How we leverage scale and innovation at BuyIn

October 30, 2019 / At BuyIn we work at the forefront of innovation and procurement. Read on to know more about this topic I presented at the Broadband World Forum last year in Berlin.

Like every year, the future of Broadband was discussed at the Broadband World Forum, this time in Berlin. Deutsche Telekom, AT&T, Orange and Telefonica took the stage to share how they are pioneering the evolution of access network and services. Industry experts from around the world revealed their attitudes towards 5G, with differing plans for deployment of the next-generation wireless technology. It’s because of such insights and other in-depth discussions I can have there with my suppliers that I am looking forward to attending each year. 

However, this edition was a bit different for me because I had the pleasure of sharing on stage how BuyIn, the company I work for, leverages scale and innovation for 2 telco giants, Orange and Deutsche Telekom. 

As a short reminder, BuyIn was founded in 2011 to deliver strategic procurement services to its members in four central business areas: Network Technology, Customer Equipment, Information Technology and Digital Home & Platforms, the latter being my area I am operating in.

Since I started my career in the telco industry 10 years ago, I’ve seen my share of evolutions, from virtualization to IoT, 4G and now 5G. As I shared during the BBWF, the telco industry is an exciting one to be a part of because this is where the innovation happens. But it’s also a tough industry to work for with many consolidations in the suppliers’ arena and a decrease in ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) over the years. In this context, how can service providers survive and prosper?

This is where companies like BuyIn become fully relevant to drive innovation and leverage scale. On stage I shared real-life examples on how we deliver scale by combining the needs of our members and by implementing smarter methodologies.

One example I gave during my talk is how we developed the Livebox 4 (Orange France Home Gateway). We leveraged innovation in four different ways: co-development resulting in split intellectual property rights, cost control with pre-agreed margins, incentive mechanism and last but not least, a unique technique called “design mirroring”.

This is just one example of how we drive innovation and added value to our clients. In the fast-paced TelCo industry, we constantly strive at BuyIn to develop new techniques and methodologies to benefit our customers. 

Author: Khalid Sharaf, VP Digital Home Devices

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