Business Intelligence

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Editor’s Note
Welcome! OCTOBER 2008 ISSUE
Contents
When evaluating a business, the most
important thing that you naturally look into
is the rate of return. This is the figure that
determines how profitable an investment could
be. It is the measure from which you decide
how to invest your money; moreover, what Telecom Industry to Boost Sales
to do with the profits. A careful look into this with Business Intelligence P3
figure is crucial for any firm, especially those in
the telecom industry, who rely mainly on long term profitability
to survive. IRACIS - A Roadmap to Business
Any Telecommunication company worth its salt ensures that Intelligence ROI P5
it is generating enough revenue through the use of robust
network monitoring practices. Efficient network monitoring,
coupled with the knowledge of Business Intelligence principles TEOCO Brings Powerful Network
is essential to propel a company to thrive in today’s competitive Cost Management, Revenue... P7
industry.
To that end, this issue of NBI Magazine features two articles that Brazil’s Leading Telecom Builds
tackle various factors behind increasing revenue. The first article Revenue, Market Share... P8
by Vinod Plakkal discusses the implementation of Business
Intelligence in the telecommunication industry to increase sales.
Jesse Purdue’s article on the other hand, takes an in-depth look An Effective Business Intelligence
at Business Intelligence. Specifically, he presents how one can
quantify Business Intelligence in terms of ROI. Strategy is the Key... P9
We also feature news articles to further illustrate how Business
Intelligence serves as a key factor that contributes greatly to
business success.
We hope that you find this magazine interesting and useful. It is
our clear ambition to enhance and develop the NBI Magazine
in every issue. We sincerely hope that you, our readers, can
contribute to our growth.
If you would like to submit an article, or if you have topics that
you would like us to focus on, please let us know by mailing us
at feedback@nbi-magazine.com. Associate Publisher - Jonnadeth Mesa
Editor In Chief - Mark Olanday
Art Director - John Joseph Quirante
Mark Anthony Olanday
NBI Magazine Editor One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza,
mark.olanday@nbi-magazine.com 885 Second Avenue, 18th Floor,
New York, N.Y. 10017-2201, USA
Email: feedback@nbi-magazine.com
www.nbi-magazine.com
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Telecom Industry to Boost Sales
with Business Intelligence
by Vinod Plakkal
Telecom industries Any business can be successful
only if the sales end is strong.
possible? Some of the focus
areas are:
are facing huge The same principle could also be
applied for the telecom industry 1. Providing strong marketing
most especially with telecom support:
challenges of ever service providers. Business To give a good marketing support
Intelligence plays a large role it is necessary to understand
changing market in telecom service providers
especially in making profit because
the market well. Having a good
strategy is the foundation for
conditions. it deals with large amount of
customer data. Hence getting this
a strong marketing. Two basic
strategies, which can be pursued,
customer data in a useful format is are:
They therefore need information “Business Intelligence”.
to anticipate these changes and General strategy:
quickly make smart decisions. As mentioned previously, in any Companies usually come up with
Decision-making in the telecom business to be successful, sales products that are quite generic.
industry today demands high- plays a very prominent role and Advertising plays a major role
quality intelligence. This is where should be supported by strong in selling these products. Even
Business Intelligence (BI) solutions marketing practices. Well next though this has been a common
play the critical role. question would be how is this practice, profit margins from
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these products are quite low the product pricing (tariff plans) will help customers to view and
because the specific needs of the becomes efficient. analyze easily their own bills.
customers are not met. • Advertising plans - advertising Business Intelligence also helps
plays major role because major in giving valued-added services
Customer strategy: money is involved in this. Thus to get more customer satisfaction
Basically understanding the channeling advertising according thus improving business.
customer needs and tailoring to to customers is very important.
their individual needs are part of Advertising conveys the right
business strategy. Thus Business
Intelligence plays a major role
message to the right customer and
can be achieved by profiling the
Building customer
in analyzing the customers that customer’s data and checking their retention models
optimize profits by nurturing value behavior patterns. This can bring
Customer retention is one of the
added customer relationships. more profit on the company.
major challenges faced in any
industry. Retaining a customer
Strong customer relationships are 2. Sales Analysis: is always cheaper than getting
attained by customer centricity. Analysis can be in terms of a new customer in case of any
Customers drive the business and customers, performance, revenue, business. Business Intelligence
it is very important to understand volume, and margin. This can helps in building certain
the following: be viewed in terms of reports or customer retention models by
charts and competitive planning basically looking at customer
• Customers’ requirements that can be developed. By this data and their call behaviors.
