Data Strategy articles from December 2006

Data Strategy archives from December 2006

LEADER: Rebirth of CRM reliant on joined-up thinking.
December 18, 2006... CRM is dead. Long live CRM. To the annoyance of many - and pleasure of a few - there is a distinct return of interest and investment in customer relationship management. But, just as second marriages are the triumph of hope over experience,...

Farepak - database stalled rescue plans.
December 18, 2006... Attempts to rescue failed Christmas savings company Farepak floundered due to the absence of a central customer database. More than 140,000 customers are believed to have lost up to #40m, although exact numbers have yet to be finalised. ...

IN BRIEF: E-business expert heads SPSS UK operation.(Brief article)
December 18, 2006... Predictive software vendor SPSS has appointed Neil Hartley UK country manager. With 20 years' experience in the IT sector, Hartley was most recently vice-president of European operations at e-business specialist Requisite Technology. "The...

Button on pole in DS Awards.
December 18, 2006... Matt Button, CRM and database marketing manager at Lexus (GB), has been named Data Professional of the Year at the Data Strategy Awards 2006. In recognition of cutting-edge data use and best practice around analytics, the judges handed...

Time-Life appoints GB Group to cleanse file.
December 18, 2006... Entertainment retailer Time-Life has appointed data specialist GB Group to cleanse millions of customer records in preparation for a raft of direct marketing drives across Europe, Australia and New Zealand. GB Group will go through a...

Lastminute.com asks Touch Clarity to bolster targeting.
December 18, 2006... Online leisure company lastminute.com is employing onsite behavioural targeting to maximise revenue, following a successful pilot which saw sales rise by 200 per cent. The retailer has appointed Touch Clarity to ensure the most relevant...

IN BRIEF: Wolters Kluwer signs SAS software deal.(Brief article)
December 18, 2006... Wolters Kluwer UK has hired business intelligence software company SAS to assist its plan to deliver more effective marketing campaigns. The appointment follows a seven-week pilot which proved successful across a number of campaigns, with...

Broadsystem in SmartFocus deal.
December 18, 2006... An exclusive partnership has been formed between Broadsystem and SmartFocus to offer UK clients integrated multichannel marketing programme services, strengthening the companies' ten-year relationship. The deal will provide services for...

Mobile operators face massive rise in fraud.
December 18, 2006... Business and technology consultancy Detica is warning that organised criminal gangs are targeting mobile operators more than ever before. Detica, a specialist in information intelligence, says mobile subscription fraud has risen to nearly...

IN BRIEF: Occam picks Alterian Dynamic Messenger.(Brief article)
December 18, 2006... Occam has strength-ened its links with Alterian by implementing the company's Dynamic Messenger online marketing software. Alterian only recently acquired and integrated the product into its core Marketing Suite data analysis software. Occam...

AirMiles appoints Acxiom to brief.
December 18, 2006... AirMiles, the UK's longest running customer loyalty programme, is enlisting the assistance of Acxiom to establish a behavioural and lifestyle profiling system, in a bid to boost response rates and push customer sales. To provide AirMiles...

US academic heralds growth of analytics.
December 18, 2006... One of the world's leading experts on business intelligence (BI) - Thomas Davenport, professor of information technology and management at Babson College - has hailed the beginning of the "analytical age", following a review of corporate use...

Cold-calling mortgage firm hit by #17,500 FSA penalty.
December 18, 2006... The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has taken its first action against a company for cold calling potential customers, fining Scottish mortgage firm Capital Mortgage Connections (CMC) #17,500 for rule breaches. An FSA investigation...

IN BRIEF: Spanish bank on multichannel CRM with Teradata.(Brief article)
December 18, 2006... Spanish savings bank Caixa Galicia has selected Teradata CRM after a competitive pitch. The new solution builds on the Teradata data warehouse and ValueAnalyzer infrastructure already implemented by the bank for customer insight and...

Doc management gets integrated software boost.
December 18, 2006... Two new developments are allowing document management to be integrated within key business systems. Salesforce.com has linked with Anacomp to introduce docHarbor to its on- demand customer relationship management (CRM) platform. The...

Bill to overhaul Office for National Statistics.
December 18, 2006... Government legislation announced in the recent Queen's Speech will result in a shake-up at the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Aimed at reinforcing the independence and integrity of statistics used across government, the Statistical...

