Service providers need an ecosystem that quickly gets them into the cloud and enables them to offer applications that address their customers' needs.
With market estimates for cloud reaching $50B during the next five years, providers need to react to meet the needs of their customers. In a recent survey ACG Research found that providers are struggling with investment issues related to infrastructure for cloud. One method is to acquire the cloud is through acquisition of other companies (CenturyLink, NTT and Verizon). Another method is to leverage outsourcer companies such as CSC, IBM, HP and Ericsson to build out cloud investments.
However, the provider community is risk adverse and requires that new services address subscribers’ needs, create and increase ARPU and provides stickiness for current customers. Products must offer a value proposition that addresses:
- Research and selection of new services through services
- Vendor contracts that offer negotiated terms for partners to leverage
- Bundles of services and store fronts that offer the ability to set pricing to customers
- Sales enablement with full collateral and brochures for each service
- Provisioning that offers a full white-label interface
- Billing for integration into providers’ billing systems
- Upsell and attach for extra add-on services
Services and products must offer a unique way for providers to deliver cloud services that their customers want:
- Web Security
- E-mail Security
- Sales Force Automation
- Backup & Recovery
- Applications for Business Automation
- Customer Relationship Management
- Conferencing Solutions
Most customers require an easy-to-understand and easy to consume cloud offer. A marketplace approach, such as intY's Cascade, enables service providers to select from a full portfolio of offers to create new services for providers' customers.
For more about IntY's Cascade announcement, click here.
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