Data Strategy articles from May 2006

Data Strategy archives from May 2006

LEADER: Why product data is a lexicon of love.
May 16, 2006... If you take the common view - sadly, all-too-often held in some business circles, too - that the data profession is about as lively as painting the Forth Bridge, then imagine the perceptions of product data taxonomy, or master data management,...

SMEs warned: share files or face bad debt.
May 16, 2006... Company bosses are being urged to share data to protect their firms from going bust, in the wake of analysis from business information group Equifax, which exposes a 13 per cent hike in corporate failure rates in the first quarter of 2006. ...

IN BRIEF: ICO issues guide on outsourcing data management.(Brief article)
May 16, 2006... The Information Commissioner's Office has published advice to businesses on how to comply with data protection rules when outsourcing the processing of personal information. The guide is aimed at smaller companies that do not have an in-house...

Shell combs data for fleet activity.
May 16, 2006... Shell UK Oil Products has appointed data-engineering consultancy Rocket Science to overhaul its prospect database and fine-tune its acquisition targeting, to improve the effectiveness of its fleet Fuel Card sales operation. The company...

ICO issues firms guidance on buying and selling lists.
May 16, 2006... The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is aiming to clear up the confusion companies face when buying and selling customer databases with a good practice guidance note. The publication provides answers to some of the common queries...

Warner Breaks hires E-RM to lift e-marketing assaults.
May 16, 2006... Warner Breaks has appointed RedEye International division E- Relationship Marketing (E-RM) to implement its automated, event-driven email marketing campaigns. The company, part of the Bourne Leisure Group, is turning to digital to target...

IN BRIEF: Express Gifts to bolster targeting.(Brief article)
May 16, 2006... Express Gifts is taking on a range of data-management solutions to refine data quality and boost direct mail targeting. Experian will provide software to bolster customer acquisition for the Studio and Ace mail order catalogues. Prospects on...

IN BRIEF: MGN in Alchemetrics deal to refresh data.(Brief article)
May 16, 2006... Mirror Group Newspapers has hired Alchemetrics to improve the recency of information, as well as provide its business enterprise division with online access to data. MGN hopes the system will slash the time it takes to plan, execute and...

RSPB preps data for donor drive.
May 16, 2006... Wildlife conservation charity the RSPB has appointed customer data specialist GB Group to help drive new member campaigns by boosting its data strategy. GB Group, which has a number of major charity clients including the NSPCC and Marie...

Retail sites 'careless with financial details'.
May 16, 2006... E-commerce websites are putting consumers' financial details at risk by failing to encrypt transaction data, according to the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI). The DTI's biannual Information Security Breaches Survey, carried out by...

IN BRIEF: Experian picks Fraser for key B2B role.(Brief article)
May 16, 2006... Nick Frazer has been appointed director of Experian's business-to- business marketing division. His remit is to maintain its growth and drive the use of data-segmentation and analysis tools. Frazer has previously held positions at Dataforce,...

GoldlineUK brings in monitoring tool.
May 16, 2006... Footwear importer GoldlineUK has signed a deal with Option Systems (OSL), a global specialist in the provision of IT solutions, to implement an enterprise resource planning solution to streamline its import and distribution processes. The...

PRODUCT & SERVICE NEWS: Auto Trader owner in vehicle-check launch.
May 16, 2006... The company behind Auto Trader magazine is taking on the likes of Experian and Equifax by launching a vehicle-checking system that will enable both the trade and consumers to probe a car's history. Built by IT consultancy Detica, for the...

PRODUCT & SERVICE NEWS: Genesys 7.2 open platform targets centres.
May 16, 2006... Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories is upgrading its contact centre software suite with advances in the scalability, reliability and security needed for IP contact centres. Genesys 7.2 can support up to 30,000 agents and provide...

PRODUCT & SERVICE NEWS: Grid-Tools unveils Datamaker update.
May 16, 2006... Grid-Tools, the test data management specialist, is releasing version 1.9 of database test data subsetting, anonymising and generation product GT Datamaker. The upgrade includes the ability for standard test cases to be 'inherited',...

