The wholesale environment has witnessed a rapid evolution over recent years, one which has seen the old carrier model all but replaced by one defined by innovation, partnership and differentiation. More than ever before, today’s wholesale operators exist within a network of networks – a highly competitive landscape, amongst which the ability to distinguish themselves from the competition goes a long way to determining success or failure.
One of the most impactful ways wholesalers can differentiate themselves from the rest, is by providing a superior customer experience. For modern telcos, this means going beyond merely considering what services they can provide and where, to developing a mind-set which focuses not only on the needs of their direct customers, but also on the demands of their customers’ end users.
The necessity of providing this superior level of customer experience was highlighted by Ovum analyst David James, in his report entitled 2018 Trends to Watch: Wholesale Telecoms, which emphasised that ‘the fast changing retail markets faced by wholesalers’ customers necessitate the ability to prototype new services quickly, run market tests, turn up or down, and ultimately fully launch or withdraw services in response to market demand’.[1] These are critical requirements which wholesalers must tailor their solutions in response to in order to be successful in the market today.
Wholesale provider, enterprise mentality
Across the business world, customers, empowered by lightning fast technology, are becoming more demanding of their providers in a wide range of verticals. This trend towards greater customer demand is also now true of the wholesale space.
As a result, it is no longer good enough for wholesalers to sit back and react passively to customer needs – their go to market propositions must now directly consider customer requirements as a priority. This requires wholesale organisations to think more like an enterprise channel, and produce agile solutions which speak directly to the needs of their customer’s customers.
In adopting this more consultative, customer centric approach to wholesale service provision, Colt is differentiating its wholesale offering, with the aim of shaking up how the market views wholesale providers.
No wholesaler is an island
The intense competition within the wholesale market means it is increasingly difficult for providers to achieve successful growth without cooperating closely with other suppliers. No telco exists independently; operators instead sit within a network of networks defined by both collaboration and competition. While the increasing number of partnerships between carriers offers such benefits as reduced costs and improved time to market, it also presents a potential problem in terms of customer experience.
From a customer’s perspective, the prospect of dealing with numerous wholesale suppliers in order to provision, make changes to, or troubleshoot their connectivity solutions, is one which is likely to create significant complications for CIOs.
This is why Colt offers an end-to-end service for its wholesale customers, one where we own the process from start to finish, regardless of whether your traffic is travelling along Colt fibre or not. This solution removes the headache of having to deal with more than one connectivity provider, allowing users to seamlessly negotiate a complex and potentially cumbersome networking environment. This customer centric proposition, in turn, allows our customers to focus their efforts squarely on fulfilling the needs of their own clients.
Colt is proud to be sponsoring Capacity Europe 2018. Europe’s largest carrier conference will see more than 2,500 delegates from across the entire wholesale ecosystem descend on London from 22nd-25th October.
This year, Colt will be hosting the welcome reception on Monday 22nd October from 6 – 7.30pm in the Riverside rooms at the Intercontinental O2 Hotel. Colt’s Peter Coppens, VP Product, and Louisa Gregory, Chief of Staff, will also speak at panel sessions addressing the cutting edge technological trends poised to make a significant impact on the wholesale market.
To meet with Colt at Capacity Europe, please click here.
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