• Customers’ expectations analysis any strategic decision
A well-designed customer
• Customers’ changing behavior taken by management will be
retention model can reduce
pattern based on proof and not by just customer churn to a greater
guessing and can also predict the extent. The positive impact
By understanding the above points performance of the company for of this is in customer loyalty
it is possible to build a strong the next quarter or so. Business that delivers a large increase
customer strategy model. This Intelligence capabilities are in profitability. Business
customer strategy model directly illustrated below to improve Intelligence can also identify
influences the following: customer loyalty services: the behavior of customer data,
therefore helping the company
• Product pricing / tariff plans Fraud control - with Business to determine which customers
are likely to leave and take the
- product pricing plays a key Intelligence it is possible to
appropriate action in advance.
role in pushing business, by track the call pattern and its
understanding the customers it is abnormalities, call duration, etc. On a conclusion, we can say
possible to categorize them into Timely intervention can reduce the that if Business Intelligence is
different groups based on their profit loss of the company. properly implemented and used
needs. Pricing can be decided in the telecom industry can help
by striking a balance between Call records - with Business in boosting the profits to greater
customers’ group needs and Intelligence it is possible to extent.
profits of the company. This can view call pattern and possible
also be easily tested with the to understand their call history.
help of Business Intelligence. Thus it becomes easy to get any
Implementation of the model for a records of particular customer or About the Author:
trial period and comparing the sale a group of customer with common Vinod Plakkal
figures is possible to get the profit call fashion. Telecommunication Engineer
margin. Business Intelligence Working as B.I. Analyst
useful information can be provided Billing and other services - with +919951989599
to different departments in Business Intelligence it is possible vinodplakkal@gmail.com
making the right decisions in a to send electronic billing to
short period of time thus analysis customer on related dates without http://www.articlesbase.com
becomes easier and designing any manual intervention. This
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IRACIS - A Roadmap to
Business Intelligence ROI
by Jesse Purdue
So often when companies are Improve Service Intelligence and now with these
considering a Business Intelligence Will this application affect our diverse offerings the small and
project or software purchase, a client base noticeably? Will we mid sized companies are also
question arises that seems to be able to provide more timely taking advantage. However, any
stump everyone involved. and valuable information to Business Intelligence project is
our customers, prospects, and only as good as the planning,
suppliers? effort, and data that go into
“Where is the ROI whatever software platform you
in this project?” Many times in a Business
Intelligence effort, there are
are using. Hence another phrase
often heard in many BI projects,
outcomes that are deemed
This question has stopped many desirable. Things like ad-hoc
a Business Intelligence project in report generation, more informed “...garbage in,
its tracks. Maybe it’s asked by the
CFO or CEO. Maybe it’s brought
operations staff, and less lag time
in financial reporting are nice.
garbage out”
up in one of the meetings with a
vendor or consultant presenting
a solution. The sad truth is if you B.I. is all about putting By using the I.R.A.C.I.S. model to
quantify the value of the solution
can not answer this question with
hard numbers in specific areas, the right information to the company, you provide
everyone with a clear roadmap
the ROI probably isn’t there.
into the right hands at to what is deemed a successful
project. From the executive
I.R.A.C.I.S. is a simple acronym
that can be used to quantify a the right time. sponsor at the company, to the
vendor you are working with,
Business Intelligence project’s there is no ambiguity as to what
worth to a company. It stands for But they will not justify the is expected as a final outcome. I
the following: investment in a Business would challenge any company
Intelligence solution from a quality that is considering a Business
Increase Revenue software vendor without direct and Intelligence project of some sort,
How will this application and secondary benefits quantified in that if you can’t find a solution that
functionality drive more sales to the areas mentioned above. addresses at least one of the three
new or existing customers, shorten areas above, if not all three, that
the sales cycle, and/or bring down Let’s face it, Business Intelligence the project is probably not worth
the cost of sales? solutions are not cheap. There doing at all. And if the solution or
are many scalable solutions software product is incapable of
Avoid Costs on the market today that scaling to address all three areas
By far the area most focused on in range from traditional software in the long run, then it probably
BI project justifications. How will implementations, to SaaS isn’t the best product for you.
