Nbi Magazine Issue3

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Your Official Network Business Intelligence MagazineNBI Your Official Network Business Intelligence Magazine NBI

Welcome!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 to do with the profits. A careful look into this figure is crucial for any firm, especially those in

the telecom industry, who rely mainly on long term profitability to survive.

Any Telecommunication company worth its salt ensures that it is generating enough revenue through the use of robust network monitoring practices. Efficient network monitoring, coupled with the knowledge of Business Intelligence principles is essential to propel a company to thrive in today’s competitive industry.

To that end, this issue of NBI Magazine features two articles that tackle various factors behind increasing revenue. The first article 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 at Business Intelligence. Specifically, he presents how one can quantify Business Intelligence in terms of ROI.

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 [email protected].

Mark Anthony OlandayNBI Magazine [email protected]

Editor’s Note

Associate Publisher - Jonnadeth MesaEditor In Chief - Mark OlandayArt Director - John Joseph Quirante

OCTOBER 2008 ISSUE

ContentsTelecom Industry to Boost Sales with Business Intelligence P3 IRACIS - A Roadmap to Business Intelligence ROI P5

TEOCO Brings Powerful Network Cost Management, Revenue... P7

Brazil’s Leading Telecom Builds Revenue, Market Share... P8

An Effective Business Intelligence Strategy is the Key... P9

One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza,885 Second Avenue, 18th Floor,New York, N.Y. 10017-2201, USAEmail: [email protected]

Your Official Network Business Intelligence MagazineNBI

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Your Official Network Business Intelligence Magazine NBI

Telecom industries are facing huge challenges of ever changing market conditions. They therefore need information to anticipate these changes and quickly make smart decisions. Decision-making in the telecom industry today demands high-quality intelligence. This is where Business Intelligence (BI) solutions play the critical role.

Any business can be successful only if the sales end is strong. The same principle could also be applied for the telecom industry most especially with telecom service providers. Business Intelligence plays a large role in telecom service providers especially in making profit because it deals with large amount of customer data. Hence getting this customer data in a useful format is “Business Intelligence”.

As mentioned previously, in any business to be successful, sales plays a very prominent role and should be supported by strong marketing practices. Well next question would be how is this

possible? Some of the focus areas are:

1. Providing strong marketing support: To give a good marketing support it is necessary to understand the market well. Having a good strategy is the foundation for a strong marketing. Two basic strategies, which can be pursued, are:

General strategy: Companies usually come up with products that are quite generic. Advertising plays a major role in selling these products. Even though this has been a common practice, profit margins from

Telecom Industry to Boost Sales with Business Intelligenceby Vinod Plakkal

Telecom Industry to Boost Sales with Business Intelligence

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Your Official Network Business Intelligence MagazineNBI Your Official Network Business Intelligence Magazine NBIthese products are quite low because the specific needs of the customers are not met.

Customer strategy: Basically understanding the customer needs and tailoring to their individual needs are part of business strategy. Thus Business Intelligence plays a major role in analyzing the customers that optimize profits by nurturing value added customer relationships.

Strong customer relationships are attained by customer centricity. Customers drive the business and it is very important to understand the following:

• Customers’ requirements • Customers’ expectations • Customers’ changing behavior pattern

By understanding the above points it is possible to build a strong customer strategy model. This customer strategy model directly influences the following:

• Product pricing / tariff plans - product pricing plays a key role in pushing business, by understanding the customers it is possible to categorize them into different groups based on their needs. Pricing can be decided by striking a balance between customers’ group needs and profits of the company. This can also be easily tested with the help of Business Intelligence. Implementation of the model for a trial period and comparing the sale figures is possible to get the profit margin. Business Intelligence useful information can be provided to different departments in making the right decisions in a short period of time thus analysis becomes easier and designing

the product pricing (tariff plans) becomes efficient. • Advertising plans - advertising plays major role because major money is involved in this. Thus channeling advertising according to customers is very important. Advertising conveys the right message to the right customer and can be achieved by profiling the customer’s data and checking their behavior patterns. This can bring more profit on the company.

