ISP’s Next Big Thing: Appeal to Your Customers and Monetize Digital Market Opportunities

neuCentrIX - 09/11/2021 15:00

The role of ISPs has become even more important during the pandemic. However, with the changes in the way people live, including the way they think and make buying decisions, the challenges ISPs must face are changing, too. ISPs need to anticipate these new challenges and find ways to adapt and survive this tough time.

 

Following a plenary session by RWS 6 x Telkom DWS with Heru Setiawan (Kapengwil APJII Kalimantan), Iman Utama Kadarsah (Director of PT Mitra Lintas Multimedia), and Imam Widodo (Director of PT Bestcamp Primadata), we’re going to take a look at what challenges ISPs are facing during the pandemic and how they can overcome the challenges. 

 

What Challenges are ISPs Facing during the Pandemic?

 

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new challenges for companies, regardless of their sizes and industries, including ISPs. Heru, Imam, and Iman shared what they think these challenges are based on their experiences.

 

  1. One challenge is to deliver high-quality and reliable internet services with competitive prices. To be able to offer affordable prices, ISPs need to make various efforts to reduce operational costs. What’s tough is the fact that these efforts may involve disagreeable business decisions.

  2. ISPs are also facing a decline in demand because most customers and potential customers are affected by the pandemic. Unfortunately, although the demand has dropped, the number of ISPs isn’t declining, leading to tight competition including price wars.

  3. Due to the tight competition, each ISP has to find their own unique selling values — what makes them different from other ISPs — and show these values to their customers. To be chosen, ISPs need to be “seen” and exhibit how they can benefit customers.

  4. Even in the areas where competitions are relatively low, and the demand is increasing due to remote working and learning, challenges still occur. Some ISPs aren’t yet equipped to meet the demand due to their business scale, and scaling up can be difficult.

  5. The market behavior has changed, and ISPs must transform to be able to adapt. ISPs should also be wiser in making business decisions based on the trends as the behavior is still changing. What makes sense now might not be the best option in the future.

 

Which market behavior has changed the most?

Iman shared his experience in facing his customers during the pandemic. Customers now are even more demanding than before the pandemic. They expect zero outage and no disruption. If unfortunately one occurs, they won’t hesitate to make a complaint to the providers or share their experience on social media. That’s why he thinks that ISPs need to not only provide excellent services, but also handle complaints in the right ways.

 

What can ISPs do to overcome the challenges and increase their business values?

According to Heru and Iman, there are several things ISPs can do. To begin with, ISPs need to increase the quality of their products and services, and this includes customer care. These days, customer satisfaction is essential, and happy customers will be a voluntary advocate and promote their providers to people they know. Therefore, to keep growing, ISPs must improve the way they communicate with their customers and even start new customer channels if necessary. Then, ISPs should also be able to see and take advantage of new opportunities. If they can’t survive with their current products and services, they need to either expand their product and service portfolio or find new ways to serve their customers.

 

ISPs can also collaborate with other digital players, such as software and application companies. These collaborations can take many forms: product bundling, new product development, service area expansion, etc. In addition, if ISPs haven’t found the best ways to gain their targeted revenue, they need to consider cost reduction. There are a lot of safer and less controversial ways to reduce costs, one of them is by becoming a member of a colocation data center.

 

How do colocation data centers help ISPs survive the pandemic?

As shared by Heru and Iman, colocation data centers can support ISPs during the pandemic in two main ways. First, colocation data centers allow ISPs to reduce their expenses, especially human resources and equipment costs. By colocating, ISPs don’t have to spend money to build their own data centers. Colocating also eliminates the need to hire more staff as maintenance and security are handled by data center providers. Second, with their infrastructure and capabilities, established colocation data center providers, such as neuCentrIX, help ISPs ensure reliability and maximum performance. They can provide excellent services to their customers through guaranteed uptime.

 

Why neuCentrIX?

For Heru and Iman, as Telkom Indonesia’s colocation data center provider neuCentrIX offers them various advantages. However, there are two major benefits that make neuCentrIX stand out. Firstly, with 14 data centers located in various cities across Indonesia (Jakarta, Medan, Batam, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Balikpapan, Surabaya, Denpasar, Makassar, Manado, Semarang, Pekanbaru, and Banjarmasin), neuCentriX is one of the providers with the biggest network and coverage in the country. It allows ISPs from all around Indonesia — not just the ones in Java — to gain the benefits of colocating. Iman’s company, Mitra Lintas Multimedia which is located in Kalimantan has conveniently joined neuCentrIX Banjarmasin Ulin. Furthermore, with well-designed and well-constructed systems and infrastructure, neuCentrIX has supported ISPs with the capabilities to provide top-notch services to their customers. Iman shared his services have been more stable and his customers’ satisfaction has improved since joining neuCentrIX.

 

To summarize, the pandemic is tough, but there are ways for ISPs to keep growing. neuCentrIX, as one of the leading colocation data center providers in Indonesia, is committed to providing ISPs with capabilities to survive amid the tight competition.