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Outside-in versus Inside-out Digital Transformations
What Does a Clean Slate Full-Stack Transformation Look Like?
Common Digital Transformation Pitfalls to Avoid
How The Right Greenfield Transformation Partner Helps
Full-stack Software Provides Faster Time-to-Market and Efficiencies:
Look for Outside-in Transformation Partners With Data Migration Support
It’s a tough pill to swallow, but most digital transformations, including telco digital transformations, fail due to inadequate planning and oversight.
Some common digital transformation pitfalls include not clarifying what the transformation is supposed to achieve, failing to track the transformation’s progress, and poor coordination between departments. In some cases, using a brownfield approach by building on legacy software could keep your telco from being as efficient and adaptable as possible.
These challenges are particularly pronounced in telco digital transformations. But apart from being a massive waste of resources, failed transformations can disrupt your services and cost you market share.
Working with experienced external partners gives you access to field-tested playbooks to guide your telco’s digital transformation. But depending on your arrangement, these partners may need to collaborate with your software vendors which could complicate your telco’s digital transformation.
But what if you worked with a team that’s both a telco operator and a software provider?
A telco software provider with experience running their own telcos can help you combine the clean slate benefits of a greenfield transformation and outside-in digital transformations using full-stack, pre-integrated software, solving many problems simultaneously.
Before we move on, let’s break down what outside-in means in this situation.
Like the phrase ‘digital transformation’ itself, many companies have their definitions for specific terms.
In this situation, inside-out digital transformation refers to a digital transformation project led by the telco to build and enhance its existing software. The telco internally drives the vision, software choices, and processes.
Inside-out digital transformation helps to grow and maintain full control over your telco’s capabilities such as branding, software, and talent. This can reduce your dependence on third parties as a result.
However, this can be costly and can take a lot of time. Vodafone for instance, hired 7,000 new software engineers and invested €8 billion in technology and digital projects in 2020 to build their software platforms. Inside-out digital transformations can also take years, during which internal resources are unable to be allocated elsewhere.
Outside-in digital transformation refers to a digital transformation project where you work with an external vendor to develop and host your new software separately from your existing software as it is being set up. Once the new system is ready, your telco data will be migrated to the new software platform. In this way, the transformation begins from the ‘outside’ then works its way ‘in’
Working with external vendors gives you access to their expertise, resources, and software which can greatly speed up the transformation while reducing digital transformation risks.
A clean slate full-stack approach means migrating from legacy software to a greenfield platform. This lets your telco brand focus on its goals from a ‘clean slate’ with no legacy software constraints.
Legacy software usually has multiple layers of complex integrations accumulated over many years. An update to any component requires a new request from its system vendor. This update then needs to be integrated with other vendors’ software which takes many man-hours to manage, resulting in large IT teams. Using an inside-out brownfield approach will keep these inefficiencies.
These limitations can be overcome by switching to full-stack software. ‘Full-stack,’ in this case, refers to telco software with all the functions you need, from BSS and OSS to Martech shown below:
Circles’ CXOS (Circles-X Operating System) is one example of full-stack telco software. We designed it based on what we learned from running our Digital Mobile Operator brand Circles.Life.
This platform enabled Circles.Life to win Singapore’s Best Customer Service Award 2023/ 2024 for the second year in a row and is used by our clients in Japan, Indonesia, and the Middle East, just to name a few.
There are two main approaches to clean slate full-stack transformation that can adapt to your telco’s brand strategy:
With the right help and planning, a clean slate full-stack approach helps to solve common digital transformation problems.
If your telco is considering a traditional 'inside-out' transformation, here are some common digital transformation pitfalls that you need to consider:
These reasons point to a failure to change a telco’s institutional logic. Institutional logic refers to the relationship between legacy technology and the processes that people use to manage it.
Trying to transform only the IT or the only processes will result in a failed transformation. To overcome this, building your software processes and teams from the ground up can help.
While planning a telco digital transformation in-house, legacy processes and inter-departmental history could get in the way of having the right vision, organizational alignment, and focus on people needed for the transformation.
With such high stakes, working with experienced full-stack telco SaaS providers who have helped other telcos digitally transform is a valuable option. Other telcos have tested their playbooks and expertise to solve various digital transformation planning and alignment pitfalls as shown below:
A clean slate full-stack approach requires your telco to build completely new processes to use your new software. A good greenfield partner with a history of successful digital transformations can guide you in how to build the right processes to use their software while avoiding the pitfalls shown above. This approach ensures that the software and organizational aspects of your telco’s institutional logic are changed together.
Full-stack SaaS partners like Circles have helped telcos launch digital brands worldwide, such as the launch of KDDI’s povo in Japan and e&’s (formerly etisalat) ONIC brand in the Middle East. The following has been tested and sharpened by real-world scenarios:
Another benefit of shifting to full-stack telco software is that upgrading your system can be faster and more efficient.
Legacy telco software tends to be complex and clunky, with layers of individual software built upon the original business service (BSS) and operating system software (OSS).
Updating legacy software requires many updates to individual components, which then must be integrated into the rest of the system’s other software. Each software update must be requested from individual systems integrators, costing money.
In some cases, we have seen telco operations teams who need over one hundred IT staff to manage their systems. Inside-out transformations that continue building on legacy software retain these issues and robs your telco of agility and adaptability to market changes.
Eliminating the need to manage these integrations allows your full-stack software platform to be launched in as little as 16 weeks, as was seen with KDDI’s launch of povo using our Circles X Operating System. You can check out our case study here.
Shifting to full-stack software can also lower your tech stack’s total cost of ownership. When compared to McKinsey’s 5-year telco total cost of ownership benchmarks, a single full-stack vendor approach resulted in 40 to 50 percent lower total cost of ownership versus a legacy multi-vendor approach.
Moreover, when you subscribe to a full-stack telco SaaS provider, your telco won’t need to worry about ‘end of life’ issues as your vendor is incentivized to provide regular updates.
Once the planning and the new software platform are set up, telco customer data must be migrated from the old software. Proper risk mitigation strategies must be implemented to minimize the risk of service disruption.
Outside-in digital transformation partners can help data migration in the following ways:
Look for a partner that takes their planning and testing seriously. During your discussions with them, look for their detailed data migration plans, case studies, and documentation. You can find out more about our data migration approach here.
With the right partner, a clean slate full-stack solution helps solve common digital transformation planning pitfalls.
Your full-stack partner’s expertise, digital transformation playbooks, and data migration help mitigate risks and keep the transformation on track.
Presenting your telco’s full-stack transformation as a company-wide overhaul to become more customer-centric and efficient provides a vision that aligns the company while preventing people from thinking it is merely an IT project.
Finally, moving to pre-integrated full-stack software also enables your telco to adapt faster to market changes while enabling leaner, more efficient teams.
With our experience running Circles.Life in Singapore and Australia, our team is ready to guide you through the digital transformation of your telco brand.
Curious to know more about how the clean slate full-stack can help your telco?
Contact us today to unlock your telco’s full potential!