2. Sales Analysis:Analysis can be in terms of customers, performance, revenue, volume, and margin. This can be viewed in terms of reports or charts and competitive planning that can be developed. By this analysis any strategic decision taken by management will be based on proof and not by just guessing and can also predict the performance of the company for the next quarter or so. Business Intelligence capabilities are illustrated below to improve customer loyalty services:

Fraud control - with Business Intelligence it is possible to track the call pattern and its abnormalities, call duration, etc. Timely intervention can reduce the profit loss of the company. Call records - with Business Intelligence it is possible to view call pattern and possible to understand their call history. Thus it becomes easy to get any records of particular customer or a group of customer with common call fashion.

Billing and other services - with Business Intelligence it is possible to send electronic billing to customer on related dates without any manual intervention. This

will help customers to view and analyze easily their own bills. Business Intelligence also helps in giving valued-added services to get more customer satisfaction thus improving business.

About the Author:Vinod Plakkal Telecommunication Engineer Working as B.I. Analyst +919951989599 [email protected]

http://www.articlesbase.com

Building customer retention modelsCustomer retention is one of the major challenges faced in any industry. Retaining a customer is always cheaper than getting a new customer in case of any business. Business Intelligence helps in building certain customer retention models by basically looking at customer data and their call behaviors.

A well-designed customer retention model can reduce customer churn to a greater extent. The positive impact of this is in customer loyalty that delivers a large increase in profitability. Business Intelligence can also identify the behavior of customer data, therefore helping the company to determine which customers are likely to leave and take the appropriate action in advance.

On a conclusion, we can say that if Business Intelligence is properly implemented and used in the telecom industry can help in boosting the profits to greater extent.

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About the Author:Vinod Plakkal Telecommunication Engineer Working as B.I. Analyst +919951989599 [email protected]

http://www.articlesbase.com

IRACIS - A Roadmap toBusiness Intelligence ROIby Jesse Purdue

B.I. is all about putting the right information into the right hands at the right time.

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So often when companies are considering a Business Intelligence project or software purchase, a question arises that seems to stump everyone involved.

This question has stopped many a Business Intelligence project in its tracks. Maybe it’s asked by the CFO or CEO. Maybe it’s brought up in one of the meetings with a vendor or consultant presenting a solution. The sad truth is if you can not answer this question with hard numbers in specific areas, the ROI probably isn’t there.

I.R.A.C.I.S. is a simple acronym that can be used to quantify a Business Intelligence project’s worth to a company. It stands for the following:

Increase RevenueHow will this application and functionality drive more sales to new or existing customers, shorten the sales cycle, and/or bring down the cost of sales?

Avoid Costs By far the area most focused on in BI project justifications. How will this application help us improve efficiency, put more information in the hands of our business people and eliminate wasteful processes?

Improve Service Will this application affect our client base noticeably? Will we be able to provide more timely and valuable information to our customers, prospects, and suppliers?

Many times in a Business Intelligence effort, there are outcomes that are deemed desirable. Things like ad-hoc report generation, more informed operations staff, and less lag time in financial reporting are nice.

But they will not justify the investment in a Business Intelligence solution from a quality software vendor without direct and secondary benefits quantified in the areas mentioned above.

Let’s face it, Business Intelligence solutions are not cheap. There are many scalable solutions on the market today that range from traditional software implementations, to SaaS (Software as a Service), and even open source solutions. Large companies have long embraced the benefits of Business

Intelligence and now with these diverse offerings the small and mid sized companies are also taking advantage. However, any Business Intelligence project is only as good as the planning, effort, and data that go into whatever software platform you are using. Hence another phrase often heard in many BI projects,

By using the I.R.A.C.I.S. model to quantify the value of the solution to the company, you provide everyone with a clear roadmap to what is deemed a successful project. From the executive sponsor at the company, to the vendor you are working with, there is no ambiguity as to what is expected as a final outcome. I would challenge any company that is considering a Business Intelligence project of some sort, that if you can’t find a solution that addresses at least one of the three areas above, if not all three, that the project is probably not worth doing at all. And if the solution or software product is incapable of scaling to address all three areas in the long run, then it probably isn’t the best product for you. This may seem like harsh criteria, but in an era where most large companies own 3 or 4 separate Business Intelligence tools, it’s

“Where is the ROI in this project?”

