The difficulties of dealing with a digitally disrupted database

database
Image credit: Maksim Kabakou / Shutterstock.com

The word ‘database’ is an almost invisible part of our world. It suggests a foundation for data, yet seems a little static. In the past, of course, it didn’t need to be much else. In a telco environment, it needed to manage information in time for the bill run at the end of the month.

This in no way belittles the amount of data that was processed, or indeed the hideous complexity of integrating differently configured databases that arrived via mergers or acquisitions. Or even, latterly, through the proliferation of the ‘point solutions’ approach where a new product meant a new system to be managed.

Yet the database of today – and tomorrow – is as different as it is possible to be. Now, it must power innovation. It must harness the creativity of the business and enable telcos to become peers with the new digital superpowers. And, as many have commented, this transformation must happen while the current business carries on (“transforming a bi-plane into a jet, while it is flying” and other comparisons).

MTX WebinarA decade ago, Dave Labuda, founder and CEO of MATRIXX Software – and his team – watched the iPhone arrive. “So we launched the company in 2009 to address what we called the ‘smartphone effect.’ We knew that your phone was going to become your social environment, your bank, your shopping mall, your navigation system, your flashlight, everything” (Q&A with Labuda here).

The goal (some would say still a dream) is to deliver personalized offers, intelligent bundles and compelling campaigns to customers in ways that enhance the customer experience.

The danger lies in trying that without the tools in place, and alienating the customer.

The challenge for telcos is made greater because of the many different types of transactions that customers carry out. No longer simply phone calls, the transactions could be texts, calls, data sessions and e-commerce transactions – hundreds of them. Each customer uses their smartphone around 150 times a day, doing all these different things, and all of these need to be managed in real-time.

To understand the challenges and ways of tackling them, MATRIXX Software – which is known in the market for designing databases that have allowed the industry to reinvent itself as agile, digital and ready for real-time – is presenting a webinar which will provide insights and practical solutions. Entitled “How digital is disrupting the telco database market”, the webinar is presented by MATRIXX chief Dave Labuda.

Labuda and several key people within MATRIXX were involved in a company called Portal, that, according to Labuda, “initially, was timed and aimed at the then-new internet players. We realized that the world had changed and flexibility and real-time responsiveness were the keys. Then, of course, it evolved and we targeted the telco market as it realised the new requirements.”

And the database is at heart of managing that phenomenon.

We strongly recommend this free webinar, and you can sign up here.

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