Background: Maximising wholesale by launching an MVNE platform offer.
Our customer, a leading Mobile Network Operator (MNO) delivering connectivity services in Africa, is a challenger – always seeking ways to drive growth and disrupt the market.
As a result of a business review, the MNO launched a strategic growth plan to maximise its returns from its wholesale business, seeking to leverage its core network assets and generate new revenue streams. To accomplish this, the MNO decided to support a new set of virtual operators and service providers by becoming an enabler for MVNOs – a Mobile Virtual Network Enabler, or MVNE.
By supporting a growing number of MVNOs, more differentiated offers could be launched, and different segments targeted via their efforts – in turn, driving wholesale traffic for the MNO.
This required a flexible billing platform, that could offer multi-tenancy capabilities as a service to each MVNO and service provider, while enabling integration to their own operational and business systems – depending on the MVNO business model adopted. Enghouse provided the answer.
How is the MNO working with Enghouse Networks?
With Enghouse, the MNO has launched an MVNE proposition and has recruited a growing number of MVNOs and service providers. The proposition is supported by an extended range of wholesale offers, tailored to suit the needs of different partners. The offer supports the complete customer journey – from onboarding to active service consumption. A range of different traffic bundles can be enabled, providing flexibility for each partner, and allowing them to deliver differentiated services to their customers.
The flexibility offered by Enghouse’s Billing platform ensures that all accounting models can be supported and that the wholesale packages are fully supported by accurate billing. It enables a wide range of bundles and offers to be realised for B2B2X customer relationships – and delivers the agility to manipulate these bundles and to generate new offers to anticipate and meet customer demand.
How has this strategy delivered?
The strategic approach has delivered positive financial results through both additional revenue secured from the new MVNO and service provider partners and also improved utilisation of existing investments in the core network. That’s because more traffic has driven better resource utilisation – and hence return on investment.
The MNO has also become a leader in the field, attracting agile brands to its network, helping it to shape the development of the national MVNO market. The platform simplifies onboarding and launch to the extent that barriers to market entry have been dramatically lowered – so many potential service providers and MVNOs can now enter the market that would not previously have been able to do so.
In addition, brands not typically linked to communications can also launch mobile propositions and test the market with offers – such as banks, insurance companies and retailers, for example.
With Enghouse, the MNO can:
- Rapidly onboard new MVNOs and help them reach their business goals
- Provide a differentiated offer that builds reputation and drives further partner recruitment
- Enable MVNOs and service providers to craft targeted offers, easily change packages and bundles and drive innovation for different segments
- Reduce network churn through partners that can retain end-user customers and maximise utilisation of its network
How have we contributed to this success?
Enghouse’s solutions enable the MNO to support billing for all wholesale traffic driven by its new partner community. It allows them to flexibly introduce discounts, track quotas and supports settlement with all stakeholders. Covering retail rating and billing, product and service management, as well as customer care, it’s a complete, integrated solution.
Multi-tenancy is supported by default, which means that the MNO can support an unlimited number of partners, providing the operational scalability required for its growing wholesale and partner business. It unlocks zero-touch subscriber engagement, based on a heritage of more than 20 years of proven success – serving MNOs and MVNOs, as well as independent MVNEs. It includes:
- Full integration to network components, Business Intelligence systems, and third-party platforms (such as payment, logistics, eSIM/SIM provisioning, and more)
- Offline and online charging
- Flexible charging models to support business model innovation
- Active roadmap and solution evolution
Backed by a service pack concept, the solution is maintained with zero downtime and benefits from regular software updates and enhancements.
The future
Having established a strong market presence and onboarded multiple MVNOs and service providers, the platform can also support future innovation. The MNO is eager to trial new kinds of services and to enable offers to be launched for new segments and to serve new and emerging market requirements – particularly those enabled by advanced 5G capabilities and for IoT services and applications. It is building a thriving ecosystem of MVNOs and service providers, supporting new business opportunities – and unlocking innovation for citizens in its home country.
