EMEA CEOs: Comptel on CSP transformation

The content service provider (CSP) landscape continues to evolve in order to keep up with changing technologies, customer expectations and new business models. Comptel is an integral part of the CSP discussion and I recently had the opportunity to discuss these topics with their CEO and president, Juhani Hintikka.

Comptel describes itself as working in the heart of CSPs’ business processes to answer their burning business needs. These topics include automating processes for cost-savings, faster response times, better volume handling and differentiated offerings. The solutions available to meet these challenges include billing data collection and subscriber and service fulfillment along with predictive data analytics. In our discussion, I wanted to understand Comptel’s view of the CSP landscape and how it relates to their business, specifically in EMEA and Finland.

Let’s start with “why Finland?” I attended the Slush event this fall and was truly impressed by the amount of innovation going on in that country. Not only were there a surprising number of startups, accelerators and innovative products, there were also a great many investors on the hunt in Finland. With only around 5.4 million residents, there seems to be a great deal of innovation going on. I asked Hintikka why he thought that was happening.

With the majority of the innovation focusing on ICT, software, gaming and electronics it could be suggested that Nokia is a grandfather of many of these innovations. As entrepreneurs have migrated from the Nokia organization over the years, hundreds of startups have been born by these individuals. Culturally, the Finns tend to look at things from a different point of view. There’s a great deal of motivation and willingness to forge ones own way. Additionally, with a small population compared to other startup-focused countries, any startup must think globally for customers from Day One. This can shift the way a startup management team thinks about their products and customers from the start vs. having to revamp in the future as expansion warrants.

But what about the CSPs? We discussed the challenges facing these organizations and they fell into five categories:

1. How to deal with the “cloud generation.” The need for instant gratification and always-on connections is a given for today’s younger users. They’ve never experienced a time when the Internet wasn’t there and didn’t work as expected. Additionally, many of these users live their lives through apps. Need a taxi – use Uber. Want to go out to dinner – use Open Table. Need directions – use Google Maps. You get the picture. There are over 3 million apps in the Google and Apple stores today and that number will only increase in the future. This lifestyle has huge implications on CSP network infrastructure and data analytics activities.
2. The “Internet of Things.” It is predicted that there will be 25 billion connected devices in the next five years. The good news is these connections drive opportunities for new “users” and data plans in support of these things. The bad news for CSPs is how to determine the best way to configure their network and services in support of these yet-to-be-invented devices in many cases.
3. The virtualization of broadband. As NFV becomes more widely deployed, the wireless and wireline network infrastructures are changing. Network virtualization offers many new possibilities to the CSPs.
4. Big data. Comptel handles 500 Terabytes of data per day. I think that’s enough to start your head spinning.
5. Monetization options. By decoupling the network and services discussion there will be opportunities to monetize “fast data.” In other words, how do you take the information you glean through big data and drive that into new revenue streams? CSPs have historically been good at gathering this data and even analyzing it. But turning it into revenue is a new and important topic.

Within the EMEA CSP market we discussed the opportunity for emerging markets to leapfrog mature markets. As some countries are building their network infrastructures now as opposed to upgrading an older one, there is a strong possibility that these players will get to the answer for the optimal data performance faster. The market entrance of these data services also creates a challenge where end users accessing these services for the first time will require more market education as to how and why to use them and resulting data charge implications.

What does all this mean to Comptel? First of all, there’s great potential for them to help the CSPs navigate the challenges listed above. They are well positioned with new products and many new members to their organization. Comptel released its year-end results earlier today with a 21% growth in the fourth quarter over the same time period a year ago. They believe that 2015 will be the year of partnerships and really enabling their ecosystem to help them solve CSP challenges. Of course, the limiting factor is if the CSPs continue to make advances in a timely fashion.

In closing, I asked Hintikka what he finds most exciting in the future of this market. He expressed optimism about the fact that the discussion in the industry seems to have finally shifted from the technology to the customer. And this time the shift is truly happening, not just being talked about as in the past. He also shared that “the apps on your device provide a window into who you are and how you live your life and that can enable new services to be defined.” I thought that was a very interesting way to look at what the future holds. Maybe an example of that Finnish imagination mentioned earlier. We all tend to worry about the privacy of what we’re doing on our devices; but instead should think about what the future could hold if that data could map into truly personalized services.

Juhani Hintikka is the CEO and president of Comptel. Hintikka’s mission is to grow Comptel by executing on and operationalizing the company’s Event – Analysis – Action framework. Having been appointed CEO and president in January 2011, Hintikka has strengthened and built upon the company’s overall strategy and brand, leadership team and corporate values.

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Claudia Bacco, Managing Director – EMEA for RCR Wireless News, has spent her entire career in telecom, IT and security. Having experience as an operator, software and hardware vendor and as a well-known industry analyst, she has many opinions on the market. She’ll be sharing those opinions along with ongoing trend analysis for RCR Wireless News.