Let’s take a quick look at the ‘art of the possible’ – in other words, what types of telecom business issues can be addressed with EMC’s new massively parallel big data solutions.
But first – I am sure you agree that today’s technology trend is ‘more data is better.’
A luxury car ad on television boasts ‘other carmaker’s crash dummies only capture data from 120 sensors – our digital test dummies have 2 million 3 dimensional data points’.
Flat screen televisions have advanced to 1920×1080 native pixel resolution, up dramatically from early models.
Many organizations have tried to implement a single consolidated customer data repository to be used for multiple business functions (Customer care, billing, revenue assurance, marketing promotions, etc.). Yet, due to performance limitations, software vendor package limitations and a myriad of other reasons – the approach actually implemented has been one of separate customer databases for multiple applications – plus a ‘data warehouse’ that has excerpts of customer data.
Limits on ‘big data’ in telecom are prevalent throughout the world. Industry research confirms implementation obstacles for ‘big data’. For example:
Nearly 97 percent of data scientists believe big data technology solutions need improvement and the top three obstacles data scientists foresee when running analytics on Big Data are: complexity of big data solutions; difficulty of applying valid statistical models to the data; and having limited insight into the meaning of the data.
http://www.telecomlead.com/inner-page-details.php?id=2150
Today, telecom carriers have a new option: A high performance data solution that is scalable and more effectively supports the demands of the business. An overview:
Imagine if you could predict when your customers are likely to leave to go to another carrier. The above solution has the capabilities to proactively determine these customers, based on their calling patterns. How?
1) First, load months of Call Detail records into EMC’s solution. This can be hundreds of millions of records.
2) Next, work with EMC data scientists to develop algorithms that analyze calling patterns of your customers. For example, if a customer repeatedly calls a series of numbers over a long timeframe, and then a pattern emerges where the number or duration of calls dwindle, the customer could have a strong propensity to leave.
3) Identify groups of these customers, along with specifics of new calling plans, which could incent the customers to stay.
4) Provide these to the marketing group in days, not months.
Imagine your Revenue Assurance department has severe issues with fraudulent calling. Current solutions take samples of Call Detail Records for fraud analysis. As a result, fraud may not be detected rapidly, and the carrier is losing valuable revenue. How can a carrier review 100% of its calls for fraudulent activity?
1) First, load months of Call Detail records into EMC’s solution – not just ‘extracts’. This can be hundreds of millions of records.
2) Next, work with EMC data scientists to develop algorithms that determine if calls match suspected fraudulent behavior. This can be quickly tailored to a carrier’s specific needs, customer behavior and financial thresholds.
3) Provide reports of suspected fraudulent calling to Revenue Assurance in hours, not weeks or months.
Existing data warehouse solutions have gotten too expensive and unwieldy to modify, and only massively parallel solutions can tackle the above use cases quickly and efficiently.
Oh, and if you think the above questions are not being asked by leading telecom carriers, you are wrong. We are working with carriers to solve these very issues today.
Next Post: How Should Service Providers Complement Their Offerings with Cloud Capabilities?
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Today’s International Travel Tip: How to deal with United-Continental merger systems issues.
On October, 1, 2010, the United-Continental merger closed from a ‘legal’ perspective. Yet, the two airlines are still operating separately. This environment provides challenges to travelers who continue to be confounded by what seem to be arbitrary restrictions. Here is a helpful guide to navigate through this maze of merged/not merged operations:
1) Be sure you have linked your UA and CO frequent flyer accounts. You must log in to the carrier’s website and previously linked your UA and CO frequent flier accounts – see my earlier blog on this topic.
2) Know which airline entity is actually operating a flight. Here is an example of a huge merger integration issue. UA 132 appears to be a United flight from Washington Dulles to Paris at about 10pm. You can buy a first class ticket on this flight from United, and the ticket is issued by United. Or, you can buy an economy ticket from United, and try to upgrade. It departs from Concourse C, which is United’s main departure area at Dulles.
a. But wait – The flight is actually operated by Continental as CO 132. This means that your United-issued first class ticket does NOT get you into the United International First Class lounge at Dulles. A bizarre situation where UA agents refuse entry, an amazing display how to dissatisfy your best customers.
b. It gets worse: United system-wide upgrades are not valid on flights operated by Continental, even if the ticket is issued by UA and has a UA flight number. But there is a work-around. At least a day before the flight departs, you can call United (since you are ticketed on United) – and ask to be transferred to the ‘merger integration call center’. Once you get transferred, ask the agent to take a system-wide upgrade from your United account and transfer it to a similar account in Continental. Then, you can request the agent to upgrade you to CO first class.
c. What if my requested upgrade doesn’t go through? If you are wait-listed, and the upgrade doesn’t happen, call United, again ask for the merger integration call center, and request them to transfer the system-wide upgrade from your CO account back to your UA account.
d. Why is this ‘code-sharing’ worse now? With other code-sharing arrangements, UA dedicated specific flight number ranges to code share partners, and listed them clearly. Now, UA is deceptively listing a code-sharing arrangement with CO in a flight number range that has historically been dedicated to flights operated by United.
3) When problems occur, ask the ticket agent or gate agent to call the merger integration desk. Somewhat obvious but many ticket agents are not aware of this desk.
4) If you cannot get satisfaction prior to the flight, send an email to UA or CO frequent flyer advocates post flight. Usually this will result in some compensation in the form of travel credits and/or additional miles deposited into your account. Helpful emails:
a. UA Global Services members: Unitedglobalservices@united.com
b. UA 1K members: 1kvoice@ual.com
c. CO: onepass@coair.com
d. If the above doesn’t provide adequate response, send a letter to CEO.
Jeff Smisek, CEO
UAL Corporation
77 West Wacker Drive
Chicago, IL 60601
