Southern African cellular telephone network operator, MTN, is leading the way in the implementation of Web-enablement for information delivery. Through familiar desktop technology, such as Internet browsers, staff now have easy access to company-wide information. Garth Brown, MIS manager at MTN explains: "Since the outset, we have experienced phenomenal growth and we are continuously offering our customers new and enhanced services. In order to respond effectively to the ever-changing market dynamics, staff need quick and easy access to vast amounts of data, typically in a report format. In addition, they also need to perform numerous ad hoc queries." As early as 1994, just after the company`s inception, MTN realised the need to collect, assimilate and distribute information to keep abreast of fierce competition. From the development of an Executive Information System (EIS), the company has, in just a couple of years, implemented a fully-fledged data warehouse using SAS software. Weekly management reports are prepared utilising information from MTN`s data warehouse. "For example, we need to know immediately if there is any change to our subscriber base, what the network usage is (how many billed-minutes are utilised by our subscribers every week) and call-pattern behaviour," notes Brown. MTN` MIS department processes in excess of 100 million call data records per month. "These have to be processed and regrouped into a form that can be utilised by our management. For example, we break down the figures to include the number of national versus international calls, and when subscribers are calling during peak or off-peak times, we need to be able to drill down to all sorts of multi-dimensions. "The demand for information, particularly in the form of reports, is needed daily by staff throughout the country; the problem was how to get it to them in the quickest possible manner. After a number of attempts, which included distributing reports over our national wide area network, we decided to Web-enable our data warehouse," says Brown. "At the time, the whole concept of Web-enablement was still quite new and it proved to be more difficult than we had expected. With the release of SAS/IntrNet software, things quickly got off the ground," says Brown. SAS/IntrNet software provides dynamic interaction with SAS applications and data servers as well as the common web publishing capabilities (i.e. producing web reports in the form of static HTML pages). "In addition to the ease of distribution (a single e-mail to reach hundreds of users) and cutting down on the creation of paper-based reports, SAS/IntrNet software has allowed us to develop and deploy sophisticated SAS applications from a single user and use the Web as the media and interface - whether it be our Intranet, Extranet or via the Internet," notes Brown. "This is especially useful when deploying applications to the field, as well as to partners and third-parties." Users have warmly welcomed the familiarity and ease-of-use of the system and Brown says the move has significantly improved processes and predicts increased productivity throughout the organisation. "SAS software has produced a significant return on investment. It gives us the ability to access millions of records a day, summarise and analyse the information, and allows us to make decisions based on this information. "We`re at the stage where SAS software is an integral part of our operation. We use it for our entire marketing analysis, prediction modeling and forecasting, and even for network monitoring and capacity planning." he concludes.
Share