Presentation ON The Strategic Value of Business Intelligence Systems: A Case Study of Telecom Companies In Bangladesh Submitted By: Jamil Ahammad M.Sc

Presentation ON

The Strategic Value of Business Intelligence Systems: A Case Study of Telecom Companies In Bangladesh

Submitted By:Jamil Ahammad

M.Sc. in Computer ScienceStudent ID: 0601124003

Department of Computer Science And EngineeringIBAIS University

Dhaka, BangladeshJune 2014

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Literatures Review

Chapter 3: Research Methodology

Chapter 4: Presentation and Research Finding

Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations


Justification of the Research: Telecom market is highly dynamic with new changes and challenges being experienced all the time. To respond to these changes telecom/GSM companies need highly analyzed, filtered and top level knowledge to guide them in strategic decision making. Limited study has been carried out locally on BI strategic decision making support for Bangladesh telecommunication sector. The research will endeavor to build a model to be used by top-line end-users to help them distill information about corporate assets and their performance.

What is Business Intelligence?

Business intelligence (BI) is a set of theories, methodologies, architectures, and technologies that transform raw data into meaningful and useful information for business purposes. BI can handle enormous amounts of unstructured data to help identify, develop and otherwise create new opportunities. BI, in simple words, makes interpreting voluminous data friendly. Making use of new opportunities and implementing an effective strategy can provide a competitive market advantage and long-term stability.


Objective of This Study:

To investigate the extent to which business intelligence has been used by telecom/GSM companies to

support top-line decision making process.

To establish in what ways telecom/GSM companies in Bangladesh use of BI to forecast subscribers'

trends and preferences.

To identify the relationship between use BI reporting and the companies' revenue growth.

To design a framework of how Business Intelligence system can be used to support decision making at

various levels of management.

To validate the designed proposed framework.


Business Intelligence Gap (Gartner, 2004) Historically, many data warehousing and business intelligence (BI) initiatives have been IT-driven, and much of the focus within the industry has been on the technical aspects of delivering information to the BI user community. Having arrived at a point where many of the technical challenges and tradeoffs are at least well understood, attention has shifted toward expanding the ways in which BI can be used to deliver business value.

Gartner strongly argues for conducting a business assessment prior to investing in a BI initiative to provide a quick and low-cost validation of a BI project's proposed direction and deliverables (Gartner, 2004). This report also argues for establishing clear strategic objectives of a BI initiative before start of the project. Another key recommendation by Gartner is narrowing the gap between available information and Business Intelligence maturity and deployment.

Chapter 1: IntroductionBI Strategy: Linking Business Strategy to Greater Profit (Steve, 2011)


Mobile Phone Industry in Bangladesh:Over the last 10 years use of mobile phones have grown exponentially from subscribers base of below 2 million in 2003 to over 115 million subscribers in 2014. This translates to about 72% of the population using services provided by the mobile service providers. The level of access has grown rapidly since 2005, when Bangladesh was at par with the continent's average, which at that time were six mobile phone subscriptions per 100 people (BTRC).

According to BTRC monthly statistics (Mar-2014) report Grameen Phone (GP) commands a large 42.24% of market, Banglalink has increased its share to 25.48%, Robi has acquired 20.77% while Airtel, Teletalk and Citycell share the remaining 11.51%. Operator wise Mobile phone subscriber (in million):


Overview of Banglalink:

Banglalink has been in the telecom market of Bangladesh for the last over 9 years and operates as a subsidiary of a global telecom VimpelCom (www.vimpelcom.com) establishment with many branches all-over the world.

Though GP steel leads the telecom market in Bangladesh based on subscriber count and revenue but Banglalink has a rapid and fantastic growth after its launch till now because of its lowest call rate.

Banglalink launch in February 2005 and attained 1 million subscribers by December 2005 and 3 million subscribers in October 2006. In less than two years which is by December 2007, Banglalink overtook Aktel (Currently Robi) to become the second largest operator in Bangladesh with more than 7.1 million customers. Banglalink acquired 24.74 million subscribers as of Mar 2012, representing a market share of 27.66% and now Banglalink has 29.37 million subscribers as of Mar 2014, representing a market share of 25.48% (BTRC).


Banglalink BI solution:

Banglalink has implemented SAP Business Objects (SAPBO) Enterprise Edition solution in the last of 2013

after successful implementation of various business applications including Oracle financials, HRM systems,

Revenue and Billing system.

