According to Infonetics Research, the subscriber data management (SDM) market stood at $1.4 billion in 2014 witnessing a growth of 29 per cent over the past year. The increasing demand for voice over LTE (VoLTE) and subscriber analytics were the key growth drivers for SDM market.
The research firm states with the growing adoption of VoLTE, a large number of operators are investing in SDM to manage subscriber data over multiple network domains. Operators are increasingly looking at breaking down the data silos that exist within their organisations and better leverage subscriber data to improve the customer experience and drive additional revenue. Therefore, operators are deploying SDM as a centralised subscriber data repository which can be integrated with multiple front-end applications potentially from multiple vendors.
Infonetics Research underlines that the cost savings and operational efficiencies associated with reducing the number of subscriber data repositories continues to be a major factor driving SDM spending, particularly in emerging markets which are witnessing rapid subscriber growth. Virtualisation of front-end applications such as home subscriber server and policy and charging rules function are well underway, and virtualisation of the backend SDM platform is following suit.
A few of the concerns impacting the uptake of SDM by operators include interoperability concerns and subscriber data sensitivity.
