5G To B is a telecom "power pill"?
5G changes society, and the most value-added value that operators should pursue is enterprise business. However, according to the latest survey report of Omdia (Ovum), at present, 5G enterprise business is "a mess" by operators.
The report said: "Business opportunities have slipped away from operators." In fact, as shown in the above chart, only about one-fifth of the projects are "CSP-led"; the most mainstream enterprise business model accounts for approximately 40%, the supplier (IT integrator) is responsible for ordering the CSP just for delivery-both to transmit data (to provide connectivity). Research shows that in another third of the projects, companies will adopt a DIY (do it yourself) approach, and operators are assigned the role of stupid pipes.
The tracking system established by Omdia checks a large number of 5G transactions. The report contains many examples of different project types, from the recent Volkswagen tender (RFC) to a mining project in Peru, which seems to completely ignore the telecommunications company. So where did the operator go wrong? The Omdia report mentioned that operators do not understand corporate business, nor do they know how to attract investment decisions from corporate decision makers.
The original report gives two examples:
First, CSP is like a socially disabled person playing with his train in the bedroom. **The report mentions that business models and partnerships are far more important than sub-millisecond latency and gigabit speed connections. In terms of technology, there will not be too many differences. Operators buy 5G products from the same or two or three suppliers. The biggest difference will be culture.
Second, CSP is obsessed with the characteristics of 5G technology, such as network slicing, latency and bandwidth, rather than asking what kind of problems and challenges these technologies can solve. **A wiser approach is to ask customers their business questions and then see if 5G can help.
The viewpoints of this report are hardly exciting or innovative. After all, in the 2C era, operators have missed opportunities such as content, video, CDN, and missed data centers. They barely rely on user dividends and the development of mobile Internet to support ARPU. Too fast or even slightly increased to now. However, the above two examples make me feel familiar. Recently, I have read a lot of development materials and marketing materials for our 2B business. Although I feel that there are many improprieties, they are not as "heart-struck" and as mentioned in the report. The vivid image of "hit the nail on the head".
Indeed, whether it is our own 2B market expansion materials or the case summary or publicity of the pilot projects we have supported our customers in the past year, they all reflect the strong taste of "Daliwan". The 5G, which claims to be far from 4G+1G, has been turned into a "big pill" business. Regardless of scenarios and challenges, and regardless of costs and benefits, it is a routine: the front is the industry's own scenario or networking, and the back is a few "hard core" technical points of 5G, ultra-large bandwidth, ultra-low latency, and more Connection, coupled with the "popular vocabulary" of technologies such as slicing and AI, regardless of whether there is a correspondence between the front and the back, and whether there is a connection. It seems that 5G is a technology to save the world.
No matter how many projects, innovations or POCs like this do, they will end up with "chicken feathers in one place". After a gust of wind blows, there will be no more "chicken feathers" on the ground. After experiencing the hype curve and disillusionment of SDN, NFV, etc., the industrial marketing of 5G2B also brings you more of "touching the ball" and feeling of powerlessness and emptiness after "touching the wall". (Know it in seconds)
How to avoid the repeated performance of such industrial "drama", the foresight among operators and some practical factions among manufacturers should be emotionally and competently "anxious" and "rejecting" ritualized industrial marketing activities. This is a very good starting point, just like you can never wake up a person who "pretends to sleep", at least there are already "awakened" people in the industry. The answer is two "must":
First, it must be clearly recognized that the ToB round of market and market must return to the essence of the platform business. It is impossible for operators or network providers to understand every industry. It is impossible to embed 5G into its production and manufacturing processes for all walks of life, and its cost and efficiency are not enough to make various customized products to deliver.
Second, we must change our thinking. It is essential to treat networks and equipment as cost centers and use them as ecological means to cooperate more effectively with customers. Sometimes, it may be necessary to accept a secondary role in the ecosystem. For telecommunications companies, the answer to the problem is to form partnerships with companies that meet these different needs—becoming a medium or platform between the enterprise and different application experts. Ecological thinking should be used to solve industry scenario-based innovation and delivery, to achieve the seemingly irreconcilable contradiction of thousands of people and large-scale (this has been practiced and proved feasible in the mobile Internet)
We know that 5G2B is not achieved overnight. This industry track has just been established. It is still the first half just like football. It doesn’t matter whether you win or lose. You don’t have to look at the competition too importantly. What’s more important is to build capabilities and platforms to win the final. Victory, even if you can enter the ecological or platform game, then the best is to continue the game and enter the "infinite game" state.
Of course, although there is still opportunity and time, but because of lack of ability, if we still use the "big pill" mentality and model to scream and sell 5G, a lot of time is wasted, a great "time cost" or "opportunity cost" "Being lost, then the familiar off-court commentary will sound sooner or later, "We still have a chance to qualify. We can qualify as long as we get a tie, but we don’t have much time left on the court..."
5G To B should not be a "power pill".