IBM helps telcos sell by monitoring callers' behaviour

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 06 October 2009 05:41

IT Industry - Strategy

Be careful whom you call, your telco might use the information to sell you something! IBM has announced two analytics-focused research projects that, it says, will help telecom service providers and e-retailers improve customer service and new-customer acquisitions by examining the way customers communicate, make purchasing decision, and download applications.

According to IBM, "Both projects [IBM Social Network Analysis and IBM Customer Analyst] enable communication providers to quickly find actionable insights in huge volumes of data - all while learning how their customers' preferences change."

IBM Social Network Analysis is being developed by scientists at IBM Research - India to map the social networks and calling patterns of telco subscribers. According to IBM, "By sorting through the anonymous calling data, the technology is able to analyse people's social behaviour with uncanny accuracy."

This type of insight, IBM says, "will enable service providers to improve the overall mobile telco experience...By analysing calling patterns, service providers can now develop more attractive and useful subscriber plans - particularly for those high-volume, highly social subscribers who seem to heavily influence their friends' calling plan decisions...Mapping relationships between individuals, groups and organisations enable services providers to better identify target markets and develop more effective customer retention programs."

The technology does not capture the conversation but its algorithms "examine enormous amounts of existing quantitative data such as call duration, volume, and time of day, as well as frequency and points of origination."

Meanwhile, IBM Customer Analyst technology, under development by IBM Research - Haifa and being piloted by Taiwan Mobile, focuses on better understanding Internet users, particularly mobile telephone subscribers. According to IBM, "The proof-of-concept technology employs sophisticated algorithms to create a detailed profile of existing and potential customers by analysing purchasing and download habits. This can help carriers and retailers predict what products and services - and what combinations of these offerings - will appeal to particular consumers...

"[It] will allow the service provider to tailor the offering to 'right' products to existing customers, as well as identify the exact customers to pursue with particular products and/or offerings...By using algorithms to make unobvious correlations between demographics and online activity, telcos can tailor more customised offerings to customers and provide invaluable data to marketing managers."

Both projects are part of IBM's five-year, $US100 million investment - announced in June 2009 - to advance mobile services and capabilities for businesses and consumers worldwide. IBM says it has already made tools commercially available that map and analyse social networks within companies. Called Lotus Connections Atlas, the offering "spots important connections and the relationships between teams and in-house subject-matter experts."