as inspirational leaders and reflect the growth progress in the region.

The Asia/Pacific Telecom Summit 2016 was organized by IDC Asia/Pacific in partnership with the following sponsors: Principal Partner, Schneider Electric; Thought Leader Partner, VirtusaPolaris; Exhibitor, eG Innovations.