Recently we had some interaction with CIOs and IT Execs who were skeptical that Wireless Billing Data is Big Data.
This surprises us.
Before electronic billing, we had bills that would arrive to customers on a pallet. Really. You know, the pallet kind that requires a forklift.
Big Data Defined:
We use Wikipedia’s definition of Big Data as a “Term for data sets that are so large or complex that traditional data processing applications are inadequate.”
A forklifts’ worth of data would surely qualify as a data set large and complex, right? Before you answer, to illustrate the point, we could ask to you sort through that forklift of data to find even just a few users that are overpaying because they are paying for features they don’t use. Now is it Big Data? Are traditional data processing applications inadequate to identify these users?
Perhaps the hurdle now is that the forklift is electronic and the data is less visible, more difficult to extract and arriving in terabytes of data. Additionally, to adequately sort it and identify trends, custom software is imperative and who has time for that?
Because now our handheld devices are so key to our enterprise functioning we also just don’t want to address a complex problem — mainly that we are not optimized or incorrectly billed on wireless every month.
One Insightful CIO stated “Well maybe if we don’t think Wireless is Big Data, THAT is the problem and we need to seek education and information”. We like that guy; he gets it!
Once Big Data is Identified
If you can agree that wireless billing data is indeed Big Data, once you can wrestle with it and manage it, you can have accuracy in your analysis. This will lead to more confident decision making, and better decisions can result in greater operational efficiency and cost reduction.
THIS is why we like to manage Big Data. It takes ugly, heavy complex stuff and reduces it to meaningful data that can actually put money back into your pocket.
So from forklifts to lifting your fork because you have a few extra bucks in your pocket, admitting and managing Big Data is a Big Payoff.
Still Protecting your Wireless Rights……especially for Dan today….
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