Data Strategy articles from December 2005

Data Strategy archives from December 2005

Leader: A case of survival of the fittest in data, too.
December 23, 2005... Much like the poor old Dodo, the days of high-volume direct mail campaigns are well and truly over. This is where the similarity ends, however, as our fat, feathered, short-winged friend from Mauritius became extinct through child-like...

Aldhouse parts ways with ICO for legal role.
December 23, 2005... Deputy Information Commissioner Francis Aldhouse is stepping down as Richard Thomas' number two to join international law firm Bird & Bird as a consultant. The appointment has been made to bolster the company's data protection and...

IN BRIEF: EuroDirect adjusts Cameo Property+ to reflect Welsh reform.
December 23, 2005... EuroDirect has updated its Cameo Property+ product to bring it in line with the new Welsh council tax bands. Earlier this year, the Government revalued every home in Wales. As a result, the country's households are now split into nine...

Ebiquita calls in administrators.
December 23, 2005... Data company Ebiquita has gone into administration in a bid to find a buyer, after its bosses decided the business was no longer viable. The firm, which changed its name from Marketphone in 2002, has already made ten staff redundant,...

Acxiom launches trio of software products.
December 23, 2005... Acxiom is bolstering its data offering by launching three products. The InfoBase Lifestyle Universe (ILU) has been created by integrating the data resources of Consodata and Claritas - the companies it purchased last year. ILU is a...

Group 1 in EuroDirect deal for global Cameo software.
December 23, 2005... Pitney Bowes-owned Group 1 Software has struck a deal with EuroDirect to implement its suite of global Cameo classifications throughout its addressing systems. Group 1 has more than 3,000 clients worldwide. It provides data- cleansing...

IN BRIEF: Dunnhumby recruits Sanger to insight.
December 23, 2005... Dunnhumby has hired former Millward Brown chief Adrian Sanger to the new role of insight director, in a bid to strengthen the company's research capabilities. Sanger worked at Millward Brown for ten years. As head of its quantitative...

Social research gets DPA guide.
December 23, 2005... A set of guidelines has been launched to help social researchers to navigate the complexities of the Data Protection Act. MRS - an association representing providers and users of commercial and social research - and the Social Research...

Equifax and Transactis to launch 'the new ER'.
December 23, 2005... Marketing services provider Equifax is teaming up with transactional database company Transactis to tackle the problem of Electoral Roll (ER) opt-outs. The two companies will merge their data - names and addresses from 26 million...

IN BRIEF: Stralfors UK acquires DPS Direct Mail.
December 23, 2005... IT logistics company Stralfors UK has bought DPS Direct Mail in an #8m deal, which will enable the Swedish firm to boost its direct marketing offering. Part of the Stralfors Group, which has an annual turnover of #250m, the company has been...

WHSmith News hires Seeburger.
December 23, 2005... WHSmith News has appointed Seeburger UK to handle the integration of the company's electronic data interchange (EDI) strategy. Seeburger has already provided WHSmith News with the capability to share valuable EPoS information with Asda,...

Product & service news: Experian unveils B2B credit rating scheme.
December 23, 2005... Experian has created a tool to allow business-to-business (B2B) marketers to purge their databases of prospects with poor credit records. Commercial Delphi for Prospecting will allow users to remove those that do not meet certain...

Product & service: CACI targets finance firms with merged databases.
December 23, 2005... CACI is launching a Web-based data service aimed at financial services institutions. The company has combined the Mortgage Market Database and Savings & Current Account Database, making them available online. Financial companies will...

Product & service news: Maximizer suite tracks campaigns.
December 23, 2005... Maximizer Software has revamped customer management package Maximizer Enterprise. The Enterprise 9 software suite is designed to seamlessly integrate sales, marketing and customer services departments. It enables sales teams to deal with...

Product & service news: Pegasus tool links Sage with Excel.
December 23, 2005... Pegasus Software is releasing a new version of reporting and business intelligence tool XRL, to provide a fast and accurate means of extracting financial data from accountancy software package Sage Line 50. XRL creates a realtime link...

Product & service news: Neolane adapts server for bigger operations.
December 23, 2005... Neolane has revamped data management tool the Neolane Marketing Server to meet the needs of companies with large databases. The server allows marketers to manage large-scale personalised campaigns, enabling them to communicate with...

