A growing number of operators and organizations in today’s world are tilted towards the use of data-driven strategies. Data is the key to success for organizations today and operators have come to realize this of late. As part of this realization, operators are also looking for ways to generate money from the data they have. While data monetization is still at a relatively nascent stage, the process is deemed to have a huge and lasting impact on the industry verticals.
With data playing an important role in generating analytics and signaling growth, every company at some stage of time would become a data company through indirect or direct approaches. The presence of data inside your organization can be useful for you in this hour, as it would help propel your customer service strategies.
Data monetization is said by industry experts to be linked with digital innovation. Both digital innovation and data monetization go hand in hand, and success in one can only be experienced through success in the other.
While data monetization is pretty much present across the board, the telecom market is said to be the biggest beneficiary. Some of the latest findings made in this regard through a recent research indicate:
- The total global revenue being generated by Telecom API will reach a massive $319.6 billion by 2023.
- Both the North American and Western European markets are the biggest regional markets for DaaS.
- Telecom API revenue related to Edge Computing will go over $395 million by 2023 within North America alone.
- The structured data market is currently greater than the unstructured data market, but the latter can overtake the former anytime.
Data monetization is important for the telecom industry because of how it can lead the push into the dynamism of the future. Data monetization can help stop the dwindling overall profitability of businesses while answering customer demands for agility. Customers expect better performance and convergence, and data monetization can provide exactly that.
Operators can keep up with the competition through data monetization methods aimed towards getting them the success they want. Telecom operators already generate a massive amount of data, which is extremely valuable to them and other organizations present outside the telco industry. As the telecom industry faces the stagnation in revenues from core processes, it is vital for them to understand the opportunities at hand here and go for the success that can be achieved through these methods.
Challenges in Data Monetization
While data monetization does offer a lot of data driven growth, there are also some intricacies that should be discussed in detail here. There are some challenges currently prevalent in data monetization, which can cause a halt in the unparalleled growth that telecom companies have currently achieved and want to achieve over time.
Telecom companies are in a rat race of sorts to figure out just how their business model can be adjusted to incorporate new avenues focused on data monetization. All the opportunities for revenue and growth can only be achieved if organizations realize the challenges in their current processes and how they can be overcome.
Some of the challenges of implementing a data monetization model in your telecom operations include:
Conceptual Understanding
Organizations cannot start working on data monetization without a conceptual understanding of the data they have. The enterprise data present with most telecom organizations is currently in its raw form and hasn’t been structured the way most operators would like.
To make this data workable, operators would have to develop a conceptual understanding of all that comes within it. The data needs to be structured and analyzed to increase the value that is currently associated with it. It is really amazing how small adjustments to your data can increase the value that it brings to your organization.
Structuring the Data
The data when analyzed needs to be structured so that it can help find out the trends currently circulating in the market. The data in its raw shape is nothing but a bunch of nonsensical figures and stats. Once you structure the data and put it through a machine learning algorithm then you would be able to understand just how the data points towards certain trends in the market correlate. These trends can be carefully studied by you to make the kind of analysis that you want here.
Developing the Right Strategy
Once you realize the value of data it is necessary that you develop and work on the best strategy for sourcing data that is both reliable and relevant. For your data to be considered adequate and authentic it is necessary for it to be trustworthy. The data can only be considered reliable when it is sourced through the right means.
User Friendly Tools
Lack of user friendly tools and techniques for analyzing and collecting data can come and harm you in the long run. If you want to work on your data for extracting actionable insights, you should make sure that the tools and techniques you have are user friendly and easy for your employees to comprehend.
Legalities
Mastering the legalities is another hassle that some organizations will have to face. There are numerous regulations coming pertaining to the use of consumer data and telecoms would want to remain at the right side of the law for avoiding any legal repercussions.
Strategies to Monetize Data
Some of the strategies to monetize data for telecoms include:
Understand What Competitors are Doing
This might sound too basic, but before you start working on your data monetization strategy, you should understand just what exactly your competitors are doing. An understanding of what your competitors are doing can act as a benchmark here.
Analytics Technology
To analyze and work on data the right way, you need the perfect analytics technology as well. We believe that such a technology can help you significantly improve the results you get.
Have a Specialist Team
There are risks to big data that only specialists can gauge and manage. If you want your big data endeavors to succeed, you want specialists all over your team. Gartner has predicted that on“50 per cent of chief analytics officers will have successfully created a narrative that links financial objectives to business intelligence and analytics initiatives and investments by 2020.”
The First Steps to Take
The first steps you take will determine the overall success you achieve. These steps should be to:
Determine a Big Data Platform
For any of your data to be monetized, you should first ensure that it is available on a big data platform. Operators should look to harness data for driving their decision making skills.
Make Sure Data is Appropriate for Outside Use
The data must be structured and legalized to be fit for external outside use. The relevant regulations should be adhered to, as any legal repercussion can cost you a lot.
Meet a Real Market Need
To monetize data, operators should be motivated to meet a real market need present within the market currently. They should know just how the market would use their data in the time to come.
Data monetization presents a unique opportunity for telecom operators to diversify their revenue streams. It might not transform the fortunes of all telecom companies, but it is worth pursuing because of the bright future that it has. With telecom operators facing stagnancy in revenue generation, data monetization is a must for them now.