this application help us improve (Software as a Service), and This may seem like harsh criteria,
efficiency, put more information in even open source solutions. but in an era where most large
the hands of our business people Large companies have long companies own 3 or 4 separate
and eliminate wasteful processes? embraced the benefits of Business Business Intelligence tools, it’s
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apparent that more critical thinking same coverage over one year, that people, only then can you realize
is needed before a solution or would be a compelling e-mail to your full ROI on the purchase of a
platform is purchased. receive. It would probably motivate Business Intelligence solution.
you to pick up the phone or go to a
Not only is this acronym a good website to instigate further. So the next time a discussion
way to quantify a project’s worth breaks out about a Business
to a company, but it can become This would in turn Improve Service Intelligence project or initiative,
a brainstorming tool for the and Avoid Costs. Being able to think of the I.R.A.C.I.S. model as
types of applications you are present this kind of accurate and a way to discuss and evaluate a
looking to create. Above I noted timely information to a prospective projects worth to your company.
that the Avoid Costs portion customer shows them that you You might be surprised what
of this acronym is by far the have systems in place to save you can come up with when
most focused on for Business them money and provide the best your thinking turns towards
Intelligence projects. Why is that? possible service. It shortens the revenue generation and service
Is Business Intelligence only good sales cycle and the cost of sales, improvement. Just remember,
for eliminating waste and making driving up margin and profitability. after you’re done creating a new
an organization more efficient? It instills confidence in the company line of business or increasing an
Can it not be used to increase from a customer standpoint and existing one, to ask your boss for a
revenue by putting valuable also gets people talking about your commission.
information in front of prospects product or service.
you haven’t been reaching yet? Jesse Purdue - I am a Business
I would argue that some of
In the Information Intelligence professional that works
for Information Builders. We are
the best and most successful
Business Intelligence applications Age we live in, the a firm with a mission to help our
customers better manage their
I know of, focus on the first
category of Increasing Revenue. data and information business through mission critical
integration and the pervasive
Business Intelligence is all about
putting the right information into that companies use of Business Intelligence. I
have been providing Business
have are their most
the right hands at the right time. Intelligence and technology
For some company’s that might solutions for over 7 years and have
be an internal business analyst.
But for so many others it can valuable assets by far. experience with many different
types of solutions. I strive to
be putting information in front of exceed my clients expectations
your customers, prospects, and Getting this information out in by listening to their stated needs
partners to provide new insight a usable format to the correct and providing customized
on a purchasing decision. When audience can be the role of solutions based on their feedback.
companies are selling complex Business Intelligence in any Information Builders provides me
products and services, sometimes company. This should be a goal an excellent opportunity to exceed
you need to track the customer when looking at what Business my clients expectations with their
down where they live. You Intelligence can do for a company. products and professional services.
need to reach out to them with a
compelling message about your Don’t limit yourself to just
product or value proposition and eliminating waste and automating
give them a reason to act on that internal processes. I certainly
information. think projects that focus on
those topics are worthwhile and
If you got an e-mail from a major car valuable to a business. But when
insurance provider, showing your you expand your thinking and
current car insurance provider and remember that using the internet
the estimated rate you are paying, to deliver information in a variety of
and then a graph showing a $700 formats is the most cost effective Source: www.EzineArticles.com
savings in rate comparisons for the way to reach a critical mass of
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LATEST NEWS
offers this solution in terabyte
increments to satisfy cable
providers’ current wireless usage
volumes and to scale over time as
their operations grow.
“Expanding our focus to address
the specific needs of the cable
industry is a natural fit for TEOCO,”
said John Devolites, Vice
President and General Manager
of TEOCO’s Communications and
Entertainment Solutions group.
“As communications carriers and
cable operators team up to drive
next-generation, content-based
services, their invoice automation,
cost management and revenue
TEOCO Brings Powerful Network Cost Management, assurance needs grow more
complex. TEOCO is uniquely
Revenue Assurance and Business Intelligence positioned to support this area of
emerging need, and to likewise
Solutions to the Cable Industry boost operators’ profitability
with our Business Intelligence
TEOCO Corporation, the BillTrak ProTM, ViewLogic, solutions.”
