Data Strategy articles from March 2008

Data Strategy archives from March 2008

LEADER: Take action now or face the force of recession.
March 17, 2008... This is not a recession. Not yet, at least. Not until the economy has experienced negative growth for three quarters. But it can already be called a slowdown. Whether the situation improves in the short-term or not for some time, data...

DLG trims staff and sales forecasts.
March 17, 2008... Rumour-hit data owner DLG has confirmed that it is to cut staff and has scaled back its sales forecasts for the year. But chief executive Jeremy Whitaker told Data Strategy: "We are forecasting a tough year, but not from a performance point...

IN BRIEF: Aperture agrees sale terms.(Brief article)
March 17, 2008... Data centre software provider Aperture has agreed to be acquired by global technology company Emerson. It will become a division of Emerson Network Power, a #2.5bn provider of business-critical technology support systems. "Emerson is a...

Bosses slams skills and staff short fall.
March 17, 2008... A worldwide survey of top level executives has identified lack of staff and inadequate skills as the most common problems experienced in the last 12 years. Among the 749 respondents in 23 countries, 58 per cent said that they struggled...

Bauer and UK Changes at the Data Summit.
March 17, 2008... Bauer Consumer Media (formerly EMAP Consumer Media) has been confirmed as a speaker at the Data Strategy Data Summit 2008, taking place in Jerez, Spain on 25th to 27th June. Alex Pickering, head of data services, will provide an insight into...

IN BRIEF: Group formed to tackle security.(Brief article)
March 17, 2008... Lack of information security awareness, ignorance or avoidance of security processes are the biggest problems facing organisations and individuals, according 79 per cent of companies surveyed by the newly- launched Information Security...

Mulitple channels must cohere or lose custom.
March 17, 2008... Customers are increasingly frustrated by poorly executed multi-channel CRM strategies, especially the perceived lack of internal communication and inconsistency between channels. According to a study by Dr Nicola Millard, customer experience...

Care Trust bolster business intelligence.
March 17, 2008... County Durham and Darlington Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) have both adopted Datanomic's dn:Director data quality solution for the auditing, profiling and monitoring of incoming data. The Trusts receive highly complex data sets with over 500...

IN BRIEF: Sagent Data Flow update released.(Brief article)
March 17, 2008... Pitney Bowes Group 1 Software has released version 6.5 of Sagent Data Flow, an integrated ETL and business intelligence solution. The latest version has a new user interface and enhanced capabilities intended to support development...

Man Utd kicks off international CRM.
March 17, 2008... Manchester United Football Club is implementing a multi-channel marketing solution from SmartFocus. As the largest football club in the world and one of the leading sports brands globally, MUFC needed to gain a better understanding of its...

Omnicom hands finance planning task to Cognos.
March 17, 2008... Omnicom Group is to implement a performance management solution from Cognos following a successful pilot. The new enterprise planning and reporting platform will help to automate financial planning and simplify reporting via Web-based...

IN BRIEF: Stralfors gains data security accreditation.(Brief article)
March 17, 2008... Stralfors UK has been awarded the ISO 27001 data and information security accreditation, following an audit carried out by the British Standards Institute. The process involved ensuring that risks were properly identified, assessed and managed...

Dataforce gains PCI-DSS compliance.
March 17, 2008... Dataforce Group has become the first marketing services provider to become compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). The standard has been developed by credit card issuers to help fight fraudulent transactions...

Investment manager automates screening.
March 17, 2008... Brewer Dolphin, the largest independent investment manager in the UK, has replaced its in-house identity checking processes with a system from Datanomic. From February, the company is deploying the Sanctions/Politically Exposed Persons (PEP)...

IN BRIEF: DataFlux continues growth path.(Brief article)
March 17, 2008... Data quality and data integration solutions vendor DataFlux has seen record growth in 2007. Although figures were not disclosed by the company, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SAS, it claims 30 per cent growth compared to 2006, its...

New SIC added to Experian file.
March 17, 2008... Experian has incorporated the new 2007 Standard Industry Classification (SIC) into its National Business Database (NBD). The new codes were published by the Office of National Statistics on December 14 2007 and came into effect at the...

The key to performance management.
March 17, 2008... Performance management (PM) solutions, combined with the associated best practices and business processes, are rapidly becoming recognised as the best vehicles for the most strategic use of an organisation's information. Hackett Group research...

LETTER: 2008 will reveal the true impact of data.(Letter to the editor)
March 17, 2008... I was delighted to read Thomas Franks' comments (Data Strategy, February) and his view that 2008 will be the year for data. For many years now, those of us working within it have been continually explaining the true impact of data and why it...

LETTER: Knowledge of prosepcts is key to green initiatives.(Letter to the editor)
March 17, 2008... It is right that an increasing focus on environmental issues accelerates a concentration on reducing mail and associated wastage (Quality not Quantity, Data Strategy, February), with improved data quality sitting at the heart of combating...

Stop suffering - screen your mailings.
March 17, 2008... Is it just me, or is anyone else shocked by the wastage demonstrated by the charity sector when it comes to mailing lists? For an industry whose success depends on its ability to demonstrate prudence in its use of donors' money, it is...

FEELING THE HEAT: Slice and dice.
March 17, 2008... As the credit crunch takes hold in the UK and financial brands begin segmentation of customers by value and risk, more companies will be dismissing unprofitable customers. David Reed investigates the appropriate data strategy for this new...

LEGAL COLUMN: Susan Mann, partner, Marriott Harrison.(Column)
March 17, 2008... The recent Ofcom decision concerning Sumo TV and the limitations imposed on broadcasters of user-generated content (UGC) is an important one. While broadcasters may be attracted by the increasing availability of cheap UGC, they must bear in...

DATA FINANCIALS: One-fifth of revenues lost to poor data quality.
March 17, 2008... All you ever wanted to know about making profit from data but were too afraid to ask Companies are universally aware of the impact on their revenues of poor data quality, but more than half still fail to take concerted action. As a...

DATA FINANCIALS: Single customer view remains an elusive target.
March 17, 2008... Database and analytics are the top spending priorities for marketers this year, with 67 per cent allocating additional resources to this area. According to research by Alterian among nearly 900 marketers, agencies, MSPs and systems...

CASE STUDY: MDM plays key role.
March 17, 2008... The OneGlitnir project puts master data management (MDM) at the heart of an Icelandic bank Glitnir adopted its current name in 2006, having been known as Islandsbanki since 1904. Having undergone considerable growth and expansion this...

CUSOMER INSIGHT: A clearer picture.
March 17, 2008... Two people may well 'look' the same but their purchasing decisions tell us all we need to know about what sets them apart. Segmentation is key to understanding this, says Emily Cubitt You are male, aged under 30, live in Manchester and...

ONLINE DATA SERIVICES: Going for broke?
March 17, 2008... Searching for data sources online has become a modern reality. As the functionality is advancing, so users are demanding more and more sophisticated services from existing operators, says David Reed For the Google generation, if it is not...

Servicing the needs of demanding marketers.(Interview)
March 17, 2008... Data Strategy talks to data practitioners who toil unnoticed behind the scenes Q What is your name and job title? Malcolm Aldridge, production analyst at GB Group. Q What does your job involve? Is there a lot of pressure? We...

THE BOTTOM LINE: Lies, damned lies, and statistics.
March 17, 2008... "Social network era past its peak". "Facebook collapses". These were the sort of headlines you might have read last month on the back of new research by Nielsen Online suggesting that the leading social networking site had lost 500,000...