Telco Strategies to Tap into the Enterprise Opportunity in Africa and the Middle East
Being historically the playing ground of IT vendors, telecom operators are accelerating their expansion into the enterprise ICT market, which is gaining traction in Africa and the Middle East (AME). To succeed, telcos need to transform into integrated ICT service providers and craft a holistic strategy that supports their transformation and that they can harness to monetize and maximize the enterprise segment opportunity in AME. Key components of such a strategy include the B2B customer segments to target, the organizational structure to put in place, the technical strategy and the product and sales approach.
Economic growth in AME will fuel an increase in the number of businesses in the private sector and continue to foster the emergence of regional and local giants, driving up demand for business ICT services.
We project enterprise ICT service revenue to account for more than 40% and 25% of total ICT service revenue in MENA and Sub-Saharan Africa, respectively, by 2020.
To craft a successful enterprise ICT strategy, telcos can start by assessing the magnitude of the enterprise market they operate in, including the growth of B2B customer and service segments. This is key to defining target enterprise customer segments and the enterprise services that can be offered.
Successful enterprise strategies also encompass a dedicated B2B unit and an alignment of the organizational and operational structure to key B2B customer segments.
Go-to-market strategies including products, pricing, promotion and distribution need to be tailored to the exact characteristics of the targeted enterprise customer segments.
Several operators are addressing competition coming from other value-chain players by partnering with them and creating an ecosystem where the telco becomes a business ICT service broker and a one-stop-shop for its local market.
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