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This post is part of a three-part series on Big Data:

1. What does Big Data mean for Telcos?
2. How Big Data will Change Contact Centres Forever
3. Big Voice – a Case Study on Tackling Autism

Big Data is a subject currently receiving substantial attention within the communications and technology sectors. With its potential role in the development of the Internet of Things and smart cities, two of the most talked about topics in the industry, the buzz is not surprising. But what actually is Big Data, and what does it mean for technology? Most importantly, what role will it play as technology drives us towards the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’? Here, we strip Big Data down to the basics and explore its potential.

As is always the case with industry trends and buzzwords, ‘Big Data’ is a very vague term, often utilised to aid sales without honouring the true meaning. Put simply, it is exactly what it says on the tin – large volumes of data, or more specifically, the large volumes of data that flood businesses on a daily basis.

But what does this actually mean? Big Data cannot be simplified by defining it as large volumes of data; the true value lies in what is done with the data, and what value businesses can draw from it. Properly used, Big Data can be a gold mine of business insights. However, the volume of data that is collected every day is enormous, and to be able to discern any insight from it, appropriate management strategies are a necessity.

Infographic from Business2Community

The concept of Big Data first gained attention in the early 2000’s, when industry analyst Doug Laney defined Big Data in terms of the three V’s – a definition that is still in use today:

1. Volume – large amounts of data are collected daily from a variety of sources, all of which must be processed
2. Velocity – data streams flow into businesses at incredibly high speeds that must be matched in their processing.
3. Variety – data is collected in a wide range of formats, including structured – numeric data in databases, and unstructured – email, video, financial transactions and more.

In today’s increasingly digital world, at the beginnings of the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’, the volume of data that is created and stored worldwide on a daily basis is inconceivable. Business data has increased in volume, velocity and variety, and it is this increase that is the true meaning and relevance of Big Data.

Image from Soft Computing and Intelligent Information Systems

Big Data is capable of providing indispensable business insights as long as it is efficiently managed. Smart analysis of the data can assist enterprises in making businesses decisions that could ultimately result in cost reductions, time reductions, new and optimised product development and streamlined business processes. Furthering its potential are companies who are combining Big Data with high-tech analytical solutions, to discover information that is even more powerful and insightful. The use cases are limitless, including:

1. Diagnosing the cause of system failures quickly and efficiently
2. Generating recommendations at the point of sale, based on the customer’s buying habits
3. Detecting fraudulent behaviour fast and resolving the issue before your business is affected
4. Many more

An example of a company that is a Big Data success story is Uber. Monitoring use of its application by both drivers and users, Uber has mapped a real-time logistics flow of human transportation. This use of Big Data has enabled Uber to enter new markets and continually regenerate the company and their revenue streams. Uber are the perfect example of how the potential lies not in the volume of data, but in its management, and they used it for a very simple purpose – to dispatch cars to the right users. With this simple yet powerful use of Big Data, Uber have grown into a company that is currently dominating the consumer transportation sector.

The final question is how to build solutions that enable enterprise users to utilise Big Data and maximise business productivity. Maximising its potential could open telcos up to new revenue streams, and provide them a gateway to smart cities and the Internet of Things, which will further their growth trajectory infinitely.

Only 0.5% of business data is currently being analysed; providing significant opportunity for telcos to deploy Big Data solutions that assist enterprises in business decisions. Telcos need only tap into the potential to gain access to unlimited numbers of new clients and profit opportunities. Even more significant for telcos is Big Voice, a solution that provides deep insights into customer communications, going beyond simple statistics. Big Voice enables telcos to deduce a customer’s communication pattern by analysing their call times, locations and more. This information helps telcos to gain an understanding of individual customer activity, and to then cater solutions to fit these requirements. Organisations can also use recorded data to analyse the sentiment of their customers and internal communications and keep a catalogue of smart, searchable call recordings. Ultimately, Big Voice turns audio and call recordings into rich business assets, enabling companies to streamline and improve business processes, ultimately increasing the likelihood of retaining customers.

The role that telcos must play in Big Data management, what it will mean for call centres and similar businesses, and the future of communications once Big Data and analytics solutions are partnered, will be addressed in the second post in the series.