“...garbage in, garbage out”

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In the Information Age we live in, the data and information that companies have are their most valuable assets by far.

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same coverage over one year, that would be a compelling e-mail to receive. It would probably motivate you to pick up the phone or go to a website to instigate further.

This would in turn Improve Service and Avoid Costs. Being able to present this kind of accurate and timely information to a prospective customer shows them that you have systems in place to save them money and provide the best possible service. It shortens the sales cycle and the cost of sales, driving up margin and profitability. It instills confidence in the company from a customer standpoint and also gets people talking about your product or service.

Getting this information out in a usable format to the correct audience can be the role of Business Intelligence in any company. This should be a goal when looking at what Business Intelligence can do for a company.

Don’t limit yourself to just eliminating waste and automating internal processes. I certainly think projects that focus on those topics are worthwhile and valuable to a business. But when you expand your thinking and remember that using the internet to deliver information in a variety of formats is the most cost effective way to reach a critical mass of

apparent that more critical thinking is needed before a solution or platform is purchased.

Not only is this acronym a good way to quantify a project’s worth to a company, but it can become a brainstorming tool for the types of applications you are looking to create. Above I noted that the Avoid Costs portion of this acronym is by far the most focused on for Business Intelligence projects. Why is that? Is Business Intelligence only good for eliminating waste and making an organization more efficient? Can it not be used to increase revenue by putting valuable information in front of prospects you haven’t been reaching yet?

I would argue that some of the best and most successful Business Intelligence applications I know of, focus on the first category of Increasing Revenue. Business Intelligence is all about putting the right information into the right hands at the right time. For some company’s that might be an internal business analyst. But for so many others it can be putting information in front of your customers, prospects, and partners to provide new insight on a purchasing decision. When companies are selling complex products and services, sometimes you need to track the customer down where they live. You need to reach out to them with a compelling message about your product or value proposition and give them a reason to act on that information.

If you got an e-mail from a major car insurance provider, showing your current car insurance provider and the estimated rate you are paying, and then a graph showing a $700 savings in rate comparisons for the

people, only then can you realize your full ROI on the purchase of a Business Intelligence solution.

So the next time a discussion breaks out about a Business Intelligence project or initiative, think of the I.R.A.C.I.S. model as a way to discuss and evaluate a projects worth to your company. You might be surprised what you can come up with when your thinking turns towards revenue generation and service improvement. Just remember, after you’re done creating a new line of business or increasing an existing one, to ask your boss for a commission.

Jesse Purdue - I am a Business Intelligence professional that works for Information Builders. We are a firm with a mission to help our customers better manage their business through mission critical integration and the pervasive use of Business Intelligence. I have been providing Business Intelligence and technology solutions for over 7 years and have experience with many different types of solutions. I strive to exceed my clients expectations by listening to their stated needs and providing customized solutions based on their feedback. Information Builders provides me an excellent opportunity to exceed my clients expectations with their products and professional services.

Source: www.EzineArticles.com


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TEOCO Corporation, the recognized leading provider of network cost management, revenue assurance and additional Business Intelligence solutions, announced that it is leveraging its historical strength in the communications market to offer its full suite of products and services to the cable industry. Today, TEOCO provides auditing services and software solutions to many premier global cable operators, including Charter Communications (Nasdaq:CHTR) in the U.S.

