How Service Providers Can Profit From Smart Cities

The UN estimates that at some point between 2008 and 2009 the world’s urban and rural populations became equal in size for the first time in human history.  Urbanization is set to continue as the rural population seeks the wealth and social opportunity that cities offer. In the period from 2007 to 2050, the UN estimates the urban population will grow from 3.1bn to 6.4bn.  As cities around the world grow in size, we are beginning to see that strained resources, infrastructure, and services are causing natural limits to urban growth, which in turn limits the economic growth opportunity. The challenge of managing sustainable urban growth is one of the defining challenges of the 21st century. In parallel, city leaders are looking for ways to establish clear identities for their cities and to use the growing connectivity of everything to improve urban life for their citizens.

Cities as diverse as Barcelona, Nice, Dallas and Songdo in South Korea, are already starting to leverage advanced technologies and data analysis to create smart, connected cities.  These cities, and others around the globe, are building out new digital services such as smart lighting, traffic, waste management and data analytics to reduce costs, tap new sources of revenue, create new innovation business districts and improve the overall quality of urban life. Not only will the creation of smart cities generate huge value for the cities and their inhabitants, but there are great opportunities for the vendors and partners who help the cities to create and operate these digitally smart cities of the future.

Connecting all of the sensors, devices, people and data is critical to making a city smart.  With highly developed wireline and mobile networks, Service Providers are at the center of providing this network connectivity.  However, Cisco believes that the SPs have a much greater role to play beyond simply providing the connectivity.  There are numerous opportunities for them to move up the stack to extract a much greater portion of the more than $1.5 trillion that Cisco estimates will need to will need to be invested in ICT and “smart” urban infrastructure worldwide over the next decade.

To understand the best role for a service provider in smart cities and how they can make money, we need to consider three strategic dimensions – benefits, role and finance/governance.

1.    Benefits to the Service Provider – Different types of potential benefits include:

·         Direct – network access; network management; services (e.g., location-based, cloud, security); solutions (e.g., smart parking, traffic, lighting); technology/business platform (build and operate)

·         Ancillary – rights of way for network deployment on city assets; upsell to city, local businesses and consumers; customer retention

·         Indirect – branding; PR/communications; customer experience; regulatory relief; government relations

2.    Service Provider Role – We view the potential SP smart city roles as a pyramid, or set of layers with each layer supporting the layer above and increasing the potential business return as we move up the pyramid.

 

3.    Financing/Governance Models – Range of financing and ownership models:

·         City Funded and Owned – City buys and owns the equipment and services and funds through budget or bond issue

·         Vendor/SP Funded – Vendor/SP finances and owns the infrastructure and leases it to the city with services

·         Public-Private Partnership – Funded and operated through a partnership of City and one or more private providers

·         New Separate Entity – Create new legal entity of key ecosystem partners, finance and operate as a separate business with profitability/break-even goals

By carefully assessing their options and opportunities along these three dimensions service providers can define a successful strategy and operating model for profiting from smart cities.  SPs are in a unique position to deliver Internet of Everything enabled, smart digital city services to key urban areas by providing a combination of connectivity, Wi-Fi network, platform, operations, implementation and integration, and specific applications and solutions.

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Discover What Consumers Want from Wi-Fi and Mobile

Consumers have a true love of mobile devices, as evidenced by recent Cisco mobile consumer research.  Significant percentages of respondents reported using everything from laptops, smartphones, and tablets to eReaders and mobile gaming devices. Americans now own an average of three mobile devices each, up from 2.6 devices in the 2012 Cisco mobile consumer study.  Perhaps more significant, our findings show that the number of smartphone users has grown by 21 percent in just one year, now reaching 68 percent of the population, at the expense of basic phones. Most remarkable is that the number of tablet owners has expanded by over 90 percent in just one year, with close to four out of ten consumers possessing one of these new devices.

The insatiable demand for mobile devices and new applications that use large amounts of bandwidth is generating staggering volumes of mobile data. In parallel, the use of Wi-Fi for Internet access is exploding, as more mobile devices are Wi-Fi enabled, the number of public hotspots expands, and user acceptance grows. Most mobile operators now realize that offloading data traffic to Wi-Fi can, and must, play a significant role in helping them avoid clogged networks and unhappy customers. Many service providers are now constructing extensive networks of public Wi-Fi hotspots for use by their mobile or home broadband customers. The networks allow mobile offload and help enhance and differentiate their offerings. In addition, service providers are struggling to understand new business models for making money from Wi-Fi.  However, very little is currently known about how consumers are actually using public Wi-Fi and how they view the overall experience. Nor is there much information about mobile users’ appetite for these new services, their willingness to use them, or their privacy or security concerns surrounding these data-based services.