Simetric aim to converge service providers and provide users with a unified solution for their individual correspondence. They have utilised multiple mobile networks across the UK to develop a standardised network, enabling users to bene t from a single telephone number for both their mobile and fixed phones. To expand their UC solutions for business customers, Simetric chose Dubber.

“The Dubber platform and SaaS business model perfectly complement Simetric’s technologies. Simetric and Dubber share the same desire to continually work to develop and engineer innovative new products that revolutionise the telecoms industry. Through the partnership, we can now deliver a seamless integration of uni ed communications and call recording into both fixed and mobile services.

Dubber’s Playback service changes the face of mobile telephony in our view. It is the type of feature that highlights the value of our UC strategy and opens up significant opportunities to engage with all users in every market segment.”

John Murray, Director of Simetric Telecom (Tango Networks)

“The cloud is a principal, not a software version”

– GovSense

The internet is full of companies labelling themselves as a “cloud based solution”. Unfortunately, not all of these are true cloud products, but what have been nicknamed ‘fake’ cloud products. There are two forms of cloud based platforms from which companies deploy their technology solutions: hosted cloud platforms and true or native cloud platforms. Many companies who claim to be cloud based are often actually operating from a hosted cloud platform, which is both less efficient and less functional than true cloud based offerings. In fact, hosted cloud solutions sometimes simply add to the plethora of problems that accompany on-premise solutions.

A hosted cloud solution is a technology service offered by providers that host physical servers which actually defer the service elsewhere. Hardware is still required, which means that the solutions are not truly cloud based solutions, and are unable to be scalable – a feature that is one of the key attractions of native cloud solutions. Hosted cloud solutions are not built, maintained or managed by the provider themselves, as they are usually off-the-shelf products. Instead, they shift accountability to others, which causes the usual complications of third party involvement. Amongst other things, this creates a barrier between users and their data.

A true cloud solution is operated entirely from a native cloud platform, eliminating any need for hardware. Once hardware requirements are eliminated, the associated restraints of using hardware are simply eliminated as well. End users can benefit from efficient solutions without the need for any hardware, and the associated headaches. True cloud solutions can therefore provide best in the industry services. The list of benefits of true cloud platforms is extensive, and includes:

• Seamless integration into any application
• Unlimited scalability
• Open APIs – giving users the flexibility to adapt solutions to fit their requirements
• No tedious upgrade processes
• Speed and ease of use
• Greater value for money
• Highly secure
• Highly accessible
• Many others

Undoubtedly, the most significant benefit of true cloud platforms is their capacity for unlimited scalability, which enables end users to scale the processing power and storage capacity of solutions to fit their individual requirements. True cloud solutions have been built securely to perform in a multi-tenant cloud environment.They therefore support multi-tenancy, as well as data redundancy. They are often deployed with open APIs, providing users the flexibility to adapt the solution to fit their individual requirements. This agility perfectly compliments the dynamic and constantly changing demands of the modern world. In all these ways and more, true cloud solutions differ from hosted cloud solutions. Hosted cloud solutions are simply attempting to blur the lines between true and hosted platforms.

“Connecting an internal solution to the web and calling it ‘cloud’ is a bit like waterproofing a truck and calling it a submarine: it might technically fit the description, but it’s clearly not meant for that.”

– IT News Africa

The long list of applications and benefits that true cloud solutions offer simply cannot be matched by hosted cloud solutions, and so true cloud solutions are better equipped to help companies provide best in the industry solutions for their clients. The leading true cloud platforms are Amazon Web Services (AWS), the Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure. Two notable examples of companies using these platforms to deploy their service include Netflix and Spotify. AWS enables Netflix to rapidly deploy data content on an enormous scale, to servers all over the world. It is AWS that enable Netflix to manage their huge user base and volume of data. Spotify use Google’s Cloud Platform to host their data centre, having opted to focus on data user queries to provide the best possible user experience. The Google Cloud Platform enables Spotify to scale their service to fit their popularity, and to answer user queries within seconds, by hosting their data centre on their scalable and secure platform.

