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The 2025 edition has once again cemented Hannover Messe’s status as the world’s most important industrial trade fair, serving as a vital convergence point for technology, business, and international cooperation. The March 31–April 4 event drew an impressive crowd, with around 127,000 visitors making their way from 150 different countries to engage with the 4,000 exhibiting companies.

During the 40+ meetings I attended, a palpable sense emerged that today’s driving industrial productivity force is the full integration of the physical world of machines with digital intelligence (including AI, obviously).

A fellow delegate and I joked that if an AI bot had been eavesdropping at Hannover Messe 2025, recording and analyzing all that was discussed, so much knowledge could’ve been extracted as to move industry 10 years forward overnight.

While I do not have such a brain or computing power, I still managed to get down in Hannover some of the most compelling trends that I believe are shaping industry today.

1. The BANI World is Here — and Agility Wins

We have entered the era of the BANI world — brittle, anxious, nonlinear, and incomprehensible. It’s clear that the old certainties are gone and the name of the game now is agile and operationally excellent. Having digital tools and the ability to make smart, data-driven decisions is no longer optional; these are essential to navigate the new reality.

2. Think “Information Superhighway” — Not Just “Data Integration”

Everyone’s talking about data integration, but it’s more than just connecting systems. It’s about building a reliable, high-speed “information superhighway” from the edge to the cloud. Just like adding lanes to a real highway, the more data we can access, the more we’ll want. CIOs will need to think continually about their data infrastructure.

3. Industrial AI is Blossoming

Industrial AI isn’t a futuristic concept anymore — it’s taking root in practical ways.  The companies that will succeed are those that take a focused approach, figuring out exactly how AI can solve specific problems in their operations. It’s about moving beyond the theoretical and getting real, reliable results on the shop floor.

4. AI Agents — Exciting, But Let’s Be Strategic

AI agents and orchestrators are definitely generating excitement, and they could be game changers. But we need to think carefully about whether we’re seeing them as a quick fix for underlying issues or as a way to really amplify the power of our data. The latter is where the real potential lies.

5. Sensing the Shop Floor Like Never Before

The ability to get a complete, real-time pulse of the shop floor is becoming a reality thanks to connected tools, robots, and cameras. And with AI, both workers and supervisors can analyze this wealth of data to boost productivity and optimize processes in ways we couldn’t before. It’s about unlocking the hidden secrets of our operations.

6. Empowering the Frontline Worker

The explosion of connected worker apps is really interesting. It’s about connecting people, processes, and machines in a more seamless way. This can help bridge skill gaps, accelerate learning, and create a more engaging work environment, especially for the next generation of workers.

7. The Metaverse is More Than Just a Visual Stunt

Forget just seeing a digital twin — with platforms like Omniverse, we’re moving toward a fully immersive “vision experience.” Imagine being able to zoom from a high-level overview down to the tiniest detail on the shop floor, all synced with real-time production data. Furthermore, the power to “rewind” and “fast-forward” production steps for meticulous traceability is there. That’s a game changer for understanding and managing operations.

8. Production Scheduling — Finally Getting the Spotlight

Production scheduling might not be the flashiest topic, but it’s becoming increasingly critical. With better data integration and AI, and the need to connect production with the wider supply chain, these tools are finally getting the attention they deserve for optimizing efficiency.

9. The Power of Working Together

The idea of ecosystems built on shared data structures, like those promoted by IDSA, is gaining real traction. Initiatives like Manufacturing-X, Factory-X, and Catena-X show a renewed focus on companies collaborating to solve big business challenges in a more connected way.

10. MES is Evolving — Has Evolved — Fast

The traditional manufacturing execution system (MES) is changing rapidly to meet new market demands. We’re seeing a big push toward cloud deployment, more flexible architectures, user-friendly designs, integrated data platforms, better connections with other enterprise systems, and the incorporation of AI and analytics. It’s a whole new era for MES.

In highly competitive markets, vendors must constantly look for new and engaging ways to stay top of mind with buyers. In the business-to-business (B2B) world, much marketing comes via content or thought leadership campaigns.