recognized leading provider XTrak and Claim Center – to
of network cost management, aid cable providers in reducing
revenue assurance and additional costs, improving efficiency and
Business Intelligence solutions, achieving regulatory compliance. About TEOCO
announced that it is leveraging In addition, TEOCO will provide
its historical strength in the its robust Business Intelligence Founded in 1994, TEOCO (The
communications market to offer its and analytics solutions, which are Employee Owned Company) is
full suite of products and services the recognized leading provider
built on leading data warehouse
to the cable industry. Today, of network cost management,
appliances and can help operators
revenue assurance and additional
TEOCO provides auditing services address critical issues such as
Business Intelligence solutions to
and software solutions to many customer and product profitability, the global communications and
premier global cable operators, margin management and network entertainment industry. TEOCO
including Charter Communications optimization. incorporates decades of in-depth
(Nasdaq:CHTR) in the U.S. telecom domain and auditing
One TEOCO offering of particular knowledge into our renowned
TEOCO will partner with leading relevance to cable providers software solutions to help
cable operators to implement is TEOCO’s wholesale usage customers achieve measurable
solutions that can fully automate auditing capability, which allows results, gain actionable insights and
end-to-end communications cable companies to load all boost decision-making capabilities.
expense processing from invoice invoice data from their wireless TEOCO’s customers include
receipt, through auditing, claim and wireline partners and utilize three of the five largest global
management and resolution. data warehouse technology to communications providers, all Tier
TEOCO will provide its renowned perform in-depth auditing and 1 U.S. carriers and most major
cost and revenue management high-speed queries to identify North American cable operators.
software applications – including billing anomalies. TEOCO
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LATEST NEWS
management for timely Business
Intelligence, and by sales and
marketing for consolidated
customer and household views
to power marketing campaigns
and fuel up-sell and cross- sell
activities. Customer service also
leverages these up-to-the-minute
consolidated views to respond
quickly and decisively to customer
requests.
Additionally, Oi leverages the
integration of its various disparate
systems to help power competitive
Brazil’s Leading Telecom Builds Revenue, new product and service initiatives,
including bringing advantageous
Market Share and Customer Loyalty with new programs, plans and product
bundles to market faster and
Informatica Business Intelligence Platform supporting them effectively. For
example, when the company
customer loyalty and reduces launched a prepaid service plan
Informatica Corporation (Nasdaq:
churn. But we needed a single called “Oi Controle,” it used
INFA), the leading independent
view of the customer and near PowerCenter to link its CRM,
provider of data integration
real-time updates to our enterprise billing and in-house pre-paid
software and services, today
data warehouse to support these systems. The billing system flags
announced that Oi, the largest
programs,” said Vera Helena customers eligible for a credit
telecommunications company
de Avila Duarte, enterprise IT recharge, the recharge notice is
in Brazil, is successfully using
manager, Oi. “Informatica gave us validated against business rules in
the Informatica data integration
the single platform we needed. It the CRM system, and the notice
platform to simplify its IT
has also given us agility so we can is sent over the pre- paid system
infrastructure and help increase
continue to lead in our market.” to enable recharge for voice and
revenue, market share and
data services. Consequently, Oi
customer loyalty. Created from the
“Oi” is Portuguese for “Hi,” and Controle customers are able to
consolidation of 16 state state-
the company’s tagline is “Oi, recharge their credits on schedule
run utilities into a single private
as simple as that.” Seeking to while the company has been able
entity in 1998, the US$14.5 billion
maximize business agility and to respond to the ramping demand
company leverages the Informatica
competitiveness, Oi implemented for recharging, thus helping to
platform to enable the right-time
the Informatica platform to drive the on-going success of the
Business Intelligence and single
simplify the consolidation and Oi Controle program.
views of customers that drive its
highly competitive program and management of data across its
service plan offerings, targeted numerous predecessor companies
marketing and sales activities, and and multiple incompatible systems,
exemplary customer service. including information on more
than 36 million customers. The
“Our competitive advantage is the Informatica PowerCenter platform
ability to mix bundles, combining now provides the underpinnings
wire line, wireless, broadband, for Oi’s right-time enterprise
and television; this increases data warehouse, leveraged by
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Robust, scalable infrastructure
An Effective Business
About Oi
Informatica has also provided Oi
with a robust, scalable infrastructure
Intelligence Strategy
to help sustain its business
Headquartered in Rio de
Janeiro, Oi is the largest is the Key to Business
agility and growth. For example,
the PowerCenter Pushdown
telecommunications company
in Brazil with annual revenues Success, Says IDC
Optimization option has enabled Oi of USD 14.5 billion, more than
to take advantage of the processing 36 million customers, and about A new report from analyst group
power of its Teradata data 10,000 employees. IDC reinforces that a key factor
warehouse platform when running contributing to the performance of
data integration and loading routines. organisations is the ability to manage
This has allowed Oi to accelerate the explosive growth of information.
