4 minute read
Pain points can help FIRMS FIND JOY
Valde Ferradaz has traversed the forests of Papua New Guinea, caught rickety Russian planes to far-flung lands and has brokered deals in hostile territories, side-stepping bandits, drunk gold miners and prostitutes. It has all been part of his lifelong career in telecoms and through all of this, one issue has remained his focus
The CEO of uMhlanga based technology company, MVN-X, hones in on pain points, customer pain points. It is the raw data he has always relied on to fix a host of issues, whether working at Vodafone, Telkom, Cell C or Digicel. Ferradaz has spent 17 years working outside of South Africa and joined MVN-X – a subsidiary of the Ignition Group – in 2018. Throughout his career 56-yearold Ferradaz has taken a keen interest in big brands and their relationship with their customers.
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How brands add value in a bearish economy is especially important as consumer spend shrinks and companies battle it out for a diminishing share of thin wallets.
Ferradaz ran a telecoms consultancy before Ignition founders, brothers Sean and Donovan Bergsma, roped him into their enterprise which has grown from a garage start-up in Durban to a technology giant. Ferradaz wants to help MVN-X secure a bigger share of the global mobile virtual network operator market, which analysts value at billions. It is a massively expanding business.
A mobile virtual network operator is a telecommunications service provider that does not own the network infrastructure it uses to provide services to its customers. It enters into agreements with networks like Cell C, Vodacom and MTN to get bulk access to services at wholesale rates, then it sets competitive retail prices and tailors products to suit its customers. MVN-X builds and supplies turnkey systems to mobile virtual network operators, a field that is growing in South Africa by the day.
MVN-X, for example, enables retail giants like Mr Price, Clientele Insurance and Standard Bank to provide their own mobile virtual services. MVN-X provides the systems, administration and processes for these big firms to offer their customers branded SIM cards and a host of value-add telecommunication services.
Ferradaz says it is a new world where voice offerings are enjoying a resurgence. However, data is the new commodity and big brands, wanting to retain customer loyalty and increase their share of wallet, are realising the value of rewarding customers with data and bespoke telecommunication services. In today’s times, data is a commodity and is an essential ingredient in connecting the nation.
MVN-X recently partnered with global company Cerillion to implement its converged billing system, which, among other things, allows customers to get to market quicker and offer a multitude of services on one bill.
Any company wanting to enrich their value proposition and offer mobile services to recurring customers is a potential client of MVN-X. Ferradaz says most mobile virtual network operators fail when they try to compete on price, however, the potential of improved service and relationship driven engagement is where the real opportunity of conversion lies.
“Brands don’t typically think about entering the telecoms space because it’s a sophisticated and complex digital world, but they don’t need to know about the intricacies of the business model. This is what we specialise in and do very well for our customers.”
South Africa has 104 million SIM cards in circulation and smartphone penetration is at 70%. Ferradaz says the time is ripe for brands to enrich their customer engagement and value offering, especially if they know their customers well and have established trust with their customer base.
Having worked in remote areas in the developing world, Ferradaz says knowing your customers’ needs means walking their journey with them. He worked in Suriname before Papua New Guinea where he followed rice sellers who trekked through the countryside – and he got them to sell data. “Rice was the commodity with the furthest reach, so we hitched data on to that. Data became a currency and traded like gold, rice and coffee.”
Ferradaz says South Africa has a number of big brands with incredible reach. The majority of well-established consumer brands understand the profile of their customers and what their customers’ pain points are in relation to their service offering. “If companies know this and are prepared to address these pain points, they tend to become innovative and even brave in their solutions and product offering. Digitising their customer base is an important enabler for this, as it allows brands to better communicate with their customers, while also enhancing their relationship by offering value added services.”
The opportunities around that innovation seem endless and smart companies with rich data sets can mine that to design products that are both good and relevant for customers.
MVN-X has done this successfully for almost a decade. The last two years (2018 and 2019) were particularly good for the company which saw growth from a 275 000 active subscriber base to over 400 000. Ferradaz says that the outlook for the next two years is positive, and he anticipates reaching a million.
Ferradaz is an ardent advocate for increased access to data and says the time is right for opening the South African mobile virtual network operator market.
Ultimately, competition serves customers. “The more access to data the more buoyant and resilient the economy. Mobile virtual network operators will flourish in this environment if they can properly leverage the trust their brands have established with their customers.”
