The CSP can now immediately access an exact view of its highest-value customers based on near-real-time data, leading to millions of dollars in savings and improved EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) profitability. With predictive analytics at its disposal, the company is setting new records in efficiency that positively impact legacy-product sunset, targeted promotions, pricing refactoring for certain product lines by market, and network consolidation. The payoff is measured in:

• improved management across periods of product growth, harvest and sunset;
• faster response times to customer needs that might be unleashed by an advance in technology or a demand for new services;
• an established lead, fueled by actionable insights into customer profitability and price sensitivity, in an intensively competitive market;
• an improved financial performance triggered by new profits from the CSP’s highest-value customers, products and markets;
• the added value of an aggregate view across its organization. 

Is predictive analytics the future?

Looking ahead, many in the telecom industry believe that predictive analytics focused on customer, product and location data will become the new norm, a capability that all CSPs will demand. And to understand why it will put smart carriers in the Zettabyte Age’s big leagues, one need look no further than the customer.

In a market saturated with look-alike competitors and me-too products, customers seek true differentiation between their service providers. Increasingly, “meaningful separation” from competing products rests on a CSP’s ability to create personalized offers that deliver exactly what each customer demands. Predictive analytics arms that company with the precise data it needs to craft tailored products that match and serve its customers’ needs. Just as important, this “harbinger” application informs the company of the best ways to market products, ensuring rapid acceptance and a loyalty-boosting, positive experience for customers at the right investment threshold, which is critical for establishing profit optimization.

Predictive analytics achieves what Big Data was meant to do all along, quickly simplifying massive volumes of data into usable bytes that put CSPs in sync with the individual who matters most when it comes to financial performance—the customer.