Vodafone Idea strikes big data deal with IBM to enhance customer experience

As VI's (formerly Vodafone Idea) strategic technology partner, IBM is leading the end-to-end implementation and management of the platform

Vodafone Idea has announced a partnership with IBM to improve customer experience. The company has selected IBM’s open source on big data platform, based on Hadoop technology, which would be used at scale across the telco’s network.

As Vodafone’s strategic technology partner, IBM will be leading the end-to-end implementation and management of the platform. IBM will be responsible for program management, consulting, system integration, infrastructure services, application operations, and maintenance support for Vodafone. 

Additionally, IBM will help enhance the network security of Vodafone. The IBM team’s expertise will help achieve Vodafone’s target of reduction in the overall cost of data analytics. The insights from advanced data mining empower employees and partners to take decisions quickly and elevate the omnichannel as well as the digital-first experience for customers. 

This implementation will result in 40 per cent cost reduction in IT analytics and 60 per cent slash in operational complexity, IBM added. It will build on IBM’s existing work to advance Vodafone’s hybrid Cloud transformation using open technologies. This includes a deal earlier this year to deliver its open universal Cloud with IBM and Red Hat to accelerate network and IT modernisation. 

Vodafone has a need for largescale data transformation with a focus on architecture modernisation, open-source adoption and using predictive analytics for data modernisation. By partnering on this implementation, IBM is helping Vodafone transform the way data is optimised and delivered to partners, employees and internal systems. Fragmented and siloed data can now be streamlined for seamless data availability. This will help reduce costs. Vodafone will also be able to combine insights from the big data platform and better leverage Cloud-native technologies and artificial intelligence to enhance revenues, reduce costs and elevate customer experiences.

Currently, insights derived from the data are leveraged for management dashboards, campaign management, network analytics, usage traffic analysis and product analysis, among others. “We have embarked on a journey equipped with augmented data insights to help our customers with customised and faster service launches,” said Vishant Vora, chief technology officer, Vodafone Idea.