Mobile operators duck difficult technologies

Lacking the knowledge to help customers, says expert

Matt Chapman, vnunet.com 11 Feb 2008

Mobile operators have left clients to fend for themselves when integrating services because they are afraid of the risks involved, according to an industry expert.

Rakesh Mahajen, global director of mobility at BT Global Services, said that the industry is providing new technology and leaving consumers and businesses to it.

"We did not even give them the basic T9 functionality until much later. So customers, consumers and businesses had to figure it out for themselves."

Mahajen explained that the industry has failed to focus on integrating enterprise mobility.

"We have not focused on processes and applications because we struggle with it," he said during his keynote speech at NetEvents in Barcelona.

The issues had "scared the industry", according to Mahajen, because they are very complex.

"We have not helped the customer to deploy it because we do not know how. We do not know how to understand our customers," he said.

"Where are the soft skills, the consultancy skills and the integration skills to pull all that together? This is where the value is."

Mahajen warned that the days of focusing on the easy stuff are gone if mobile operators want to drive growth.

"It has been pretty easy to try and drive growth by saying here's a device, whatever it is, and I'm really helping to make it easy for you, Mr Customer," he said.
"Why would I focus on the hard stuff? Because that's where the growth is going to come from. We can't really grow by giving people more devices."

Mahajen believes operators know that they need to take risks. "What's stopping them is how to do it in a measured fashion so that they're not gambling the business," he concluded.

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