I think it’s fair to say that when the Omicron variant of Covid appeared in late December, a lot of people in the industry feared the worst for MWC22. Would the event be cancelled, would it be postponed, and if it did go ahead, would anyone go?
On Monday morning when the Qvantel team arrived at MWC, we were pleasantly surprised to see crowds of people queuing to get into MWC. The level of attendance has surpassed everyone’s expectations. We’ve been busy at the Qvantel stand. Not just the odd customer meeting here and there, but back-to-back meetings with VP and C-levels from customers, prospects and partners. The no-code approach of Qvantel is hitting home.
Many of the CSPs we’ve talked to this week want change. They have been selling connectivity for too long and with 5G they now want to do more and go way beyond connectivity. But there is no single winning strategy. Some of the CSPs we’ve spoken to want to widen their partnership portfolio and sell a wide range of digital services ranging from entertainment to telehealth to security to their customers. Others want to increase investment in the B2B space and recognise that the current B2B experience is still pretty much an ‘analogue’ affair with customers having to go through a call centre for onboarding, sales and care. Having a digital foundation for the B2B space is the first step in opening up the B2B2X opportunities and delivering CaaS (Connectivity as a Service) to enterprises.
What is consistent between all the CSPs we’ve spoken to this week is that there is no single winning use case or strategy. And this brings uncertainty. There is also a consistent message that the CSPs need agility and the need to be able to react very quickly and not to be reliant on the BSS vendor to make changes to offers and processes. This change in the market explains why Qvantel’s no-code BSS messaging is resonating so well at MWC22. When people see the demos and how easy it is to use a GUI to change operational processes, such as a retention offer and process, it really hits home how different the no-code approach to BSS is when compared with the traditional change request driven model. Seeing is believing and showing what no-code BSS looks like and can do is a significant difference between Qvantel and our competitors.
As well as having our own stand (which was pretty cool with a massive curved video wall) we also have a joint exhibition pod with Nokia in the AWS village at MWC. Here Qvantel and Nokia have been showing their joint 5G monetization solution. Qvantel’s VP for Europe, Tony Regan and Nokia’s Head of Portfolio Marketing, Andrew Burrell, gave a joint speech in the AWS Lightning Talks series. Tony and Andrew discussed how 5G is driving change in charging and BSS and the importance of no-code in enabling the flexibility and agility that CSPs see as the number 1 requirement for 5G BSS. Qvantel CMO, Jukka Heiska, was also interviewed by the Nokia video team on 5G monetization. Check out the video here.
As MWC draws to a close and we take stock of all the new opportunities that the Qvantel team has created this week, there’s a common feeling among the CSPs and vendors that went to MWC22.
It’s good to be back.
Martin Morgan
Head of Digital Marketing