Enterprise Self-Service: How Telefónica Enables Effective Sales Analytics

“With our department’s own self-service platform, I have the ability to address the business units’ questions in a way that’s tailored to their audience, and to do so with a high degree of flexibility and speed. The platform has enormously improved collaboration between analysts, data scientists, and data engineers. Thanks to ORAYLIS’s support, we were able to tear down walls and build bridges.”

Christin Krieg, Senior Analytics Engineer and Product Owner at Telefónica Germany

Self-service business intelligence takes the way companies handle data to a new level. That’s because business units can quickly and flexibly perform their own analyses without having to rely on a central IT or BI department.

The key benefits are:

• a shorter time-to-market
• results with greater business relevance
• elimination of the requirements backlog

Product sales at Telefónica Germany offers a vivid example. The leading telecommunications provider operates in a highly dynamic competitive environment. Campaigns, customer journeys, and operational processes change quickly — and so do the questions that need to be answered with the help of data.

Day-to-day operations revealed that going through the central reporting department was too slow and cumbersome. As a result, those responsible decided to introduce an enterprise self-service solution.

Not all self-service is the same

In principle, implementing enterprise self-service concepts spans a spectrum of different approaches — depending on the specific use cases, the company’s own governance, and ultimately also the technical skills within the respective business unit.

In some situations, for example, an intuitive, low-code-driven approach can make sense, in which users build on centrally provided and managed data products. In the case of the Telefónica department, however, a more decentralized approach — one that requires more technical expertise — proved to be the method of choice. The reason lies in the complexity of “omnichannel” sales, which involves different target groups as well as a large number of channels. Accordingly, additional data sources repeatedly need to be flexibly connected, and analytical logic needs to be developed further iteratively.

Telefónica operates in a highly dynamic competitive environment. Accordingly, data-driven business questions need to be answered quickly and flexibly. (Telefónica)

The implementation also had to address the typical risks of the self-service approach. That’s because a high degree of autonomy carries the risk of inconsistent metrics, data silos, and unsecured shadow solutions, all of which can have a negative impact on the reliability, scalability, and value of enterprise-wide reporting.

Modern technologies and clear structures as the path to success

Under these requirements, a standalone self-service platform with a layered architecture was connected to Telefónica’s central Azure Databricks Lakehouse, supporting applications in both business intelligence and artificial intelligence alike. Combined with Power BI as the front end, Databricks technology enables users to carry out sophisticated analytical work without overwhelming them. Thanks to the cloud-based approach, the solution can be scaled as needed.

To ensure the necessary stability and governance, everyone involved jointly defined clear structures, standards, roles, and responsibilities for the use of data and the development of data products. Best practices from data engineering — such as versioning, standardized deployments, and logging — were incorporated as well. This created a framework that establishes a healthy balance between agility and security. Uncontrolled “self-service sprawl” is ruled out.

The building blocks at a glance:

• Future-proof infrastructure based on cloud technologies
• Easy handling through a combination of Databricks and Power BI
• Defined governance for productive work under clear guidelines
• Reliable end-to-end processes from data loading through to the final result
• Data protection and cybersecurity are implemented as standard

In-depth analysis and control capabilities

The first productive use cases show that the solution meets the desired requirements. One example is the analysis of cross-sell potential in the shopping carts that customers fill, for instance, on the Telefónica website. While the central Lakehouse only provides very superficial insights here, in-depth analysis and control capabilities are now being opened up. The sales team accesses detailed transaction data from the central Telefónica Lakehouse and can link it flexibly. The results can be developed further iteratively and expanded into robust, reusable assets for the entire company.

ORAYLIS helps companies across a wide range of industries find the right approach for an enterprise self-service landscape, working together with business units and central BI/IT units. We support you all the way from the target vision through technical implementation to employee enablement and scalable operations. Feel free to contact us.