To learn more, Cisco conducted a survey of 620 U.S. mobile users to understand their needs and behaviors, use of devices, applications and mobile access technologies, and how they have changed since our 2012 mobile consumer study.

Top 10 Research Findings

 

1.    It’s all about the home.

2.    Wi-Fi is the connection of choice for all mobile users.

3.    LTE is a complement to Wi-Fi, not a substitute

4.    Public Wi-Fi is now a big part of the mobile life.

5.    Consumers are communicating and surfing at established hotspots.

6.    Public Wi-Fi needs to be faster, more secure, and in more locations.

7.    Users are generally satisfied with public Wi-Fi, but have concerns with some locations.

8.    Mobile users are interested in localized, personalized, and enhanced experiences when using Wi-Fi.

9.    Consumers are willing to surrender personal data for a better experience.  But they want control.

10.  Small cells provide an opportunity to improve mobile quality and coverage and reduce churn.

The complete results can be found at Discover What Consumers Want from Wi-Fi and Mobile.

Cisco mobile consumer research clearly demonstrates that consumers are using a greater number of mobile devices to do a greater number of things. As demand for mobile devices and network connectivity continues to grow, Wi-Fi, small cells, and traditional macro mobile networks will all be critical to meeting the needs of mobility-enabled consumers. Service providers are in the enviable position of being able to successfully integrate these networks and deliver new sources of value.

This white paper is part of a series presenting 2013 Cisco mobile consumer research findings.  Previous blogs and white papers have highlighted What Mobile Consumers Want from Public Wi-Fi, Understanding the Changing Mobile User and Unlocking Wi-Fi Enabled Value-Added Services.  

 

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Wi-Fi: From ‘Poor Cousin’ to Preferred Partner

For much of Wi-Fi’s history, technologists and mobile industry executives viewed it as the “poor cousin” to licensed mobile communications. Today, all that is changing with the explosive demand for mobile data, the proliferation of new and powerful devices, and shifts in customer behavior and usage.  Increasingly, Wi-Fi is seen by technologists and consumers alike as a partner to licensed mobile, enabling expanded wireless access. 

Based on research and engagements with leading operators throughout the globe, the Cisco® Internet Business Solutions Group has identified six important trends that we believe are redefining this new world of Wi-Fi:

1.       Predominance of Wi-Fi for Wireless Access

Almost all mobile devices, including smartphones, now have Wi-Fi as their core access technology.  And people are using these mobile devices to access increasingly data-intensive applications.  Recent research by Cisco IBSG found that roughly half of mobile users are now watching video on these mobile devices. Today, mobile is less about walking or driving and more about the convenience of a “nomadic” lifestyle—moving, sitting/stopping and connecting, then moving on again. Such nomadic locations are ideal for high-speed Wi-Fi, which easily handles those data-hungry applications.

2.       Proven Ways to Use Wi-Fi to Improve the SP Business

The explosive demand for mobile traffic has left mobile operators scrambling for ways to meet this demand, while overcoming spectrum constraints and managing CapEx expenditures. Offloading some mobile-data traffic to Wi-Fi promises savings to carriers of $2 to $5 per GB in deferred CapEx and lower operating expenses. Providers that bundle access to a public Wi-Fi network with their home broadband service are finding significant improvements in customer retention and acquisition. Privately, SPs report churn improvements of 10 to 15 percent through the strategic use of Wi-Fi, delivering a substantial impact to the bottom line.

3.       Growing Use and Importance of Public Wi-Fi

IBSG’s mobile research found that one-third of mobile users access public Wi-Fi at least weekly.  Many expect to find Wi-Fi in key locations such as airports, stadiums, town squares, coffee shops, and retail sites. Overwhelmingly, they expect this public Wi-Fi to be free or, at least bundled as part of their broadband or mobile service.

