Data Strategy articles from April 2007

Data Strategy archives from April 2007

LEADER: Cheap software brings data analysis in-house.
April 17, 2007... Everybody does data mining these days, don't they? The true answer might be - not as much as you would think. The data industry may be in full flood and growing rapidly, but that does not mean every organisation has the right tools,...

'Design for privacy' call by engineers.
April 17, 2007... Products and services that can be used while protecting individual privacy are at the heart of a new report published by the Royal Academy of Engineering and Academy of Social Sciences. The two bodies looked at the evolution of technology and...

IN BRIEF: Cornhill Direct models customer acquisition.(Brief article)
April 17, 2007... Insurance provider Cornhill Direct is applying predictive modelling to improve the performance of data in its customer acquisition programmes. Working with Datalytics, the four-month project will develop predictive models for itself and...

Holmes upgrade aids crime inquiries.
April 17, 2007... A major upgrade to the Home Office Major Enquiry System 2 (Holmes 2) will see significant improvements in the way vital information is handled in investigations. Version 11 of the system, which was commissioned from Unisys by the Police...

Banks under fire on data protection.
April 17, 2007... Eleven major banks and building societies have been required to sign formal undertakings to comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act after investigations revealed casual disposal of personal data which created a risk of identity...

IN BRIEF: Mardev puts 3.6 million business execs online.(Brief article)
April 17, 2007... Business information provider Mardev has launched version 2.0 of customersearch. net, its online business-to-business marketing tool. The firm says users will benefit from the six-figure investment into DecisionMaker, the core business...

Data breach costs 'top $10 million'.
April 17, 2007... The cost of a publicly-reportable breach of data security can easily top $10 million (#5 million), with many costing between $4 million and $10 million to remediate, according to a survey by Protegrity. The findings came from a survey...

OUP integrates data for customer analytics.
April 17, 2007... Oxford Journals, the academic publications division of Oxford University Press (OUP), has implemented an innovative data integration system to support its customer analysis and targeted marketing. It is provided by DataSalon and provides a...

IN BRIEF: Websites put corporate data at risk, study shows.(Brief article)
April 17, 2007... Unauthorised systems access or disruption would be possible on 90 per cent of UK websites, says the NTA Annual Web Application Security Report. It analysed web application security tests for legal and financial bodies, universities and...

Accelerator boosts quality processes.
April 17, 2007... Data integration solutions provider DataFlux has launched a suite of Accelerator products to reduce the time needed to improve data quality and integrate data sets. The first offering is Accelerator for Customer Data Analysis, which...

Lagan launches BI solution for public sector bodies.
April 17, 2007... Lagan, the CRM and case management solutions provider to government, has launched a business intelligence offering for local authorities and public sector organisations. The solution offers "ready-to-go" business intelligence capabilities to...

IN BRIEF: Not Yet Built data boosts QAS new release.(Brief article)
April 17, 2007... The new edition of QuickAddress Pro v6 from QAS now incorporates an average of 300,000 new-build property records from the Royal Mail "Not Yet Built" data set. Combined with enhanced search functionality, it is designed to help...

Tool aligns business process with data.
April 17, 2007... Connecting data models with business processes to align IT with business objectives is always challenging. EA/Studio Business Modeler from Embarcadero Technologies enables conceptual modelling to show how data architectures and database...

Customers have final say on data quality.
April 17, 2007... Half of the largest direct mail users in the UK rely on their own customers to verify contact details. Instead of using industry-standard verification tools, such as PAF, it is assumed that individuals will provide accurate information,...

IN BRIEF: On-demand Web service from.(Brief article)
April 17, 2007... Data users without installed Capscan data or software can now access the full suite of address data cleaning services using Capscan OnDemand Web Service. The user interface is a standard pop-up which can be integrated into data capture...

OS nears 100% accuracy.
April 17, 2007... Ordnance Survey has announced data quality improvements in its OS MasterMap Integrated Transport Network (ITN) Layer which bring the national mapping agency close to 100 per cent accuracy. In the latest ITN release, 99.7 per cent of A roads,...

Outsourcing offshore is the way forward.
April 17, 2007... Under the 1998 Data Protection Act, any company that "determines the purposes for which data is used" has to conform to the Act's regulatory framework. This data controller is also responsible for compliance, even if the actual data...

LETTER: Consumer data errors can carry a high cost.(Letter to the editor)
April 17, 2007... I read with interest the news item 'Third of firms lax on B2B data cleaning' (Data Strategy, 14 February). Errors in consumer data can cause distress or embarrassment to consumers and reflect badly on the offending company when reported in...

LETTER: Penalties are not enough to prevent abuse of data.(Letter to the editor)
April 17, 2007... I was pleased to read that stricter penalties have been imposed on the illegal trading of data (Data Strategy, March). Unfortunately, though, I believe it will do little on its own to prevent those individuals and companies making money...

Are you guilty of shareholder theft?
April 17, 2007... It's a controversial concept, but consider the notion that there are two ways of stealing from a business: directly, where physical or intellectual assets are removed; and indirectly, through negligence or, in this case, abdicating...

Analytics for everyone.
April 17, 2007... While data modelling can bring vast business benefits, the financial costs are also huge. But software developers are responding to demand for less expensive solutions, writes David Reed How much would you pay for a model that could...

'The key element is concentrating for long periods'.
April 17, 2007... Bill Frindall, freelance cricket scorer and statistician, broadcaster, writer, editor and commentator Q What does your job involve? Cricket is the constant theme, but my work is multi-faceted. Since June 1966, I have scored and...

Legal column: Susan Mann, counsel at Reed Smith Richards Butler.(Column)
April 17, 2007... RFID (radio frequency identification) is a method of identifying unique items using radio waves. A tag, which is activated by radio waves emitted from a reader, sends data stored in its memory relating to the item back to the reader. ...

CASE STUDY: Worth sharing.
April 17, 2007... The use of integrated data and GIS have helped Huntingdonshire District Council to transform its services, save on spending and boost its revenue In a 2005 report, the Cabinet Office stated that "data sharing is integral to transforming...

DATA FINANCIALS: Data R&D set for boost from Brown's last budget.
April 17, 2007... All you ever wanted to know about making profit from data but were too afraid to ask Gordon Brown's final Budget in March may prove to be good news for the data industry, especially for innovative analytical houses. For large...

DATA FINANCIALS: Weak direct mail demand hurts data stocks.
April 17, 2007... Weak activity in direct mail marketing has been blamed for the profits warning forecast delivered by IPT. Announcing full-year results showing a 77 per cent rise in group revenues and an 82 per cent increase in pre- tax profit, the company...

BUREAUX SOLUTIONS: Tackling turnaround times.
April 17, 2007... Data bureaux face a double assault. Not only are clients demanding ever- faster turnaround times but they are also using software to bring the work in-house. Emma Rubach reports Like the Red Queen in Alice Through The Looking Glass, who...

SINGLE CUSTOMER VIEW: New view in due diligence.
April 17, 2007... In mergers and acquisitions, how can a firm objectively assess the value of its target's customer data and its compatibility with its own? SCV could be the answer, writes David Reed Venture capital has been in the headlines recently, with...

Sharing is crucial for marketing manager.(Interview)
April 17, 2007... Data Strategy talks to data practitioners who toil unnoticed behind the scenes Q What is your name and job title? Sophie Townsend, database marketing manager, ipoints.co.uk. Q What does your job involve? Is there a lot of...

Making it through the first year is key to surviving an MBO.
April 17, 2007... If the management in your company is talking to private equity houses about funding a buy-out, you might understandably be feeling nervous. According to a report by The Work Foundation, however, in the long-term you might not be that...