Trio of technologies change the way business is done

Autonomous data warehouses are among a trio of new technologies that are changing the way business is conducted in Thailand and in other Asian countries, according to Cherian Varghese, Oracle’s regional managing director for Asean/SAGE.

And Taveesak Saengthong, managing director of Oracle Corp Thailand, said cost pressures, increased competition and other factors have prompted a growing number of Thai enterprises to turn to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)-powered data to get deeper and faster insights on their customers.

Taveesak pointed to the Boonterm money-vending-machine service for mobile phone users to top up pre-paid cards as an example of using real-time analytics to manage and ensure that there are enough machines at construction sites to serve the customer.

The Boonterm service currently boasts 150,000 machines nationwide. With the capabilities offered by autonomous data warehouses (ADW) plus AI and ML, which can be deployed at short notice, Boonterm’s competitiveness and profitability are boosted.

For banks and insurance companies, ADW can also take advantage of know-your-customer (KYC) data to cross-pollinate products among targeted consumers, such as offering auto insurance when a customer buys a new car or a long-term education savings plan for customers’ children.

Credit cards and mutual funds, such as long-term equity funds, are among the products that can be cross-offered to a bank or insurance company’s customers.

Overall, financial and other products can be personalised to suit the needs of customers in a timely way as they pass through the different stages of their lives. The same personalisation is not possible when data is managed manually.

According to Varghese, the regional managing director, today’s enterprise technology allows executives to manage their business more efficiently using sophisticated mobile apps for sales monitoring, hiring people and other tasks while they are travelling.

With their mobile phones, business executives can use a voice command to fetch within seconds the needed sales or human resource data, for example, so that they can make timely decisions anywhere anytime.

When combined, ADW, AI and ML are capable of suggesting products in relation to individual consumers’ lifestyles based on their age and other demographic data for financial, logistic, telecom and other businesses.

This can be done on a real-time basis as in the case of Boonterm’s pre-paid card service for mobile phone users.

ADW also supports point-of-sale, inventory, delivery truck and other related tasks as the new technology, thus changing the way business is done to deliver better customer experience.

Cross-product offering, multi-sale channels and other features are the new requirements for businesses to survive with lower costs and better customer experience.

According to Oracle, new intelligent assistants and AI capabilities for financial controls can also help reduce manual processes and improve accuracy and compliance, while machine learning-based innovations includes expense reporting, project management and supply-chain management assistants.

ADW, which is self-driving, self-securing and self-repairing, is still gaining popularity among Asian businesses wanting to speed up innovation via deeper and more meaningful data insights.

In Thailand, commercial banks are transforming their businesses, leading to less branches as new the new technologies are used to reach customers on their mobile devices.

While some enterprises may still be sceptical, consumers have been leading the transformation process by embracing new technologies due to their convenience and solutions for previous pain points, as evidenced by the rise of mobile banking services, e-commerce and internet of things, among others.

Over the past decade, consumer-led spending on new technologies has outgrown business-led spending following the widespread use of smartphones.

Smart homes, connected TV and refrigerators, and connected cars are among additional items that will benefit from AI- and ML-powered data.