TEOCO will partner with leading cable operators to implement solutions that can fully automate end-to-end communications expense processing from invoice receipt, through auditing, claim management and resolution. TEOCO will provide its renowned cost and revenue management software applications – including

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BillTrak ProTM, ViewLogic, XTrak and Claim Center – to aid cable providers in reducing costs, improving efficiency and achieving regulatory compliance. In addition, TEOCO will provide its robust Business Intelligence and analytics solutions, which are built on leading data warehouse appliances and can help operators address critical issues such as customer and product profitability, margin management and network optimization.

One TEOCO offering of particular relevance to cable providers is TEOCO’s wholesale usage auditing capability, which allows cable companies to load all invoice data from their wireless and wireline partners and utilize data warehouse technology to perform in-depth auditing and high-speed queries to identify billing anomalies. TEOCO

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 assurance needs grow more complex. TEOCO is uniquely positioned to support this area of emerging need, and to likewise boost operators’ profitability with our Business Intelligence solutions.”

About TEOCOFounded in 1994, TEOCO (The Employee Owned Company) is the recognized leading provider of network cost management, revenue assurance and additional Business Intelligence solutions to the global communications and entertainment industry. TEOCO incorporates decades of in-depth telecom domain and auditing knowledge into our renowned software solutions to help customers achieve measurable results, gain actionable insights and boost decision-making capabilities. TEOCO’s customers include three of the five largest global communications providers, all Tier 1 U.S. carriers and most major North American cable operators.

TEOCO Brings Powerful Network Cost Management, Revenue Assurance and Business Intelligence Solutions to the Cable Industry

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Informatica Corporation (Nasdaq: INFA), the leading independent provider of data integration software and services, today announced that Oi, the largest telecommunications company in Brazil, is successfully using the Informatica data integration platform to simplify its IT infrastructure and help increase revenue, market share and customer loyalty. Created from the consolidation of 16 state state-run utilities into a single private entity in 1998, the US$14.5 billion company leverages the Informatica platform to enable the right-time Business Intelligence and single views of customers that drive its highly competitive program and service plan offerings, targeted marketing and sales activities, and exemplary customer service.

“Our competitive advantage is the ability to mix bundles, combining wire line, wireless, broadband, and television; this increases

customer loyalty and reduces churn. But we needed a single view of the customer and near real-time updates to our enterprise data warehouse to support these programs,” said Vera Helena de Avila Duarte, enterprise IT manager, Oi. “Informatica gave us the single platform we needed. It has also given us agility so we can continue to lead in our market.”

“Oi” is Portuguese for “Hi,” and the company’s tagline is “Oi, as simple as that.” Seeking to maximize business agility and competitiveness, Oi implemented the Informatica platform to simplify the consolidation and management of data across its numerous predecessor companies and multiple incompatible systems, including information on more than 36 million customers. The Informatica PowerCenter platform now provides the underpinnings for Oi’s right-time enterprise data warehouse, leveraged by

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 new product and service initiatives, including bringing advantageous new programs, plans and product bundles to market faster and supporting them effectively. For example, when the company launched a prepaid service plan called “Oi Controle,” it used PowerCenter to link its CRM, billing and in-house pre-paid systems. The billing system flags customers eligible for a credit recharge, the recharge notice is validated against business rules in the CRM system, and the notice is sent over the prepaid system to enable recharge for voice and data services. Consequently, Oi Controle customers are able to recharge their credits on schedule while the company has been able to respond to the ramping demand for recharging, thus helping to drive the on-going success of the Oi Controle program.

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Brazil’s Leading Telecom Builds Revenue, Market Share and Customer Loyalty withInformatica Business Intelligence Platform


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Robust, scalable infrastructure

Informatica has also provided Oi with a robust, scalable infrastructure to help sustain its business agility and growth. For example, the PowerCenter Pushdown Optimization option has enabled Oi to take advantage of the processing power of its Teradata data warehouse platform when running data integration and loading routines. This has allowed Oi to accelerate its warehousing loading process by a factor of 2x, which in turn has resulted in faster answers to sales and marketing queries and more rapid updates to customer views. Similarly, Oi is taking advantage of Informatica’s Enterprise Grid option to help optimize both the performance and scalability of its data integration environment.