IN BRIEF: Data quality holds back performance management.(Brief article)
December 18, 2006... SAS research into performance management initiatives reveals that more than one in four firms finds inaccurate data a major obstacle. Many companies have invested heavily to implement corporate dashboards and scorecards, yet do not always...

Massive decline in mailed card fraud.
December 18, 2006... The level of card fraud resulting from non-receipt of mailed cards fell by a massive 57 per cent, to #9.8m, in January to June 2006, compared with #22.8m in the same period last year. Sandra Quinn, director of corporate communications at...

The better the brief, the better the results.
December 18, 2006... According to The Client Brief, the best-practice guide recently produced by the IPA, ISBA, MCCA and the PRCA, the better the brief, the better and more accurate the results. But central to any great brief are the basics - a true, holistic...

LETTER: Direct industry fails to be accountable without data.(Letter to the editor)
December 18, 2006... Ian Robinson is right that direct marketing is a wonderfully accountable discipline (DS November). And the fact that it is so measurable is something that we as an industry need to emphasise more. New marketing fads such as word of mouth or...

LETTER: Data providers should be listening to marketers.(Letter to the editor)
December 18, 2006... Customer insight via data analysis has become an essential foundation for modern marketing. But it is surprising how often marketers are still in need of this valuable understanding. Although large corporations have been quick to adopt...

Researchers and analysts: it's good to talk.
December 18, 2006... For years, database marketing teams have been positioned within direct marketing departments. But recently data analysts have been gradually emerging from the depths of the corporate hierarchy. Wherever they end up positioned, it is critical...

IS CRM BACK?: Rebirth of CRM.
December 18, 2006... Customer relationship management software looks set to return to the stage with a new persona. David Reed reports If you follow the technology news for its potential implications for data, then your attention is likely to have been drawn...

DATABASE SOFTWARE: Back to data basics.
December 18, 2006... A Data Vantage study looking into whether firms are putting the customer at the heart of their business uncovers a need for basic action. By David Reed Ask any professional how well they do their job and they will give you a positive...

CASE STUDY: Taking a single view.
December 18, 2006... When Time-Life needed to centralise its data through an SCV, it found Acxiom's AbiliTec tool offered the solution it needed Time-Life is one of the world's pre-eminent creators and direct marketers of unique book, music, video/DVD and...

DATA FINANCIALS: Business intelligence costs scale badly.
December 18, 2006... All you ever wanted to know about making profit from data but were too afraid to ask The total cost of ownership (TCO) for most leading business intelligence (BI) applications shows an exponential rise once user numbers pass 500,...

DATA FINANCIALS: Fifth of consumers ready to exchange data for cash.
December 18, 2006... One in five consumers are willing to trade personal information in exchange for incentives, cash or vouchers, according to a survey by Data Lateral. The most trusted information trading partners would be banks and building societies, or...

ADDRESS MANAGEMENT: Managing those addresses wisely.
December 18, 2006... The use of past Electoral Rolls to gather addresses is about to be looked into by the Information Commissioner. The data industry could, for once, not come out looking like the bad guy, as Emma Rubach reports At the root of many address...

DATA MANAGEMENT: Customer made.
December 18, 2006... LBM's recent customer management event at The Brewery, London, heard from industry figures including professor Merlin Stone, Data Strategy editor David Reed, and Jonathan Hewett of Dixons Are you a developer or a guru-follower? Perhaps...

Legal column: Jeff Rodwell.
December 18, 2006... Jeff Rodwell, partner and head of technology at Reed Smith UK In my last contribution, I primarily discussed information lifecycle management, but touched on the issue of export of data as part of that management process. Now I shall...

Tri-Direct buyer seeking thrills and easy life.
December 18, 2006... Q What is your name and job title? Siobhan Dolby, buying executive at Tri-Direct. Q What does your job involve? Is there a lot of pressure? My job is to buy data for a range of clients across financial services, charities, mail...

Female 4x4 drivers change their tune.
December 18, 2006... I am woman, hear me care. Women have fallen out of love with the Chelsea Tractor and are looking for smaller, greener alternatives. Since it became the car of choice for the school run, sales have been on an upward path. But the latest...