Differentiation and targeted marketing is a key ingredient for cloud success, said speakers at the Telco Cloud Strategies Conference 2013 in Singapore.
The crowded and competitive cloud market in Asia is by no means one that a local telco cannot seek to benefit from, shared Francisco Claravall, head of ITES products and services at Globe Telecom in the Philippines, who spoke about his organization's experience in selling cloud services to the local market.
Instead, Claravall recommends telcos seek niche areas to sell cloud services to. “Many global cloud players aim to grab market share when they enter a market, but you should not go with the pack if you want to succeed,” said Claravall. “Swim upstream, because the competition there is less.”
Segmentation is extremely important and it would not be prudent to market the same product to everyone in the same way, said Clavarall. “MNCs buy things a specific way, big local companies buy in a different way and even factors such as age determine how a customer perceives things. All these affect your chances for success.”
According to Claravall, Globe's experience with cloud evangelizing via both traditional and non-traditional methods taught the telco several valuable lessons. “Our regular public relations efforts and interviews with the media were not working very well, so we chose other non-traditional methods such as organizing hackathons and getting industry associations such as the ACCA to speak to customers about the necessity of the cloud but without any mention of products.”
The type of staff hired to spearhead cloud efforts also makes a large difference in determining if a customer will go with your product, said Claravall. “We needed to train people to diagnose business problems and come up with a solution because ultimately, customers will go the path that provides the least resistance.”