Banglalink BI solution is used in the following areas:

Business PlanningFinanceCore Network and Planning SectionsCustomer Base Management (CBM)CRMMarketing


Main Tasks of Business Intelligence:

Intelligent exploration IntegrationMultidimensional analysis of data originating from various information resources

BI support for decision making: i.Strategic level: BI supports setting of objectives and to follow realization of established objectives.

ii.Tactical level: BI Systems may provide some basis for decision making within marketing, sales, finance, capital management, etc.

iii.Operational level: BI Systems are used to perform ad hoc analyses and answer questions related to departments ongoing operations, up-to-date financial standing, sales and co-operation with suppliers, customers, etc.


Application of Business Intelligence:

Financial analyses: Involve reviewing of costs and revenues, calculation and comparative analyses of corporate income statements, analyses of corporate balance sheet and profitability.

Marketing analyses: Involve analyses of sales receipts, sales profitabi1ity, profit margins, meeting sales targets, time of orders, actions undertaken by competitors.

Customer analyses: that concern time of maintaining contacts with customers, customer profitability, modeling customers' behavior and reactions, customer satisfaction, etc.

Network Analysis: Area and time wise network quality monitoring.

Campaign Analysis: Before, during and after revenue impact of a campaign.

Churn Analysis: Define strategy to reduce churn rate.


BI systems in decision making:


Business Intelligence Components:

OLAP (On-Line analytical processing): OLAP as the way in which business users can slice and dice their way through data using sophisticated tools.

Advanced Analytics: This can referred to as data mining, forecasting or predictive analytics, this takes advantage of statistical analysis techniques to predict.

Corporate Performance Management: This usually provides a container for several pieces to plug into so that the aggregate tells a story. For example, a balanced scorecard that displays portals for financial metrics combined with say organizational learning and growth metrics.

Data Warehouse and data marts: The data warehouse is the significant component of business intelligence. It is subject oriented, integrated.

Data Sources: Data sources can be operational databases, historical data and external data .

Real time BI: It allows for the real time distribution of metrics through email, messaging systems and/or interactive displays.


Data warehouse delivers Business Intelligence capabilities to support Intelligence Application (IEC, 2004)


Benefits of BI:

With BI superior tools, now employees can also easily convert their business knowledge via the analytical

intelligence to solve many business issues.

Quickly detect product problems to minimize the impact of product design deficiencies.

Discover illegal VoIP activities.

Analyze potential growth customer profitability and reduce risk.

Determine what combinations of products and service lines customers are likely to purchase and when.

Set more profitable rates for various tariffs on different times of the day.

Reduce equipment downtime by applying predictive maintenance in a normal GSM base station.

Determine with attrition and churn analysis why customers leave for competitors and or become the

customers.


Barriers to BI Success:

Many executives in various business industries are still not comfortable with BI and BI related terminologies despite the fact that BI systems may have been implemented at their organizations.

The mission and Importance of BI are not clear.

Lack of clear link to BI business strategy and critical business processes.

Technological Barriers:

Data challenges: The amount data to collect, cost, accuracy and completeness of data fed to the BI system determines acceptance of the BI system.

Technology challenges: The proliferation of disconnected information silos poses obstacles to the successful creation of knowledge within an organization.

Process challenges: Organizations that marry their human capital, culture, knowledge processes, and infrastructure by creating a BICC are prepared and poised to meet the continuously changing demands of their customers and maximize potential.

Chapter 2: Literatures ReviewThe Strategic Importance of BI Defines Its Mission (Steve, 2011)

Chapter 2: Literatures ReviewAMR research's BI/Performance Management (PM) Maturity Model (MM)


A framework on Data Analysis through BI for Decision Making (Ngure & Acosta, 2009)


Research Design:

This study was a descriptive research with a mixture of exploratory study. Considering that Banglalink is one

of the leading telecom companies in Bangladesh in almost all facets of telecom solutions in Bangladesh, this

study was geared towards exploring how the existing reporting tools can be enhanced to add value to business.

The main research strategy was to carry out a case study on Banglalink to try to underpin what facets of BI has

worked well, failures of strategic use of BI and what BI models have been used by Banglalink in progressive

use of BI and related technologies.


Target Population: The targeted data collection population of this study was from staff various departments at Banglalink. Online questionnaire were distributed to at least 47 managers, HODs, senior managers and directors and a total of 26 responses were received. The intended focus of data collection were from IT department, finance, and marketing departments but due to poor response, the data collection was extended to other departments such as RS, Risk and Sales.

