Data Strategy articles from January 2009

Data Strategy archives from January 2009

LEADER: Avoiding the second quarter drop.
January 21, 2009... April is the cruellest month. The truth of T.S. Eliot's phrase will be discovered when that month arrives. It will be the moment when we see just how robust the current counter-cyclical levels of investment into data really are. ...

Controversial database could cost #12bn.
January 21, 2009... The proposed communications database, which would contain data on all phone and email activity in the UK, is likely to cost #12bn. According to a written answer by a Home Office minister, the interception modernisation programme would be as...

IN BRIEF: Data Strategy launches weekly email newsletter.(Brief article)
January 21, 2009... Data Strategy is expanding its digital presence with the introduction of a new weekly email. The newsletter will provide a more regular snapshot of events in the data industry with a combination of expert commentary and up to date news. It...

US data breaches soared in 2008.
January 21, 2009... Reports of data breaches at US-based organisations rose by a dramatic 47 per cent during 2008 compared to the previous year. According to tracking by the Identity Theft Resource Centre, there were 656 reported breaches, compared to a...

IN BRIEF: Web revenue tracking takes flight.(Brief article)
January 21, 2009... European flight search engine Skyscanner is tracking the revenue it generates for airlines by deploying Lynchpin Analytics. A custom tracking solution has been designed for the website to report to airline partners on the traffic, booking and...

IT skills gap large - and growing.
January 21, 2009... A skills shortage in the UK IT sector is already being experienced and is likely to get worse this year. According to a survey by The IT Job Board, 56 per cent of respondents believe there is already a shortfall in skilled employees. On...

Data quality market grows by 18 per cent.
January 21, 2009... The overall market for data quality software grew by 18 per cent to hit $600m last year, according to research carried out by The Information Difference. Just over half of this ($350m) is accounted for by software licences, with other...

IN BRIEF: Communisis acquires Ai Data Intelligence.(Brief article)
January 21, 2009... Print solutions business Communisis is pursuing upstream integration of its direct marketing services with the acquisition of Ai Data Intelligence. The deal, worth #12.6m in cash, sees the print and print management company acquire a database...

Scientia launched to target active buyers.
January 21, 2009... The REaD Group is expanding its proposition beyond suppression data into positive targeting with the launch of a new subsidiary, Scientia Data. The company will offer lifestyle and transactional data sets and will be headed by Dawn Orr, former...

DATA FINANCIALS: Crossing the analytical divide.
January 21, 2009... All you ever wanted to know about making profit from data but were too afraid to ask Competing on analytics has been a key business goal for some years. The objective is to provide an evidence base for major decisions, using known data...

BMJ cures data quality with Datanomic.
January 21, 2009... BMJ Publishing Group has undertaken a full data cleanse as part of a single customer view build across its databases. The publisher is using dn:Director from Datanomic to clean, standardise, match and enhance data on its 1.6m customer and...

IN BRIEF: Uncertainty hits MDM plans, survey finds.(Brief article)
January 21, 2009... Three out of ten businesses (31 per cent) are uncertain about how to move forward with their master data management or data quality initiatives. On top of this, 9 per cent have delayed implementation for a year, according to a survey of 92...

Majority opt-out of ER in one-third of areas.
January 21, 2009... More than half of residents have chosen to opt-out of having their data included in the edited Electoral Roll in 32.3 per cent of councils. According to a study of the ER by Callcredit Information Group, there has been a significant rise...

Consumers at risk from data collection.
January 21, 2009... The amount of personal information that is requested before we shop or register to receive information online, has always been a contentious issue among marketers. There needs to be enough information to build a profile of customers and keep...

LETTER: Counting on data enhancements.(Letter to the editor)
January 21, 2009... I agree entirely with Anna Foster (Data Strategy, November 2008) that combining customer and prospect data into a single view is a firm step in the deliverance of a true understanding of a prospect and customer universe. If the licensing of...

LETTER: Don't risk the customer experience.(Letter to the editor)
January 21, 2009... The article on "Putting risk back into marketing" (Data Strategy, November 2008) hit the nail on the head when it advocated the stronger alignment of risk and marketing. Yet the matter is not so black and white - the issue of customer...

LETTER: Marketers don't measure up.(Letter to the editor)
January 21, 2009... Julia Manley was correct to stress the importance of identifying profitable marketing initiatives during the economic downturn ("Give sales staff the information they need", November 2008). However, our online survey of 150 UK marketing...

Analyse skills to find right candidates.
January 21, 2009... This year will see a global expansion in demand for web analytics skills. The importance of e-commerce and online presence is unquestionable in these tough economic times as businesses look to cut overheads and maximise their online presence,...

Building a better data future.
January 21, 2009... Data governance has shot up the agenda in recent years. As a result, businesses need to closely examine how their data its captured, stored and used. This will be a drain on resources and time, but it's a process that must be tackled. David...

SCV: Get a better view.
January 21, 2009... Thanks to advances in technology, building a single customer view is now easier than ever. However, as David Reed finds out, the definition of what constitutes an SCV varies depending on the background of the client When we got the...

CONTACT DATA MANAGEMENT: It's all about contacts.
January 21, 2009... With more emphasis being put on retention, the need to keep customer details in good shape is critical. As a result, the emerging field of contact data management is rapidly growing in importance. David Benady reports Retention and...

THE BACK ROOM: Onwards and upwards.(Interview)
January 21, 2009... Data Strategy talks to data practitioners who toil unnoticed behind the scenes Q What is your name and job title? Chris Merret, web developer and systems administrator at data server hosting company Melbourne. Q What does your...

THE BOTTOM LINE: Too fitted to be real.
January 21, 2009... What do you do when you see a predictive model that perfectly forecasts every piece of data? You should assume that the data set it was trained on has been overfitted and has included all the noise as well as the important variables. So...