In an increasingly tech-heavy world, a company’s reputation and ability to stand out from substantial competition is vital to its success, and providing best in industry solutions is the best way to secure a good reputation. True cloud platforms enable companies to deploy their solutions in a Software as a Service format, which guarantees unlimited scalability and global availability. Companies using hosted cloud solutions therefore have two problems. Firstly, they risk the displeasure of their customers at what could be perceived as false advertising – their products are not truly cloud based, and have none of the benefits of a true cloud based solution. Secondly, in providing none of the benefits that true cloud solutions do, they are far from being the best in industry.

Although true cloud solutions offer so many benefits, organisations must design their platform to take advantage of the built in seamless integration and elasticity, in order to realise these benefits. For this reason, Dubber built its recording platform with these true cloud features at its core, and is able to fully benefit from the AWS true cloud platform. Dubber therefore provides a call recording solution that functions as a Software as a Service and offers unlimited scalability, high security, an open API, rapid deployment and no upfront costs. As other true cloud solutions have done for their industries, Dubber has revolutionised the telephony industry and opened up a myriad of benefits for users: making call recording highly relevant and useful for everyone.

Dubber Selected by Telenor Sverige for Cloud Call Recording

Agreement with Simetric for Native Mobile Recording

We surveyed a sample of SMBs across the US with questions related to SMB call recording, and found some rather revealing results. After analysing the survey, it became clear that many businesses who could benefit from call recording do not use it, and often they have chosen not to because of concerns that only apply to legacy call recording solutions who rely on hardware. The survey results indicated a large target market for call recording that is yet to be tapped. Based on the results of the survey, this is where we think telcos are missing a trick.

Previous research from Harris Interactive indicates the importance of customer service – up to 60% of customers would prefer to pay more for better customer experience, and most significantly, 86% of customers left a company because of a bad experience. These statistics prove that providing excellent customer service is still high priority for all companies and, as call recording is widely used for quality assurance purposes, these statistics also demonstrate the importance of taking measures such as call recording to improve customer experience.

Yet the results of our survey demonstrate that, although 93% of SMBs conduct business over the telephone, a staggering 81% do not use call recording solutions from telcos for their business. When asked why, the survey (in which it was possible to select multiple answers to the question) found that 41% worried it would not be useful, which indicates a lack of education or efficient product marketing by telcos. Majority at 43% said cost was a factor. A further 39% worried about losing time to maintenance, and 35% were concerned about the security of call recording. A staggering 84% were concerned about all of the above.

However, 90% of those who don’t use call recording have concerns that actually only apply to legacy call recording solutions. Dubber has transformed call recording and communications capture to a cloud based platform, thereby eliminating the problems that relate to traditional call recording solution. These concerns are over security, implementation costs, usefulness and management.

The survey also revealed industry insights into what companies would use call recording for, and therefore provides interesting insight for telcos into the market for additional call recording functions. The survey, where it was again possible to select multiple answers to the question, found that the majority (58%) of SMBs indicated they would use call recording to improve their business’ customer service, whilst 43% would use it for dispute resolution, and the same again would use it for staff training. Interestingly, of the 43% who would use call recording for dispute resolution, 44% would be interested in smart search as an additional feature. Smart search features allow users to conduct advanced searches of their captured conversations and locate calls by various metrics that include date, location and keywords. They are a valuable tool for dispute resolution, as this relies on efficiently locating the correct information. For a survey that provided no additional information about call recording additional features, this percentage is high and demonstrates a significant target market. With some education on the benefits, this number could only increase.

Additionally, of those who would use call recording to improve their customer service, 28% would be interested in voice analytics as an additional function, which essentially act as a Shazam for human emotion. Voice analytics tools would serve a significant purpose in customer service, by providing insight into customer communications. Support and sales teams using voice analytics therefore gain an advantage in the provision of good customer service. Again, this is an encouraging start point for a target market, and will only increase as the true value of voice analytics becomes better understood by clients.

