The communications and IoT industry is constantly evolving. In order to keep up with competition, service providers must remain in-tune with new technologies, opportunities to expand, and differentiating strategies. That’s why we decided to launch our first “State of Communications and IoT” report. Rev.io, in conjunction with Altaworx, surveyed Communications and IoT leaders nationwide to explore:
- Communications providers’ interest in expanding into IoT
- The current technology landscape for Communications and IoT companies
- Plans for growth and challenges facing the market
By surveying companies in the space, we hope to provide you with a pulse on the industry. Here are the key findings from our report:
iot expansion is a priority
The growing IoT buzz has caused a majority of service providers to pursue ways to complement their existing offering with an IoT service. However, not many in the Communications space have breached the gap to IoT. With plenty of green space in the field, we believe that those able to get to market fastest will be most successful.
differentiate with self-service technology
Communications and IoT providers are lagging behind other industries in the customer experience movement. With this movement, customers now expect service excellence and user enablement as part of all products and services. Unfortunately, our industry has been slow to react to this change. For service providers looking to grow revenue, we recommend differentiating from the norm by leaning into the user experience movement. We’re predicting that the service providers with the most customer enablement and self-service technology will win more deals and grow revenue, faster.
While the Communications and IoT markets are growing their portfolio of offerings, enabling customers through self-service portals and support technologies has not been a priority.
growth plans in place
Growth is stable across the board – a large majority reported annual growth rates of 20% or more – and one-third of companies surveyed said they’re considering a merger or acquisition in the next three years. As companies prepare for an M&A in the internet of things future, it’s important to have clear visibility into operating margins and accurate BI reports. Rev.io recommends maximizing your valuation by putting technology in place today to manage financial, customer, billing, and tax data.
Companies surveyed are preparing for growth through investing in new service offerings and improving customer experience to reduce churn. The team at Rev.io predicts many of those new service offerings to be in the IoT segment. Along with the migration towards pay-as-you-go pricing models, it makes sense for customer retention strategies to be top-of-mind. When managing a recurring revenue business, improving customer experience and reducing churn is important for predicting revenue growth for the internet of things future.
manual processes & outdated technologies are hindering growth
Manual processes was selected by surveyors as the most common challenge in managing a recurring revenue business model. In addition, our report found that the lack of scalable billing and back-office solutions was the greatest hurdle for reaching business objectives this year.
Check out the full State of Communications and IoT infographic.
The good news? Rev.io does the heavy lifting on usage-rating and billing operations, so you can spend time scaling your business. With existing integrations in place to seamlessly manage new orders, service usage, taxation calculation, and support, Rev.io alleviates billing and customer management pain. (Learn more about our innovative IoT & telecom billing solutions.)
The proof is in the platform – Rev.io clients grow by more than double the industry average. Click here to learn more about the Rev.io platform.