What makes customers buy a bottle of beer or use their credit card in the middle of the month? What makes a hotel room appealing to consumers — traditional features such as tariff and breakfast menu or new-age preferences such as the ‘view' from the top? In a recuperating economy where companies are looking at insights that help make performance-altering business decisions, predicting and analysing is becoming big business.
Numeracy experts
With large IT firms such as IBM, BPOs like 24/7 Customer, shared services firm Tesco HSC, and even media conglomerates like Ogilvy looking at ‘analytics' as a serious service offering to customers, and companies like HP beefing up internal analytics practices, there has been a 15 per cent surge in demand for these ‘numeracy experts,' “especially in the last two quarters,” says Mr E. Balaji, CEO, Ma Foi Consultants.
“While the last 15 years was all about ERP, the next 15 years are going to be about business analytics,” says Mr Simon Thomas, Business Analytics Optimisation, IBM, which has been beefing up its business intelligence and analytics assets with several acquisitions.
Ms Nirupama V. G., Managing Director of recruitment firm Ad Astra Consultants, says with the market on a rebound, companies want to field themselves in right positions with the right strategies. “Therefore, there's a surge in requirements in both kinds of companies — those that have not done well and those that did well and are looking for new strategies.”
Mr P. N. Sudarshan, senior director with consulting firm, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, which recently came out with its list of annual Fast 50 technology companies, said that analytics firms too are gaining ground and feature among their list.
Huge demand seen
Sensing a huge demand in this segment, Bangalore-based Symphony Services has developed a software platform that analytics companies can use. Ma Foi has a 15-member dedicated team for hiring experts in the area.
Cities like Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad are fast becoming a breeding ground for this specialised field which is embracing a new kind of workforce — not techies but those with math aptitude and industry experience. IBM has set up a ‘centre of competence' in Bangalore and has hired experienced professionals from various industries such as retail and pharma, chartered accountants, PhDs, mathematicians and even bankers. BPO 24/7 Customer has in fact hired the global head of analytics from Ford to head its innovation lab, which is doing a lot of work in ‘predictive analytics.'
Genpact too has its analytics centre of excellence in Bangalore. Media group Ogilvy recently set up its global analytics and CRM technology hub in the city.
Domestic market
Although much of the work done is for global clients, the domestic market is also looking up, the BFSI segment in particular. For instance, in a turnkey project, IBM is helping SBI set up an ‘information management' system.
While business analytics collates data from sources such as corporate sales figures, market surveys and paid databases, another powerful data source is emerging in the form of the Internet. Still in the nascent stage, ‘web analytics' involves scanning data on the Internet, especially social networking sites, to listen to what consumers are saying.
“New-age media such as the Internet, social media and mobile phone will determine business decisions in future as eyeballs are going towards online and digital media,” says Mr Dimitri Maex, Global Head for Ogilvy Global Data and Analytics Practice. Web analytics could well spur the next wave of hiring.
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