Salespersons, in addition to understanding the business and the products and services they sell, need to be able to contextualize this value within the marketplace and the trends and drivers that are impacting buyers.

What makes content truly effective in this space? And how can you develop content that both works for your target audiences and gives your salespeople a competitive edge in their client conversations?

The Importance of Storytelling

Humans are hardwired for stories. Narratives evoke emotions, create memorable experiences, and make complex information digestible.

In B2B marketing, storytelling helps deliver narratives that take buyers on a journey of understanding that uncovers insights they may not yet had exposure to. Without directly advertising or selling, storytelling can present an alternative view of the challenges businesses face in the industries in which they compete.

Information Overload: Strategies for Creating Effective Content

In today’s digital age, buyers are bombarded with messages from all directions. AI and instantaneous access to information through various media contribute to an “always-on” global marketplace.

Marketers and salespeople must also continually stay up to date with clients, prospects, the competition, and the factors that are impacting buyers. Both seller and buyer may wind up suffering from information overload, resulting in analysis paralysis and high levels of attrition — a situation in which no one wins.

Building Buyer Relationships: Key Components of Engaging Marketing Content

The secret of great content lies in providing a combination of stories, ideas, and insights. These elements are the building blocks of all successful content marketing campaigns.

By weaving together compelling narratives, innovative ideas, and valuable insights, you can create content that not only captures attention but also drives action with buyers. Leveraging data points and case studies further enhances your business credibility, sending a clear message to the marketplace that you have evidence to support your insights and messaging.

Too often, content is created in isolation. A good marketing team will look at what the competition is doing, compare it to current thought leadership campaigns, topics, and talking points, and find white space for new stories and discussion.

Without knowing what is out there, it’s hard to find ways to improve upon it and capture the right audience, let alone buyer attention!

From Insights to Action: Crafting Targeted Marketing Content

Crafting effective marketing content for your sales teams is essential in today’s crowded markets. But how do you ensure your content hits the mark? Here are some key strategies:

1. Know your audience. This is the first step in creating content that resonates. Who is the audience? What are their pain points? What solutions are they seeking? The more you understand your audience, the better you can tailor your content to meet its needs.
2. Build resonant content. Once you know your audience, the next step is to create content that speaks to them. This means addressing their specific challenges, providing valuable insights, and offering solutions relevant to their needs. The goal is to create content that not only informs but engages and inspires.
3. Get out and test. Have your salespeople take your content — whether written/visual material or just talking points — out to clients to see how it resonates in client and prospect conversations. Providing content that holds up in important conversations is key to building trust and ownership in B2B relationships.

Conclusion

In the world of B2B marketing, content is a powerful tool that influences buyer decisions and fosters long-term relationships. By prioritizing storytelling and understanding your audience’s pain points and aspirations, you can create engaging narratives that resonate deeply. This approach helps you cut through the noise of a crowded marketplace and make a lasting impact.

The secret to great content lies in combining authentic stories, innovative ideas, and valuable insights. Empowering your marketing and sales teams with strong narratives enhances their ability to confidently convey your brand’s message and engage meaningfully with potential buyers. Ultimately, effective storytelling can set your brand apart and lead to greater recognition and success in the B2B landscape.

 

Interested in how IDC can help you create compelling content, messaging, and campaigns that truly engage your target audience? We can help you address your top priorities. Whether you’re looking to generate and nurture leads, establish your brand as a thought leader, or develop a strong value proposition that highlights what sets you apart, our expertise can make a significant impact. Let’s connect and explore how we can work together to drive your success!

Observability is rapidly evolving as organizations across Europe embrace digital transformation, cloud adoption, and AI. As IT environments become more complex, traditional monitoring approaches are no longer sufficient.

The future of observability in Europe will be shaped by advancements in AI-driven analytics, regulatory requirements, sustainability goals, and the increasing need for proactive system intelligence. This shift will impact enterprises, public sector organizations, and technology vendors as they strive to optimize performance, enhance security, and control costs.

