SK Telecom Strengthens Real-time Service Analysis and Enhances Customer Satisfaction
 
 

SK Telecom Strengthens Real-time Service Analysis and Enhances Customer Satisfaction

  • Oracle Customer:  SK Telecom
    Location:  Seoul, Republic of Korea
    Industry:  Communications
    Employees:  4,463
    Annual Revenue:  Over $5 Billion

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SK Telecom is Korea’s largest mobile communications service provider, specializing in data-driven applications and advanced multimedia services delivered to cell phones, personal digital assistants, and MP3 players. It provides music and streaming video services such as movies, video clips, animation, games, sports, and television programs, as well as real-time financial information (such as stock trades, investments, and insurance policies).
Since its foundation in 1984, SK Telecom has maintained its commitment to customer service. In 2009, the company was ranked first in the national customer satisfaction index (NCSI), the Korea customer satisfaction index (KCSI), and the Korean standard service quality index (KS-SQI). SK Telecom was also voted most innovative company of the year by Wall Street Journal Asia.
SK Telecom leads in customer satisfaction by being innovative. The company’s aim is to improve satisfaction by providing detailed and accurate usage information in real-time, which would help users obtain the information they want without having to go through complicated call center procedures.

 
Providing a Better Customer Experience

A word from SK Telecom

  • “We use Oracle Exadata Database Machine as the high performance database platform to bring together data from our systems for roaming and usage enquiries. Both systems had become more elaborate due to the increased complexity of data analysis and verification. Presently, Oracle Exadata Database Machine processes on average 40 billion transactions each day with no strain on the hardware components.” – Jin-hyung Lee, Manager, Network Engineering Department, SK Telecom

SK Telecom prides itself on being an innovative communications company that introduces new products and services ahead of a changing market. Due to the increasing demand for more wireless mobile data from smart phone customers, SK Telecom became the first mobile communications operator in Korea to introduce rate plans with unlimited data usage. This led to a large increase in data volumes and, as a result, the company’s data analysis and verification processes became more complex.
To address these issues, SK Telecom developed a range of support systems, including a data billing analysis system in October 2009, the first system to benefit from increased performance through the use of Oracle Exadata Database Machine. The company migrated to Oracle Exadata Database Machine V2 in December 2010. Due to rapid increases in database size, in May 2011 SK Telecom added Oracle Exadata Database Machine X2-2, incorporating  Exadata Storage Server Software, enabling the company to store 1 petabyte (PB) of raw data. A second system was developed to offer more detailed categorization of usage data, making available that data in real-time.
SK Telecom also implemented a third system: a roaming data inquiry system based on the prediction that customers would increasingly demand access to more detailed usage information. The system would also support the increase in roaming data traffic due to the use of services such as e-banking and e-mail. All three systems benefit from improved performance on Oracle Exadata Database Machine V2 and Oracle Exadata Database Machine X2-2.

 
Achieved 10:1 (10x) Data Compression Rate

 
Strengthening Responsiveness by Enhancing Service Analysis

 
Easy Data Integration and Analysis

 
 

 
 

Challenges

  • Implement a system that provides detailed, accurate information about customers’ roaming data usage
  • Ensure high availability and powerful performance to support billions of transactions a day
  • Improve the efficiency of customer support staff by giving them the information they need to answer queries promptly

Solutions

Oracle Product and Services

  • Improved service by implementing systems that allow customers to search for detailed data usage and roaming information, which is made available in real-time
  • Achieved average data processing rates 8 to 20 times greater than other SK Telecom in-house systems
  • Delivered performance that was two to three times higher for real-time extract, transform, and load processes, and daily batch and fact generation
  • Established an environment for processing, on average, 40 billion transactions per day
  • Accomplished a ten-fold improvement in data warehouse querying performance and enhanced billing accuracy
  • Attained a 10:1 (10x) data compression rate
  • Stored up to 1 PB of raw data
  • Prepared for an increase in customer usage by implementing a data traffic prediction system
  • Gained a large capacity, packaged system that offers high performance, stability, and availability
  • Ensured data from its various systems can be easily integrated into the Oracle Exadata Database Machine, by deploying Oracle Data Integrator
  • Strengthened strategy planning through regular analysis of billing, customer usage and roaming information, and trends in mobile internet usage

Why Oracle

Oracle Exadata Database Machine was chosen because test results showed it could support and exceed the performance service level agreements required for all new systems designed to enhance customer satisfaction. The data usage and data roaming systems have been deployed on Oracle Exadata Database Machine in a large multiterabyte data warehouse. Oracle Exadata Database Machine runs on Oracle Linux and offers SK Telecom the stability and flexibility to expand according to data usage, and optimized data warehouse performance.
SK Telecom was the first company in the Asia-Pacific region to implement Oracle Exadata Database Machine. The company selected Oracle to underpin its integrated billing analysis system because of its previous experience with Oracle products and services. Oracle Exadata Database Machine’s performance was confirmed when the extraction of voice-of-customer data was shortened from between one and three days to real-time, while maintaining accuracy.

Implementation Process

SK Telecom first implemented Oracle Exadata Database Machine in 2009, going live in October of that year. The migration to Oracle Exadata Database Machine V2 started in July 2010. The company went live in December 2010. In May 2011, SK Telecom implemented Oracle Exadata Database Machine X2-2, going live in October 2011. The company utilized the Oracle Unbreakable Linux support program to ensure the availability of its database infrastructure.


SK Telecom is the largest mobile communications service provider in Korea, specializing in data-driven applications and advanced multimedia services delivered to cell phones, personal digital assistants, and MP3 players.