The adoption of key technologies in the South African communication, media and technology (CMT) sector can unlock R182-billion in value for the industry, consumers and society at large by 2026, a new study by Accenture indicates.

The report, ‘Unlocking digital value in South Africa’s telecoms sector’, reveals that the effective use of data, new tools and capabilities to redefine customer engagement through hyperpersonalisation of service experiences along the entire value chain is critical to competing in the digital era.

The report leverages the value-at-stake framework developed with the World Economic Forum to measure the impact of digital technology on government, business and society, and quantifies the value that these technologies can create.

This emerges amid a “sudden explosion” of users globally, with many having started to work from home and customer engagement on a variety of applications having started to play out, says Accenture South Africa CMT MD Nitesh Singh.

Enterprises are seeking avenues for personalising and individualising experiences to a greater degree than ever before in what the report dubs a customercentric trend.

The next generation of digital enterprises will be those who take this even further by enabling their customers to “co-create” the experience and provide them with the choice to tailor their own products.

“Our research highlights digital themes that CMT operators can leverage to unlock the key pockets of value that form part of this R182-billion in potential growth,” Singh explains.

Telecoms operators applying new digital tools and capabilities to obtain deeper insights into customer behaviour and design experiences for their customers stand to benefit from greater customer lifetime value, reduced churn and lower acquisition and service costs, with the value at stake potentially as great as R13.8-billion.

The way in which people communicate, collaborate, shop, travel, learn, work and are entertained continues to evolve.

This presents opportunities to extend revenue streams beyond the current connectivity infrastructure through three key initiatives, namely digital services, the Internet of Things and reimagining communications through virtual and extended reality.

This could unlock value of some R76-billion by 2026.

Further, improving Internet accessibility, which stands at a penetration rate of just 54%, can create more value.

“The research shows that improving Internet access could result in an additional 4.3-million jobs, plus a cumulative increase in productivity and earnings to the value of R26.7-billion,” Singh points out.

Four key initiatives were also identified that will “shape the networks of the future”, namely alternate connectivity, software-defined networks, zero-touch networks and cyberresilience, which could collectively unlock a total of R91.9-billion by 2026.

“The reality of a post-Covid-19 world is that there is no doubt that the cloud will start to play an even greater role and cost takeout by a future network is paramount for the industry,” he concluded.