IDC’s MarketScape: European Observability Market 2025 Vendor Assessment evaluates the major players based on their observability portfolios, solutions, and go-to-market strategies. Key trends highlighted in this document include:

1. AI’s Role in the Observability Space

AI/ML will redefine observability in Europe by enabling automated anomaly detection, predictive analytics, and intelligent remediation. AI-driven observability platforms will help organizations move from reactive to proactive monitoring, identifying potential issues before they cause business disruptions.

One key development is AI-powered incident response, which correlates vast amounts of telemetry data (logs, metrics, traces) to detect patterns and surface actionable insights. This will reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) and enhance IT efficiency. GenAI will assist IT teams by summarizing alerts, suggesting fixes, and automating routine tasks.

With the increasing adoption of AI observability tools, European enterprises will focus on data quality and contextualization to ensure accurate AI-driven decision-making.

2. European Regulations

Europe has some of the world’s most stringent data privacy and cybersecurity regulations and these will significantly influence the future of observability. Organizations must ensure that observability platforms align with regulations like the GDPR, the NIS2 Directive, the EU’s AI Act, DORA, and the CSRD.

These regulations will drive data sovereignty initiatives, pushing European businesses toward in-region observability solutions that ensure compliance with local data residency laws. Vendors will need to offer localized cloud services, on-premises deployment options, and sovereign cloud observability solutions.

3. The Value of Observability in Meeting Sustainability Goals

As sustainability becomes a top priority, European organizations will increasingly integrate GreenOps principles into their observability strategies. The focus will be on energy-efficient infrastructure monitoring, carbon footprint analytics, and sustainable FinOps.

Governments and enterprises will require sustainability observability dashboards to comply with the EU’s CSRD and ensure transparency in emissions tracking. Cloud providers and observability vendors will respond by embedding carbon intelligence features into their platforms.

4. The Rise of Open Observability Standards

To improve interoperability and avoid vendor lock-in, European organizations are embracing open source observability frameworks such as OpenTelemetry and Prometheus. These standards enable unified data collection across hybrid and multicloud environments, ensuring greater flexibility and cost efficiency.

As European enterprises prioritize vendor-agnostic observability, the market will see increased adoption of self-hosted and open source observability solutions, particularly among companies concerned about data sovereignty and compliance.

5. Security and Cyber-Resilience

With the rise of sophisticated cyberthreats, observability is becoming a key component of security operations. Security observability will integrate with SIEM and detection and response platforms, enabling real-time threat detection and automated incident response. Future observability solutions will focus on zero trust observability and AI-powered threat intelligence.

Conclusion

Observability in Europe will be driven by AI, regulatory compliance, sustainability, open source adoption, and enhanced security measures. Organizations will increasingly adopt intelligent observability platforms that provide end-to-end visibility across complex IT ecosystems, helping them optimize performance, mitigate risks, and achieve compliance. As these trends accelerate, European enterprises must invest in cutting-edge observability solutions to stay competitive in an evolving digital landscape.

Reach out to Filippo Vanara to learn more about how IDC can help you on your observability journey in Europe.

For more information about the upcoming EU regulations (specially regarding AI and ESG) and learning how to navigate these changes, adapt to new standards, and leverage Europe’s unique approach to digital governance as a competitive advantage, register for our webcast here: Simplifying EU Digital Regulations: Opportunities in ESG and AI

Filippo Vanara - Senior Research Analyst, European CloudOps, IDC - IDC

Analyst Profile
Filippo Vanara co-leads and contributes to IDC's European CloudOps and Cloud Governance and Europe, Middle East, and Africa Sustainable Strategies and Technologies research programs. He also contributes to associated consulting projects. FinOps and sustainable operations (GreenOps) are, among others, key research areas in his research agenda. Joined IDC in 2019 and London-based, he is part of the European cloud practice, but he previously covered other key technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and edge computing.

The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) aims to revolutionize corporate reporting via the transparent environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting of key performance indicators (KPIs), strategies, and monitoring. The CSRD’s impact has been substantial, with around two-thirds of EMEA companies reporting in accordance with the 2028 compliance deadline.

