Technology, media and telecom



Insights to accelerate your organization's digital transformation, no matter where you are in your journey



These are changing times for technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) companies. The past decade has brought an explosion of new technologies, mobile devices, content and channels which, in turn, has driven exponential growth and new demand. At the same time, shrinking margins and rising costs - combined with new compliance, regulatory and sustainability requirements - have fundamentally changed the business model for some TMT participants.



Insight and resources



HOW WE CAN HELP?



TMT consultants are some of top trusted advisors helping technology, media and telecommunications organizations both in USA and around the world grow and reduce their risk.

We do this by leveraging our deep experience working with many of the country's largest telecom and cable operators software, entertainment and media companies as well as some of the most promising start-up businesses and high growth tech companies. Our clients are working with SS to help them achieve a wide range of objectives including: Growing their revenue, minimizing expenses and optimizing operations Leveraging smart tax strategies, tax credits and R&D incentives Minimizing financial risk, accounting risk and operational risk to drive business performance Building appropriate tax, accounting and compliance systems for international, cross-border operations Conducting sophisticated transactions including acquisitions, exits, mergers and restructurings.





Growth companies





Today's tech entrepreneurs and company founders face considerable challenges bringing new ideas to market while simultaneously managing incremental leadership responsibilities. These responsibilities including raising capital, acquiring customers, developing products, finding talent, navigating international expansion and scaling operations.



How we can help?



TMT professionals have deep hands-on experience with the entire lifecycle of starting up, growing and exiting high-growth tech companies. Whether you are entrepreneurial-led or VC-backed, we strive to deliver practical and cost-effective solutions to scale for sustainable growth while minimizing business complexity and risk.

We offer access to our Silicon Valley and international advisors and ecosystems, combining global best practices and benchmark insights with the right introductions to help founders transform their ideas into leading businesses.

leading entrepreneurs work with us to help achieve a wide range of objectives, including:

  1. Accessing mentors, business partners, board members and the best sources of funding
  2. Identifying and maximizing government grants, tax credits and intellectual property
  3. Setting up operational and financial reporting structures to maximize shareholder value
  4. Ensuring effective and optimal tax structures to maximize shareholders' value
  5. Establishing regulation and tax compliance supporting growth and cross-border operations
  6. Securing advice regarding funding, mergers, acquisitions, exits and other transactions


MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT





To build the most successful companies and brands, media and entertainment organizations must harness the best creativity and monetization opportunities. The explosion of digital channels, rising content expectations, the prevalence of new technologies and revenue models, regulatory changes and accessing funding can pose challenges but also opportunities.



How we can help?



We understand that founders and management teams are looking for practical and holistic advice, not just audit and tax help.

We have a long track record working with some of most successful media, digital media, entertainment, publishing and film companies.

We provide advice and cost-effective solutions to meet your business objectives, while minimizing business complexity and risk. Media and entertainment clients work with us to help achieve a range of objectives including:

  1. Review of business plans, revenue models and funding strategies
  2. Full Media Tax Incentives Lifecycle support, including strategy, submission of applications to certification authorities and tax authority reviews for federal and provincial incentives and grants
  3. Providing advisory and support on accounting or tax for equity transactions, stock-based compensation and other complex issues
  4. Private or public company audit services.
  5. Production audits for media tax incentives as/if required
  6. Corporate finance, valuations, M&A transactions and IPO Readiness
  7. Advisory Tax planning and compliance, international and cross-border tax


TECHNOLOGY





Today’s software or software-as-a-service, IT services, hardware and electronics companies face common hurdles characterized by rapid innovation, expanding global operations and business models in constant transformation. These challenges are compounded by innovation in the cloud, mobile and social collaboration technologies which continue to create new market opportunities but also challenges for established industry participants.



How we can help?



We understand the issues affecting global technology providers. Our professionals bring extensive industry knowledge and deep technical experience as the advisors of choice to some of most well regarded companies and the worlds’ most celebrated technology brands. Technology clients work with us to help achieve a range of objectives including:

  1. Growing their revenue, minimizing expenses and optimizing operations.
  2. Leveraging smart tax strategies, tax credits and R&D incentives.
  3. Minimizing financial risk, accounting risk and operational risk to drive business performance.
  4. Building appropriate tax, accounting and compliance systems for international, cross-border operations.
  5. Conducting sophisticated transactions including acquisitions, exits, mergers and restructurings.
  6. Implement effective platforms to secure information, enhance compliance and reduce risk.


TELECOMMUNICATIONS





Today’s telecommunications services companies exist in an extremely competitive and increasingly challenging business environment. The prevalence of transformative new technologies and services, shifting mobility trends and evolving customer preferences are changing the game and raising the bar for expectations and performance.



How we can help?



We offer a forward looking portfolio of Audit, Tax, Risk, Financial and Strategic Advisory services provided by a national team of skilled industry professionals. We are positioned to help our clients anticipate and exceed the customer and shareholder's evolving expectations, while more quickly adapting to business environment and regulatory changes. We have extensive experience servicing the entire cross section of Telecom, Cable, Mobility and Cloud Services companies in USA and around the world. We help our clients take advantage of new revenue opportunities, improve their internal efficiencies and minimize risk.


