As the world becomes more digitally dependent, businesses are turning to network providers for innovative solutions to their problems. As an example, cloud-based applications are becoming the popular choice for businesses seeking to enhance their efficiency and scalability. They require the fast and reliable connectivity that network providers supply, which presents an opportunity for providers to make an impact on their customer’s business model. The winning providers will almost certainly be the ones that can quickly meet the changing needs of these customers.
Common Challenges When Building Connectivity
In order to fulfill customer needs, network providers must ensure they have complete visibility into locations that they serve or could potentially serve – requiring up-to-date information on everything from the providers at a location to providers nearby, to the tenants that occupy a building. While this kind of location intelligence creates opportunities for network operators, they often struggle to adopt systems that enable them to maintain and regularly update records of on-net, near-net, and off-net listings, easily identify nearby competitive threats or partnership opportunities and obtain critical information on the organizations within prospective locations.
In essence, location intelligence provides network operators with the information they need to ensure they are participating in the right deals at the right time and with the right partners. Unfortunately, there are capability gaps that need to be bridged in order to reach this ideal state.
Information That Providers Need to Maximize ROI
Network providers seeking to maximize their sales resources utilizing location intelligence need answers to three key questions:
- Who is in the building?
- What is the connectivity status at the location?
- What is the competitive landscape in the area?
This information is crucial to capitalizing on the opportunity as it enables an organization to offer customized serviceability, find potential partnership opportunities, and price connectivity competitively.
Knowing which companies are in the building and what their needs allow network sales teams to customize serviceability and offerings to effectively target the right audience. Regularly updated and distributed information on fiber routes into the location will allow network sales and marketing teams to determine which partnerships could make the most sense to help service the location if they decide they can’t or won’t build that connectivity themselves via their near-net infrastructure. Finally, understanding the competitive landscape in the building as well as the surrounding area allows network sales teams to expand their reach and make more informed decisions about pricing.
The Future of Location Intelligence
Location intelligence will be an integral part of the future of connectivity. SD-WAN is growing in popularity as a way for organizations to create a single network across a wide geographic location. Because no one network can provide connectivity to all locations, knowing which providers have connectivity where will be necessary in order to locate partners that provide these services. Additionally, access to up-to-date location intelligence will be critical as providers, especially those moving toward 5G to support growing cloud and IoT use, will need to identify and evaluate route feasibility.
Final Thoughts
The digital age will bring new sales opportunities to network providers, as organizational bandwidth must support a growing number of connected devices and applications. This means that operators have the chance to grow their reach and revenue by providing service to these businesses.
However, doing so requires that providers have insight into the exact needs of an organization and understand who may potentially be better positioned to capture the opportunity. Location intelligence gives network sales teams the information they need to ensure participation when it makes sense and to ultimately maximize revenue.
Learn how The Connected World allows network operators to expand reach and serviceability.