4.       “Land Grab” of Key Locations to Deliver Public Wi-Fi

As with retail, public Wi-Fi is all about “location, location, location.” A public Wi-Fi provider needs to provide access in key Tier 1 locations such as airports, cafes, and hotels. Increasingly, people also expect Wi-Fi in the other locations where they spend their time. Tier 2 locations, such as hospitals, schools, sporting venues, and public transportation hubs, are increasingly near the top of network deployment lists of Wi-Fi network providers.

5.       Consolidation of Public Wi-Fi Providers to Deliver SP Wi-Fi

As recently as five years ago, most public Wi-Fi was managed independently, by the venue owner or by a start-up Wi-Fi provider such as Wayport or The Cloud. As SPs begin to see the strategic importance of Wi-Fi, they are acquiring these independently managed Wi-Fi providers and becoming the predominant providers in many markets. At the same time, the venue owners realize that they need to provide much better Wi-Fi service, meet more complex technical and business requirements, and conform to increased regulatory demands. Many are looking to service providers to remove much of this complexity and manage the services for them.

6.       Providers Seeking Ways to Make Money From Wi-Fi

SPs recognize that mobile-data offload and broadband-churn improvement provide very compelling business cases for Wi-Fi investments. Beyond that, they are looking for ways that those investments can deliver new sources of revenue. Research by Cisco IBSG revealed a number of new business models that operators can exploit to profit from the rise of Wi-Fi. Premium access, managed services, business solutions, roaming, and wholesaling are some of the key models that providers are currently experimenting with to deliver new revenue from Wi-Fi. Of particular interest and potential is providing value-added services to enhance core Wi-Fi connectivity. Many retail and venue owners, for example, are looking to combine Wi-Fi capabilities with customer location to provide data analytics, enhanced customer experience, and hyper-targeted and relevant advertising.

As we have seen, Wi-Fi’s days as a “poor cousin” are over. Service providers that ignore the compelling cases for Wi-Fi will risk drop-offs in efficiency, profits, and customer satisfaction. Those who treat Wi-Fi as a preferred partner will thrive.

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Smart Mobile Cities: Opportunities for Mobile Operators to Deliver Intelligent Cities

The twin challenges of rapid urbanization and climate change are contributing to the scarcity of resources in cities in both developed and developing markets. Cities around the world are suffering resources constraints in energy supply, road capacity, water reserves and even clean air for their citizens to breathe. New solutions are urgently required to cope with these resource challenges to ensure that the city of the future is a safe, healthy and desirable place for its citizens to live, work and play.

Smart cities employ innovative digital services layers, that use sensing & control, analytics and ubiquitous communications, to optimize scarce resources. Empowered to make better decisions about how to travel or transport goods more efficiently and to understand the real time cost of using electrical appliances, the city’s citizens and businesses will make better use of these resources. As a result, cities will allocate resources more efficiently; in parallel saving costs and transitioning to a low carbon economy.

Mobile operators have a fundamental role to play in this emerging multibillion dollar value chain. Operators collectively own the network infrastructure best placed to deliver digital urban services to future citizens. Operators are also well positioned to provide the technology platform from which these future services can be delivered, and in some markets, to deliver end-to-end services direct to consumers. Beyond the technology challenge, there is also a significant need to orchestrate the disparate ecosystems, which is something that operators are well placed to achieve. However, they need to act soon to seize this opportunity, as competition is intense in all layers of smart city services provision.

A recent report that I co-authored with Accenture and the GSM Association identifies mobile payments and ticketing, intelligent energy management and analytics and commercial insight as the initial opportunities that operators should look to pursue in cities around the world. These services combine the largest benefit with the greatest ease of implementation, and are therefore most applicable opportunities for near-term, large-scale pilots. Download the complete report

A New Operating Model for Next Generation Managed Services

The market for fixed and mobile voice services in the economically developed world is nearly saturated. Revenue growth is flat to negative, seriously impacting service provider (SP) profits. Tough economic times only amplify this situation. To maneuver in this challenging business climate, SPs must reinvent their business models by offering new, profitable, next-generation managed services such as web-based video conferencing and collaboration, along with other unified communications solutions. These new services can help SPs realize revenues incremental to those from network-based legacy services such as access and transport, and offer the potential for rapid return on investment.

Next-generation managed services provide attractive opportunities for SPs because they can be integrated into their current product and services portfolios. Not only will these services enhance SPs’ offerings—they will also generate pull-through revenue by combining existing capabilities such as audio with, for example, web-based collaboration.

