Big Bucks from Big data and Business Intelligence

The starting point of the process of business intelligence should definitely be a drill down into stored data, to cultivate insights on customer experiences. IT and business have a point of collaboration right there, so BI, Big data is a happy point of confluence of IT and business. And yes, it also makes the CIO/CTO, a business accountable role, says Ashish Pachory, CIO, Tata Teleservices Ltd.

1. Business intelligence is not an adoption, it is a process. What do you think should be the starting point of this process?

  Across the globe, brands are beginning to understand the true value of delivering personalized goods and services to a discerning customer base.

Millennial consumers are driving this trend towards personalization. It is business intelligence, backed by big data analytics, which helps brands tap into the very pulse of the customer and tailor solutions accordingly. To leverage these business insights, companies need to streamline the collection and processing of both structured and unstructured data. One must begin with the customer in mind. Hence the cultivation of an ability to drill down into the data storage to derive insights on customer experiences, behavior and preferences should be the starting point of this process.

2. Big data can actually drive an entire marketing strategy to fruition (achievement of the objective). What role do you think CIOs play in this?

 CMO and CIO are now increasingly working as a team, with the marketing function creating demand and the technology team working towards fulfilling it.  The role of CIOs is growing in decision making relating to the collection and analysis of big data, as it becomes particularly compelling for brands operating in highly competitive markets to leverage insights driven by customer data.

3. Do you feel increasingly that marketing and IT teams are overlapping in every organization?

 Definitely, Business leaders across segments are increasingly recognizing the need for stronger partnerships and collaborations between the marketing and technology functions. With the emergence of Big Data and Advanced Analytics, this alliance is further cemented as teams align on a set of shared strategic priorities.

4. By the same argument, do you feel the CIO role is becoming more about business and less about technology?

  Yes. The CIO’s role has changed in my view from being a custodian of IT resources to a driver of business value. The CIO’s role is no longer centered on technology, project execution and cost management but is increasingly about people, partnerships and business enablement. Both marketing and technology can directly impact customer experience, loyalty and thus revenues. For example, in the telecom world, while marketing creates and runs innovative campaigns, the CIO needs to map customers’ behavior against hundreds of different criteria ranging from handset type and data usage, to re-charge preferences and roaming activation. This data is analyzed to enable the marketing team to reach out to customers and launch more targeted campaigns centered on the customers’ preferences.

5. Do you see any flip side to the infestation of social media in enterprise?

  Social Media has been a disruptive trend not just among communities but increasingly in enterprises as well. It was once popular to say that the voice of one disgruntled customer reaches 10 others. Social Media can make it ten million others. The wealth of information availability, the unlimited reach, and the ease of use make social media a compelling business tool, which some telecom service providers are very effectively using to stay connected with their customers. Coupled with analytics, social media is perhaps the most potent tool for business to gauge customer sentiment about their products and services and initiate timely action.

While harnessing social media provides a greater reach for the marketers to their target audience, if not used properly social media might have the following adverse effect on business:

• Risk to data privacy and security, especially leakage of company information
• Unbridled false propaganda by disgruntled stakeholders, including employees
• Increased info-chatter may become a further drain on the organization’s network resources though with abundance of bandwidth this may be a passing problem.

6. Most organizations think of cloud as the next best thing. Do you agree?

  Cloud computing has emerged from the folds of experimentation to becoming a real-world business enabler. For telecom service providers, cloud is a critical enabler in their transformation to next-generation telecom companies. It is cloud that makes services, and not devices and connectivity, the true differentiator. Cloud is also an important element in the strategy of service providers to provide a collaboration platform for interworking with over-the-top players. So yes, I agree with the assertion.

7. BI/ analytics on the cloud are fast becoming commonplace. Do you see any risks in it?

  Data privacy is seen as a major concern for cloud computing. Ensuring a proper bifurcation of networks and adding appropriate security parameters is extremely essential for establishing a secured cloud platform. Most often, enterprises perceive risks due to the multi-tenancy aspect of public cloud computing.  While there could still be some reservations about moving entire data warehouses to a public cloud, a gradual or phased approach is a safe route and enterprises are increasingly walking this path.

8. What is the strategy that Tata Teleservices is adopting in order to leverage the enormous advantage big data and its tools provide to business?

At present, there is a growing mandate across the Tata Group of companies to effectively use big data solutions to solve business problems and Tata Teleservices (TTSL) is a key participant in this journey. TTSL has been one of the early movers in the usage of big data solutions in India, which has resulted in very efficient solutions that also deliver information in a timely manner.

While the previous generation was happy to consume any content or offering by a brand, the millennial generation wants brands to hear their voices and incorporate their opinions before creating anything for them. Keeping this insight in mind, we place solid emphasis on end-to-end customer experience management. Big data helps to analyze individual customer requirements and use the insights to enable personalized delivery of service. This is achieved through a responsive customer service organization and a dynamic information technology eco-system.

9. Where do you see analytics three years from now? Statistics yes, but functionally where do you see it going?

 Indian companies are at different levels of data maturity — some companies are struggling to visualize their data while others are using predictive models and real-time analytics to drive decisions. Agile analytics and campaign management tools used by new generation analytics companies have made the technology affordable for Indian companies, strengthening the promise of greater big data integration by businesses in the future. The Indian government too is recognizing the value of big data insights when it comes to issues like national security and public safety. Big data analytics deployment can help better map India’s landscape and uncover complex patterns of connections between people, places and events. Aside from the promise of being able to pluck out insights for companies, big data is also betting it can solve some of society’s most serious issues such as crime, cancer and conflicts.