winning the data war

8/18/2019 Winning the Data War

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Winning the Data War: The Strange Marriage between the Business Solutions and

the Network team

In Africa, the biggest ISs are the mobile Network o!erators, their entrance into the

IS s!ace was une"!ected but ine#itable as traditional means of re#enue generation

for the MN$s began to dr% u! after about a decade into the new millennium,

A#erage re#enue !er user &A'(), which is indicati#e of the amount s!ent b% thea#erage subscriber has either stagnated or declined, this is against the back dro! of

an increasing growth of subscriber number on the continent, mobile short

messaging ser#ice &SMS) could not hold its strength against newer messaging

solutions like WhatsA!!* +#en the data big bang could not mitigate the decline as

there was a gradual decline in re#enue generated !er megab%te of data used b% the

mobile subscriber*

The amount of ca!ital in#estment needed in su!!orting the network infrastructure

of toda%s data hungr% societ% has howe#er not uietened, and as if to make a bad

case worse, the !olitical class in most African countries ha#e targeted this MN$s for

high ta"ation b% introducing new ta"es solel% targeted at the MN$ communit%*In an e-ort to re#erse this u!setting trend, most telco.s ha#e resorted to

infrastructure sharing and managed ser#ice agreements in a des!erate attem!t to

sur#i#e and retain shareholder interest in the mobile network market* These

attem!ts did make some im!acts in stabili/ing the market but was not enough to

re#erse the trend* 0enturing into the IS s!ace did !ut some smiles back onto the

face of their in#estors* With nationwide network infrastructure at their behest, A

new com!etiti#e turf was created among the MN$s albeit to the decline of the small

traditional IS who do not ha#e the ad#antage of such massi#e infrastructure at the

call*

The ma1or telco.s on the continent2 MTN, 0odafone and Airtel set the !ace* Airtelcame with 3Airtel Business Solutions4, MTN had its 3MTN Business Solutions4 whilst

0odafone christened their enter!rise unit 30odafone Business solutions4* These

enter!rise business unit were created with the sole ob1ecti#e of selling Internet and

WAN solutions, and to some degree o#er cloud ser#ices to organi/ations, both big

and small*

5a#ing being a !la%er in this industr% from the #er% beginning, It is ob#ious what a

ma1or inter#ention these units ha#e become in generating the needed re#enue for

these MN$s* But e#en as I admit to their !ro6tabilit%, I dare conclude that their

im!act could ha#e been bigger but for some ubiuitous constraints that ha#e

!lagued the industr%* I will like to bring these contraints that ha#e been a little dam!

on the success stor% of the +nter!rise dealings of these MN$s*

7* Most MN$s saw the +nter!rise business units more as a sales unit and little

Becoming an IS or lease line !ro#ider seems like the master stroke to arrest the

decline in re#enue generation for these MN$s*

The% had one ad#antage o#er the traditional ISs2 Network Infrastructure*


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It was a case of su!!l% meeting demand, the network age was 1ust dawning in sub8

Saharan Africa, with banks and other big organi/ations interconnecting their man%

o9ces and branches to their head o9ces* There was little time to !ro!erl% audit

and !ut in the necessar% structures for the new de!artment, !otential customers

must not be lost to other com!etitors b% following bureaucratic strategies in

building a new de!artment, and so Business solutions o9ces were launched ando!ened to business*

5a#ing been in#ol#ed from the #er% beginning, the alignment between the BS o9ce

and the Network team missed some ste!s from the beginning, this resulted in

7* +nter!rise business architecture not !ro!erl% de6ned* +nter!rise unit and Network team not !ro!erl% aligned;* * Signing of o#erl% tight S


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etween 456; and 456 and focusing on enterprise services.

In the second group, the most important areas of new revenue are the ‘internet of things’ (IoT), in which

all kinds of everyday devices are connected to the internet, often wirelessly, and cloudbased services for

enterprises. y 456

winning the data war

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