#ICYMI: Matt Matsui on the Power of Analytics

Analytics Q&A with Matt Matsui

At this year’s Calabrio Customer Connect (C3), Matt Matsui, ‎senior vice president, product strategy and marketing at Calabrio, delved into the power of analytics, the capabilities behind it, and the potential for companies everywhere to employ analytics to better serve customers and gain more insights to drive corporate strategy. In case you missed it, watch his full speech from C3 here.

In this Q&A, Matt makes the case for why analytics should be the imperative and how these technological developments will instrumentally impact companies across industries.

Q: What has been the most significant development in BI/analytics solutions over the past 12 months?

Matt: Two major advancements in the past 12 months are, first, putting structure around unstructured data in a consistent way across media platforms (structuring voice the same as text and running analysis across both) and, second, we’re much better at putting context around the structuring of our data. For example, the academic world has made a lot of progress in being able to identify sarcasm. So, we’re putting structure around it and also understanding the subtle nuances of context—that’s powerful.

Q: Where and how are solutions providing the most competitive advantage to businesses?

Matt: Customer engagement is huge and that’s one area where analytics can really provide value. The customer battlefield is changing. More and more customer interactions are occurring digitally. As that shift to digital happens, companies must get better at connecting and analyzing all that information to increase the level of customer intimacy.

Q: Are these solutions reaching more users within enterprises beyond “power users,” and how is the shift to self-service progressing?

Matt: We’re way beyond power users at this point.  Solutions like customer engagement analytics are being used across the enterprise by power users and casual users alike.  While self-service for simpler BI tasks like pulling reports is well-defined, it can be a bit trickier for analytics.  We are very close to self-service with mainstream speech and text analytics solutions and are making good progress with more advanced applied analytic solutions (e.g., predicting customer attrition).

Q: Are most solutions also on the cloud?

Matt: Yes, absolutely. Nearly every company has a cloud offering, but few offer a hybrid version. Everyone is either cloud or on-premise. Few offer a blended or hybrid approach, but that’s where the market is headed. Companies need to provide solutions to consumers in the way they want to consume, and that’s going to be a mixture of on-premise and cloud.

Q: Are there cases in which more localized (non-cloud) approaches to BI/analytics are suitable?

Matt: Yes. Sensitive data or large volumes of data may not always be right for the cloud. For example, if you have an on-premise ERP system and analytics in the cloud, it might not make sense to move all the information to the cloud, crunch the numbers and move it back on premise for consumption. Each situation should be evaluated to determine its cost/benefit based on network bandwidth, data volumes and location of data.  I think what we will find is the need for more hybrid solutions where processing can occur where it makes the most sense.

Q: Are there solutions emerging that help address the Internet of Things?

Matt: There are lots of technologies that work with machine-to-machine (M2M) technologies. What is lacking is the way M2M communication interfaces with people and people processes. A machine talking to another machine is simple. Machines interacting with people can be complicated.

Q: What’s ahead for 2016?

Matt: The prediction for 2016 is all about predictions—it’s about predictive analytics across the spectrum. It’s about being able to predict human behavior with better consistency and accuracy.

How do you think analytics could help your company engage better with your customers? Share your thoughts with us on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

Dave Hoekstra

Dave Hoekstra has spent his entire professional career in customer service, but it wasn’t until he found WFM that he found his true passion. With over 20 years in WFM, Dave has gained insight into the real world challenges of working in today’s customer service. He is one of the few people who truly gets excited when someone wants to talk about Real Time Adherence or Net Staffing reports.