Advertisment

CONNECTED SOCIETY: The Winning Strategy

author-image
VoicenData Bureau
New Update

In this

era of change and uncertainty, Ernst & Young has uncovered

the forces that will shape the future of communications industry

over the next five years. With a lot of change happening in

the communications industry presently and more to come in future,

it has become nearly impossible to predict the business outcomes

with an acceptable degree of uncertainty. There are too many

variables changing on too many different vectors; there are

new players launching entirely new vectors; and there is the

convergence of the computing and the entertainment industries

into the communications industry.



Advertisment

CEOs must

have the vision to think forward as they are the ones who make

or mar a company''s growth. This first milestone report of "The

Leadership Connection" initiated by Ernst



& Young was finalized after talking to 100 CEOs from 96
companies around the globe.




The churning

of hundred CEOs thoughts have resulted in five conclusions which

must be addressed in order to succeed in future. These are:

The Connected Society; Content Packagers; Broadband Connection;

Mobile Wireless; and Long Distance Transport.



The Connected

Society




The toughest competitors will probably be new players in the
market that can not be identified today.



The connected society will create a new global culture where
individuals will be connected in a high-speed network that will

enable digital transmission of voice, data, and video to anyone,

anywhere, and anytime. All facets of work be it business, personal,

and entertainment transactions will migrate from the physical

world in to the electronic world of high-speed digital network.

Though complete transition will take a generation or more, the

major changes and foundation building will occur in the next

five years. Even the developing countries will experience significant

increase in basic connectivity, which will accelerate the process

of the connected society. The CEOs in this society must compete

for customer loyalty by developing products, services, and brands

with attractive schemes.





Advertisment

Content

Packagers




Players who win the content battle early will dominate by winning
brand loyalty in a rapidly growing arena.




Ernst &

Young sees the emergence of a new type of company labelled as

Content Packagers which will consolidate and structure the overabundance

of available information and filter it through a productive

user interface to make it more simpler to the user. Content

Packager is a heavy investment in the brand, constant improvement

of the user interface, and development of new products and services.

One who wins the content battle will also dominate by winning

brand royalty in a rapidly growing arena. One would also see

the merger and acquisition of players that provide the pieces

of content packaging, along with the firms that own the networks,

hardware and software that support content packaging.Broadband

Connection




This is not a battle for PC and TV but for Internet access.
PCs will be productivity-focussed and TV will be entertainment-focussed.






Initially,

Broadband Connection will concentrate on technology but in the

end it will be marketing and customer service that will differentiate

the winners. Interactive services will compel the growth of

DSL technologies and cable TV operators will make huge investment

in upgraded coaxial cables. There will be no outright winners

on technology terms for the local broadband connection. Instead

winners will be defined by their customer service and marketing.



Advertisment

Mobile

Wireless




Mobile telephony will become the standard for voice transmission.


Research indicates that within the next decade there will be
more wireless than wireline subscribers in the world, and mobile

wireless services will become the standard model for voice communications.

This will happen in four different stages: alternate stage-where

fixed line service is either not available or is very limited;

complementary stage-where fixed line and mobile services co-exists;

substitution stage-where mobile begins to displace fixed-line

service for voice communications; and saturation stage-where

mobile communication is ubiquitous and is used for data, video,

as well as voice.





Long

Distance Transport




Pricing will shift to bandwidth on demand, pay for use, and
quality of service.



The long distance support is soon becoming a commodity business
and low cost producers may do well due to the astronomical growth

of data traffic. Long-distance transport must also offer end-to-end

services to the connected customer. The high growth in demand

for data and video will mitigate declining prices for several

years as there will be overcapacity and intense competition.

CEOs of long-distance service providers have to redefine their

business and it will likely involve the elimination



of minute-based pricing to a multilevel pricing model based
on differentiated qualities of new types of services.






The key

success factor in the connected society will be one who has

the courage to change nearly everything at the time when everything

seemed perfect.

Advertisment