In a statement released today, Ovum (News - Alert) named Oracle as the company with the best business intelligence (BI) and analytics solutions integrating its IT and network data. Ovum recognized IBM (News - Alert) as having the most elegant portfolio of BI and analytics solutions while noting that SAS differentiates itself with outstanding advanced analytics and information delivery.

According to Ovum, both vendors and telcos need to make substantial BI and analytics investments to get a 360-view of the telco customer. Integrating data across multiple siloed applications, however, tends to be a challenge for large enterprises.

“A key issue is that the best route to an integrated view is still not clear," explained Ovum telecoms analyst Shagun Bali. “Just a handful of vendors have created truly pre-built departmental models. Others believe that each telco requires a certain level of customization, so they create a unique model each time.”

Telco operators look at a metric called churn rate as a primary indicator of the health of their businesses. Churn rate describes the number of telco customers who leave a certain operator within a given period for any reason.

For many operators, churn rate provides an important look at the health of companies’ subscriber bases. Low churn rates are seen as good harbingers for a telco company’s future.

The key for BI and analytics solutions, according to Ovum, is interoperability and data integration. According to a report from McKinsey and Company, telcos need to build networked operations within their organizations.

“Telco units must promote cross-unit collaboration, use new technologies, enable virtual remote collaboration, increase the organization’s flexibility and overcome silo thinking,” the report’s authors noted.

McKinsey suggested that organizations complement their matrix-based structures with networked communities including centers of excellence, expertise locators or knowledge markets.

In other words, organizations don’t just need the perfectly structured data integration matrix. True business intelligence means also integrating a company’s human collaborators.

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