The technology evolution and changing consumer behaviour has accelerated the digital transformation journey for any industry. And most of all, it has impacted the Telecom sector the most, as they are at the center of this change. Be it healthcare, fintech, e-commerce, media, or entertainment; telecom has a role everywhere. One factor that has made this possible is telecom operators leaving the legacy business methods and creating an ecosystem of partners to collaborate and co-create the new age innovative services. As the partner ecosystem is at the heart of this transformation, making the best partner experience for telco partners is of utmost importance. There is a need for a shift in putting the partner experience in parallel to customer experience.
Strategy
Many telecom operators have set their priority on creating a digital ecosystem strategy. As the revenues from traditional services are declining, there is an urgency to diversify the service offerings, and the partner will play an essential role in this diversification. Telcos, however, has a strong understanding of the telecom ecosystem, but they lack the business acumen for the new lines of business. For example, what kind of services can they launch for the healthcare industry, the requirements, and how customers will consume the service. All this knowledge will come from the incumbent partner who carries the relevant experience. Telecom operators should look to create and endorse an interconnected and robust partner group that generates and captures value in the market to foster this ecosystem evolution. And to do this, with their current knowledge of engagement, they need to consider what the partners expect and the most significant pain points.
Why it’s Important
The importance of creating a partner ecosystem is no longer a hidden knowledge. TMForum has mentioned in one of its reports that to monetize 5G services by delivering vertical-specific services, CSPs need to create experiences that can attract the right partners and quickly onboard them into the ecosystem and collaborate to develop new offerings for its customers. This requires that business support systems (BSS) ensure that all parties participating in the digital ecosystem can generate value.
How to create the best Partner Experience.
1. Create the best onboarding experience- this will be the first instance of the partner looking at your ecosystem. So, the onboarding process has to be easy and user-friendly. It should be robust enough to gather all the relevant information that the Telco will require to make the right decision about the partner.
2. Self Care Portal- The CSPs need to provide self-care capabilities and access to critical business reports and dashboards to their partners to be aware of what is happening to their business. They should be able to see what value they are adding to the ecosystem and, if not, how they can be more productive.
3. Easy communication- to help them quickly exchange the messages, ask questions or enquire, or raise disputes. This will reduce the to and fro of information, and both CSP and the partner can focus more time on business-critical processes.
4. Dispute resolution process- It should be easy for the partner to raise any dispute, and the resolution process should be smooth and fast. This will help create high trust in the partnership and a healthy and profitable partnership for a longer time.
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