In the past decade, technology-driven disruption has affected all industries. The impact has been especially strong for the communications industry and CSPs. The COVID-19 pandemic has only added fuel to the fire, changing the way consumers live, learn, work, and play and further accelerating digital transformation at both the consumer and enterprise levels.

COVID-19 has also intensified demands on CSPs, so they can’t rest on their laurels. Greater dependency leads to increased customer expectations for powerful new products, delivered more quickly. But they’re mired in technical debt, can’t quickly change course when market forces require, and suffer from high operating costs. This adds up to an increasingly uncompetitive position in the industry relative to other players and an inability to capitalize on new growth potential. At the root of these challenges is the system of record—the BSS. Modernizing the legacy BSS is critical for CSPs in order to adopt a new business model that positions them to capture revenue-generating opportunities created by disruptive changes across the communications industry (for example, monetization in the era of 5G and edge computing).

By transforming the BSS, CSPs can more quickly and easily reinvent their core business, develop ecosystem partnerships that will help them create richer new offerings, and optimize customer touchpoints and the end-to-end experience with personalization and customization. Cloud-based solutions will enable CSPs to create significant economic value by both boosting revenue by as much as 3 to 5% and by cutting costs by 20 to 30%.

Accenture has developed an integrated solution framework to help guide CSPs’ cloud-based BSS transformation. The framework is tailored to the communication industry’s unique business and technology requirements, reflects recent implications from the pandemic, and is underpinned by Accenture’s distinctive, integrated technology assets that have been developed in concert with leading technology providers. With this framework, CSPs can realize the cloud’s twin value proposition of greater revenue and lower costs.

The key to future growth hinges on the BSS for CSPs who can no longer tolerate their legacy BSSs that are costly, rigid, and siloed, and that impede the kind of innovation CSPs desperately need to remain relevant and competitive. It’s time for CSPs to use the cloud.

As the saying goes, the only constant in this industry is change. And big change is what CSPs need today so they can thrive tomorrow.