Sandeep Sharma, Managing Director, South Asia, Nice Systems, discussed the journey of India Inc. from traditional BI to real time analytics with Mehak Chawla
What is the market like for business analytics solutions in India?
According to IDC estimates, the Business Intelligence market in India is going to be around $170 million in the next couple of years and this is growing at a CAGR of 20% YoY. However, Gartner has said that the analytics market in India is growing at CAGR of 16% YoY and that it would be in the range of $70-80 million. This discrepancy could be a result of how these analysts define BI.
The dynamic interactions between organizations and individual consumers have changed drastically over the last few years and there is an explosion of cross-channel interactions. What used to be a single channel interaction into the enterprise call center has transformed into interactions across channels including retail stores, Web, chat, SMS, email and social media. Enterprises have stepped up their spending on business analytics in order to gain real-time insights into how they can serve their customers better at the moment when the interaction occurs.
Every time that there is a customer interaction, data is created. The empowered customer who uses more channels, more often, is in effect creating a big data challenge and an opportunity for businesses. For them to maximize the value of these interactions, organizations need to own the decisive moment by shaping the interaction as it happens.
Enterprises are looking to move beyond traditional BI and analyze customer behavior. How is that changing the vendor offerings in the analytics space?
The need for cross-channel analytics is one of the biggest trends in the Indian market today. Technology-savvy consumers are demanding greater speed, access and collaboration. In the Nice Global Consumer Survey 2012, which was completed recently, we found that the Web continues to be the most popular self-service channel that’s growing the fastest as well while smartphone applications and social networks have grown in popularity with over 40% of respondents noting that they had increased their use of these channels.
The fact that businesses want real-time insights is the other factor driving the Indian analytics space. While sophisticated analytics have always been available to run offline, the need of the hour is real-time analytics that enable enterprises to better engage the consumer during the interaction. For example, a business can convert a service call into a sales opportunity by leveraging real-time analytics into the consumer’s history and identifying an opportunity while the interaction is in progress. Another example is that of detecting emotion on a call or the mention of a competitor’s name. These insights are more relevant when revealed at the moment of the interaction rather then hours after the interaction completes.
What are the factors driving real time analytics beyond security and compliance regulations?
Enterprises are driven by the need to comply with regulations only to a certain extent. The intensified regulatory framework and adoption of new models of IT consumption does play a role in driving demand for compliance and risk management solutions. For instance, in the banking industry, we see a growing requirement to support mobile recording and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).
However, there are other factors that are relevant here, the primary one being cost optimization. It has become imperative for enterprises to keep costs under tight rein for them to maintain competitiveness. BPOs are moving to invest in systems to manage non-core processes, so that the organization can focus its resources on growing the core business while, at the same time, reducing operating costs. Retailers are also leaning towards lowering operating costs, optimizing existing infrastructure and achieving strategic application development.
The big data opportunity is one of the biggest growth propellants for analytics. The vast amount of data that is available for analysis is exploding, however, it is housed in multiple silos of information with little or no cross-channel analysis of how the data correlates. For forward-thinking enterprises, big data can create value. Whereas BI traditionally performs structured analysis and provides a rear-view mirror into business performance, big data analytics provides a forward-looking view, enabling organizations to anticipate and execute on the opportunities of the future.
Business continuity and disaster recovery are gaining mind share in the Indian enterprise and this is also leading to the adoption of analytical solutions.
What is your go-to-market strategy and what are your plans for the Indian market?
Nice India has over 500 customers in BFSI, healthcare, trading floor, telecommunications, BPOs, transportation, defense, Public Sector & Government, retail & consumer service. We are currently established as one of the key players in the Indian BPO & banking industry with 20 of the top 25 BPOs and 70% of Indian banks as our customers. In addition, two of the top 3 telcos use our solutions.
Our strategy for India revolves around continued double-digit growth underpinned by key strategic pillars that consist of providing sophisticated customer experience management solutions, offering real-time analytics on big data and going deeper with strategic customers and partners in key market verticals.
