M1 Limited - September 2023

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M1 LIMITED: TAKING A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC APPROACH TO TRANSFORMATION

WRITTEN BY: MARCUS LAW

PRODUCED BY: NAZEEF RABIU-IDREES

Singapore operator M1’s CDO Jan Morgenthal and the need to take a customer-centric approach

Since the launch of its commercial services in 1997, M1 Limited has achieved many firsts. It was one of the first operators to be awarded one of Singapore’s two nationwide 5G standalone network licences, the first operator to offer nationwide 4G service, as well as ultra high-speed fixed broadband, fixed voice and other services on the Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network (NGNBN).

Today, as a subsidiary of Keppel Corporation, M1 offers a wide range of mobile and fixed communication services to consumers, while delivering an extensive suite of services and solutions to corporate customers including symmetrical connectivity solutions of up to 10Gbps, managed services, cloud solutions, cybersecurity solutions, Internet of Things and data centre services.

A highly competitive market, Singapore today has four different MNOs in the market with a number of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs).

“For a city state which has got slightly over five and a half million people, there are quite a lot of operators trying to get their mobile and their fixed line offerings out there in the market,” explains Jan Morgenthal, M1’s Chief Digital Officer.

This role of CDO, he explains, is more involved than a traditionally more strategic position. “I’m actually overseeing the entire

in its ambition to become a digital powerhouse

“We are continuing to work to deploy more 5G use cases here in Singapore: we want to show more the true value of 5G and how we can actually embark on it”

JAN MORGENTHAL CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER, M1

Singapore Harbour

IT department, meaning everything from IT strategy down to pulling up the arms and sleeves of the teams going into IT ops.”

About four years ago, M1 wanted to move from being a typical legacy telco operator towards a fully digital operator. “They actually wanted to really put apart their entire heart in the business support system (BSS) and operations support system (OSS), and embark on the journey to gain a competitive advantage. One of those ways is actually through gaining a technological advantage. For me, the technology re-haul was at the heart of the digital transformation. We have a consumer and an enterprise

JAN MORGENTHAL

TITLE: CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER

COMPANY: M1

INDUSTRY: TELECOMMUNICATIONS

LOCATION: SINGAPORE

Jan Morgenthal is a seasoned digital executive with a remarkable track record in leading and transforming digital initiatives across the telecommunication and financial industry. Currently serving as the Chief Digital Officer at M1 Limited in Singapore, he is at the forefront of driving hyper personalisation and shaping the digital landscape of one of Singapore’s leading telecommunication companies.

Before joining M1 Limited, he held the position of Director Digital at a blockchain fintech company, where he played a pivotal role in leveraging blockchain technology to revolutionise financial services. Prior to this tenure, Morgenthal served as the Head of Digital at Deutsche Telekom, one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies. In this role, he led the digitalisation

business, but our entire consumer business is already more than 95% now in the cloud. So actually we have moved almost everything now, except for a couple of legacy items, and some parts which we are not allowed to put into public cloud infrastructure. But everything else will be just going fully into the cloud and that’s clearly what we will close by next year.”

In its transformation, what M1 is doing, Morgenthal explains, is taking a very customer-centric approach, as part of an ambition to become a digital powerhouse.

“We want to be a fully digital operator, but also to offer made to measure offerings, and expand our enterprise business which is a key area for us,” he says. “We also want to follow up our regional

growth plan. Globally we are not as big as other telco groups – but we want to play smart.”

An example of this smart approach comes through M1’s 5G rollout. As Morgenthal explains, when it came to approaching its 5G rollout, M1 decided to think a little differently – not even embarking on a non standalone (NSA) journey.

“To offer the best latency and connectivity for customers, we didn’t embark on an NSA journey and went straight for standalone (SA) 5G.

“Our 5G SA is a joint venture with one of the local mobile operators, with support from the Infocomm Media Development Authority, and I believe that placed us in a unique situation.”

Jan Morgenthal Emphasizes Customer-Centricity in Digital Powerhouse Aspiration

Building the world’s first maritime 5G M1’s enterprise business has been particularly focused on working on smart 5G solutions. Last year it announced an

ambitious project with the aim to provide 5G SA offshore coverage for the southern coast of Singapore.

In collaboration with the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), M1 is providing a 5G network to trial, develop and deploy new maritime 5G use cases, in what is the world’s first public and largest maritime testbed at sea.

