MTN’s partnership with Microsoft is key to its evolution from Telco to TechCo

MTN Group recently announced it had entered a strategic alliance with Microsoft to serve the African continent with superior solutions and value offerings.

This partnership aligns with MTN Group’s goal of transforming from a traditional telecommunications company to a “TechCo”.

• Learn how MTN Group’s alliance with Microsoft can help your business.

The TechCo is the natural evolution of the telco company and expands upon the capabilities of the telco by offering a broad range of value-added solutions to its large user base.

An Accenture report, titled “The tech-driven telco,” explains why this evolution is important.

“[Telcos] need their IT architecture to be modular, reusable, cloud-native, AI-ready, and made of standardised components,” said the report.

“Without it, they will not be able to implement new concept-to-cash cycles or co-innovate with partners or operate at the cost point and with the flexibility demanded by the market.”

MTN Group’s vision of the TechCo

As a forward-thinking African telco, MTN Group has acknowledged that it needs to continually evolve its business model and range of offerings to continue providing the best experience to its customers.

“The challenge for players like MTN is to transition to the delivery of new services and products in the business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) spaces,” said General Manager: ICT at MTN SA Business, Sudipto Moitra.

“It is in these spheres that there are openings to maximise opportunities by developing and introducing services and products for the use of clients.”

Moitra explained that MTN Group’s partnership with Microsoft is a defining step towards MTN Group becoming the leading TechCo in South Africa.

The combination of MTN Group’s broad African reach and Microsoft’s unrivalled range of future-focused ICT solutions will allow MTN Group to serve more African businesses with best-in-class technologies.

Microsoft Azure, for example, is the industry standard for business cloud – and MTN Group’s strategic alliance with Microsoft will allow it to provide superior services on the Azure platform.

These services range from productivity tools like Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams to the efficient execution of core business processes.

Skills development

Another important element of this partnership is that Microsoft will work directly with MTN Group on skills development.

This includes the upskilling of MTN Group employees to improve their ability to sell Microsoft’s industry-defining products and cloud services in Africa.

MTN Group and Microsoft will also work on joint go-to-market projects that leverage the full capabilities of both businesses for superior results.

This makes it an exciting time to be an African business.

Click here to learn how MTN Group’s alliance with Microsoft can benefit your business.

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MTN’s partnership with Microsoft is key to its evolution from Telco to TechCo