Data Collection: Both primary and secondary data were used in this study. The primary data was collected in two ways; target specific questionnaires and limited interviews with selected employees.

Secondary data was collected from previous studies both locally from other countries including research carried out by government regulatory bodies such as BTRC.


Procedures: Most of data collection was done through a formal close ended questionnaire but also some limited interviews with BI team at Banglalink and a former Senior IT auditor who was involved in BI fraud audit at some point was done. The study was carried out between January 01, 2014 and 31 May 2014. Initially questionnaires were prepared and sent to selected respondents by e-mail and then follow-up with a friendly telephone call was done. This generated about 32% of the response which was still low for analysis. To get better response the researcher then requested to meet those who were available at their own time, this provided some more responses. A total of 47 questionnaires were distributed to respondents from various departments and received 26 responses.


Responses Analysis by Department and Role:

This research mostly carried out using a close ended questionnaire that was distributed to a total 47 members of senior staff. The researcher also conducted interviews with some members of BI team at Banglalink. Out of 47 questionnaires sent the response only about 26 which is about 55% although the number captured response from all departments.

Director HOD

Senior Manager

Manager

Executive

Finance & Accounting

2 2 1

Risk and Quality 1 1 IT 1 1 1 Marketing 1 1Sales 2 2Mobile Money 2 Revenue Assurance 1 1 1Technical 5


IT Competency and Lengthy of employment duration:

Majority of respondents had been in company for more than one year and possess at least some form of IT qualification with 42% of the respondents possessing a master’s degree. This analysis is very important because at least these staff have knowledge of IS and reporting, a very important pre-requisite for business intelligence tools.

Various Business Applications used by respondents:

Application No Percent

Internet 5 27%

GL Accounting/Finance System 3 16%

HRM (Human Resource Management) 2 11%

CRM (Customer Relations Management) 3 16%

Business Intelligence System 4 21%

Billing System 2 11%

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) 3 16%

Other 4 21%


Feedback from respondents:

Factors contributing acceptance of BI

How would you rate the effect of the following factors in facilitating acceptance of BI system at Banglalink?

Factors contributing acceptance of BIRating – (5 most important, 1 least

important)

Rating 5 4 3 2 1TotalCount

Involvement of all users of the system in all stages of system application

6 10 0 1 0 17

System’s ease of use 6 6 4 1 0 17Alignment of BI objectives to Organizations Objectives

7 8 2 0 0 17

Customized reporting according to user’s needs 7 9 1 0 0 17Well defined mission and objectives of the BI system

3 9 4 0 0 16

Full involvement of IT department in all the processes

3 5 6 3 0 17


Effect of BI usage to the company

How would you agree with the following statement?Effect of BI usage to the company

RatingStrongly Disagre

e

Disagree

I don’t know

AgreeStrongly Agree

Total Count

Strongly Agree

Agree

The use of BI system reports has helped Banglalink in a major way to maintain market leadership

2 5 0 8 3 18 17% 44%

Use of BI system has improved my decision making by providing fact based information

3 3 4 5 2 17 12% 29%

Our BI system objectives are linked to Banglalink’ s overall objectives

0 2 9 3 3 17 18% 18%

At least all managers and above understands the objectives of BI systems at Banglalink

7 1 3 5 1 17 6% 29%

Top management encourages and enforces use of BI reports in decision making

1 7 2 5 2 17 12% 29%

New managerial staff are inducted on need and use of BI system at Banglalink

5 4 3 4 0 16 0% 25%


Strategic Barriers to Adoption of BI:

Barriers to adoption of BI at BanglalinkRating – (5 most important, 1

least important)

Rating 1 2 3 4 5TotalCount

Poor training/awareness on BI system 0 1 0 8 8 17

Lack of interest by management 0 3 6 7 1 17

Insufficient support by internal IT 0 2 10 2 2 16

BI system not addressing specific needs of manager while making decision

0 0 5 7 4 16

Technology challenges, i.e. the system is difficult to use

1 0 6 4 5 16


Proposed Framework of BI:

Chapter 4: Presentation and Research FindingMany Sides of Business Intelligence (Adopted from (Steve, 2011))


BI for CRM:

The steps in the above diagram explain the CRM process as follows:

Identify the most profitable or potentially profitable customers for future interaction.Understand their needs and buying patternsInteract with them so as to meet all of their expectations.


