Colin Graf von Hardenberg: Wooing the masses to connect, and connect more often

While seemingly everyone is using the internet for socializing, banking, shopping and reading the news, some people just don’t see the point. As many as a third of US adults who don’t have an internet connection do not particularly want one. British statistics show similar figures.

A few years ago, this might have seemed trivial. But today, being connected is increasingly necessary to access basic services and information. A large group of people, many of them marching under the banner of technology skepticism, are going to find themselves at a dead end.

Government has a large part to play in addressing this issue, especially since authorities in many countries increasingly rely on the internet for communicating with the public. But operators would also do well to pause for thought. This is a huge untapped market of “late adopters” that could almost be regarded as a benchmark - if service providers can reach this group of people, they can reach anyone.

What is more, when the internet goes mobile, many in this group might go online for the first time via their mobile phones. How can we convince them, and, perhaps even more importantly, increase mobile usage in the large group of subscribers who enjoy being connected, but are not early adopters or technology fans?

I believe the answer is threefold: The services offered have to be easy to use, they have to be secure, and connection speeds must be high enough to make online services convenient to use everywhere.

Simplest is always the best

The most successful market offerings are always the simplest: easy to use, with obvious benefits and easy-to-understand pricing. The winner is not always the cheapest alternative on the market, but the one that is the simplest to use and understand. A case in point is the iPhone, with its hard-to-beat user friendliness.

Most users struggle with complex services, which is why, for example, mobile e-mail took so long to take off, even among internet-savvy users. Services have to function in an intuitive way without complicated settings to contend with.

This is equally true for business applications. People want the same degree of usability, whether at work or at play. Easy-to-use business applications will also give a bigger boost to productivity compared to clunky software that doesn’t take the user perspective into account. Simplicity delivers results.

Making fast connections available

Speed and availability are other important aspects of improving the end-user experience. Many people who don’t see the point of an internet connection may only have experienced dial-up modem speeds. Not even the most user friendly interface can compensate for sluggish downloads. Fast connections have to be made widely available, not only in urban areas but everywhere where people need to go online.

Connecting the next billion is not only a question of building networks in the emerging markets, but offering excellent coverage in every part of the developed world as well.

Changing behaviors present new opportunities

In the current economic climate, investing in user-friendly applications and extended network capacity might seem risky, but waiting is riskier. Users will flock to the service provider that can offer simpler, better and more efficient services. The question is not if, but when, that is going to happen.

Right now, many people are changing the way they use the internet, at work as well as outside the office, due to the economic downturn. As we all know, whenever there is change, there is also opportunity, and service providers need to be there to seize it.

For example, businesses are increasingly replacing travel by video calls. Also, more and more people are using their phones to find the best prices and get maps, directions and location information. They may not buy new phones, but they become more creative with what they already have.

Operators need to ask themselves what people do when they need to save money. That’s where the opportunity is. Gaining insight from available customer data will also help to provide clues as to which new services subscribers would be interested in.

Differentiating through security

At the moment, online security is not a decisive factor in consumer choice. But, as more and more people get connected, it will become a key issue. Especially when it comes to mobile connectivity, security risks might stop people from using their phones to go online.

People depend on the integrity of their applications. When buying software as a service, which means that you have all your documents and applications online instead of your local hard drive, you have to feel sure that your space is protected like your own home.

For any service provider who would want to differentiate by offering the best security, the field is wide open at the moment. Now would be the right time to start raising people’s security awareness. Businesses are already making measures to protect themselves, but individuals are still unconcerned.

Universal accessibility

As we are approaching a digital society, where we access a majority of our services, information and entertainment through mobile devices, we need to make the internet accessible to everyone.

This puts the stress on adhering to simplicity, offering good connectivity everywhere and making sure that end users can be confident in their applications’ security. The service providers who are able to offer this, and package it in a way that is relevant even to reluctant consumers, will have a big share of the market for the taking.

About the Author: Colin Graf von Hardenberg

Colin is responsible for the Business Intelligence unit in Strategy and Business Development.

Prior to Nokia Siemens Networks, he was responsible for Strategy Development and Strategy Controlling in Siemens Com Strategy.

His career covers several positions in finance for development, sales and manufacturing. He was heading the Mobile Phones Supply Chain introduction and was responsible for the Global Operations function there.

Colin spent four years in the US focusing on the turnaround of former Rolm and global integration of the R&D function into Siemens.

Colin was born in 1958 in Germany. He holds a diploma and a PhD in Economics, both from the Hamburg University. He is married and has two children.