How IOT is reshaping the industry: The impact for a telco and its related 5g strategy

Orange is a well-known company in the telecommunications industry. However, the scope of our project is focused on another activity, M2M services, known as, machine-to-machine services and IoT (Internet of Things) solutions. With the upcoming role of Amazon and Microsoft in this market, Orange and the telecom industry is under pressure. Orange needs to find a way to face these new entries in the market. Therefore, the biggest challenge for them is formulated as follows: “How to realize a growth from 16 million euros in 2018 to 65 million euros in 2023 in the world of connectivity and IoT?” Orange’s vision linked to coming up with new ideas and solutions is always linked to three main pillars: being market conform, being relevant and having impact on a company. Therefore, it was important to keep these three pillars in mind when doing research. This research question is linked to setting up the right marketing approach in the industries with the most potential to achieve a strong position in the Internet of Things market. To gain insights on this research question and to deal with this objective, qualitative research in the form of non-structured interviews, was conducted. Besides the qualitative research, we also analyzed the environment and market in order the get to know Orange and the twenty predefined industries, by doing desk research. The desk research focused on the applications than can be used in each segment and the economic impact in the future. This impact was one of the most important aspects to score each segment on the level of importance and amount of opportunities for Orange. We were able to link this economic impact to the strategic contribution and score each segment on each quadrant of the Ansoff matrix. This made it easy for us to see which of the twenty predefined industries are the most valuable for Orange to focus on in the future. That’s why we came up with assembly, petrochemical and chemical industry, logistics and Track & Trace. Based on these five segments we were able to set up 13 unstructured interviews to do a deep dive on these industries. This research has led to multiple valuable insights for Orange, its future positioning in the market and growth strategy. First of all, we could conclude that assembly, logistics and Track & Trace are well advanced sectors in the world of IoT, although it is not interesting for Orange to go all the way in these sectors, since the companies in these industries already have good partnerships with connectivity providers. Therefore, we suggest, based on the Blitzscaling principle, to spend all budget in the petrochemical and chemical industry. By being the first connectivity provider active in these industries Orange can gain a competitive advantage towards other competitors. To successfully enter these two sectors, we came up with a new proposition: the Chameleon package. We have chosen this package name for two reasons, both related to the brand of Orange. First, it blurs the line between the B2B and the B2C components of Orange, since the animal element is also integrated in B2B now. Second, this package includes a tailor-made offer for each customer which Orange fully integrates inside their company, without shutting down the processes of the customers. By making use of third parties, Orange can benefit from their image and knowhow in the sector, whereas Orange itself can counter the barriers for implementation like, legislation and privacy by collaborating with TransX or Mavoco. Our in-depth interviews showed that there is also a need for a supporting and strategic component in the process. Therefore, we recommend that Orange sets up partnerships with third parties, like for example Agoria, schools, Essencia and their own customers. This will enable them to take up the role of a strategic partner or consultant, instead of focusing only on offering solutions. Hereby, the answer on the research question is in line with the three pillars of Orange: being market conform, being relevant and having impact. However, an important note is that it quite possible to precisely estimate the concrete impact on the revenue growth, since it is a very new domain to explore and the industry of IoT is still in its development stage