Aperio Helps Leverage Original Social Networks
By Tim McElligott
Billing & OSS World - 11/12/2008
Social Networks form naturally among users of communications technology and a pretty nifty new analysis tool from Aperio CI helps operators identify and evaluate the propensities within these groups in order to prevent churn and provide intelligent marketing.
The company's Social Network Analysis and Propensities (SNAP) application, released today, is a software-based analytics tool - initially for mobile operators - that gauges customer behavior and preferences through the analysis of billing records, customer information and history, and competitive pricing information.
"We don't just crank out data; we provide the understanding of what it means," said Paul King, president of Aperio CI, a privately held company from Ronkonkoma, N.Y.
Aperio CI's technology reminds us that social networking is a naturally occurring phenomenon and long before Internet companies such as MySpace and Facebook co-opted the term, there was an inherent avenue for understanding one's customers just waiting to be leveraged. The SNAP tool ends that wait by identifying informal social networks of users among an operator's customer base and evaluating their patterns of usage and technology adoption.
SNAP employs data analytics to examine how users interact with one another and calculates the influence they have on other customers in terms of products and services, customer service, brand loyalty, and overall satisfaction. SNAP categorizes users into traits such as Deciders (typically the bill payer), Connectors (people in a calling circle), and Influencers (early adopter and terminators), then assigns degrees of risk and value to each category. It offers clear action items for operators to deliver compelling and relevant offers and communications through specific channels to appropriate social network group members.
"In our recent study of advanced data analytics, Stratecast noted slightly more emphasis on customer retention in 2008 marketing campaigns, as compared to 2007. This is a smarter use of money. At the same time, we see network operators using data from more sources, in an effort to make their campaign models more sophisticated, more predictive," said Susan McNeice, global program manager of OSS/BSS Competitive Strategies at Stratecast. "Aperio CI's SNAP offering plays quite well into that desire by the operators to understand what, or in this case who, is an influencer of a consumer's spending behavior."
Contrary to current thinking, Aperio CI helps make the case that an operator's most valuable customer might not be the one generating the most revenue. It replaces ARPU (average revenue per user) with something it calls Connected Value. This examines the revenue generated by a subset of social network members, to quantify a customer's true value. It shows how Influencers within a social network might have a substantially higher value to an operator than a customer who spends twice as much each month, based on the number of other users he or she may influence.
For example, George and Russ are buddies who talk regularly. Russ' bill averages $35 monthly. George's bill is $68. Russ is more popular than George and regularly calls and influences five other users in his circle. Losing George as a customer may cost an operator $68 per month. Losing Russ might cost them his revenue and several of the people he influences.
"George only influences his own $68. Russ influences his group. If the influential person in the middle churns, there could be a jailbreak," King said. "So always be good to Russ and if you can't save Russ, save the rest of his social group.
Aperio CI has shown this to occur by analyzing two sets of data. SNAP looks at three months of calling patterns and other data and forms a hypothesis about a potential network. It then tests that hypothesis with the next three months of data.
"By considering the customer within his or her social network, SNAP allows operators to better understand the holistic importance that each individual possesses in a complex chain of revenue," said Hyoun Park, research editor with the Aberdeen Group. "Rethinking customer valuation - understanding why ARPU is less important than a user's Connected Value - and adjusting for that change in customer service, is a 'game changer' that will provide a competitive advantage to carriers who accurately perceive the true value of their most important customers."
SNAP is delivered as a fully managed service, uses existing customer data, and like other Aperio CI solutions, can be easily integrated into the provider's CRM and billing infrastructure. In addition, SNAP meets all privacy and security mandates, and can integrate with the operator's campaign and offer management protocols.
One of the more successful companies to take advantage of social networks was MCI, with the Friends & Family campaign. However, SNAP takes that to a new level. Users are not consciously part of a social network. Aperio CI's networks are all derived from usage and customer data. Complying with privacy rules, Aperio CI does not identify customers personally; it concentrates on their patterns.
"If you know enough about people's behavior you can really drive revenue," King said."And it allows you to take a rifle-shot approach to making offers based on a group's history and propensity."
"I think SNAP is well timed to serve the operators' need to spend their marketing dollars as effectively as possible. Perhaps Aperio's leadership didn't plan it this way, but it may turn out to be the perfect counter-cyclical play for marketing uplift in a down economy," McNeice said.
About Aperio CI
Aperio CI are regarded as the experts in telecoms data management. For two decades we have been delivering innovative data management solutions to critical marketing challenges for some of the world's leading fixed and mobile telecoms operators. Our clients view us as the data experts because we understand that focused customer knowledge is paramount to implementing successful marketing campaigns. We recognize your challenges; disparate data solutions, legacy systems and internal resource constraints – all can prevent you from delivering effective propositions to your customers. We overcome these obstacles, providing you with the insight to create accurate marketing campaigns that deliver tangible business results. Aperio CI is based in the New York area, and maintains offices in New Jersey, Atlanta, San Antonio, and England. For more information, please visit www.AperioCI.com.
For more information, contact:
Lynn McAuley
Aperio CI
+1 (631) 468-4014
lynn.mcauley@aperioci.com
Glen Zimmerman
Netezza
+1 (508) 382-8267
gzimmerman@netezza.com