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March/April 2016
Telecom Reseller 3

ALAN DAVID MICAH PAT

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How Predictive Analytics Make or Break Learn How Propensity

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Scoring Transforms
SUBSCRIPTIONS & CIRCULATION
a Modern Marketing Engine – Part 1
SE 28th Street, Vancouver, WA 98683 Telecommunications
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Size doesn’t matter: why predictive analytics prove your marketing and
Marketing
ADVERTISING
customer relationship management methods are likely falling short
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F
or a sales-driven organization, it isn’t the
NEWS DEPARTMENT
size of your data that matters, it’s what you SMITH
Please e-mail articles and press releases as attachments in Microsoft Word format to jeffowen@telecomreseller.com. Suggested length ALMIYA
do with it. No longer a discretionary luxury,
is 250-300 words. At the end of the article, please provide contact predictive analytics are now the name of the
information. Do not send graphics. We reserve the right to edit
by Lang Smith, founder of game for those who seek to utilize customer
for content and length. For further clari cation, please visit www. telecomreseller.com and click on Submission Guidelines. Our Editorial by Sanjay Almiya, Chief Cloud Signalytics (www. cloudsignalytics.com)
metrics in a meaningful way to establish a
Calendar (also online) is useful for appropriate subject matter.
Analytics Architect at Infogix (www.infogix.com)
tremendous competitive advantage, gain notable
market share and signi cantly boost bottom
Publisher
Douglas Green – publisher@usernews.com If you’re not using predictive analytics, your lines. In fact, according to the 2015 State of Sales R
Associate Publisher & Director of Advertising
eady to move beyond traditional cross- current CRM system is likely falling short in Report published by Salesforce Research, “smart
Carole Sangiorgio – carole@usernews.com selling and upselling strategies?
several areas. Here’s how predictive analytics can selling fueled by predictive analysis is expected to
Executive Editor
Propensity scoring is a fast growing help:
jump 77% among high performers,” throughout
Jeff Owen – jeffowen@telecomreseller.com area of opportunity and an e ective tactic
2016. Not only that but high performers are also
Accounting
that incorporates customer scoring into
1. FORECASTING LIKELY four times more likely to use predictive analytics.
Tracy Titus – accounts@telecomreseller.com an organization’s CRM platform. is
CUSTOMER BEHAVIORS
Just what exactly is predictive analysis? Simply
Supplement Editor
type of scoring greatly simpli es how ere’s an old saying in sales: “buyers are put, it’s the ability to more precisely predict a
Amy Rails – amyralls@telecomreseller.com telecommunications organizations predict liars.” Unfortunately, salespeople are forced customer’s future spending based on their past
Graphic Design
customer behavior and is easily operationalized to enter notes based on what the customer behaviors. Of course, there’s no way to actually
Raspberry Jam Creative
into work ows to derive value.
tells them. Besides these basic notes that are
predict the future but predictive analysis can give
The publishers of this newspaper assume no responsibility for statements made companies invaluable insight that can make or
by advertisers. in their advertisements, nor do they assume responsibility for break a CRM system.
SMITH continues on page 8 ›› ALMIYA continues on page 10 ››
statements or opinions expressed or implied in the columns of this newspaper.

Best Practices to
concerns telcos face in tracking third-party Processes: When it comes to third-party
access include:
customers must enact strict controls access, processes are a big concern. e
Tame the Beast of l Introduction of cyber vulnerabilities
processes touch not only at an operational level,
l e risk of losing or exposing critical data regarding what can and cannot be but also at the legal level where vendors are
Third-Party Access
l e risk of intellectual property the
vetted prior to contractual engagements. Let’s
l e risk that the supplier cannot deliver
done once the third party has entered explore this brie y.
the needed services on time
Supply chain networks must be secure in
Establishing the link between third parties’
the network in order to ensure the order for networks to be secure. And our supply
McKENNA,
encrypted sessions—regardless of whether
chains are intertwined now. Vulnerabilities
they are interactive in nature or simply data highest levels of security
in the supply chain can come from almost
transfers—and linking that privileged access
anywhere now and, therefore, you are only as
by Matthew McKenna, to data loss prevention (DLP) capabilities. strong as the weakest link in the chain.
Chief Strategy Of cer, SSH Communications Security Telecoms need to be able to intelligently inspect From the legal and process perspective,
(www.ssh.com)
their encrypted tra c and le transfers and stronger vetting procedures should be adopted
Tdetect and respond to anomalies and trigger be virtualization, application, networking or to ensure that third parties’ security standards
he security issues associated with preventative actions on it. is is a challenge storage layers. ird parties o en access the are meeting an agreed benchmark level for
privileged access are coming to the fore as for traditional PAM where control is primarily environment through some protocol-based security controls, which telecoms should work
telecoms rely more heavily on outsourced role-based driven.
encryption (such as Secure Shell, RDP, HTTPS on in partnership with their vendors. e legal
IT and cloud services, and as UCaaS gains To be able to e ectively create the linkage or Citrix).
department should be asking these questions:
prominence. Unless access can be controlled, between PAM and DLP it is necessary to be Sometimes these jump host architectures How is the supply chain for delivery of
the exposure to data the and denial of service able to manage, audit and control the encrypted may have some form of monitoring; however, products and services secured on the vendor
can be signi cant. Furthermore, a lack of access session itself and create data tagging and they frequently don’t. e potential entry
side, as well as on the customer side? What type
controls violates compliance regulations, with classi cation techniques to link with the policy points for vendors into the network are o en of integrity testing is done on those delivered
puts companies at risk for nes and censure.
controls of the DLP.
distributed in nature, meaning there are usually products, and how is that delivery zoned on the
High-pro le breaches are shining a spotlight It’s not that encryption is the culprit. Rather, not single choke points for all third-party access customer side?
on a sub-component of privileged access, the layered defenses currently available on the to go through in order to enter the network.
Do suppliers have direct access to IP?
managing third-party access. It’s a cliché that
market are blind to what is going on within the Consequently, customers must enact strict Are they required to report to the customer
a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. encryption, and this allows malicious insiders controls regarding what can and cannot be when they have been breached?
Likewise, a telco’s cybersecurity defenses
to hide their activities – and for third parties to done once the third party has entered the
are only as strong as the defenses of those unwittingly introduce vulnerabilities into their network in order to ensure the highest levels of
contractors, partners or customers who have customers’ network.
security.
TO READ THE REST OF THIS
access to the telco’s network.
Tactics for Taming ird-Party Access
One of the concerns with traditional jump ARTICLE PLEASE VISIT THE LINK
As a result, hackers are o en using Any plan to tame third-party access must host architectures is that third parties, if
vulnerabilities in the defenses of these third include tactics that relate to these three familiar not controlled through which actions and – http://wp.me/p2Q636-kHa
parties in order to gain access to victims’ data categories: people, processes and technology.
commands they can run, may be able to drop TR
assets. As a result, many security teams are People: e way that third parties o en SSH user keys into development, production
scrutinizing third-party access as a critical gain access to their customers’ networks is environments.
element of their privileged access management convoluted. ey go through VPNs (o en From there, they can also drop these keys
(PAM) game plans.
without two-factor authentication) and
onto network devices such as routers or
Trustwave reports that 63 percent of data from there will access the network—perhaps switches, enabling them to later bypass the TELECOM
breaches are caused by security vulnerabilities through a jump server—where they may then jump hosts that are intended to control their RESELLER .COM
introduced by third parties. e greatest
access the needed infrastructure, whether it
access points.