[Berlin, GERMANY] The telecommunications industry is optimistic about the coming year. Whether it’s in the area of mobile phones, conventional phones, or the Internet, 91 percent of executives believes that their company will do better in 2001 than it has done in the past year. This is the main conclusion of TELCO trends, a study in which Mummert + Partner consulting services questioned 103 executives as to their prognosis for the future of their industry.
According to those questioned, the decisive factor for success is the ability to offer all communications services in one. Three out of four top executives attach great importance to such all-in-one solutions. The reason for this is that, in the future, new customers will no longer be won by one service alone, such as Internet access. Instead, companies will have to convince customers with attractive package solutions and interesting content.
Despite the general optimism, the industry is divided as to the challenges of the future. Every tenth person questioned (9.3 percent) regards customer commitment as the most important corporate task – which is enough to make this the number one concern among the top ten challenges that the telecommunications industry will face in the future. For 7.3 percent, gaining personnel has the highest priority, making this concern number two in the top ten. UMTS was number three; for 6.8 percent, the new mobile standard is the main challenge to be faced in 2001. An equal number of executives is concerned about company growth. The telecommunications industry is less concerned about customer relationship management; with 2.9 percent, it just makes it into the top ten tasks for the future.