“We are building the first maritime 5G,” Morgenthal comments. “The whole southern waterfront of Singapore is the busiest water street in the world.”

This solution has been particularly beneficial following the COVID-19 pandemic, in what has turned into a win-win for all parties. “If the seafarer felt

JAN MORGENTHAL CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER, M1

“As we embarked on a digital transformation, we were also looking for partners who are of the same mind”

sick during COVID-19, there was no way for them to anchor in Singapore, and come in on land, because there were of course strict regulations.

“That is a clear 5G use case, where you need to have low latency and other benefits, and it’s actually a win-win situation for all of us. The port authority is happy that they can provide something to the ships, the seafarers are happy, and we are also happy because we found a good use case.”

The use of 5G connectivity includes telemedicine to enable crew welfare at sea, delivery drones, maritime surveillance, and autonomous vessels, as well as remotely controlled task-based robots, such as ship inspection and autonomous firefighting robots, that are used for more dangerous and labour-intensive tasks.

“It’s nice that you can talk to a doctor or nurse, but there comes the point where

you need to get the medicine to the seafarer, for example. So we worked with a partner, which is building these drones, to perform the last mile delivery so that we can deliver items – medicine in this case – from the Singapore main island towards the boats, all using our 5G network.

“That is something which we can build not in a matter of years, but within weeks. Because we are a little bit more nimble than some of our competitors, we can act much faster and smarter to deploy solutions and provide a win-win-win situation for everyone.”

AWS

and

partners

Amdocs: working with

who share a similar mindset

As Morgenthal explains, M1 works with a number of partners such as Amazon Web Services and Amdocs on M1’s digital transformation.

“As we embarked on a digital transformation, we were also looking for partners who are of the same mind.

“Even though we are maybe rather a small operator in Singapore, for these big players in the industry, they see us actually as the digital innovator in our business, in Singapore and the region. When something is working out here in Singapore very well, then it’s also a good showcase for them to go to our neighbouring countries and show them. That’s actually what both of them are definitely giving back to us.”

Morgenthal adds that it is important for M1 to have partners who are market leaders and have a strong track record, not just in innovation but also joint execution leveraging the power of public cloud.

“For a city state which has got slightly over five and a half million people, there are quite a lot of operators trying to get their mobile and their fixed line offerings out there in the market.”

JAN MORGENTHAL CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER, M1

“I also want to have those partners which share a similar cultural approach to M1. We need to open our eyes and actually foresee the future, as best as we can, and plan for it. Because I think one thing is very clear: in 10 years, telcos won’t be the same, and I think we need to shape our future by ourselves.

“That’s what I also like about Amazon Web Services and Amdocs, because both of them share a strong focus customercentricity and desire to fundamentally re-invent on behalf of the customer by leveraging technology. I want to work with partners that have a similar view on what is actually needed for pushing the next boundary of digital transformation.”

The aim to be a fully cloudnative digital operator

For M1, the future involves the continued transformation of moving from a traditional legacy operator towards a cloud-native digital operator. “We embarked six months ago upon our enterprise transformation. So that’s clearly something which, especially in my heart, I will still drive this digital transformation until the end of 2024, with the aim to also have a fully cloud-native setup also for our enterprise businesses.”

Having successfully trialled the 5G maritime rollout, M1 will also be working to deploy further 5G usecases in the immediate future.

“We are continuing to work to deploy more 5G use cases here in Singapore: we want to show more the true value of 5G and how we can actually embark on it. 5G will dominate more of the B2B space, but we’re also offering and getting more into the B2B2C space, so that our consumers can

actually see the real benefits of 5G, and why they actually start using 5G.”

Central to this, Morgenthal explains, is about maintaining a customer-centric view.

“If we kept the same service product portfolio which we had five years ago, then obviously the consumer will ask, ‘what is in it for me?’

“That is clearly something where we need to work on, to give our customers the right offerings. For consumers, it is something we need to take into consideration. In the past, most telcos lost touch with their

customers. And that was an opportunity for the hyperscalers to actually move into that space and actually create content and services, based on the connectivity layer.

“Today, most telcos, including what we are doing at M1, can actually now again, offer such services to our end clients. In the past we lost touch as an industry, and we need to become much more customer-centric again.”

“We have a consumer and enterprise business, but our entire consumer business is already more than 95% now in the cloud”

JAN MORGENTHAL CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER, M1