Big Data Boom 2016: Uncovering Success Attributes of Big Data

Potomac, MD, December 9, 2015 (Newswire.com) - From mobile usage to network usage—to timing or location—to apps, or social media—to demographics—to spending patterns—to even the extent of the ‘user sentiment’, will service providers affectively decipher and get the monetization going for them—only time will tell, but at least what’s already there: the minimum effective monetization i.e. all the wizardry, road-mapping, etc. can command position across several new industry verticals, products, and processes.

In a data dominated world, no industry vertical will be more crucial than telecoms, as a huge portion of crucial data will be generated and owned at its end. However, how much can telcos benefit from the big data boom—depends upon methods, yes “methods”, which service operators use in the beginning, till the time of classification, interpretation, and relational-mapping of the data— for at least what we have come to conclude, is enough to favor.

Let’s check few pioneer telcos’ big data monetisation initiatives:

The UK's three major mobile operators – Vodafone UK, Telefonica UK (O2) and EE formed a joint venture in 2012 that was later named as WEVE. The platform is used to send targeted advertising to more than 17 million UK customers through apps on their mobile phones and tablets. The operators intend to use the huge data provided voluntarily by over 33% adults in the country to open attractive revenue sources in mobile app and website marketing tailored for individual mobile users. Initially, the three were concentrating on utilising this unusually detailed level of information for targeted marketing, but that's just the first move in broader plans to unify the splintered customer loyalty and mobile payments market. The company reported revenue worth £13 million in 2013 and registered a growth of 45% in 2014.

Telefonica Dynamic Insights (TDI) is another good example of leveraging big data for incremental revenue streams. By gathering and compiling anonymous customer data—as it happens Smart Steps (the first product of TDI) helps to ascertain consumer segment behavior as a group, which helps local governing bodies and businesses in decision making. For instance, a retailer contemplating to open a new store can study consumer behavior pattern of a particular location in terms of parameters like age, gender, time of visit etc. Companies can analyse the service data and make comparisons with data collected from anywhere else for any particular period, along with knowing the crowd's to and from locations. At present, Smart Steps is being used in the retail and leisure industries, and its co-product Smart Journeys has been tailored for passenger services. Services’ usage is on the upswing consistently. Proven cases where the services have helped are retailers leveraging the insights to notably enhance the effectiveness of targeted marketing campaigns; and passenger services companies evaluating their influence on transport model split for travels in the country. It all boils down to understanding consumer behaviour in a better way to boost company effectiveness, and warming up to them.

Collaboration among industries and third parties, data sharing and big data analytics are at the core of such projects. Telcos already hold a huge amount of data, however, that is not sufficient for designing such platforms and services. Cross-industry collaboration and optimal resource allocation are required to add value to the information gathered through data.

TeleResearch Labs’ Thought Provokers:

1.     Why the real benefits of big data boom have been elusive for telcos?

2.     Which are other similar big data projects in development/ implementation phase globally?

3.     What is the significance of such projects for telecom players in other markets?

4.     How can telecom players propose such projects to other industries and secure long term contracts?

5.     Why many efforts to execute the big data strategy have not lived up to the high expectations?

6.     What is an ideal proposition for MNOs, MVNOs, M2M Players, OTTs, and Infrastructure Vendors for such offerings?

7.     Why have MNOs an advantage over other players in the telecom sector for building and offering such services?

The answer to these questions and many noteworthy cases of big data with the revenue earning opportunities for telcos in both the developed and emerging markets can be found in our latest report – Big Data Boom 2016-2020.