CSRD reporting standards — including more than 1,000 data points consolidated for certain industries — has elevated ESG data architectures to a new high and become an unspoken benchmark for ESG reporting globally.

Omnibus Simplification Package Creates Regulatory Uncertainty

In February 2025, the EU’s Omnibus Simplification Package was introduced, driven by the EU Competitiveness Compass, which aims to simplify sustainability reporting and reduce the administrative burdens on business and promote competitiveness. It presents far-reaching changes to the CSRD and other EU ESG regulations (e.g., the EU taxonomy, CSDDD, and CBAM). Key elements of the proposal include:

  • The number of companies mandated to report is reduced by 80% by increasing company size to >1,000 employees.
  • Small and medium-sized businesses are exempt from reporting but can adopt voluntary reporting standards (VSME).
  • Within the ESRS, fewer and more simplified datapoints (KPIs) have to be reported and some will become voluntary.
  • There will be no (mandatory) sector-specific ESRSs.
  • Implementation of CSRD for the second wave of companies (large EU-based companies) is postponed for two years.
  • The requirement for reasonable assurance is removed (only limited assurance required).

The proposal is under debate in the European Parliament and the European Council. A finalization — and thereby clarity for businesses — cannot be expected for several months.

At the same time, banks and other investors still require sustainability metrics for lending decisions and/or fund allocation to achieve their ESG targets and risk management. Consequently, even companies potentially now exempt from CSRD will face indirect ESG disclosure pressure, leading to a two-tier ESG reporting ecosystem: those who report for compliance and those who report for investors.

Finally, there is a small but growing number of companies that actually perceive sustainability (and ESG reporting) as a benefit, potential business growth driver and, thus, competitive advantage.

CSRD Maturity is Still Limited in EMEA

Our new research on the CSRD readiness of European businesses has shown that ESG regulation (and CSRD in particular) is still often perceived as a cost burden, as it requires additional resources, new skills, changes in data architecture and management, new technologies to be implemented — and a new level of collaboration across silos within the business and partner ecosystem.

CSRD maturity is still limited among European businesses. Only one in five EMEA businesses is in the mature stages of CSRD readiness, currently publishing or finalizing their first-ever CSRD report. They have invested substantially in human and technology resources to hit the crucial milestone and are looking to leverage the CSRD data, processes, and expertise to further generate value for the business.

Our CSRD Readiness Report reveals that CSRD-mature organizations consider ESG/sustainability practices pivotal for fostering innovations that improve business resilience and customer satisfaction. They rely extensively on the support of external service and technology providers, particularly to develop CSRD/ESG reporting strategies, implement ESG data management platforms, and leverage AI/GenAI.

This creates ample opportunities for business service providers and technology vendors. But it is essential to understand market segment maturity levels as well as differences in challenges and requirements (e.g., by geography, industry, company size) so as to adequately adapt solution design and go-to-market strategies.

Sustainability Initiatives Generate Business Value for EMEA Companies

On a positive note, our research results illustrate that becoming more sustainable is clearly perceived as being increasingly important for enterprise value creation. A significant number of European companies are seeing real business benefits generated by sustainability initiatives.

What business outcomes were achieved or are expected to be achieved within 1-2 years by your organization’s current or planned sustainability initiatives?

As shown in Figure 2, nearly half of EMEA companies see competitive advantages and innovation, and nearly 40% realized revenue and profit growth.

Interestingly, it is precisely these topics, innovation and growth, that European CEOs list at the top of their agenda for 2025 (as found in IDC’s February 2025 CEO Perspective on Technology Survey). So it comes as no surprise that investment in ESG/sustainability technologies remains among the top 3 technology investment priorities of European CEOs in 2025.

For technology and service providers, this implies that offerings increasingly need to focus on showcasing how sustainability solutions are geared toward these aspects. In particular, it will be critical to illustrate how CSRD reporting initiatives help to foster innovation and growth.

