SAP Survey Reveals Big Data-Driven Customer Insight and Real-Time Offers to Open New Revenue Opportunities for Operators

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – April 14, 2014 – In its fourth consecutive survey focused on mobile commerce and mobile operator services at GSMA Mobile World Congress, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) has uncovered results showing the value and challenges of Big Data for operators. The survey reflects the sentiments of mobile operators, fixed telecommunication providers, over-the-top (OTT) players and other global mobile industry executives and aims to address top issues surrounding Big Data, mobile commerce and LTE.

Unlocking the Value of Big Data

According to communication services providers (CSPs) and global mobile industry insiders, real-time offers (36 percent) and better customer segmentation (27 percent) are expected to drive the most value from Big Data in 2014.  The key challenges that are preventing operators and enterprises from fully unlocking the business potential of big data are security and privacy concerns (38 percent) and lack of Big Data expertise (28 percent).

“Big Data represents tremendous revenue potential for operators and the most effective way for enterprises to engage with consumers,” said Diarmuid Mallon, director, Global Mobile Marketing Solutions, SAP. “The challenge is how to apply analytics for deeper consumer insight while maintaining the highest levels of security and individual privacy. Our survey also shows that the main drivers of LTE/4G adoption are centered around new service offerings, such as improved data speeds, movies on demand and new video broadcast services, that will significantly enhance the end-user experience. While LTE/4G adoption will allow operators to expand revenue channels through more robust services and triple play offerings, it is encouraging to see that subscriber benefits are at the center of this transformation.”

“Killer Apps” for Mobile Payments

The survey uncovered that the “killer apps” expected to drive widespread adoption of mobile payments services will be mobile top-up (31 percent) and retail payments (25 percent). This statistic diverged from the 2013 results, which anticipated mobile top-up (eight percent) and retail payments (34 percent) would be important mobile payment catalysts. When it comes to who should be creating and running mobile payment networks, mobile industry insiders still believe that banks (26 percent), existing online payment providers such as PayPal and iTunes (25 percent), a consortium of operators (19 percent) and credit card schemes (17 percent) and social networks (17 percent) are in the best position to provide a successful mobile payments platform, with a single operator platform coming in at 11 percent. The gold standard for “secure” payment instruments remains the credit card (52 percent), with mobile payments (20 percent) and NFC (15 percent) trailing behind.

LTE/4G Remain Top of Mind

LTE/4G services continued to be a highly discussed and debated topic. Increased data speeds for customers (34 percent) and new service offerings, such as video broadcast services and movies on demand (30 percent) are perceived as the main business drivers behind 4G/LTE services. While the primary revenue drivers for operators this year are expected to be new services such as 4G/LTE and rich communication services (32 percent) and a triple-play model that combines high-speed Internet access, television and phone over a single broadband connection (32 percent).