Vodafone shows how to win and serve a customer

BANGALORE, INDIA: "Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense" - Gertrude Stein.

Although the quote has held true in many situations, but its surely is not happening with Vodafone. With the first to set a trend in telecom industry, Vodafone is using big data in literally a big way!

Right from winning a customer, to serving a serving a customer  remains the sole reason behind this Big Data project of Vodafone. This project has been a true showcase of digital empowerment and how easily a customer behaviour can be predicted and needs be understood with insights of big data.

This strategic step is undoubtedly helping in the efficacy of BI and capitalize on huge customer data to facilitate better offerings to end customers.

The company has been able to increase campaign conversions through first time over the top applications like whatsapp, Face book etc, for propensity to international travel, thus helping them to target the right customer at the right time with the right offer. Secondly, social network analytics have helped in predicting customers churn in advance. The technology has enabled to change lots of unstructured data to get better insights and serve customers better.

Anthony Thomas, CIO, Vodafone, has been credited with trend setters like mFieldForce, mSales and has also implemented significant projects in the company.

He initiated Big Data project as he understood the need of a VIL for a platform which can store and analyze huge volume and variety of data covering all types of structured and unstructured format in near real time. 

With many accolades to his name already, he continues to use emerging technologies in the everyday biz routine to have better gains and has recently also won the title of 'Digital Crusador' at CChange 2015.

Handling a team size of more than 150, Anthony Thomas has also set few best practices for the industry. He is the advisor to RBI on Mobile Banking, helping to  develop mobile banking framework. He also initiated paperless banking/Digital banking for Citi.

Answering out how the role of a CIO will change in the next five years, he said, "For telcos, the operating ecosystem of today is a far cry from what it used to be a decade ago, and will be radically different from the one we know today. What we know though is that it will get even more complex, requiring tremendously fast response to ever increasing consumer needs. This ever transforming landscape is also continuously changing CIOs focal points."