If you want to know more about our Sustainability research, visit our website here.

Katharina Grimme - Associate VP, Research and Practice Lead, EMEA Sustainable Strategies and Technologies - IDC

Analyst Profile
Katharina Grimme has more than 20 years' experience as an industry analyst and strategy consultant in the tech industry and is leading is leading IDC's Sustainability research in EMEA. With her expertise and passion for sustainable concepts for business, society, and digitization, she drives thought leadership at the intersection of sustainability and digital transformation.

Employees are often highlighted as the first line of enterprise cybersecurity defense. But who – and what — safeguards our households as we become more connected and digital plays an ever-greater role in our personal and civic existence?

Consumer digital life protection (CDLP) solutions seek to provide the security and privacy controls that households need for their identities, devices, home networks, and digital transactions and interactions. These tools include everything from antivirus and password managers to VPNs and secure home networks.
However, with no security or IT department to advise or support them, are European consumers making the right choices about which technologies to adopt — and do they feel confident about deploying them?

IDC’s 2025 CDLP Survey, which included respondents from the three major European markets of the U.K., France, and Germany, provides insights into the home security goals and challenges of European households.

A Tormented Target Market

The research found that almost half of European consumers lack confidence in selecting the right CDLP solutions. Many simply don’t know what they need — and those that do know find it difficult to choose between the different offerings of different providers. Almost one-quarter of consumers say that CDLP solutions are too difficult to use. Finally, many are concerned about additional costs in their household budgets.In fact, affordability and ease of use are cited as the top priorities for European consumers when it comes to choosing CDLP solutions. Despite that, potentially advantageous bundled offerings are not so attractive. This suggests that vendors could do more to optimize such bundles and educate prospects on the benefits of a comprehensive package.

What would such packages need to deliver? The most common consumer complaints are forgotten passwords/password resets, but these are not the only challenge. Others include deteriorating PC performance, lost devices, virus infections, online scams, or simply becoming uncomfortable with the level of personalization in online ads and websites. Many users have suffered one or more of these incidents.

Accordingly, the top priorities for CDLP measures center on protecting PCs from viruses and malware and safeguarding ecommerce and ebanking transactions. Maintaining unique and complex passwords for each account and blocking access to phishing and sites that host malware are also very important.

Trusted Providers

When it comes to who consumers trust the most to meet their CDLP requirements, security technology vendors are the clear top choice, cited by one-third of respondents. Device or software vendors follow, mentioned in just over one-quarter of the interviews.

In terms of technologies, consumers are most willing to pay for VPN, secure home networks, and antivirus. For any given CDLP technology, between one-third and one-half of consumers opt for a free solution.

Spreading the Word

Reaching the market is also a challenge: Word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and relatives is the most frequent trigger for adoption of CDLP technology. Pre-installing solutions on new devices is also a dependable route to drive adoption.

Conversely, online advertising and news articles seem to have a limited impact. The techie uncle of the family can be as effective at driving purchase decisions as any glossy ad splash. This is a challenging audience to market to.

The European CDLP market surpassed $2.1 billion in 2023 and is projected to expand at a CAGR of 3.7% into 2029. Difficult digital experiences and a rising level of concern about the risk and exposure in consumers’ digital lives can drive adoption of premium CDLP solutions.

Nevertheless, CDLP vendors must improve awareness and understanding of their paid solutions and subscriptions. They may need to rethink their approach: Does the security message need to be simplified? Can the use of the products be more intuitive and automated — even invisible? What is missing in the education? Do consumers understand that if the product is free, they’re the product?

Security technology brands are trusted — and those companies need to find ways to leverage that trust through the word-of-mouth channel more effectively and generate a flywheel effects

The European findings of IDC’s 2025 CDLP Survey are presented in this report. Findings from the complete global survey are available here

Mark Child - Associate Research Director, European Security - IDC

Analyst Profile
Associate Research Director Mark Child of IDC’s European Security Group leads the group's Endpoint Security and Identity & Digital Trust (IDT) research for both Western Europe and Central & Eastern Europe. He monitors developments in security technologies and strategies as organizations address the challenges of evolving business models, IT infrastructure, and cyberthreats. Mark's coverage includes in-depth security market studies, end-user research, white papers, and custom consulting.

