In a rapidly transforming digital market, Indonesia’s XL Axiata is revolutionising telecommunications
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Digital transformation is at the heart of the Indonesian government’s strategy for the country’s economic development and growth. However, connecting a young, diverse population spread out over the world’s largest archipelago is challenging. XL Axiata is leveraging advanced analytics and working with trusted partners to make digital communications and services available to all Indonesians.
Dian Siswarini, CEO of XL Axiata
Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelago and, with a population of 270 million people and a median age of under 30 years, a young and digitally connected country. Social and mobile usage is a key element in everything from business and education through to leisure and entertainment. Indonesia’s digital transformation can deliver significant economic and social opportunities, but the country’s geography presents a challenge. While there are thousands of islands in the archipelago, most of the population is concentrated on only five of those islands, with many people living in remote and inaccessible places. It is very challenging to provide infrastructure in those far-flung rural areas.
Digital transformation is at the heart of the Indonesian government’s strategy for the country’s economic development and growth.
“Delivering internet access outside the major population centres on the larger islands requires a substantial investment in expertise and infrastructure in order to minimize the digital divide between urban and rural areas,” says Dian Siswarini, the Chief Executive Officer of XL Axiata, the second largest mobile telecommunications company in Indonesia. “Digital transformation has been accelerated by covid-19 not only in Indonesia but globally. Internet access is no longer a luxury—it is a critical utility.”
Connectivity to the internet is a powerful enabler and a critical foundation for digital transformation. Access to information provides opportunities for people to create small and micro businesses.
“You can’t work in a new world with an old business model. The new world needs a new way of thinking,” says Ms Siswarini. “Access to the internet enables women to start their own businesses and access regional and global markets without being limited by their location. This brings additional income to their families and increases the nation’s GDP.”
To meet this demand for internet access in diverse communities and environments, XL Axiata is allowing customers to customise their internet packages. The company’s investment in fibre optic networks lets customers combine fixed and mobile communications with quotas and speeds that suit their specific needs and budget. Similarly, while XL Axiata’s impressive mobile network across Indonesia is being complemented with new fibre-to-the-home services—a vital service in a country where there is less than 15% market penetration for fixed services.
There is a huge demand for fast, reliable connectivity and access to content. With analytics, we can offer people the right offer at the right time to enable them to achieve their goals.
Understanding the customer is the key to success
Knowing your consumer in a market as large and heterogeneous as Indonesia requires telecommunications companies like XL Axiata to deploy advanced analytics. By understanding the diverse needs of a rapidly changing population, XL Axiata can ensure it invests in the right place at the right time.
“We are using predictive analytics to analyse internet usage and behaviour,” says Ms Siswarini. “We distinguish and identify what kind of services customers are using, whether it's streaming content, social media, games, education and other services. We use predictive analytics to understand what services they are accessing, the amount of bandwidth they require and when they are online so, we can provide customers with customised products or bundled services. Analytics, enable us to give people the right offer at the right time to enable them to achieve their goals.”
“Telecommunications is investment- hungry industry. We need to ensure we invest in the right place at the right time to meet customer needs and maximise our return on investment. For example, during Lebaran, [oralso known as Eid-al-Fitr, the Muslim celebration at the end of the fasting month of Ramadan], traffic increases rapidly outside major population centres as many people return to their hometown in rural areas. So, we need to understand and plan how much capacity we need to allocate to these areas.”
XL Axiata’s investment in analytics ensures it can anticipate changing customer needs and invest in services and infrastructure in a cost effective way that maximises the customer experience and return on investment.
Analytics plays a big role in our investment management. Telco is a very investment-hungry industry. Analytics is useful for us to have a higher ROI because it helps us to put investment in the right place at the right time
How partnerships can meet the challenges of an evolving market
In September 2021, Indonesia’s third and fourth largest mobile communications companies, Indosat Ooredoo and H3I, merged to form a new company. While some market analysts saw this as a threat to established players, Ms Siswarini says that XL Axiata saw new opportunities. After analysing the new market landscape, XL Axiata increased its investment in infrastructure, offering converged solutions, with fixed and mobile services, to help their customers take advantage of new opportunities in the disrupted market.
“One of the most crucial elements of our past and continuing success is the partnerships we have,” says Ms Siswarini. “We run a business around technology that continues to evolve faster and faster. To keep up with the pace of change we need a reliable and trusted partner that has deep understanding of the technology and makes a sizeable investment in research and development with joint innovations.”
These partners, such as Huawei, aren’t just hardware providers. They provide advice and guidance for digitisation that ensure XL Axiata can create an amazing customer journey. This brings operational efficiency and better and faster decision-making process that simplify business operations for the company.
Internet access is no longer a luxury—it is a critical utility.
XL Axiata’s customer-focussed digital transformation has been enabled through the adoption new agile techniques in product and business development. Ms Siswarini has led a reorganisation of the business that has its sights fixed on meeting customer needs precisely. XL Axiata is an agile organisation with skilled and adaptable employees. Armed with that understanding, and working with trusted partners like Huawei, XL Axiata is delivering a powerful, robust and flexible network that supports users wherever they are with the services they need at the right time.
