1. Why do you think telecommunications companies are among the prime users of information visualization tools?
2. How did Saudi Telecom use information visualization?
3. What were their challenges, the proposed solution, and the obtained results?
4. Research the STC and create a SWOT analysis.
Saudi-Telecom-Company-Case-Study1 Supplying internet and mobile services to over 160 million customers across the Middle East, Saudi Telecom Company (STC) is one of the largest providers in the region, extending as far as Africa and South Asia. With millions of customers contacting STC daily for billing, payment, network usage and support, all of this information has to be monitored somewhere. Located in the headquarters of STC is a data centre which features a soccer-field-sized wall of monitors all displaying information regarding network statistics, service analytics, and customer calls. The Environment When you have acres of information in front of you, prioritizing and contextualizing the data is paramount in understanding it. STC needed to identify the relevant metrics, properly visualize them, and provide them to the right people, often with time sensitive information. “The executives didn’t have the ability to see key performance indicators” said Waleed Al Eshaiwy, manager of the data centre at STC, “they would have to contact the technical teams to get status reports. By that time, it would often be too late and we would be reacting to problems rather than preventing them.” The Problem After carefully evaluating 15 vendors, STC made the decision to go with Dundas after observing its data visualization techniques. Dundas’ Business Intelligence Consultants worked on site in STC’s headquarters in Riyadh to refine the telecommunication dashboards so they functioned properly. “Even if someone were to show you what was in the database, line by line, without visualizing it, it would be difficult to know what was going on”, said Waleed, who worked closely with Dundas consultants. The success that STC experienced led to engagement on an enterprise wide, mission critical project to transform their data center and create a more proactive monitoring environment. This project culminated with the monitoring systems in STC’s data centre finally transforming from reactive to proactive. The Solution “Dundas allowed us to see trends and correct issues before they became problems” said Mr. Eshaiwy, adding that “we decreased the amount of service tickets by 55% the year that we started using the dashboard. The availability of the system increased, which meant customer satisfaction levels increased, which led to an increased customer base, which of course lead to increased revenues”. With new, custom KPI’s becoming visually available to the STC team, Dundas Dashboards currently occupy nearly a quarter of the soccer-field-sized monitor wall. “Everything is on my screen, and I can drill down and find whatever I need to know” explained Waleed, adding “because of the design and structure of the dashboards, we can very quickly recognize the root cause of the problems and take appropriate action.” According to Mr. Eshaiwy, Dundas is a success: “The adoption rates are excellent, it’s easy to use and it’s one of the most successful projects that we have implemented. Even visitors who stop by my office are grabbed right away by the look of the dashboard!” The Bene�ts Company Name: Saudi Telecom Industry: Telecommunications Key Bene�ts: Dundas Data Visualization allowed the Saudi Telecom Company to maintain its complex daily operations while decreasing the total amount of service tickets by half. AT A GLANCE “We decreased the amount of service tickets by 55% the year that we started using the dashboard. The availability of the system increased, which meant customer satisfaction levels increased, which led to an increased customer base, which of course lead to increased revenues” - IT manager, STC www.dundas.com