The results of the survey show that there is a large and untapped target market for call recording, with over 22.5 million SMBs in the US frequently conducting business over the phone, but not using a call recording service. The survey also demonstrates that this shocking number is in fact a result of concerns that only relate to legacy call recording solutions. As we have seen, over 22.5 million SMBs in the US are not currently using call recording, even though it could improve their productivity and increase their revenue. With Dubber, these SMBs have access for the first time to a call recording solution that has unlimited scalability, high security, rapid deployment, no upfront costs and increased relevance and functionality for everyone. Call recording is therefore an opportunity for a brand new client base for telcos: with a large target market and innovative new technology to offer them. Survey says… it’s a no-brainer.

MyNetFone confirms agreement to enable call recording

Since the first mobile generation was released in 1982, a new generation of mobile has followed approximately every decade, the most recent being 4G in 2012. As soon as the dust settled on the release of 4G however, talk became focussed on the next generation. Only 3 years later, 5G is among the hottest topics in the industry. With Telstra recently completing successful trials in Australia, expectations for the capabilities of 5G are high. Set to become available to the public in 2020, the potential of 5G is drawing closer – and it is not just telcos who are excited.

The Possibilities

The 5G upgrade will be achieved in one of two ways: either as a complete redesign of the radio spectrum that previous generations have built on, or as a more simple extension of the current 4G technology. 5G is aiming to improve not just speed, but capacity and latency as well – allowing users to experience browsing with less delay and unlimited connections. This crucial difference will ensure that 5G speeds are not just a slight upgrade, but light years ahead of the current technology.

Recent testing by Telstra shows 5G is capable of speeds greater than 20 Gbps, as well as a latency that is up to half of that of 4G networks. Dr Magnus Ewerbring, Ericsson’s chief technology officer in Asia Pacific and a partner of Telstra, said of the tests: “these early 5G trials will help drive the global standards that will ultimately cover 5G.” Hypothetically, these speeds would be fast enough to download 600 movies a minute, or the entire 6 seasons of Game of Thrones in less than 20 seconds.

These tests seemingly indicate that 5G will bring vastly improved speed, latency and capacity, as well as assisting the growth of the Internet of Things from present day figures of 6.4 billion connected devices, to a projected 21 billion by 2020. Use of the IoT is on the rise, as a number of companies have begun to experiment with its potential. Coca Cola for example, currently use microchips to track their bottles, and Amazon have introduced ‘Dash Buttons’ – which allow users to restock their favourite household products, such as Andrex and Ariel, at the touch of a button. The true potential however, is yet to be tapped. Ultimately, 5G could revolutionise the industry, bringing not only fast and highly accessible cellular browsing, but also bringing the full functionality of the IoT into our everyday lives. Ultimately, 5G will aid the creation of a digital society and economy that could connect limitless numbers of devices through one network.

For telcos, 5G represents a future revenue channel with abundant possibilities. Recently, smartphone users have been taking advantage of improved wifi capabilities, which has decreased data usage and resulted in some lost revenue for telcos. 5G represents a way to interest smartphone users in cellular browsing once more, and hence replace this lost revenue. However, the rise of the Internet of Things could result in a massively compressed telco infrastructure, as all industry sectors join together. For telcos and other companies in the technology sector, this makes staying ahead of the curve more important than ever… Cue a host of organisations throwing their hat into the ring.

So what’s the downside?

It is not just the telecoms industry who are excited by 5G, but various others who could capitalise from it as well. The result is numerous industries wanting a slice of the action, and so 5G must now fulfil multiple agendas and requirements. Media companies will want prioritised bandwidth, so that their movies can be streamed in higher resolutions. Gaming companies will expect low latency for optimum player experience. Technology companies such as Apple and Samsung are perhaps the biggest investors: Smartphones are an obvious motive, but they are also keen to involve themselves in the IoT, which is tipped to become their next big source of revenue. The development of 5G will therefore be a product of the involvement of various industries. It could be a case of too many cooks spoil the broth, or it could in fact signify the beginning of the next generation of telecommunications technology – a compressed infrastructure that joins together media companies, technology firms, transport organisations and more.

5G therefore represents the chance for telcos, governments and technology companies to unify and create new world standards of living in a digital age. Exciting advancements such as self-driving cars, remote-controlled surgery and self-ordering fridges are all possible with its release. It represents a time of growth for many companies: telecoms have the opportunity to reverse their declining revenue and rejuvenate the industry, whilst technology companies have the chance to broaden their field. A technology revolution is ahead, and the potential is exciting for companies from all industries.

