The BI expert

Innovation in Business Intelligence (BI) is not just about new product discovery, but also includes discovering new processes to manage well. These were Sudipta Sen’s thoughts expressed at the Indian Express Idea Exchange. In course of this interaction, which was moderated by Prashant L Rao, Editor, Express Computer, Sudipta Sen, CEO and Managing Director, SAS Institute (India), shared his views on topics close to his heart

Sudipta Sen, CEO and Managing Director, SAS Institute, India (left) shares the dais with Prashant L Rao, Editor, Express Computer

Has business intelligence become an oxymoron in today’s times?

I don’t think so. Indian enterprises have grown manifold in terms of scale and size, especially in the retail and banking industries, and today they are playing in millions, quite opposed to the scale of thousands a few years back. This growth has also propelled the transaction volumes. Today companies are looking at and leveraging on the cross-selling opportunities too. This is very much in contrast to the good old days, when the best way of selling goods was to put up the boards and signs. But today things have changed drastically and companies have many options to choose from. So when you visualize what has happened since then, you can understand that there has been humongous amount of data which has been created so far.

For instance, if a customer walks into an outlet, the outfit he is wearing, the purchases that he has made, etc.; all this data gets captured and we do a market master analysis on the same (who picks up what) to get some unexpected results. Like in the previous mentioned example, we have observed that if a customer purchases jeans, then he/she does not necessarily purchase a top. Especially women customers who may-a-times end up purchasing jewellery like earrings.

In the banking industry, banks need to figure out who should bank—the value of each customer, which will help them market certain products to only key individuals for assured results. It is in such scenarios that BI comes in handy.

Is BI the same as reporting?

The term BI is often misunderstood. Reporting is not BI. Reporting is like eyesight—what has happened, who is involved, etc.—which you can always repair through various types of reporting scenarios. As far as BI is concerned, it stands on certain pillars. The first is data integration. Data in organizations rests in various formats and places and can be culled through various sources.

Thus, the first challenge for BI is getting this data from various sites and resources. The second important pillar is of data quality. For instance, my name and address is saved in different formats for their different products like savings accounts, credit card, demat account. Thus the same person (me) has multiple entities. Hence when anyone would want to find some information about me, it will have to be picked from various sources and from various formats.

Now, after extracting the data, it has to be put in what is known as the DataMart cube where all the data is present, based on which companies do reporting in the hindsight or OLAP reporting which allows for multi-dimensional relationships, hierarchies, etc. So from the abovementioned example, there is my relationship with the bank as MD of a company. Now when analytics come into play, to understand customer’s (my) behavior, the banker can understand his spending patterns, based on the maps/data/trails left behind by him and put forth appropriate products to him. That also ensures some amount of cost savings.

How can BI help curtail fraud?

Taking the example of the Indian banking industry further, to explain this, I would say that the Indian banking system is far more transparent and with all the information coming in, we are getting better. This is where the usage of SAS’s BI comes in. Fraud is an interest area for us. Hence, coming back to banks and credit cards, BI can help the bank and credit card companies understand the spending patterns, choices and the average spending budget of the cardholder, the moment a purchase goes beyond the known limit, thanks to the timely information available, the bank or the credit card company can call and confirm the purchase with the card holder to prevent fraud. HSBC is one of our biggest clients in detecting credit card frauds. But it also depends on the company deploying BI to implement an appropriate model to mitigate the risk and chances of fraud. And the simplest thing that they can do is analyze the trends continuously to check for any variance. If they do see something unusual, they have to probe deeper.

Are there any innovations coming up in BI?

A rapt audience

Sudipta Sen interacting with the editorial team

In my opinion, any new technology, after some time, gets into the commodity space making it is necessary to differentiate yourself from others. With respect to data integration, warehousing, analytics, innovation can take place in the domain management business models. This can be achieved by implementing customer intelligence, the first dimension of BI. For instance, in the telecom industry, it is very essential to retain customers, given the fierce competition, and BI, if deployed can curtail churn out. This is because any customer does not decide on a fine day to drop services of an operator. His interactions with the customer service cell over a period of time can identify changes in his attitude towards the service till the final decision is made. This can be analyzed and appropriate actions can be taken earlier on to prevent the churn out.

The second dimension is financial intelligence. ICICI Bank is one of the most extensive banks. One of the reasons for the bank becoming successful is its focus on execution. They have created a model which has SAS-powered BI. This enables them to observe trends and drill down information. Thus innovation is not just about new product discovery, but also includes discovering new processes to manage well.

SAS US has been mentioned in Fortune magazine as one of the best places to work for. What about SAS India?

We at SAS are proud to be successful year after year. As far as SAS India is concerned, we have undertaken many initiatives to create and offer a creative and productive environment to our employees. For starters, we have built a play school for managing kids of the women employees in the company. Our open culture ensures free dialogue. We have a medical policy in place, flexible working hours and an increased focus on the output. We believe in encouraging our people by offering them all possible facilities, increasing their productivity by bringing them together instead of binding them.

Have you ever thought of changing to a different company or industry?

SAS is a company where anyone would like to work for. I am enjoying my time with SAS and I have no intention of leaving this wonderful company, which has provided me with many opportunities. I started as a sales person in SAS and the company has helped me grow professionally and also as a person. My job is never mundane because I get an opportunity to meet with so many people. I can get to look at things from my clients’ perspective and offer him solutions that best meet his needs.

How has your journey been so far?

I come from a small town. My father was in the army. My biggest joy was the upbringing imparted to me by my parents. In those days when there was no Internet or even cell phones, reading became my habit. We had a library which kept a magazine called ‘Life’. It had the most awesome ads of beautiful cars and I used to be fascinated with them. I was fortunate for that exposure in spite of living in a small town.

I started my career with a textile company. There I came across reams and reams of data, which used to be in report format and my love affair with IT started there, when I started handling the MIS and related reports. In course of my journey, I have understood that one should be able and open to learning from anyone and everyone. Learning should not be restricted. I have learnt many new things from people younger to me. I have been friends with my seniors and people who were elder to me.

Do you have any regrets?

I like music and I listen to soft music, pop or even the Revival series. It acts as a stress buster too. But I always wanted to learn the piano. I have not been able to do so because of lack of free time. Someday I am sure I will learn to play the piano.

What drives you as the CEO of a company?

Firstly, it is my passion. Next is the joy of working with people and lastly surrounding myself with people smarter than me.

What is your mantra that helps you to stand tall against all the odds?

I realized over a period of time, that there come situations, where you have to take a call as everything cannot be done democratically. Thus as a CEO much of my time goes in managing people today. This is because the same person does not react in the same way to the same stimulus. Hence it is important to understand people. Also, a CEO needs to have the ability to see the future. Many times we do things as we have previously done them. But it is important to gauge what the future has in store. Also, a CEO has to be an optimist and someone who can get things done.

(The transcript was prepared by Nandini Chhatre)