DEMO Pharmaceuticals S.A.

Two years since the global outbreak and still there must be few unconvinced of the importance and necessity of digital transformation. Organizations in many sectors had already launched ambitious digital initiatives before 2020, but now observe a renewed sense of urgency, as digital technologies are rapidly evolving. Rather, they continue to accelerate, creating an endlessly expanding universe of opportunities for re-imagination and re-invention of how we serve our customers, how we operate our businesses, and how we create value for our shareholders. The early movers, Telcos and banks have been indeed among the first sectors to undergo extensive transformation journey, harnessing internet to create new business models and pioneering in their adoption of digital technologies. They have succeeded in shifting the vast majority of their customers to use their mobile applications as the primary means of interaction.

Privileged to have worked in digital transformations in both sectors, in this article I will share similarities, differences, and significance of digital transformation for telcos and banks.

Starting with the similarities, both banks and telcos are legacy bureaucratic organizations – being usually among the oldest institutions in every country, frequently stemming from old state monopolies. They have a product or service indispensable for our daily living and business activities and yet their customer experience processes have been frequently accused of being poor. In addition, they are under pressure from many sides, competition, regulators and even shareholders trying to maximize their value return. It is no coincidence that both have undergone heavy consolidation during the last decade.

Digital transformation is of great importance to banks and telcos for three reasons. First, owing to the shift in consumer behavior towards the digital lifestyle, initiated by global big techs and e-commerce players who gave customers choice, control and convenience over their digital offering, further accelerated by COVID which put the power of digital in full display, has been endorsed by governmental digital agendas, making the shift permanent. Second, their core revenue lines have leveled-up, despite their products becoming more and more indispensable. Furthermore, there is a growing need of investments for telco networks and while managing the cost of risk for banks has become increasingly demanding in an uncertain environment. Finally, due to the competition from disruptive players, digital attackers, NeoBanks or asset-light operators with digital-only competitive offerings based on low capital intensity, or Global BigTech players entering the banks and telcos home turf getting the lead in customer relevance with the superior experience of their digital ecosystems.

All these have resulted in a shift in customer expectations. Customers are now expecting to get the offer they need, at the time they need, tailoring it to their preferences among numerous options with a few taps on their mobile screen from the convenience of their living-room.

 The early movers, Telcos and banks have been indeed among the first sectors to undergo extensive transformation journeys, harnessing internet to create new business models and pioneering in their adoption of digital technologies 

Telco and banking services witness the threat of becoming commodities tacitly embedded into greater digital journeys addressing the actual customer moments of truth, when for instance browsing, watching movies or shopping household goods online. Consumers are using telco and bank services in their digital journey, without experiencing and interacting with them. They take them as given, therefore the risk is to lose customer relevance and become disrupted by players which are in much better position to claim relevance in the customer’s experience.

This race for relevance is about winning the share of screen time the customer engages with each and every app on his mobile. And as the screen time report on our mobile devices tells us, global BigTech’s and other digital challengers are in much better position in winning this race.

What are the steps banks and telcos are tanking to win back in the race for customer relevance? Their approaches have several things in common, such as shifting customer interactions to digital, simplifying customer journey and expanding to areas beyond their core business. Yet, they also have some noteworthy differences. For instance, human interaction remains an essential part of the customer experience in banking, especially when it comes to products and service which are complex or linked with emotional life moments such as buying property or life insurance.

The biggest similarity that banks and telcos share in common is the potential to leverage the vast amounts of data generated by every transaction on their platform. Data from customer interactions on telco and banking services, transported at light speed over global connectivity networks and processed by powerful algorithms can generate valuable insights on customer preferences and needs and enable them to offer new services in a more targeted and personalized way. They can even be the basis for platforms that aggregate services from other digital players, being in an advantageous position to target and promote them properly. Telcos and banks can thus harness a great opportunity in this new model of “digital

platform economy” and play a central role in digital ecosystems. This is as long as they also make a culture shift towards a growth mindset: being able to think about what is the new idea that will take you further, while keep doing what has got you this far. Becoming open to innovation is the essential prerequisite to thrive in the digital economy.