Product & service: Corpdata forms 'liberating' Turbine package for SMEs.
December 23, 2005... Business-to-business supplier Corpdata is launching a product that seeks to change the way data is bought and handled. Sales Turbine is a service aimed at the SOHO (small office, home office) and SME market. The product enables pools...

Product & service news: Saratoga offers roaming system.
December 23, 2005... Software provider Saratoga Systems has launched a tool to enable field operatives to access back-end systems via mobile phones. Apresta is to enable firms to provide workers with realtime access to systems such as customer management...

Product & service news: EHS Brann to tap Alterian software.
December 23, 2005... Data specialist EHS Brann Discovery has formed a global partnership with Alterian. Discovery, part of international marketing services network Euro RSCG 4D, will use Alterian's marketing suite to speed up customer data analysis and...

Geography key to unlock local know-how.
December 23, 2005... Much of the focus of customer insight has been on behavioural and lifestyle data as an essential ingredient in achieving 'real' knowledge of consumer preferences. Although this is undisputedly true when planning a highly targeted marketing...

Letter: It's often hard to justify cost of customer insight.(Letter to the Editor)
December 23, 2005... In his Cover Story (DS November), David Reed says customer insight is in the shadow of customer management. I'd go further and say that most organisations see no difference between the two, which is why customer insight is dogged by exactly...

Letter: Creative work goes hand in hand with true insight.(Letter to the Editor)
December 23, 2005... Congratulations on the success of your inaugural Data Strategy Awards last month. My spies tell me it was a great night. The fact that there are now dedicated awards to celebrate the use of data demonstrates just how far the industry has...

Permission possible means to halt decline.
December 23, 2005... We're now halfway through the 'Noughties' and have an important opportunity staring us in the face which it seems foolhardy to ignore. The success of many companies is based primarily on consumer perceptions of whether their marketing...

Direct mail meltdown.
December 23, 2005... Direct mail volumes have plummeted, raising concerns over the future of prospect data. Can the industry find other revenue streams? David Reed reports The warning signs appeared in the first quarter of 2005. Major users of direct mail...

Customer management: Putting customers on the map.
December 23, 2005... Multiple streams of customer information flowing into data banks through different systems have left many companies struggling to adopt a consistent approach to customer contact. Patrick Dye reports If current corporate parlance is to be...

Hampshire attracting UK's highest earners.
December 23, 2005... Residents of Elvetham Heath in Fleet, Hampshire, have the highest annual income - at an average of #64,000 - according to CACI's annual Wealth of the Nation report, released this month. People earn the least in Birkenhead, Leicester, and...

Net closing in as UK spammer gets six years.
December 23, 2005... The net is tightening around UK spammers, following the jailing of a Cambridgeshire man who was found guilty at Peterborough Crown Court of fraudulent trading, threatening to destroy or damage property, making threats to kill, and blackmail....

Firms risk IT data disaster over mismanaged M&As.
December 23, 2005... Companies are being warned they ignore IT systems obtained through mergers and acquisitions (M&A) at their peril, as incompatible data can lead to severe business inefficiencies and poor strategic decision- making. The UK M&A market was...

CASE STUDY: Morning edition.
December 23, 2005... The Daily Telegraph found that its daily email updates were either arriving late or not at all - held by ISPs as suspected spam. Luckily, IronPort was at hand The Daily Telegraph's website, telegraph.co.uk, has built a global subscriber...

Data storage/warehousing: More than they can chew.
December 23, 2005... Moving through the data management cycle, companies currently seem to be favouring inhouse solutions. But, while the savings can be vast, are IT departments up to the job? David Reed reports As IT failures go, Sainsbury's recent disaster...

Legal column.
December 23, 2005... Lewis Silkin's Spencer Davis answers pressing legal questions Indian offshore service providers have been known to sell customer data they are processing - often without consent. This has led to a debate on offshoring and the protection...

DAVID REED: New Year's resolution: use that data correctly.
December 23, 2005... Time for New Year's resolutions. How about this one: to use data in the way we all know we should, rather than what we can get away with. Expediency is the enemy of compliance. Too often, data is used in a way that suits us - not the way...