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The communications conundrums
Alex Leslie - Nov 21, 07:26 AM
It is extraordinary how the communications industry completely fails to communicate with or understand its stakeholders. The Regulator in the United States is about to ‘protect’ the consumer from himself by making it illegal for intelligent advertising to be offered to him. This advertising is based on offering the customer services based on exactly what he is doing – and understanding why. This brings the Regulator into conflict with the, er, Regulator who is compelling communications companies to track, understand (and divulge if necessary) exactly what the customer is doing and why – for security reasons.
Communications companies meanwhile still do not understand whether they are telecoms companies offering access to services or service providers providing services. To add to the confusion they have seen presentations saying they need to become transaction platforms and allow everyone else to develop and offer services for their customers.
The customer, meanwhile, is sitting in the middle blissfully unaware that the Regulator cares about what he does and happily ignorant of the fact that he is changing the face of modern industry. The communications companies and advertising agencies are getting angry because their business is dropping away and they do not know why or see any real way to save themselves.
The customer is taking control away from business and also creating the biggest opportunity of modern times, although it is difficult to see it or see how to grab it. Rupert Murdoch, meanwhile, is busy dressing himself in new clothes (see Emperor, no clothes), calling the customer a thief and wanting to charge for content. If (when, actually) he insists on charging customers to access his content then they won’t be customers for very long.
It is possible that the world has gone mad. It is certain that the old established world and its business models that supported print and broadcasting have disappeared. It is also certain that only the companies and people who stop trying to control content will win. Controlling content will not work. Walled gardens did not work. Apple refusing to allow Bill Gates to rule the world by using their operating system did not work. Microsoft is Microsoft, loved and hated because they gave you the operating system that allowed you to do things and want to do more things, and only then did they charge you for application that allowed you to do real things. That is how it will work. In these days of media mayhem you need to fight for attention before you fight for anything else – a long time before you try and take money off customers. You need them to be part of your community and you need to understand what they are doing and why.
You need to give before you can take.
Why is this important for billing? It is vital, as it always has been, to see billing as the place that implements pricing policies and the place that understands and manages the customer. Without this simple truth the days of communications service providers are numbered. If we do it right, then it is a huge opportunity to demonstrate that billing understands the potential and that we can help the business understand that potential. The billing of context specific transactions will be the key to the future – all we have to understand is what the context actually is. Let us hope that neither the Regulator nor Emperors of bygone days decide to stand in the way.
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