The market for next-generation managed services is growing fast—the compound annual growth rates (CAGR) of web-based video conferencing and collaboration segments in the United States and Europe are forecast to reach 19 percent and 15 percent, respectively, by 2015. By adding next-generation managed services to their existing portfolios, SPs can provide customers with a rich collaboration environment that includes content sharing, instant messaging, and webcam video—all in a single communications session.

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Vodafone Adopts a New Operating Model for Next Generation Managed Services

The market for fixed and mobile voice services in the economically developed world is nearly saturated. Revenue growth is flat to negative, seriously impacting service provider (SP) profits. Tough economic times only amplify this situation. To maneuver in this challenging business climate, SPs must reinvent their business models by offering new, profitable, next-generation managed services such as web-based video conferencing and collaboration, along with other unified communications solutions. These new services can help SPs realize revenues incremental to those from network-based legacy services such as access and transport, and offer the potential for rapid return on investment.

Next-generation managed services provide attractive opportunities for SPs because they can be integrated into their current product and services portfolios. Not only will these services enhance SPs’ offerings—they will also generate pull-through revenue by combining existing capabilities such as audio with, for example, web-based collaboration.

The market for next-generation managed services is growing fast—the compound annual growth rates (CAGR) of web-based video conferencing and collaboration segments in the United States and Europe are forecast to reach 19 percent and 15 percent, respectively, by 2015. By adding next-generation managed services to their existing portfolios, SPs can provide customers with a rich collaboration environment that includes content sharing, instant messaging, and webcam video—all in a single communications session.

Service providers face a number of challenges in designing and bringing next-generation managed services to market and providing after-sales support. This Point of View from the Cisco® Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) examines these challenges and illustrates how one company—Vodafone—is successfully deploying next-generation managed services via an innovative partner ecosystem model that helps SPs streamline and improve their operations processes, deploy new services quickly and effectively, and reduce costs.

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Next-Generation Managed Services: A Window of Opportunity for Service Providers

Growing at 20 percent annually, managed services is one of the fastest-growing sectors for service providers. Often relegated to supporting commodity “dumb pipes” (also known as “unintelligent networks”) and simple services by systems integrators, SPs need a way to increase their value-add, define a differentiated role that emphasizes solutions rather than commodity services, and reap the benefits of higher margins.

Next-generation managed services provide SPs a platform on which to expand their business models to include higher-order services that achieve greater margins and realize business goals. Industry analysts estimate that the entire managed services market (which comprises the network, computer, and application layers) will be driven by advanced managed services within the computing and application layers and will exceed US$60 billion by 2010. Getting there, however, will not be simple. Service providers must navigate the pitfalls of history and mitigate the efforts of competitors.

If SPs can learn from the past and influence the future, they will profit from next-generation managed services for years to come.

This Point of View, by the Cisco® Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), introduces a new managed services concept and hierarchy, providing a comprehensive map of the current market to encourage SPs to think beyond traditional managed services and the role they play in the world of next-generation managed services.

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Next Generation Managed Services Enable Retailers to Innovate

Online competition and access to price information has been squeezing already thin retailer profit margins for some time now. Combined with the added pressures of the economic crisis, many retailers are being pushed to the edge. Sadly, familiar names, such as Circuit City, have already been pushed over the edge.

To survive this crisis forward-looking retailers need to focus on:

1. Efficiency – making every part of the business as lean and efficient as possible, especially in the supply chain;
2. Cost Removal – driving out costs everywhere, especially in labor, their second biggest cost after the goods that they sell
3. Customer Experience – seeking ways to differentiate an increasingly homogeneous shopping experience

Salvation in Managed Services
Retailers have traditionally been very closed to the idea of managed services provided by third parties. Razor thin margins have made them very risk adverse. There is a general skepticism of service providers, large IT firms, and their understanding of retail or their ability to adequately serve retailer needs.

Those fears and biases are beginning to fade as the reality of economic pressures for cost reduction and competitive pressures for differentiation bite harder than ever before. Retailers are now exploring how managed services allow them to address these monumental challenges. Research by Cisco IBSG (the company’s strategic consulting arm) reveals that successful providers of managed services must address retailer core buyer values:

• Proven Reliability – to manage risk and complexity
• Cost Effective – pay for performance
• Tailored Solutions – specific to the retailing industry
• Focus on Customer Experience – enabling competitive differentiation
• Speed to Market – deliver benefits immediately

Managed Services Enable In-Store Innovation
Many retailers are aggressively applying managed services to innovate. Digital Signage, or the ability to provide targeted multi-media messaging to customers, is being used by retailers such as WalMart and Eddie Bauer to influence buying decisions at the point-of-sale and to increase store traffic. The complexity involved in the deployment, underlying network and operations means that retailers are increasingly turning to proven, managed end-to-end solutions.