its warehousing loading process
by a factor of 2x, which in turn has About Informatica The report titled, ITEyewitness:
resulted in faster answers to sales Keys to a Successful Business
and marketing queries and more Informatica Corporation Intelligence Strategy shows
rapid updates to customer views. (Nasdaq: INFA) is the leading that the creation of a Business
Similarly, Oi is taking advantage independent provider of Intelligence Competency Centre
enterprise data integration
of Informatica’s Enterprise Grid (BICC) is the strategic answer
software and services. With
option to help optimize both the to enterprise-wide information
Informatica, organizations
performance and scalability of its overload. A BICC is the centre
can gain greater business
data integration environment. value by integrating all their within an organisation that
information assets from across provides guidance and vision to
Oi is also using Informatica the enterprise. More than 3,300 the enterprise as it deploys BI
PowerExchange data access companies worldwide rely solutions and creates BI success.
software to source difficult- on Informatica to reduce the “Today’s markets are faster
to-access mainframe data for cost and expedite the time to moving, more diverse and more
subsequent integration with other address data integration needs competitive than ever before. Data
enterprise data. of varying complexity and scale. generation continues to skyrocket
For more information, call +1 on a daily basis fuelled by new
“Oi’s impressive post-merger 650 385 5000 (1 800 653 9871 technology innovations such as
growth underscores the value of in the U.S.), or visit http://www. RFID chips, nanotechnology, grid
the Informatica platform in making informatica.com. computing and video streaming,”
complex environments appear said Melissa Martin, Senior Market
simple to internal data users and, Analyst, IT Spending and Vertical
ultimately, to customers,” said Informatica, PowerCenter and Markets, IDC.
Girish Pancha, general manager, PowerExchange are registered
Enterprise Data Integration, trademarks of Informatica Corporation “One of the key factors that
Informatica. “Encapsulating the in the United States and in contribute to the successful
jurisdictions throughout the world. All
former operations of well over a performance of organisation is the
other company and product names
dozen separate enterprises, Oi may be trade names or trademarks of
ability to manage this explosive
now presents a single, responsive their respective owners. growth of information that society
face to customers across South is experiencing. The enterprise
America’s largest economy -- a must empower all stakeholders
unified image anchored in the with the right information and at
ability to integrate and deliver the right time. A clearly defined,
comprehensive, accurate data in purpose-built Business Intelligence
right time across a widely divergent Source: Informatica Corporation strategy can support this business
spectrum of information sources.” need,” concludes Martin.
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The report provides guidance ITEyewitness: Keys to a
on how to establish a vision for Successful Business Intelligence
an enterprise-wide Business Strategy also contains a buyer About IDC
Intelligence strategy. It highlights case study of the evaluation,
IDC is the premier global
the key issues for leaders to design, architecture and
provider of market intelligence,
consider before embarking on a BI implementation of an in-house
advisory services, and events
implementation, including steps on BICC at utility provider, Sydney for the information technology,
establishing a successful BICC. Water. It highlights key milestones telecommunications, and
achieved during the process and consumer technology markets.
develops an in-depth roadmap for IDC helps IT professionals,
IDC research shows the the project. The study evaluates business executives, and
benefits of a successful BICC the results and the benefits for the investment community
are numerous and can include: the utility provider to-date, and make fact-based decisions
provides a forward-looking vision on technology purchases and
• Increased usage of data / for future expansions of its BI business strategy. More than
Business Intelligence capabilities. 1000 IDC analysts provide
global, regional, and local
• Increased collaboration among On IDC’s website, www.idc. expertise on technology and
business units com, this media release relates industry opportunities and
to document #AZ616101Q trends covering over 110
• Increased business user ITEyewitness: Keys to a countries worldwide. For
satisfaction Successful Business Intelligence more than 44 years, IDC has
Strategy. provided strategic insights to
• Increased decision making help our clients achieve their
This report is now available. To key business objectives. IDC is
capabilities and speed
purchase this report, please contact a subsidiary of IDG, the world’s
Lady Gueco, Business Development leading technology media,
• Increased information analysis
Manager on +61 2 9925 2261 or research, and events company.
and business agility You can learn more about IDC
lgueco@idc.com.
by visiting www.idc.com or www.
• Increased standardisation of idc.com.au.
business practices and processes
• Increased level of data quality
• Forum for repeatable results
• Decreased staff time wastage
looking for information
• Decreased software costs
• Decreased risk of project failures
• Better understanding of the value
that BI brings to the organisation
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