Cloud services and new challenges for companies. (Cloud)

Although the consumption-based economy (the core of Cloud Computing ) may seem like something new, there is actually already a sector of companies that specialize in this topic. Telecommunications operators have built their networks entirely based on user consumption, whether in traditional voice services or in the so-called value-added services of mobile telephony (e.g. SMS, mobile internet). But what can we learn from them and from the vendors in this sector?

Typically, technology-related products have their life cycles focused on the constant addition of new features and complexity. However, users’ consumption capacity cannot keep up with this development. This creates the so-called “consumption gap.”

The reality of the market

Research indicates that the average utilization of enterprise software is only 54% and only 14% of software implementations are considered successful by the IT managers who carry them out.

Faced with this challenge, business decision-makers are often frustrated by their inability to use technology to improve customer relationships and employee efficiency.

In the telecommunications world, the concept of “churn” was created, which indicates the number of customers who switch from one operator to another. Due to this point, it has become essential for every vendor to offer solutions that can reduce churn or increase revenue per user. But how is it possible for a B2B technology supplier to impact an operator’s ability to generate more business, better understand its customers or prevent them from switching operators?

The answer to this challenge is called a solution. Although this term is widely used in the industry, it should not represent a product or a set of products, but rather the ability of a given vendor to listen to the problems (business challenges) of its client and offer a set of technologies that generate a direct impact on the business metrics of a given company.

The challenge of understanding the business

Delving into the business and problems of specific customers requires considerable effort, but in the consumer world it is the only way to make customers understand what they are buying and actually reap the expected benefits, otherwise they will abandon the service.

In this scenario, the relationship with decision-makers in business areas becomes key, so that they can understand the technologies that are available and how they impact their competitiveness in the market.

This relationship needs to be created based on the language and day-to-day activities of the areas of a given company, such as marketing, sales, finance, human resources, operations, among others. Once the solution is presented in a format that each area understands, it is possible to leverage 4 essential items for consumption growth.

1. Enable existing users to consume more advanced features;

2. Getting new users to adopt an application;

3. Have existing users promote applications to their groups;

4. Improve business processes for users who are connected to “devices”;

Each business area will have particularities regarding how the above points can be leveraged and consequently consumption will always increase.

The new micro world

You may be wondering how it is possible to listen and understand the needs of all customers in order to offer solutions. Well, the new world of consumption will be much more user-centric, whether corporate or private, and will be much more focused on individual micro-transactions.

This has an impact not only on the traditional risk and Capex model in the relationship between Vendors and customers, since it transfers part of the responsibility for using the technology, previously solely from the customer, to the vendor who needs to understand users well and encourage consumption.

Remembering the “churn” in telecom, and now looking at the world focused on micro transactions, we will need to adopt a new massive way of looking at and understanding our customers while connecting with a specific company in some cases.

To support this, we will seek micromarketing, since in the cloud the “decision maker” with whom we must interact in order to grow the business is now the end user. We will know everything about their usage patterns, we will carry out “intelligent listening” and we will soon be able to provide customized offers to each individual according to their usage profile and their business area.

A new era has begun where the right solution will lead us to consumption and the customer at the center of any strategy will be the new currency.

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