Oi is also using Informatica PowerExchange data access software to source difficult-to-access mainframe data for subsequent integration with other enterprise data.

“Oi’s impressive post-merger growth underscores the value of the Informatica platform in making complex environments appear simple to internal data users and, ultimately, to customers,” said Girish Pancha, general manager, Enterprise Data Integration, Informatica. “Encapsulating the former operations of well over a dozen separate enterprises, Oi now presents a single, responsive face to customers across South America’s largest economy -- a unified image anchored in the ability to integrate and deliver comprehensive, accurate data in right time across a widely divergent spectrum of information sources.”

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Source: Informatica Corporation

About InformaticaInformatica Corporation (Nasdaq: INFA) is the leading independent provider of enterprise data integration software and services. With Informatica, organizations can gain greater business value by integrating all their information assets from across the enterprise. More than 3,300 companies worldwide rely on Informatica to reduce the cost and expedite the time to address data integration needs of varying complexity and scale. For more information, call +1 650 385 5000 (1 800 653 9871 in the U.S.), or visit http://www.informatica.com.

Informatica, PowerCenter and PowerExchange are registered trademarks of Informatica Corporation in the United States and in jurisdictions throughout the world. All other company and product names may be trade names or trademarks of their respective owners.

About OiHeadquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Oi is the largest telecommunications company in Brazil with annual revenues of USD 14.5 billion, more than 36 million customers, and about 10,000 employees.

An Effective Business Intelligence Strategy is the Key to Business Success, Says IDCA new report from analyst group IDC reinforces that a key factor contributing to the performance of organisations is the ability to manage the explosive growth of information.

The report titled, ITEyewitness: Keys to a Successful Business Intelligence Strategy shows that the creation of a Business Intelligence Competency Centre (BICC) is the strategic answer to enterprise-wide information overload. A BICC is the centre within an organisation that provides guidance and vision to the enterprise as it deploys BI solutions and creates BI success. “Today’s markets are faster moving, more diverse and more competitive than ever before. Data generation continues to skyrocket on a daily basis fuelled by new technology innovations such as RFID chips, nanotechnology, grid computing and video streaming,” said Melissa Martin, Senior Market Analyst, IT Spending and Vertical Markets, IDC.

“One of the key factors that contribute to the successful performance of organisation is the ability to manage this explosive growth of information that society is experiencing. The enterprise must empower all stakeholders with the right information and at the right time. A clearly defined, purpose-built Business Intelligence strategy can support this business need,” concludes Martin.

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Your Official Network Business Intelligence MagazineNBI Your Official Network Business Intelligence Magazine NBIITEyewitness: Keys to a Successful Business Intelligence Strategy also contains a buyer case study of the evaluation, design, architecture and implementation of an in-house BICC at utility provider, Sydney Water. It highlights key milestones achieved during the process and develops an in-depth roadmap for the project. The study evaluates the results and the benefits for the utility provider to-date, and provides a forward-looking vision for future expansions of its BI capabilities.

On IDC’s website, www.idc.com, this media release relates to document #AZ616101Q ITEyewitness: Keys to a Successful Business Intelligence Strategy.

This report is now available. To purchase this report, please contact Lady Gueco, Business Development Manager on +61 2 9925 2261 or [email protected].

The report provides guidance on how to establish a vision for an enterprise-wide Business Intelligence strategy. It highlights the key issues for leaders to consider before embarking on a BI implementation, including steps on establishing a successful BICC.

IDC research shows the benefits of a successful BICC are numerous and can include:

• Increased usage of data / Business Intelligence

• Increased collaboration among business units

• Increased business user satisfaction

• Increased decision making capabilities and speed

• Increased information analysis and business agility

• Increased standardisation of 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

About IDCIDC is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1000 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends covering over 110 countries worldwide. For more than 44 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world’s leading technology media, research, and events company. You can learn more about IDC by visiting www.idc.com or www.idc.com.au.


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