Exploring marketplaces for software & services

The Amazon Marketplace has forever altered how people (and companies) buy goods and services. Access to a huge number of sellers and lightning-fast fulfillment are now standard expectations for customer experience, and communications service providers (CSPs) have been taking notes. This report explores the development of marketplaces as a way for CSPs to protect and expose their value as providers of not only connectivity, but also networking and operations assets, management capabilities, and perhaps most importantly, data. During our research, we surveyed 80 CSP executives from 67 unique companies around the globe and their suppliers to find out what the drivers and challenges are in creating marketplaces, and whether one approach is favored over another. Job roles of the CSP respondents include CIO, senior VP of strategy, heads of engineering and IT, and senior and enterprise architects, among others. We also conducted many in-depth interviews with executives from CSPs and suppliers. Read the report to understand:

• Why the time is right for CSPs to build and participate in marketplaces, and what the drivers are
• The models telcos are using to deploy marketplaces and where they are offering them
• Why CSPs still want to control the relationship with customers
• Why they prefer a neutral third-party marketplace operator over one hosted by a hyperscale cloud providers
• What the advantages are of a software marketplace for components that comply with the TM Forum Open Digital Architecture
• Why suppliers are skeptical about killing the RFP (request for proposal)
• Challenges to implementing marketplaces and why the mental shift to the marketplace business model may be more difficult than the technical shift