BCG partners with big data & analytics expert NICE systems
The analysis of big data has the potential to drastically improve company decision making, from strategy to commercial plans to the omni-channel journeys of customers. In a bid to bolster their capabilities in the field, management consultancy BCG and NICE Systems have agreed a strategic partnership. The deal allows both companies to leverage their respective strengths to meet client demands, as well improve their respective long term internal operations.
NICE Systems (NICE) is an Israel based software data and analytics solutions company, founded in 1986. The company provides a range of software through which organisations are able to improve their customers’ experiences and wider business results – solutions that ensure compliance, fight financial crime, and safeguard people and assets. Many of its software solutions leverage their client’s big data pools, gathered from multiple sources, to provide the client with real-time actionable insights for decision making.
The company’s client portfolio spans over 25,000 organisations in more than 150 countries, including over 80 of the Fortune 100 companies, served by an employee base of over 1,000 experts.
Last week NICE Systems, founded in 1986, unveiled that it had struck an alliance with the Boston Consulting Company (BCG), one of the globe’s most renowned strategy and management consulting firms. The deal will according to the partners provide clients of both firms with a data driven means to transform their customers' omnichannel experience. As part of the move, BCG will leverage information derived from NICE’s analytics on clients’ huge volumes of customer interaction data to create a range of new strategic insights that help clients achieve sustainable advantage and value. Key domains earmarked for improvement include operations, customer experience and brand advocacy.
The partnership, which is not exclusive, will further provide both parties with additional benefits to their businesses, NICE will gain access to a considerably expanded global client base, while BCG will be able to leverage the customer data from NICE data sets to bolster its research and though leadership. Through its award-winning research house BCG Perspectives the firm regularly conducts studies into among others sales & marketing and technology trends.
Ralf Dreischmeier, the global leader of BCG's Technology Advantage practice and a Senior Partner, says: "In recent years, we have seen an increasing focus on monitoring customer journeys across channels and personalising customer service interactions in real time. We look forward to partnering with NICE to enable our clients to build the perfect service experience by creating an insightful, data-driven picture of their customers' behavior and ensuring that every interaction is simple, personal, and effortless.”
Miki Migdal, President of the NICE Enterprise Product Group, says that the partnership has gotten off to a flying start, stating “Several of our clients from the banking and telco industries have already expressed interest in working jointly with NICE and BCG to achieve maximum value from their NICE solutions.” The partnership however he believes will benefit clients across sectors, verticals and geographies. “BCG is a world-class management consultancy. Jointly we can help organisations extract and apply business insights from their customer data to drive measurable results.”
Management consultants have of late been actively muscling their way into the analytics space. Rival McKinsey & Company for instance recently acquired UK based analytics firm QuantumBlack, while it over the past 12 months has added a range of new analytics offerings to its portfolio, including the ‘Organisational Science Initiative’ (in collaboration with Gallup) and several solutions to McKinsey Solutions. The Big Four in particular have been heating the field – EY has purchased French big data consultancy Bluestone Consulting, PwC last month revealed that it has launched a campaign to add 1,000 data scientists to its Deals unit, KPMG has struck an alliance with Microsoft, just to name a few.
