ANALYTICS

CLOCKING OFF!
Data analysts need to take
a look at themselves
As data analysts and scientists become among the most in-demand experts, Nick Booth
wonders what would happen if they analysed their own use of data analytics
O
ne of the joys of reporting on the telecoms
industry was that it was full of
uncomplicated, no nonsense characters who
didn’t feel the need to invent their own
special secret language – unlike the IT world.
Communications service providers (CSPs) were happy
to connect people and let them get on with their lives.
No dodgy software contracts packed with hidden
licensing trojans. No built in obsolescence. No
grandiose claims about saving the world,
revolutionising business and bringing democracy to
society. Granted, the CSPs and their dealers did
charge huge amounts for managing moves and
changes for their clients. But even that was a good
discipline, as it stopped people moving about and
over-complicating things.
The modern incarnation of the telecoms operator, the
CSP, is mobile and data driven so, inevitably, they’re
becoming more like IT companies. But, I’m relieved to
say, they’re not quite the full Amazon, although many
shareholders and equity holders won’t be pleased
about that. They want their CSP investments to be
omnipotent and ruthless.
Still, it’s obvious that data could save the life of the
CSP by creating new opportunities, but then ruin it all
over again by over-complicating things. The modern
CSP has far too much complication to deal with, but
they like to make life even more difficult for themselves
by constantly moving their own goalposts.
The rapid growth by acquisition means that there
seems to be a massive disconnect between the
various departments of a modern CSP. The people in
the call centre rarely have any connection with the
intelligence available in their own data centres. John
and Jane call centre operators only seem to be
interested in two things. Getting you off the phone as
soon as possible or selling you something you never
knew you wanted.
There is a certain logic to this. According to David
Zakkam, relationship head for data sciences company
Mu Sigma, the average CSP could save a million
dollars a year if it could shave a second off every
support call. Zaikai advises 140 of the Fortune 500
companies on how to use data analytics to make each
call more efficient and productive by giving call centre
staff a better idea of who you are. However, having
worked in a call centre myself, I suspect that many of
the managers at shop floor level will take a much less
sophisticated tactic. They’ll instruct their ‘here today,
gone tomorrow’ minions to say anything to get the
customer off the phone, once it’s obvious that they’re
not going to buy anything.
Which brings us to the second option, up selling.
Again, I will rely on the testimony on an expert witness
from the telecoms industry, Eliano Marques, head of
data science at the Think Big Partnership. CSPs
constantly offer things to clients that they have no use
for at all. “I often try to understand the logic of the
sales people at service providers. Why do they offer
me 200 channels when it must be clear from their data
that I only use ten. And why would they keep shoving
a Samsung offer on me, when it must be obvious from
their data that I’m an Apple fan,” says Marques.
It would seem there is a massive schism between the
people who think for the company, the data scientists,
and the people who act for it, in the call centres and
the support teams. They seem to have completely
different and counter productive targets.
Every CSP aims to progress with use cases that have
an instant pay off, says Marques. Data scientists,
whether internal or external, are hired to identify the
best action for increasing profitability for the company,
either through cutting costs or boosting the revenue.
But the gap between potential value and the
achievable value is often massive. For example, the
best way to cut costs would be to create a predictive
maintenance model that would identify where
problems will occur and nip them in the bud. But it’s
also the hardest. Partly because the people who are
sent to do the fixing jobs have their own agendas,
which don’t align with the company’s. The fastest way
to meet your targets, I discovered, was to pass the
buck, tick your box and re-assign. The thoughtful few
who actually tackled the hard jobs would get no
reward.
If only there was some way those people-centric
problems could be analysed!
The author,
Nick Booth,
is a contributor to
VanillaPlus and a
technology journalist
The rapid growth by
acquisition means
that there seems to be
a massive disconnect
between the various
departments of a
modern CSP
VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2016
57