Oracle Hinges Businesses Survivability on Technology Adoption, Skills Acquisition
Globacom has in the last few weeks, been rolling out several attractive promotional offers in bid to increase its subscriber base in a market that is becoming highly competitive, writes Emma Okonji
Oracle Nigeria has reemphasised that no business in today’s digital age will survive and compete favourably without the adoption of new technologies and acquisition of relevant skills.
The company said unless an organisation understands how to collate, interpret and implement data, it will be difficult for the company to survive competition in the digital age, even when the organisation decides to adopt new technologies.
Oracle is therefore of the view that aoption of new technologies and the acquisition of relevant skills are germane for business survivability in today’s digital age.
Country Manager of Oracle Nigeria, Mr. Adebayo Sanni, told THISDAY in an interview that technology is evolving and that organisations have no choice than to evolve with technology, if they must remain in business.
Addressing the challenges of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) across financial institutions, Sanni said the roles of CFOs are demanding and of vital importance to the success of any organisation. He therefore said CFOs must adopt new technologies that will enhance growth and development of organisations.
According to him, “The role of CFOs in today’s digital age is more involving compared to what it used to be in the past. Formerly their responsibilities were tied to records and book keeping, using paper-based system. But in the digital age, they need to be in the forefront of innovation that is driving new digital trends and development. So the CFO’s role has evolved over time to providing and supporting their organisations with innovations that will grow the organisations in a more competitive way.”
But since they cannot do it alone, they need the collaboration of solutions providers like Oracle to help them achieve their new roles. Collaboration with the right solution provider will drive organisational growth, talent development and revenue generation. Technology solutions from such collaboration will enable the CFOs to build and analyse data in the digital age, Sanni added.
The need to remain relevant in a competitive market has forced telecoms operators to continuously rollout varieties of products, just to entice their customers. But one thing that stands out in all of these is the ability of Globacom to rollout pocketfriendly packages that will enable subscribers make long calls at cheaper rates
From the inception of the rollout of Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) in August 2001, telecoms operators have been in keen competition to grow their subscriber number and expand their market shares. They have continuously rolled out various products and services to woo subscribers to their networks.
Globacom, in a bid to remain on top of the competitive market, commenced operations in August 2003 with per second billing and was able to pull substantive number of subscribers to its network since then.
Although Globacom was the third GSM operator to roll out services after MTN and Econet Wireless (now Airtel Nigeria), which rolled out their services in August 2001, the introduction of per second billing system, which other operators had failed to do, gave Globacom an edge in the telecoms market.
The need to remain relevant in a competitive market has forced telecoms operators to continuously rollout varieties of products, just to entice their customers. But one thing that stands out in all of these is the ability of Globacom to rollout pocket-friendly packages that will enable subscribers make long calls at cheaper rates.
It is on this premise that Globacom decided to rollout successive promos in the last few months that have greatly enhanced subscribers’ experience. Market competition The recent industry statistics released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), show that the total market share of GSM operators as at February this year, was 98.38 per cent, and the total number of active subscribers across networks, is 142 million. From the statistics, MTN alone has 43 per cent market share, with over 61 million subscribers on its network, making it the leading telecoms operator by subscriber number.
Globacom, which is still maintaining the second lead position, has 21 per cent market share, with 28.9 million subscribers on its network. Airtel, which is closely following Globacom, has 20 per cent market share, with 28.4 million subscribers on its network, while Etisalat, the fourth entrant into the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) market, has 16 per cent market share, with over 22 million subscribers.
Given the statistics released by the telecoms regulator, has compelled telecoms operators to increase market competition through the rollout of new products and services.
In order to remain relevant in the competitive market, Globacom, in the last few months, has been rolling out several promotions, geared towards maintaining a comfortable second lead in the ranking of telecoms operators The competitive promos Globacom has taken subscriber empowerment a step higher by rolling out three offers designed to spread joy among customers and increase its subscriber base.
The products namely, 200 per cent Bonus Airtime and Data; Glo Bounce; and Data Bundles on Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and Samsung Galaxy S6 Flat smart phones, were presented to the public in Lagos.
Globacom’s Regional Chief Marketing Officer, Mr. Ashok Israni explained that subscribers need to dial *200# to get on the bonus platform and once on the platform, any recharge of N200 and above instantly gives Glo subscribers 200 per cent bonus airtime which they can use to call any network any time of the day within seven days.
He disclosed that customers will get extra N200 which they can use to call 10 family and friends by dialing *101*1*phone number of the family or friend# to talk more.
Israni also said subscribers would get 15MB of data instantaneously and receive one minute free airtime for every three minutes of call to one person while subscribers who load N100, will get instant bonus of 100 percent and 5MB of free data.
Speaking on the other two offers, Israni said Glo Bounce would facilitate seamless and pocket friendly communication among youths and the young-at-heart adding that the product allows subscribers who sign up to the platform to call each other at a heavily discounted rate of 11 kobo per second and send SMS at the rate of N3 per message.
The Bounce product which has been significantly enhanced, also has a feature tagged ‘Campus Zone’, which when activated by customers will enable them to call other Glo lines at the rate of 11 kobo per second.
Subscribers on the Bounce platform will also be able to call any network in Nigeria at the flat rate of 15k per second.
In addition, they will get 15MB for every recharge of N200 and above. They also get one free SMS for every one SMS paid for.
To get on the Bounce platform, subscribers are requested to dial *170*4#. To opt for Campus Zone, they are required to dial *170*9#.
They also have an option of migrating to Generation ‘G’ to enjoy the 200 per cent bonus airtime on every recharge of N500 and above; 100 per cent bonus on recharges of N200; and 50 per cent bonus on recharges of N100. To get on the Generation ‘G’ platform, customers need to dial*170*5#.
The third offer launched at the press conference is on the latest Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, which comprises Samsung Galaxy S6 Flat and Samsung Galaxy Edge.
According to Israni, the devices, which come with Samsung warranty coverage for 24 months and free accessories, have been bundled with free SIM and 4.5GB data upon activation by customers. The customers will subsequently get 500MB of data per month for 12 months when they purchase any data plan from N2000 and above monthly. Subscribers’ views Mr. Ayo Adebayo, one of the subscribers to Globacom who commended the telecoms operator for its recent promo offerings, said the promos are not only customer friendly, but would also help Glo subscribers make long calls to any network with the bonus offerings. He, however, called on Globacom to also consider expanding its network infrastructure to accommodate more subscribers without loss of service quality, since the purpose of the promo is to garner more subscribers to the Globacom network.
Adebayo decried to a situation where telecoms operators would dwell so much on expanding their subscriber number, without making adequate plans to fortify their networks with robust facilities to absorb the surge in subscriber increase as a result of the promos.
“What Globacom has done with the recent promo offers is very good and commendable, but it must also ensure that subscribers do not suffer poor service quality as a result of its drive for subscriber increase,” Adebayo said.
It is clear that Globacom is doing everything possible to maintain its second lead in the telecoms ranking, just as other operators are struggling to take over the position from Glo, going by the statistics released by the NCC.
“But one thing that is paramount is that Globacom must match the drive for subscriber increase on its network, with better service quality,” Adebayo said.