BI operations in telecom industry ties to these value chains:CRM (Customer Relations Management) Human Resources managementFinance and fixed Asset management Corporate management

Strategic alignment of BI Mission to the Enterprise Over-all Strategy:


Strategic alignment of BI Mission to the Enterprise Over-all Strategy:

Four activities for achieving this strategic alignment:

Understanding the strategic drivers for the competitive environment and the related goals. In the case of telecoms industry pricing, product agi1ity as well as subscriber retention are key strategic drivers

Determining the business questions for which answers are required in order to plan, budget, control, monitor, measure, assess, and/or improve organizational performance in relation to the strategic goals.

Identifying the tools, methods, and analytical frameworks that can be used to support execution of key business processes and management of organizational performance.

Following well-estab1ished technical procedures for identifying, acquiring, integrating, staging, and delivering the data and information required by management.


BI investment:

To eventually capture the strategic value of BI we need to carefully establish the investment cost. This should total value of investment including:

Software cost, including consultancy costs

Licensing

Training

Staffing costs - read cost of BICC

Post implementation reviews and maintenance. Including cost of SLAs signed with suppliers, both hardware and software suppliers.


People Roles in the Support and running of BI:

i.Analysts who define and carry out domain-specific and ad hoe analysis.

ii.The users who consume analytic results and associated information for making decisions and managing performance.

iii.IT professionals that define, develop and support the technologies components.


Decision making process with a closed-loop BI integration (Adopted from (McIntyre, 2009))


BI Project:


BI Change management:BI Technology Awareness. From the onset the user community needs to be aware of what coming and the benefit impact to the business. The BI terms and modules to be acquired need to be made clear even before configuration stage.

Different users in the community will undergo different training. For example: Analysts to be trained on the query analysis methodologies, IT enablers the technical aspects of the solution, BI users how to retrieve reports or interpret various dashboards scoreboards as well how to effectively interact with the system.

Define different roles for different modules of BI to clear all ambiguities in what tools to be used by whom. Top executive will be much more interested in dashboards and highly summarized scoreboards.

Stimulate the uptake by top management especially by involving them at all phases of BI creation to BI Strategic value capture. Enough funding for various workshops to be held at right locations.

BI Business Strategy Communication. Build BI strategy detailing objectives, mission and functions. This should be effectively communicated with the communication coming from top management or head business units. The initial communication should be form the president CEO to put the impact BI as business project and now technology one.

Involve the BI user community in testing and have them develop their own test plans.

In all these activities and sub-activities you should always get feedback from the involved users.


BI value to the Business:

Improve management processes - such as planning, controlling, measuring, monitoring, and/or changing so that management can increase revenues, reduce costs, or both.

Improve operational processes such as fraud detection, sales campaign execution, customer order processing, purchasing, and/or accounts payable processing so that the business can increase revenues, reduce costs or both.


Conclusions: Banglalink have implemented the SAPBO (SAP Business Objects) system which is used to generate various reports and analysis for management decision making. However many senior managers from various departments (58%) do not use any BI output to make critical decisions. This is so despite the fact that 68% of respondents have access to the BI tools. Besides only 42% of respondents know at least one objective the BI system, which makes it hard for them to measure strategic value of the BI.

The research concluded that most of the respondents did not have any formal training on BI tools and even though some had access they did not have formal inductions. Many managers do not use BI to make critical decision but use other reporting tools some of which feed into BI systems. Due to this it is very difficult to tell the actual value of BI to Banglalink.

From the research the main reasons why the uptake of BI is very slow are poor training, lack of management support, lack of aligned BI objectives to enterprise objectives and little involvement of users at all stages of BI creation and adoption stage.


Recommendations: A successful BI initiative is measured by how well it achieves objectives set. In this regard it is critical to set clear BI objectives which must be aligned to enterprise's objectives. The objectives and the mission of the BI together with the alignment to business objectives should form the BI strategy. People roles should then be established at the very onset of the project. This will include IT team, BI users and analysts together with management support. From the research carried out the adoption rate of BI at Banglalink only could be said to be 32% as these are the only people who use BI to make any decisions. This is very low adoption rate and there room for improvement if the company is to achieve strategic value of BI.

End of Presentation

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Presentation ON The Strategic Value of Business Intelligence Systems: A Case Study of Telecom Companies In Bangladesh Submitted By: Jamil Ahammad M.Sc