Google Cloud Enables Telenor to Migrate Legacy Data Infrastructure in 11 Months While Reducing Costs and Enabling Real-Time Analytics

Telenor, one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies with 180 million customers and annual sales around 12 billion dollars, faced significant operational constraints from its legacy on-premise data infrastructure. The company's existing data warehouse, audience management systems, and analytics dashboards were over 150 years old in their foundational architecture, creating inefficiencies that hindered real-time insights and data accessibility. Sales reporting was nearly 24 hours old each morning, and the organization duplicated solutions to track real-time performance metrics, resulting in fragmented data management and high maintenance costs. To enable advanced predictive modeling and deeper customer insights while supporting new value-added services, Telenor required a modern, scalable platform that could democratize data access across business teams. In November 2023, the company initiated a migration to Google Cloud, completing the first phase in just 11 months.

Telenor's implementation leveraged multiple Google Cloud products working in concert: BigQuery serves as the central hub for storing and processing data, Dataform organizes and transforms datasets, Looker enables self-service analytics, and Vertex AI powers predictive analytics. The migration strategy prioritized minimal disruption by running parallel processes—legacy systems remained operational while new data was validated in BigQuery, with existing dashboards recreated in Looker. The team established over 20 expert Looker users who now build data models using LookML, enabling non-technical employees to create custom dashboards independently. This decentralization significantly increased platform adoption and reduced reliance on technical teams for analytics requests. The architecture integrates through Telenor's Nova platform, ensuring seamless operation across different business functions and teams.

The cloud migration delivered measurable business value across operations and customer experience. By shifting to Google Cloud's pay-as-you-go model, Telenor eliminated the need to pre-purchase software licenses and saved several millions compared to renewing its legacy platform contract. The platform now enables real-time processing of four million call detail records annually, transforming how the company understands and responds to customer needs. Vertex AI powers predictive call routing by clustering and analyzing call data to identify patterns—for example, directing purchase-intent calls to sales specialists or billing inquiries to invoice experts or self-service tools—thereby reducing unnecessary call volume and improving customer satisfaction. Looking forward, Telenor plans to deepen machine learning applications for customer behavior clustering and personalized interactions across mobile apps, email, and other digital channels, positioning the organization to deliver more intelligent, scalable services in an increasingly competitive telecommunications market.