Swisscom, the Swiss telco, expects to halve the cost of its business intelligence operation by standardising six separate data warehouses in a single data warehouse and business analytics system. In process, it is changing the way it competes.
The business case was conclusive
Daniel Neuhaus, the leader of Swisscom’s business intelligence (BI) centre, told Computer Weekly that a traditional projected cost exercise had measured the net value of continuing to run the six data warehouses now and into the future against consolidating them. “The business case was conclusive,” he said.
Plethora of systems
Swisscom’s plethora of systems was the result of having three separate companies, each with its own IT department, to service 5.6 million mobile customers, 3.5 million fixed-line customers, 1.8 million broadband customers, and 230,000 IPTV customers, as well clients of its outsourcing and consultancy services.
Some managers pause
Things came to a head in 2007 when the three operating firms merged. But Swisscom’s position as the dominant telco in Switzerland still made some managers pause over the decision to consolidate the data warehouses.
The CFO could not get the informatie he needed
“Getting people to give up control of what they see as their data is a huge issue. It definitely helped that the CFO wanted the system (and business intelligence tools) because he could not get the information he needed cheaply any other way,” said Niehaus.
Analysis of early adopters
It also helped that Swisscom was starting to spend big money installing fibre connections to Swiss homes. One of the first projects the new consolidated BI system dealt with was an analysis of which customers would be early adopters and therefore most profitable for Swisscom to serve first. This subsequently guided the network roll-out plan.
Reluctant to give financial details
Niehaus is still in the first phase of the project, so is reluctant to give financial details. Swisscom aims to have the consolidated BI infrastructure settled by 2011. “Then we will draw a new baseline,” he said.
Getting user buy-in
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