By Anurag Lal, President and CEO, NetSfere.

Today every enterprise is becoming a digital enterprise. Technology is now a business enabler deployed to develop new services and revenue streams and to meet changing customer demands and preferences.

Enterprises are in the market for value-added telecommunications services. A Technology and Telecommunications B2B Buying Trends report by McKinsey found that half of all enterprises are planning to grow their tech and telecommunications spending, with “the 2024 market outlook representing a healthy three percentage point overall increase from last year, even after inflation”.

Tapping into this market potential requires telcos to understand enterprise priorities when it comes to deploying next-generation connectivity technology.

Foundry’s 23rd annual State of the CIO research provides some insight on key priorities of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) in 2024. According to this research, 49% of CIOs cite the critical need to protect both corporate and customer data as the top reason they expect their technology budgets to increase in 2024. The survey found that AI-enabled products will also be a significant factor driving tech budgets in 2024, while increasing operational efficiency and transforming existing business processes through automation and/or integration were other top business initiatives expected to drive IT investments in 2024.

These priorities point to opportunities for telco providers to align evolving next-generation services and solutions to address clear areas of enterprise need. More specifically, enterprises today want communication technology providers to offer innovative products and services that solve the following business critical priorities and needs:

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity remains a top concern for enterprises as the frequency and severity of cyber incidents continues to increase. Data from Check Point shows that cyber threats escalated in 2023 with organizations across the globe experiencing an average of 1,158 weekly cyberattacks each. By 2024, it’s projected that cybercrime will cost businesses $10.5 trillion annually.

With the advent of digital transformation and remote and hybrid working models, enterprises have seen their attack surfaces expand. This comes at a time when public expectations surrounding cybersecurity and digital trust are increasing.

A McKinsey Technology and Telecommunications B2B Customer Buying Trends report revealed that the biggest tech concern of 20% of enterprise buyers in 2024 is cybersecurity, up 50 percent from 2023. This McKinsey report notes that cyber offerings or expertise is table stakes in the market saying, “if providers want to maintain a distinctive value proposition in the tech and telecommunications market, regardless of their area of specialization, they will need to develop a solid capability in cybersecurity.”

To address this enterprise pain point and help safeguard enterprise data, telecommunications providers should consider offering managed security services such as network monitoring, threat detection, data encryption and firewall management.

IoT

According to IoT analytics, IoT (Internet of Things) remains a top-three corporate technology priority as industrial, healthcare, and commercial use of this technology continues to grow. IoT technology is being used to develop everything from vehicle telematics to industrial automation to smart manufacturing. A study by Juniper Research forecasts that the global number of cellular IoT devices will increase from 3.4 billion in 2024 to 6.5 billion by 2028. The study predicts that this “90% growth in connections will require the deployment of new services enabling the efficient automation of IoT device management and security.”

With the growing use of this technology, there is an enterprise need for telcos to provide high-speed and low-latency networks that support IoT connectivity, help manage devices, and enable businesses to gather and analyse data. Continued innovation of IoT connectivity services will meet developing enterprise needs for deploying and managing IoT applications.

Edge computing

Enterprises today also require next generation connectivity technology to support edge computing, a distributed computing framework that brings enterprise computing and storage closer to data sources. More and more organisations are adopting edge computing to better manage workloads and to deploy emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), IoT and augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR). A survey by Accenture found that 83% of global executives believe that edge computing will be essential to remaining competitive in the future and while 65% of companies are using edge computing today, edge adoption is still ramping up.

To meet enterprise needs for edge-first architectures, telecom providers should offer edge computing services that support real-time data processing to help organisations improve the performance of applications and services.

CPaaS

Today’s distributed and hybrid enterprise workforces require technology designed to facilitate communication and collaboration and boost productivity and efficiency. CPaaS or Communications Platform as a Service technologies which integrate messaging, voice, and video in one secure platform are now mission critical for helping enterprises connect employees across devices and locations in real time.

Telcos can deliver on enterprise requirements for integrated cloud-based communication and collaboration tools by partnering with solution providers that offer secure, omnichannel platforms built for the enterprise. Many telcos today are leveraging these partnerships to sell CPaaS solutions and are also using these solutions themselves.

AI

Enterprises are rapidly adopting artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance operational efficiency, streamline workflows, improve customer experience, reduce costs, and gain competitive advantages. Companies today are actively exploring use cases where AI can meet business needs and provide the most value. A survey from Deloitte reveals that 79% of respondents expect generative AI to drive substantial organisational transformation in less than three years.

Telecommunications providers can harness the power of AI to improve network quality, predict issues and enhance enterprise customer experience. Telcos can leverage the combination of edge computing and AI to better support enterprise deployment of low-latency applications including AR/VR and IoT.

It has been said that telcos will need to evolve from network operators to “techcos”, becoming IT solution providers. To achieve this, communication service providers will need to offer tailored, flexible services aimed at meeting specific enterprise requirements such as those outlined above. As next generation services mature, solution-oriented “techcos” will not only need to understand and address evolving enterprise pain points and preferences, they will need to do this in a way that reduces complexity for their B2B customers.

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