OREANDA-NEWS. On November 25, Mark Hillary, an author and blogger with 11 books on technology and globalization, and Peter Ryan, a principal analyst in Ovum's global IT services practice, visited IBA Group in Minsk, Belarus.

On November 27, Mark and Peter, as well as Aliaksei Minkevich of IBA Minsk made presentations at a workshop entitled The Big Picture on Big Data and Customer Relationships: Case Studies and Thoughts for the Future. Organized by IBA UK, the workshop was held at the Institute of Directors in London, Great Britain.

Mark Hillary is an IT director who became a writer. Currently, Mark is based in Brazil. His most recent book explores the subject of CEOs who blog, but he has also written about outsourcing and the globalization of services.

Peter Ryan is a principal analyst at Ovum, a leading analyst house focused on converging IT, telecoms and media markets. He is one of the best–known global analysts specializing in customer service and experience. Peter is based in Canada.

It was the first visit of the two experts to Belarus. According to Peter, his earlier perceptions of Belarus were completely shattered: “The atmosphere here is really conducive to doing business with the Western organizations. Western brands are everywhere, new cars are all over on the road… It's very clear that the Belarus' population is anxious to open the country up towards the West”.

IBA Group provided generic information about the company, Belarus and its competitive advantages, as well as shared with Mark and Peter its experience of customer relationship management (CRM), Big Data, and Business Analytics.

Afterwards, the speakers traveled to London to share their ideas at the IBA UK workshop. Mark talked about how Big Data and the analysis of customer information is changing the way companies are structured. Peter spoke of how CRM is changing customer interactions and how companies relate to customers. Aliaksei presented case studies of IBA Group's projects in the area of Big Data. The workshop was rounded off with a lively discussion between the speakers and the audience.