Telecom Lead India: SAS, a provider of business analytics software and services, helps customers at more than 60,000 sites improve performance and deliver value by making better decisions faster. Ken King, director of Telco & Media Convergence for SAS, talks about growth opportunities in Indian telecom market.
King’s responsibilities include management of the product lifecycle and marketing strategies for SAS’ Communications industry products. King has over twenty-five years experience in design, deployment, and support of voice and data networks for large corporations worldwide.
What are your latest achievements in India and Asia Pacific region?
SAS is India’s market leader for business and enterprise intelligence. Large telecommunications players are turning to SAS for solutions to help them develop and expand their market presence.
Mobile telecommunications giant Hong Kong CSL increases profitability by better targeting customers with SAS.
With more than 100 million customers, Reliance Communications relies on SAS for efficient, effective marketing efforts to stay on top of the fastest-growing industry in the world.
How are you going to leverage opportunities associated with the expansion of 3G and 4G in India and Asia?
The deployment of 3G and 4G presents an enormous challenge for network operators. Investment capital must be effectively and efficiently deployed. Operators must continue to provide high quality service for traditional voice and text applications while also selectively upgrading the network and promoting new broadband services.
SAS will continue to help operators leverage their data in the decision making process so they can succeed in competitive environments.
How do your solutions assist telecom operators in improving revenue streams?
SAS enables profitable convergence in the communications, media, content, and mobile device industries. New business models in the communications industry require delivering an optimal experience tailored to individual customers. As the leader in business analytics, predictive modeling, and optimization, our solutions are proven to raise revenue, reduce churn, reduce risk, and improve operational efficiencies. For example, customer analytics enable ad insertions that are targeted to individual customers based on location, presence, behavior, and propensity to accept. Our social network analysis solutions enhance revenue streams, combat fraud and enhance consumer targeting.
What is the growth potential for analytical solutions in emerging telecom markets?
Our market research projects that demand for analytical solutions in developing markets will experience double-digit annual growth rates for the next five years.
The Indian telecom industry is highly competitive industry. To effectively compete in this environment it’s imperative for organizations to have right customer acquisition and retention strategy while keeping their costs low. Business analytics helps the Indian telecom industry in effective market segmentation and marketing automation to reach out to potential customers with the right offers. It also provides proactive visibility to organizations on the most vulnerable customers—those who are likely to churn. Such proactive visibility enables them to respond to such a situation before it actually happens. SAS has established a leadership in the Indian telecom segment and serves most of the Indian telecom organizations.
What are your expansion plans for India?
SAS India employs 350 trained professionals in Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi, with an R&D center in Pune that provides key research for the global SAS community and concentrates on industry-focused solutions. SAS is a privately held company and we don’t comment on investment with regards to facilities, people etc.
What are the new trends in offering innovative solutions to improve customer experience?
As Communications Service Providers execute a business transformation strategy adapting to the Smartphone and broadband revolution, analytics are playing an increasing role. CSPs must respond to key business drivers:
Personalize Customer Engagements
Respond in real time with individually tailored offers or actions that maximize profit potential, Increase Customer retention, brand loyalty, and customer lifetime value.
Respond to the Threat Posed by Over-The-Top Players
CSPs have invested billions of dollars upgrading their networks to enable broadband services, but the rewards for ubiquitous bandwidth have gone disproportionately to over-the-top content providers. CSPs need not be passive victims of this trend. They can create value by responding in real-time to customer demands.
Seize Profitable New Revenue Opportunities
Next generation services such as on-demand HD video, machine to machine, mobile commerce and healthcare generate vast amounts of data. CSPs have the opportunity to create additional value for these services through real-time data analysis.
Reduce Risk
Ensure that network and IT capacity planning and forecasting accurately predicts future demand and that service level agreements are met. Obtain more accurate credit and collections scoring, fraud detection, and revenue assurance.