Companies like Best Buy and Home Depot are trialing Telepresence kiosks that allow them to enhance the shopping experience by bringing expertise directly to their customers in their stores -- in a scalable and cost effective manner. Service providers that install and deliver these solutions become valued partners who offer unique value-added solutions specific to the retail industry.

The current economic crisis will re-shape the retail business. Resilient retailers who survive and thrive will be those that proactively embrace next generation managed services as a means to attain competitive differentiation. Inventive managed services providers will deploy unique solutions that help to position retailers for the long term.

This article was published in Business Technology Roundtable

Transforming Healthcare with Creative IT Solutions

Healthcare is constantly in the spotlight as aging populations, technological advances and high-costs threaten the very fabric of the current system. Both healthcare providers and insurers are under constant social, political and shareholder pressure to both improve quality of delivery and lower operational costs.

To proactively evolve, forward-looking insurers and providers need to focus on:

1. Access – ensuring that patients are properly insured and the facilities are available to treat them;
2. Affordability – driving down costs across all parts of the system;
3. Quality – ensuring quality and successful treatment outcome;
4. Sustainability – focus on managing labor force resources and green issues.

New Approaches to Technology Driven Transformation
Despite being an industry heavily dependant on the use of the latest in medical technologies, healthcare has traditionally been slow to use information technology and services to improve their business processes. Healthcare has some of the most stringent concerns about privacy and security, and regulatory constraints. It is a highly fragmented industry, with over 70% of healthcare typically dispensed by autonomous health care professionals.

This unique industry structure has resulted in both a lower uptake of technology and the desire for high-cost in-house IT development and operation. Research by Cisco IBSG (the company’s strategic consulting arm) reveals that this is beginning to change.

To-date most of the focus has been on using information technology to address the eHealth, or patient records issue, with mixed results. In contrast, Cisco IBSG believes that implementing next generation managed services, outside of the clinical area, can have a significant transformational impact.

Creative Solutions for Challenging Times
We are now seeing both healthcare providers and insurers exploring the potential benefits of managed services to streamline their operations and to improve the overall customer experience. Insurers are eager to encourage competition amongst providers, to drive down costs. IBSG research indicates insurers are experimenting with using healthcare-specific telepresence solutions to remotely deliver healthcare, reducing costs and improving overall customer experience.

For example, United Healthcare recently installed a HealthPresence managed service at Cisco’s main San Jose, California campus. This allows employees to conveniently access medical support at their place of work, and enables United Healthcare to deliver it using less expensive medical resources in a more streamline process.

Healthcare providers are using managed services to address the cost and quality impacting issues. A hospital wide wireless RFID solution allows caregivers to quickly locate wheelchairs, trolleys and critical equipment, saving not just time and money, but often someone’s life. Similar examples exist with locating doctors, identifying their availability, and across other parts of the medical supply chain.

Healthcare providers need to compete on service quality and loyalty. Providers are turning to next generation managed services as a means to enhance their offerings. For example, hospitals using telepresence kiosks to create in-house concierge services to aid both patients and visitors to improve their overall hospital experience.

Transforming healthcare is going to require radical change. Managed services outside of the traditional clinical area have great potential. However, service providers must work with both insurers and health care providers across all aspects of their business -- to develop unique IT solutions that help them to deliver lasting business advantage, and reduce operational costs.

This article appeared in Business Technology Roundtable

Transforming Governments Through Next Generation Technology

Governments around the world are struggling with unprecedented challenges. Not only are they to trying to reignite a global economy in freefall, but they are grappling with crumbling infrastructure, aging populations, declining quality in education and healthcare, and a heightened social concern about preserving the environment. All, in a world of declining tax revenues and tightening budgets.

Like the private sector, governments are now turning to technology to help them to improve both the delivery of government services and to promote overall economic growth.