Telecom clients work with us to help achieve a range of objectives including:

  1. Decreasing expenses, boosting internal operational efficiencies and leveraging revenue opportunities
  2. Adapting to new accounting standards, tax changes, technology and regulatory changes
  3. Decreasing accounting, IT and security risks
  4. Improving governance, transparency, reporting and transaction processes
  5. Improving customer care, acquisitions, retention and leveraging data and analytics


FUTURE OF TELCO





Today’s market conditions are creating challenging times for telco players. Even though consumer revenue has been historically high, margins are being squeezed because of the massive infrastructure investment telcos made in 5G to meet the COVID-19 spike in broadband demand and anticipated explosion in demand driven by various 5G use cases.

Competition has been heating up from both traditional and non-traditional players. Customer expectations and the market have been shifting. And a looming recession and regulatory pressures have been creating uncertainty.

This report describes four future telecoms business models that are currently emerging around the world. It identifies some of the key capabilities that professionals believe are required to succeed in each model.

And it offers practical steps to help today’s telecoms leaders envision — and create — the future.



Signals of change



While change is constant in the telco business, the factors driving change are constantly shifting. This report identifies and drills down into some of the most significant market factors that should currently be on telco leaders’ minds.

  1. Traditional business models are being challenged
  2. Escalating customer expectations
  3. Hyper-competitive hyperscalers
  4. A possible global recession
  5. Technology can create new opportunities — and threats
  6. Fulfilling the ESG agenda
  7. Telcos likely can’t avoid stricter regulations indefinitely

As the signals of change put pressure on traditional telco business models, there are various strategic imperatives emerging related to each one.





Connected Enterprise

SS Connected Enterprise is a customer-centric, tailored-by-sector approach to digital transformation. It transforms the way that you transform, helping you to focus your enterprise, operations and technology development on meeting customer, employee and stakeholder expectations, creating business value, and driving sustainable growth.


Telcos can benefit from adopting a set of fundamental capabilities to support the connected enterprise. These capabilities can help telcos define a customer-centric approach to digital transformation that connects the front, middle and back offices.


Enhancing these capabilities will help ensure that every process, function, and relationship of the organization is focused on meeting customer expectations, creating business value and driving sustainable growth.



TELCOS AND DECARBONIZATION





The next big challenge for telcos



Decarbonization represents a significant challenge for telcos, given the significant energy requirements to maintain existing network infrastructure and to continue expanding and developing technologies for next-generation networks.

But it also represents a significant opportunity to meet growing consumer expectations around sustainability, enable operational cost reductions, become a good corporate citizen and potentially benefit from green financing mechanisms that open the doors to more access to capital. Leading global telcos have made big, bold commitments and set targets to decarbonize.


Fleet electrification, as well as procuring green energy, will be vital, particularly in a 5G world. But decarbonization also involves a completely different approach to business, including circular economic models and sustainable value chains. When we think about the broader upstream and downstream carbon emissions, the types of decarbonization initiatives required are significantly more complex but are equally as important as they often represent the majority of a telco’s carbon footprint.


Finding the right decarbonization strategy is key to achieving broader climate change commitments, including net zero. But there is no silver bullet — telcos will need to consider their network asset management strategies, electrification initiatives and digitisation opportunities, in addition to external procurement of low-carbon and renewable energy sources.



Upgrading to 5G will require more energy



The rapid pace of technological change in the telecommunications industry will continue as the largest players roll out 5G networks through 2027.

5G is already being rolled out in certain regions, with download speeds that are 205 per cent faster than 4G.

Although many Telcos have designed their 5G networks to be more energy efficient, densification and the increase in data traffic is expected to consume more energy compared to previous generations.

Despite this, 5G and hyper-connectivity are set to be the key that unlocks the inherent potential in technologies such as Big Data, the Internet of Things, future mobility and autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality.

These and other emerging technologies will aid large scale organizations in enterprise architectural enhancements, cost optimization, enhanced security, and machine learning capability.

While the societal and digital transformation benefits are clear, there is a need to balance these advancements with sustainability initiatives.





The good news is that some global telcos have committed to deploying energy-efficient 5G networks that depend on renewable energy sources to decrease fossil fuel-based electricity generation.

Further, network virtualization, Open Radio Access Network and investment in machine learning and AI present major opportunities to drive efficiency in network energy consumption.

There’s also an opportunity for the industry to get in on the ground floor and enter into power purchase agreements (PPAs) or virtual power purchase agreements (VPPAs) with utility providers to secure renewable electricity and potentially realize attractive financial returns depending on market energy prices.

European telcos are also exploring next-gen solutions to aggressively combat 5G’s energy footprint.

This includes implementing sustainability or low-carbon requirements for suppliers, considering new modes of self-energy generation like micro-grids and smart-metering, and exploring the use of AI algorithms to predict and adjust energy consumption.



THE DATA IMPERATIVE





During much of COVID-19, the priority for many organizations was survival.

To continue to serve customers, digital transformation efforts needed to accelerate.

Because of this, we hypothesized that focusing on digital transformation and data equally simply was not possible for most.

To better understand the data landscape in TMT, SS in collaboration with HFS Research analyzed survey results from more than 300 TMT executives in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.



What this study shows is that TMT companies are underutilizing their data resources:



  1. Only 32 percent fully utilize their customer data.
  2. Fewer than 10 percent rate their organizations’ level of maturity as world class for data monetization, data management and architecture, and data quality and governance.
  3. 75 percent believe that using enterprise data effectively can radically change their business models.

The bottom line: TMT companies must start treating data strategy as a foundational enterprise capability



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