The Missed Opportunity – Telecoms service providers are failing to address the nanobusiness sector
March 3, 2020
Omnisperience, the leading provider of B2B service provider industry insights and market strategies, has released a new Green Paper outlining the emerging opportunity for B2B telecoms service providers and IT companies (ICT companies) in the form of a new type of business. Omnisperience argues that this new hidden sector of the business market is a huge opportunity for ICT firms seeking to find new sources of revenue from 5G and FTTP investments, but say it is currently being overlooked.
Introducing the nanobusiness
The market for telecoms and IT business services is traditionally divided into large enterprise, SME and microbusiness segments, but over the last few years the digital capabilities provided by these self-same companies has resulted in the emergence of a new type of business, which is smaller than any of these, and which Omnisperience have termed the ‘nanobusiness’.
“Omnisperience defines a nanobusiness as a business that employs less than one full time member of staff. It encompasses businesses that sell goods, creativity, services, labour or influence, as well as those that allow the commercial sharing of something that the person already owns.”
The Gig economy and Sharing economy are part of the new category, but nanobusinesses are more than just selling labour or services on digital on-demand platforms. The category incorporates selling physical goods, creative products and even influence. It includes the grey area of work and play where hobbies are being monetised for financial gain – as the term ‘user generated content’ (UGC) is stretched out of shape by part-time, semi-professional or amateur creators monetising content.
The nanobusiness opportunity for ICT companies
The nanobusiness sector is an important one for ICT companies because people working in it rely on their mobile devices as essential tools to sell their labour, goods and services, and to connect with customers. They also need a host of other ICT services to enable them to create, deliver their services and run their businesses.
On the flip side of this opportunity, bigger businesses that want to utilise the services of nanobusinesses require communications, collaboration and cloud-based solutions to acquire and manage the skills they need, distribute work, and organise workers from anywhere in the world.
“The nanobusiness economy is breaking down the barriers between work and play, is liberating labour and services from location, and is driving new forms of flexible working that allow workers to work when it suits them – opening up new pools of workers who previously found it hard to work in a more formal environment,” says Omnisperience Chief Analyst Teresa Cottam, author of the Green Paper ‘Nanobusinesses – A New Business Category’. “Increasingly, this not only means students and parents balancing childcare, but the Grey Workforce that wants to continue working beyond retirement age – albeit not necessarily full time.”