The annual IDC Telco Forum: Barcelona was held Sunday, March 2, to kick off the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025.

During the event, IDC delivered presentations that addressed pivotal transformation and monetization opportunities in the telecoms sector, as well as our expectations for the industry’s development through 2030. Key executives and stakeholders across the telecoms ecosystem and technology sectors attended the meeting (previously known as the IDC pre-MWC Brunch).

Telecom Industry: A Massive Market Undergoing Bold Transformations

Spending by telecoms worldwide is projected to reach $1.375 trillion in 2025, accounting for 24% of the global ICT market. Meanwhile, telecom service provider CAPEX intensity is declining year on year but is expected to reach $309 billion in 2028. This shift reflects the focus of telcos on network efficiency and simplified, cost-effective operations.

The telecom industry is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by slowing mobile data growth, market fragmentation, and increasing financial pressures. As the industry evolves, telcos are shifting from being traditional connectivity providers to being full-stack technology suppliers that require structural changes to sustain profitability.

Market consolidation, workforce realignment, and strategic investments are now central to long-term success.

Reinventing the Business Model

To enhance efficiency and financial resilience, operators are consolidating in domestic markets and reassessing international operations. European regulators have approved key in-market mergers that come with network investment commitments, signaling a broader acceptance of industry consolidation.

Middle Eastern telcos are strategically acquiring stakes in European firms, capitalizing on stock market fluctuations to expand their influence. Operators are streamlining their international presence, divesting from underperforming markets and leveraging joint ventures to optimize scale and operational efficiency.

The Rise of LEO Satellite Partnerships

Satellite technology is playing an increasingly strategic role in telecom operations, addressing connectivity gaps where terrestrial networks are insufficient. The convergence of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite networks with mobile infrastructure is gaining traction, particularly in the realm of direct-to-device (D2D) connectivity.

By forming alliances with satellite providers, telcos can extend their service footprint, unlocking new revenue streams in remote and underserved regions. Some LEO providers are partnering with chipset and device vendors to enable direct satellite connectivity on standard mobile devices. Efforts are underway to expand dedicated satellite frequency bands to support this growth.

Programmable Networking Gains Traction

The shift toward network programmability is pushing telcos to embrace API-driven ecosystems that enhance service agility and unlock new monetization opportunities. Network API monetization is becoming a key revenue stream, with operators engaging enterprise developers, aggregators, and cloud marketplaces to integrate network capabilities into digital services.

In the short term, quick-win APIs such as SIM swap and number verification are gaining traction. More advanced APIs, like quality on demand (QoD), hold greater long-term potential but remain a secondary focus.

The real value lies in combining multiple APIs, such as QoD with security or edge computing, to deliver differentiated, high-value solutions.

To scale these opportunities, multi-operator collaboration will be essential to ensure broad applicability across industries. Additionally, developers will require training and certification to fully leverage telco APIs, raising questions about who will provide this support.

As telcos expand their API strategies, they must also address a critical challenge: avoiding commoditization and securing a strong position in the evolving digital value chain.

AI Moves from Hype to Execution

AI is rapidly moving from theory to real-world deployment, transforming both network operations and customer engagement. GenAI is already driving measurable improvements in predictive maintenance, automated network management, and customer service.

The next stage of adoption will integrate task-specific AI agents to further enhance efficiency, streamline operations, and optimize service delivery. However, challenges persist: Security risks are the primary reason for GenAI project delays or abandonment (43%), while project costs rank lowest (10%), according to IDC’s 2024 Future Enterprise Resiliency and Spending (FERS) Survey.

Telcos are leveraging GenAI across two key areas: operational efficiency and customer experience. In network operations, AI-powered copilots assist with incident management, collaborative network operations, and intelligent field support, while SOC-NOC collaboration enhances user experience assurance. On the customer experience side, GenAI is improving business support systems (BSS) knowledge sharing, lead generation for enterprise markets, intelligent service recommendations, and complaint handling.

