In the global telecom market, the majority of operators are involved with Big Data initiatives, but there are four main areas for an operator to consider before engaging in Big Data implementations, according to a new report from Pyramid Research.
The report, ‘Big Data: Telecom Innovation Through Analytics’, aims to inform readers about the meaning of Big Data and the possibilities enabled by Big Data initiatives, as well as to guide telecom operators through four areas that must be considered in Big Data implementations.
In a brief issued Friday, Pyramid Research said the report contains three case studies on Turkcell’s m-commerce analytics, Netflix’s recommender system and Weze, an m-commerce platform for marketing and payments in the U.K.
Pyramid Research found that telecom operators consider Big Data initiatives important, but they currently feel neither ready to take on this task nor very willing to have someone else do it for them.
Despite the absence of clearly-defined expectations, they sense the potential innovation that can be unleashed through Big Data analytics and hope to become a central component in this new engine of service development.
“In this Insider, we aim to inform our readers about the meaning of Big Data and the possibilities enabled by Big Data initiatives, as well as to guide telecom operators through four areas that need to be considered in Big Data implementations,” Pyramid Research explained.
The study firstly focuses on market conditions, discussing issues of personalisation and customer selection.
Then it explains in more detail some “exciting forms of Big Data analytics” and demonstrates through simple hypothetical cases how operators can draw insights from their data.
In the third area, Pyramid Research describes the organisational challenges, such as the availability of skills and the need to reconcile the deep differences between various business units.
In the fourth area, the firm said: “We finish by visiting the regulatory concerns that are likely to surface as Big Data applications become commonplace.”
“The most widely cited benefit of Big Data is its potential to create a unified view of a customer,” said Kerem Arsal, manager at Pyramid Research.
According to the manager, the demand for personalisation, the rate of innovation and the selection of customers are several market considerations organisations should consider before implementing Big Data initiatives.
“In addition, organisations must consider technical aspects like data analytics, management, storage and processing power, and organisational matters such as access to human resources, prioritisation of R&D and governance of structure and incentives,” Arsal suggested.
Regulatory concerns around privacy, data ownership and net neutrality, he noted, were important to consider, but the biggest regulatory concerns would not appear until its applications were implemented.
