Getting the most out of 'big data'

Amdocs has announced the Big Data Framework, which demonstrates how its broad range of products, solutions and services can help service providers unlock the potential of “big data” analytics. 

Rebecca Prudhomme, vice president of product and solutions marketing at the US-based company, said that by utilising a holistic approach that combines the big data capabilities of its new Amdocs CES 9 product suite with an array of services and domain expertise, Amdocs enables service providers to leverage big data analytics into new revenue streams, better customer service and revealing customer insights.

The Big Data Framework is centred on data management platforms for data storage and processing; analytics platforms to execute algorithms and derive business value out of operational data; and a business execution layer for vertical applications targeting unique business challenges in domains such as marketing, customer care and network planning, she said.

Amdocs CES 9 has been designed to help operators unlock the potential of big data and streamline operational processes, understand customers at an individual level and improve profitability through better churn management, targeted cross- and up-sell and effective product introductions.

Maximising big data capabilities in CES 9 comes in three main areas: Amdocs Proactive Care, Amdocs Tera Scale and Amdocs Elastic Online Charging.

Amdocs Proactive Care leverages transactional big data and behavioural content together with real-time customer events to anticipate potential care issues and pre-emptively address them across all channels, Prudhomme said. 

It enables service providers to attain prediction accuracy of up to 95 per cent and reduce contact-centre costs by up to 20 per cent. 

Meanwhile, Amdocs Tera Scale employs Apache’s Hadoop open-source software framework for scalable data-intensive distributed computing, to reduce data management and storage costs. 

Lastly, Amdocs Elastic Online Charging, a main enabler for adopting big data technologies, allows dynamic allocation of charging resources. 

It uses high-availability cloud topology enabling service providers to scale servers up and down, with no downtime, gain fail-over support and reduce hardware costs.

“While ‘big data’ is a simple term, the reality for service providers is complex: they face multiple challenges in managing the ever-growing volumes of data in their business and operational support systems. 

“We have a unique approach, combining product leadership with proven expertise in services, that helps service providers navigate this new landscape to unlock the untapped value within their data – and improve the customer experience,” said Prudhomme. 

The company has also unveiled packaged software and hardware for real-time charging, named Amdocs Charging Smart Start.

The new package enables a rapid, phased approach to achieving convergent charging capabilities, essential to meeting consumer demand for service convergence, she said. 

It also allows service providers to rapidly deploy real-time charging capabilities into the network, initially targeting prepaid or data monetisation. 

 They can then easily extend the offering with additional charging capabilities to ensure a safe, cost-efficient path to fully convergent charging operations – essential to effectively address growing consumer demand for real-time services on any device, across any network, she added.

 

Local telecom focus

For the Thai market, Yanyong Tengtichaowalit, country manager of Amdocs (Thailand), said the company provides its software solutions with a focus on telecom operators and the broader telecom industry. 

It currently has one customer in the local telecom sector, and expects to reach five telecom operators within the next two years. 

“I think the new behaviour and lifestyle of mobile users, 3G licensing and the [upcoming] Asean Community Economy will be important in enabling telecom operators to invest in new software solutions and infrastructure to support their business, improve customer-experience management and launch new products and services at the right time,” said Yanyong. 

Issara Dejakaisaya, executive vice president – Solutions of Advanced Info Service (AIS), said his company benefits from integrated voice and data service in order to improve customer experience and develop customised packages for customers. 

Moreover, the company will provide a new machine-to-machine application for corporate users to the market in the near future, he said. 

 

 

 

Top social media trends

 

Randi Zuckerberg, founder and creative director of Zuckerberg Media, says there are 10 top social media trends that we are going to see more of: 

_ Luxury on demand: We cannot all afford the luxury lifestyle, but we can treat ourselves to a little luxury and pay a premium for it. Examples she gave ranged from renting designer dresses for a special occasion to using the Uber car service to book a sleek black car (in place of hiring a taxi), just with one tap on your smart phone to locate the closest driver possible.

_ Mobile everywhere: You can leave home without your keys, but you are not going to forget your phone. Zuckerberg’s advice to app designers for mobile devices is to “choose one use case and do it really, really well.” 

Her fave app: Starbucks app to make buying morning coffee as simple as possible.

_ The rise of the entre-ployee: More and more young people want to be entrepreneurs, so big companies seeking to retain top talent have to enable these employees to fulfil their entrepreneurial drive. Google does it by allowing employees to spend 20 per cent of their time on their own projects, and other Silicon Valley companies are setting up their own start-up labs for employees and providing seed money to keep these employees on the payroll.

_ Big data = personalisation: Big data is nothing until you use it to personalise the consumer’s experience. Services like Pandora, Yelp or Trip Advisor get better the more data they accumulate.

_ The cloud has replaced our memory: Who remembers birthdays anymore without a social media or digital calendar reminder?

_ Cars are the new phones: Cars are becoming the next frontier for app developers and will be the next cool place for apps.

_ Gamification of everything: No matter what drives you, you can find an app that will motivate you. Among the examples Zuckerberg gave was an app called Snooze, which gamifies waking up in the morning: every time you hit snooze on your alarm, you also donate a dollar (Bt31) to charity. And for the masochistic, there’s a Wi-Fi weighing scale that tweets your weight whenever you use it.

_ Now everybody can have a second job online: You don’t need to be a hi-tech genius to have an online job. With services like TaskRabbit, you can rent yourself out to take over the part-time tasks other people don’t have the time to do.

_ Brands as media companies: Businesses today are not just putting out a product; they are also expected to entertain their customers. Red Bull’s live streaming of Felix Baumgartner’s space jump was the biggest live-streaming event in history with more than 8 million eyeballs.

_ Time for digital detox: With 81 per cent of Americans admitting to interrupting conversations to check their devices, or three out of five people spending more time with their computer than their significant other, Zuckerberg believes “the pendulum is swinging back”, and people will want to switch off. 

In particular, she highlighted the efforts phone firms are making to stop people from texting while driving, including AT&T’s “It can wait” campaign.