However, as the infrastructure compresses, telecommunications companies invest in the IoT and technology companies begin to offer their own communications options (such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger), companies must adapt to the shifting market to stay afloat. The fate of companies such as Dell and HP, who struggled to keep up with advances in IT after the rise of cloud computing, demonstrates the necessity for companies to keep up with the technological revolution that 5G represents. Telcos, technology firms, media companies, automotive organisations and many more, all have the opportunity to profit from 5G and the IoT, as long as they are able to convert to a concentrated and interconnected digital economy. The race to 5G is officially on, and no one wants to be last.

AGM Notice of Meeting

Since the game-changing release of the first generation iPhone back in 2007, the annual reveal of the newest model is an event that has gathered a following that is borderline fanatical. Since then, Apple has continued to dominate the smartphone industry, raking in a staggering 94% of smartphone industry profits, and their popularity shows little sign of slowing down. In fact today, 395 iPhones are sold in the world every minute. The release of the iPhone 7 was as eagerly awaited as ever, however its reception has already been mixed. A poll from Fortune found that fewer people than ever are actually interested in purchasing the new iPhone. The decision to eliminate the headphone jack has proved controversial, and various techies have claimed it is too similar to the previous generation. Among the displeased are telcos. One particular new feature of the iPhone 7 and iOS 10 could potentially cause trouble for the telecommunications industry.

With the increasing popularity of online communications, VoIP services are constantly growing in demand. WhatsApp recently passed the milestone of 100 million voice calls per day, and Skype now has over 300 million monthly users. The transition away from traditional methods of communication is sure to spell trouble in the future for telcos: and this trouble moves ever-closer upon the release of the iPhone 7. A new feature allows users to answer VoIP calls from the lock screen – a feature that was previously reserved for voice calls only.

Now that Apple has increased the accessibility of VoIP calls for those who invest in the new iPhone, the opportunity for VoIP growth will only increase if this feature is adopted in future evolutions of smartphones. For telcos, an increased popularity of VoIP calls will cause a decrease in their customer usage of voice call minutes. Ultimately, this could drastically affect telco revenues, as customers who make use of this new VoIP accessibility will largely only pay for their used data. This could drastically reduce profits because voice calls are currently responsible for approximately 80% of telco revenue.

The iPhone 7 has also created another problem for telcos. The iPhone 7 has been upgraded to be capable of “lightning fast” speeds, with an LTE-A of up to 450 mbps. The problem is, there are actually very few telcos in the world who can support such speeds. This could create the problem that either iPhone 7 users will be displeased with their telco because they are unable to take advantage of the faster speeds, or telcos will need to work towards expensive upgrading. Either way, the higher speeds of the iPhone 7 could put telcos under pressure, even though they’ve already invested billions of dollars upgrading their networks to provide 4G.

The silver lining

With Apple declaring the latest iPhone as more expensive than its predecessors, telcos can cash in and offer more expensive contracts. Several UK telcos have already announced their pricing options, and EE, Vodafone and O2 have confirmed their higher price plans, forcing consumers to bear the brunt.

Various telecoms have previously voiced their displeasure with VoIP apps, stating that they are in breach of licensing conditions that telecoms themselves have to abide by. With the release of the new iPhone 7 and iOS 10, increased accessibility of VoIP calls is certain to cause further problems for telecoms worldwide.

What’s the solution?

The future success of telecoms may soon depend on their ability to adapt to the shift away from traditional communications, and alter their businesses to fit the unpredictable and ever-changing market. Accepting the increased use of internet based communications, and creating price plans for customers that offer fewer minutes and increased data, is perhaps a logical start point.

Additionally, by deploying new and disruptive services such as Dubber’s Playback, telcos can tap into brand new revenue streams to compensate for the loss of revenue in call minutes. They can even do this whilst maintaining attractive price plans, instead of irritating customers by hiking up the prices of subscriptions and bundles as they have done previously, year after year. Ultimately, innovative and agile service providers will catch the worm.