Content area
Full text
Industries across the spectrum are being faced with a fundamental change: digital transformation. The telecommunications industry is no exception. For communications service providers, this transformation started some time ago with the emergence of so-called over-the-top (OTT) services such as WhatsApp and Skype. However, in spite of such transformation being underway, there is a lack of frameworks and tools to help communications service providers navigate such radical change. This article presents the findings of a research project to develop such a framework: the digital maturity model for telecommunications service providers. The model aims to offer a structured view of digital transformation that is specific to the context and challenges of the telecommunications industry and that can be used as a standard to help communications service providers benchmark themselves against peers or themselves as they advance their transformation. This article describes the need for the model and the methodology used to develop it, and it offers recommendations on how to use the model and further develop it as our understanding of digital transformation evolves.
Keywords: digitization, business, digital, maturity model, telecommunications, innovation, disruptive technologies, digital transformation, business transformation
" An organization's capabilities become its disabilities " when disruptive innovation is afoot.
Clayton Christensen
Professor, business consultant, and author In The Innovator's Dilemma
Introduction
Communications service providers are being faced with a deep transformation that is taking them from being providers of traditional communication services (e.g., voice, SMS) into providers of digital services (e.g., music, mobile TV, cloud services, Internet of Things) This digital transformation - the use of technology such as analytics, mobility, social media, and smart embedded devices to improve the performance or reach of an enterprise (Westerman et al., 2011) - also requires communications service providers to digitize the way they serve their customers throughout the entire customer lifecycle. Thus, the transformation is disruptive; it affects not only customer relationships, but internal processes and value propositions as well (Westerman et al., 2011).
A number of factors are identified as key drivers for digital transformation, including:
* Technological advancement: everything is being connected to the Internet or is being digitized. Examples of this include connected vehicles and the digitization of money.
* New breeds of firms providing digital services that utilize the infrastructure of communications...