5G use cases that can help industries cope with crisis scenarios will be top of mind.
Beyond sector specifics, COVID-19 is transforming remote working and employee well-being concepts at pace. In this light, all industries may become more engaged in 5G capabilities that enable new forms of customer or employee interaction, such as remote monitoring or virtual reality. At the same time, growing corporate focus on sustainability will likely impact the existing IoT agendas. 5G providers should take care to reflect these evolving organizational imperatives in their service offerings and customer dialogues.
3. Increase your 5G mindshare with vertical customers
Enterprises are keen for service providers to support them on their 5G journeys, and supplier attributes — such as service cocreation or customization — are becoming more important for some industries. For example, 34% of energy respondents view customization capabilities as a key vendor attribute in the future, up from 21% who consider it critical now.
However, 5G providers need to increase their mindshare with industry customers to capitalize on these demands. For example, telcos are generally the most trusted providers of IoT, yet three verticals — consumer products, government and health care — do not view them as the experts in this domain.
5G providers need to increase their mindshare with industry customers. Telcos are generally the most trusted providers of IoT, yet three verticals — consumer products, government and health care — do not view them as the experts in this domain.
Given 5G’s status as more than a connectivity technology, 5G providers’ ability to act as catalysts for digital transformation is also becoming more important. Here too, telcos face challenges. Thirty-five percent of the respondents across sectors trust them as digital transformation experts, below information technology (IT) services companies, which lead with 43%. Technology and health care companies are the least likely to highlight telcos as digital transformation experts.
Ultimately, no single type of supplier has mature competencies in all the domains required by enterprises as they adopt 5G. In this light, 5G solution providers will need to form partnerships among themselves, particularly as end-to-end solutions capability becomes a more important customer need. This can help increase exposure to the enterprise 5G agenda — for example, while 69% of the organizations are currently investing or planning to invest in 5G, only half are currently engaging or planning to engage with telcos on 5G-based IoT.
Maximizing the 5G opportunity for enterprise survey
69%of organizations are currently investing or planning to invest in 5G, but only half are currently engaging, or planning to engage with telcos on 5G-based IoT.
4. Build greater enterprise trust in collaborative 5G ecosystems
Increasing mindshare with enterprise customers and providing a vision for 5G that is sensitized to industry verticals and a post-COVID-19 world are critical. But the ability to directly collaborate with customers themselves is also becoming more important — our survey points out that 77% of businesses will prioritize vendors that can deliver 5G business outcomes as partners.
Maximizing the 5G opportunity for enterprise survey
77%of businesses will prioritize vendors that can deliver 5G business outcomes as partners.
However, the fundamentals of a successful collaboration require attention. An analysis of industry verticals’ ecosystem attitudes shows that there is a positive correlation between their openness to ecosystem collaboration and concerns about 5G ecosystems. This tension could be damaging unless addressed.
Solving it means focusing on those sectors where there is high openness toward collaboration — for example, government and manufacturing — and helping these industries build more understanding of what the 5G partner ecosystem can do for them. At the same time, other industries — for example, consumer products, health care and financial services — have less focus on collaborating externally, which may explain why they under-index on challenges relating to ecosystem engagement.
Explaining the fundamental advantages of 5G collaboration will be more important for these industry groups. Ultimately, open innovation principles will play a central role in the world of 5G-based IoT. 5G suppliers should recognize this and take steps to lead collaboration efforts across industry boundaries.
Summary
The EY study Maximizing the 5G opportunity for enterprise surveyed 1,000 organizations across eight industry verticals — automotive, consumer products, financial services, health care, energy, manufacturing, government and technology. The study explored the changing enterprise needs and attitudes as organizations evaluate the 5G opportunity. There are promising indicators of the critical role 5G will play in the next wave of internet of things (IoT), but optimism is accompanied by anxiety.