With adoption accelerating, telcos must address security concerns, workforce adaptation, and cost control to fully capitalize on GenAI’s transformative potential.

Telco Monetization Strategies

As traditional telecom value chains evolve, operators must rethink their approach to monetization. A customer-centric mindset, combined with rapid experimentation and continuous iteration, is essential to stay competitive.

Leveraging composable technology stacks is a key enabler of monetization. By adopting modular, API-driven architectures, telcos can achieve greater flexibility, enabling mass customization and cost-efficient service delivery. The transition to 5G standalone networks is further driving the need for new monetization models, particularly in network slicing and private 5G solutions that offer premium, differentiated services for enterprises.

AI and API monetization are expected to become major revenue contributors. The telco AI market is projected to grow from $235 billion in 2023 to $632 billion by 2028, capturing 6% of global AI spending.

Similarly, the telco API market is forecast to reach $6.7 billion by 2028, expanding at a 57.1% CAGR, with significant contributions from the Americas ($2.7B), Europe ($1.9B), and APAC ($2.1B). Industry-wide initiatives such as the GSMA Open Gateway — supported by 67 mobile operator groups across 265 networks and covering 75% of global connections — highlight the strategic importance of API-driven revenue growth.

Winning Strategies for Telcos

Service Play

Telcos must focus on select industry verticals, leveraging in-house capabilities and strategic partnerships to develop specialized solutions. The ability to deploy rapidly, monetize effectively, and refine value propositions based on market feedback will be key to success.

Platform Play

Connectivity remains central to telco operations, but its value proposition is evolving. Operators must enhance their offerings by prioritizing security, performance, and flexibility, ensuring that their networks support a broad range of enterprise use cases beyond basic connectivity.

Vertical versus Horizontal

Telcos must determine whether to pursue vertical or horizontal service models. A vertical approach focuses on industry-specific solutions, including private 5G, edge computing, network as a service (NaaS), and network slicing, providing tailored services to high-value sectors. In contrast, a horizontal approach emphasizes the development of scalable, reusable capabilities that can be deployed across industries, optimizing efficiency and cost structures.

META: The Emerging Digital Hub

The Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META) region is emerging as a key digital hub, driven by large-scale infrastructure investments and regulatory support. Network expansion is accelerating, with increased investment in datacenters, subsea cables, and carrier-neutral facilities.

Strategic initiatives are enhancing regional interconnectivity, particularly in Africa and major hubs such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. Favorable policies are enabling digital transformation, fostering internet traffic growth, and supporting the proliferation of digital services.

The Future of Telco Transformation

Sustained success in the telecom industry requires a shift toward platform-based, adaptable service models that serve multiple industries. As telcos position themselves as digital transformation enablers, they must balance efficiency, innovation, and strategic investments to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving landscape.

Key Takeaways

  1. Slowing mobile data growth necessitates new monetization strategies beyond traditional bandwidth expansion.
  2. Telco transformation must focus on efficiency, simplification, and adaptability.
  3. Attracting and retaining top talent is crucial to leveraging disruptive technologies.
  4. Collaboration across ecosystems is essential for both commercial and technical advancement.
  5. Energy efficiency is a strategic priority, directly impacting both OPEX and CAPEX decisions.

 

The telecom sector is entering a decisive phase. Those who embrace transformation will define the industry’s future.

If you missed the IDC Telco Forum: Barcelona session, you can watch the content in a webcast on March 12: MWC2025: Telco Transformation and Monetization in EMEA.

Masarra Mohamad - Senior Research Analyst, European 5G Enterprise Strategies - IDC

Analyst Profile
Masarra Mohamed is a senior research analyst specializing in analysing the connectivity and communications services markets, focusing on the changing networking requirements, trends, and competitive dynamics that support enterprises in their digital transformation. She explores how enterprise network strategies evolve to enable cloud, AI, and security.