Building 21st Century Economies
Like the waterways and highways of previous centuries, governments around the world recognize they have an important role to play in building the technology infrastructure to fuel innovation-led growth and prosperity. High-speed broadband is seen as a core infrastructure for encouraging economic development but we need the services that run on top of this to create demand, encourage further investments and deliver economic benefits. For example, Germany has committed €4.6 Billion to install and connect telepresence capabilities throughout its schools to improve the quality of its education system, while reducing costs.

Similar to access to electricity and the telephone, governments not only recognize the social equity of providing broadband access to the underprivileged and unde-served, but they are beginning to understand the importance to economic development. Using technology to improve the quality of inner-city schools, encourage more tele-commuting and increase the productivity of rural economies delivers significant social and economic benefits.

Delivering 21st Century Public Services
Most of us have become accustom to using technology to interact with banks, retailers, utilities and, even our employers. Not only have we grown use to it, but we expect and demand it.

There are significant opportunities for governments to adopt similar technologies to:

• Reduce Costs of Delivery – delivering online services, collaboration tools, and video, not only lowers costs to serve but enhances the overall customer experience
• Empower Citizens – employing Web 2.0 capabilities, such as collaboration and social networking, allows citizens to more easily interact with their government and directly help each other
• Improve Levels of Service – installing solutions such things as kiosks, Telepresence units, or VoIP enabled call centers for 311 calls, raises service levels and the overall experience

Creating 21st Century Governments
Governments have a role now, more than ever, in solving our pressing issues. Both taxpayers and public servants recognize that they must operate very differently than they have, and that technology plays a critical role to play in this transformation. There is a fantastic opportunity for technology providers to partner with governments on this journey.

Research by Cisco IBSG (the company’s strategic consulting arm) reveals that the public sector has a number of unique requirements:

• Funding Models – given budget constraints and limited money to invest, companies need to find creative new ways to pay for the new technologies, such as managed services and public-private partnerships
• Skill Shortages – hiring freezes and lack of skills, means that governments typically require significant help in design, implementation and management of technology solutions
• Integrated Solutions – new solutions require integrating not just across multiple departments and levels of government, but also with not-for-profits, agencies, multiple partners and other parties
• Innovation – governments are looking to the private sector to bring new and innovative solutions to their problems

Managed Services offers a great way to deliver the new and innovative solutions that are going to transform governments for the 21st century. However, to be successful service providers will need to recognize the unique needs of the public sector and to partner with them to address their pressing challenges.

This article appeared in Business Technology Roundtable

Can Managed Services Rescue Financial Services?

Turmoil and struggles in the financial services sector are splashed daily on the front page of newspapers around the world? The industry faces a number of monumental challenges that are threatening and shaping its future. To remain competitive, forward-looking firms need to:

● Reduce costs
● Improve cross-sell and up-sell results from existing customers
● Shift capital expenditures to operational expenditures through variable costing and on-demand capabilities

Progressive companies in the financial services sector are aggressively using managed services technology to address some of these current challenges.

Serving Market Growth
The financial services sector currently spends more than 2.5 times more on technology than other industries. The way they can attack challenge number one is to shift the management of desktops, data centers, and call centers to a managed services model. Companies are using this option not just to reduce costs, but as a way to reallocate investment into growth initiatives.

One regional U.S. bank came to Cisco ISBG (the company’s strategic consulting arm), wanting to quickly enter a new niche market faster than a competitor and increase its market share. Its tactic: deploy an end-to-end managed service, including both technology and business processes.
The economics of managed services lower the barriers of entry to niche markets that might not have been economical before; it also helps them determine success or failure more quickly, and act accordingly.

Managed Services Increase Customer Ties
In developing markets, companies are looking to use managed services to target customers who might not have used banks at all previously. A managed service that offers the underlying network infrastructure, including phones, provides them with an on-demand and scalable service that they can roll-out ahead of competitors.

To increase the amount of business conducted with customers, financial services firms are looking beyond the traditional world of financial transactions and services. One large bank we’re working with wants to expand its relationship with its small and midsize customers by providing them with essential services as payroll, procurement, and human resources.

Because the bank wants to roll out these services quickly, they will be created, delivered and managed by another entity through a managed services model.

Next generation managed services offer a real opportunity to transform the financial services sector. But success will require creative thinking, as well as both the development of strategic partnerships with managed services providers and proper governance models.

This article appeared in Business Technology Roundtable