Lights, Camera, Analytics! These three words best describe the unique experience which we had in India recently. Five days packed with customer interviews, recording insights on how they are leveraging analytics and data management to drive business outcomes, curb fraud, increase efficiencies and create a better future. Technical and business users, from organisations across Indian industries such as automobile, utilities, banking, government, education, etc., shared their views on SAS Solutions and also underlined the creativity with which they are using analytics to drive business impact. It is clear that analytics is gaining acceptance as a key enabler of competitive advantage. Are you getting the most out of analytics?
To give you a feel of it, let me take you seventeen years back in time - When Arnold Schwarzenegger ventured on a mission to buy an action figure for his seven year old son, in the movie ‘Jingle all the way’. In the ensuing chase, he lands-up attaining much more than he ever thought and shares a delightful moment with his loved ones. In no ways, did I go out on a chase to procure a Christmas sell-out toy. However, the results derived out of this busy week was nothing less than a delight. While I was hoping that we get a chance to interact with 3-4 customers, we landed-up recording eight success stories. We interacted with customers from across Indian cities and industries. The week was packed with customer interviews, event, travel, interactions and loads of business insights. Right from the largest automobile manufacturer in India to an organisation that provides power to the commercial capital of the country to state government to two of the best B-schools in India to private banks, the week unfolded a new story with every passing day.
I wasn’t alone in this initiative, though. Bill Marriott, who’s the Sr. Director of Video Communications and New Media at SAS, travelled all the way from Cary, North Carolina to Mumbai. The week started with an interview with one of the largest private sector banks in India. The interaction highlighted how this growing private sector bank leverages analytics for curbing fraud and deriving insights from their goldmine of data. They shared valuable views on how the Indian banking industry has transformed over the years and explained the underlying importance of creating a delightful customer experience. After interviewing both the Chief Risk Officer and Head of Analytics at the bank, we ended the day with a great start to the week.
Day 2 was packed with three back-to-back interviews with the IT Secretary of one of the states in India and with two leading B-Schools in the country. The customers travelled down to SAS’ Mumbai office for the interviews. The first one to be interviewed was the IT Secretary of State Government. He talked about his experiences with data management and its importance in delivering citizen benefits. The importance of integrating data from multiple sources, removing duplicate entries, ensuring quality data and assigning unique identification to citizens. It was very insightful to learn how a technology like data management and data visualisation is empowering government to ensure that the needy citizens derive benefits of government schemes and fraud/leakages are plugged. By the time this interview was over, it was time for a heavy Indian lunch, especially for Bill. Later in the day, we interacted with senior associates from the B-Schools. This was a different experience altogether as the institutes shared how they are leveraging SAS’ analytical expertise to create business leaders of the future. They receive student admissions from varied cultural and professional backgrounds, with each student having a different career aspiration. They leverage SAS to impart MBA aspirants with a confluence of managerial and analytical skills.
Day 3, we were on the other side of the city for an interaction with a leading power distribution company. Electricity is something that we take for granted. Seldom do we think that if one machinery gets malfunctioned or one switch gets erroneously turned off, it can bring the entire city to a halt. Senior executives from the organisation talked about load forecasting and how it enables them in meeting the regulatory requirements and at the same time distribute power efficiently and save costs. They also showed us their distribution, operations and monitoring facilities. It was truly a great learning experience.
Day 4 and we were off from Mumbai to another beautiful city – Kochi. Here we interviewed the IT Head from a leading bank. He shared his views on how SAS has helped them in creation and allocation of unique customer identifications to customers and removing duplicates from customer database. This helps them meet regulatory requirements, gain a unique view of their customers, create a customer family view, optimise marketing campaigns and empower the branch manager/staff. The day not only ended with insights but also ended with an extra-large plate of South-Indian food, besides the pool.
Day 5 was a tricky one, as I had to head back to Mumbai for attending an event which we were conducting in association with InformationWeek and Bill had to fly down to Delhi to interview a leading automobile company in India. On one hand the event saw good turnout despite the bank holiday. Bill, on the other hand, conducted a successful interview with the customer. Their IT Head shared insights on how they are using SAS Solutions in order to optimise production, reduce delivery times, improve marketing ROI and derive customer intelligence. Back in Mumbai, the event was the perfect conclusion to my action-packed week. The event saw participation from industries such as insurance, consumer goods, manufacturing, banking, telecom, oil & gas, etc. CIOs, IT heads and senior analytics professionals presented their views on upcoming trends in analytics, usage of analytics in their organisation, importance of business intelligence, data management in the age of big data, road to an analytical enterprise, and so on. To me, this was the perfect summary of the week.
Five days… multiple experiences. Experiences that reflected how organisations across different parts of the country and different industries are creatively using SAS’ expertise in analytics, business intelligence & data management to drive business objectives. Each organisation has a different set of goals and different game-plan to achieve the desired growth. Each one leverages technology for a different purpose altogether. They view technology not just as an enabler but as a secret sauce, that can be mixed with the overall business recipe to create a competitive edge. My moment of delight was not when the week ended. But, it was hidden within every interaction – especially when customers talked about the value which they derived from SAS solutions and how SAS helped them in driving business impact.
Stay tuned for a host of Customer Success Videos coming-up soon.
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