Emphasizing that big data’s greatest benefit is the business value it brings, Gartner analysts said that CIOs must put analytics at the center of business and IT. “Application-centered today will be business analytics-centered tomorrow,” said Bill Hostmann, Gartner VPand distinguished analyst. Hostmann spoke with members of the press during the Gartner Business Intelligence and Information Management Summit in São Paulo this week. According to the research firm, CIOs worldwide rank analytics and business intelligence as their number one priorities.
Given the current very competitive environment, Gartner analysts advised enterprises to improve their business performance. The message was clear: organizations in general need to re-think themselves, looking at data quality and integrity because analytics will support innovation. “More information means better decisions,” said Ian Bertram, Gartner global manager of the analytics and business intelligence research team.
Companies, telecom operators included, need to expand the role of BI and analytics, moving from a descriptive model, which help companies see what’s happening, to adopting tools that leverage richer insights. The next steps involve implementing diagnostic tools to find out why something happened, predictive models (what is likely to happen?) to reach a prescriptive approach (what should the company do about it?)
“Descriptive tools are the most traditional; many organizations have invested in them,” said Bertram. “Now, companies want not only to get the report but also to know why and how they can change their business.”
Speaking of telecom operators, Gartner’s experts said that the competitive market encourages operators to adopt tools to help reduce churn. “They are using social media as well,” Hostmann added. Telcos, financial and retail companies are more advanced than other industries when it comes to using analytics systems. And many won’t say what they are using them because of the competitive advantage they bring.
“It’s all about competition,” said Donald Feinberg, Gartner vice president and distinguished analyst. “As competition gets stronger, they do more analytics.”
Check out some slides from the Gartner presentation.
Telecom Analytics at CTIA—The emerging field of data analysis as it applies to telecoms and mobile carriers was the focus of the Telecom Analytics special conference at CTIA Wireless 2013, presented by RCR Wireless in collaboration with Interwork Media.
>>> Be sure to download the free feature report on telecom analytics: an in-depth article with insights on how carriers can take advantage of analytics solutions to turn data into an information asset, and how carriers can leverage big data, business intelligence and customer analytics to drive revenue, reduce churn and improve network performance.
More news from the telecom analytics market:
- Salesforce to pay U.S.$2.5 billion for ExactTarget. The social marketing firm ExactTarget provides Internet-based marketing software used by businesses to personalize email and text messages and run ad campaigns that use social media platforms. The deal comes after Salesforce acquired Buddy Media, another social marketing company that helps big brands manage Facebook and Twitter pages.
- Guavus, provider of big data analytics solutions for the communications and media industry, announced the acquisition of Pipeline, which specializes in collecting, analyzing and mediating IPDR (Internet Protocol Detailed Records) data to understand bandwidth consumption and network activity.
- ParStream and Panopticon are partnering to deliver big data real-time analytics and instant visualization. They aim to work jointly on creating interoperable big data solutions for worldwide markets.
The telecom analytics series provides weekly insights on trends, new products and other topics that touch on the advantages and monetization opportunities of analytics tools for telecom operators, including big data, business intelligence, customer experience analysis and management, business analytics and network analytics. Also, be sure to check out video interviews about telecom analytics on RCRTV.