PRODUCT & SERVICE NEWS: Kognitio and Cognos link for rapid analysis.
May 16, 2006... Kognitio is joining forces with Cognos, claiming the move will allow customers to analyse multi-billion row datasets in seconds. As part of the deal, Cognos, which specialises in business intelligence (BI) and corporate performance...

PRODUCT & SERVICE NEWS: SAS hooks up with Bull.
May 16, 2006... Business intelligence (BI) giant SAS is bolstering its partnership with IT group Bull in a joint initiative to implement advanced BI solutions around enterprise resource planning (ERP) in Europe. Both companies will use their experience...

PRODUCT & SERVICE NEWS: IBM introduces Secure Blue tool.
May 16, 2006... IBM is launching a low-cost technology designed to tighten the security of consumer products, medical devices, defence systems and digital media. The scheme, dubbed Secure Blue, is claimed to protect the confidentiality of information...

PRODUCT & SERVICE NEWS: Take part in Data Strategy survey.
May 16, 2006... Data Strategy is joining forces with Data Vantage Group to launch a major industry study to boost understanding of how failures in data-led sales and marketing can damage customer confidence. Starting in June, the research will solicit the...

Let's forge a 'killer' database for big four.
May 16, 2006... Profiling my clients' customers on a range of demographic and lifestyle variables has often delivered some real insights that have nicely finessed my communications strategy. One particular example that stands out was for Red Letter Days....

LETTER: There's a case for using employees' information.(Letter to the editor)
May 16, 2006... Corporate fraud continues to spiral out of control, yet simple, low- cost steps that can significantly reduce fraud are still not being adopted by UK businesses. This is due in no small part to the Government's persistent refusal to...

LETTER: Firms are lulled into false sense of data security.(Letter to the editor)
May 16, 2006... It's fair to say that many companies have become slightly blinkered when it comes to their approach to customer data. Part of 'digging deeper' and evolving with your customers is understanding how a timely approach can make a difference,...

We must apply analytics to salesforces.
May 16, 2006... In direct marketing, we monitor the cost and return on investment (ROI) of every aspect of activity, often arguing down the price of a mailpack. With our vast, sophisticated databases and data analysts, we understand what works and what...

FEATURE: What's in a name?
May 16, 2006... Ensuring product data is consistent across a business may seem a trivial matter. But without an agreed lexicon chaos reigns. David Reed reports An engineer goes to the depot to pick up supplies. He puts in a request for 'copper wire', but...

CONSUMER INSIGHT: Keeping pace.
May 16, 2006... If a company wants its classification system to perform, it needs to ensure its segments continue to fairly represent the underlying data, as customers' details evolve over time. By David Reed Does your company operate on a one-to-one or...

BUREAU SOLUTIONS: Guilty by association.
May 16, 2006... Database bureaux are increasingly partnering software vendors to find additional routes to market. But such back-scratching may not always benefit every client company. By Emma Rubach Suspicions that the curse of dirty data is behind many...

CHAIRMAN'S PAGE: Consumers 'providing too much information'.
May 16, 2006... Everything you've ever wanted to know about data but were too afraid to ask The vast majority of consumers will give away enough personal information for fraudsters to steal their identity for the chance to win as little as #60 worth of...

CHAIRMAN'S PAGE: Agencies fear TUPE will lead to hefty bills.
May 16, 2006... Companies that change data agency could be forced to pay extra staffing costs - potentially running into hundreds of thousands of pounds - under new employment legislation, which could see agencies that win new business forced to hire teams...

CHAIRMAN'S PAGE: UK 'a soft touch' over EU anti-spam enforcement.
May 16, 2006... The UK has won the dubious honour of being exposed as one of the worst enforcers of EU anti-spam laws. And not only that, it also imposes among the softest penalties on those who breach the legislation. According to research from law...

IDMF 2006: Spoilt for choice.
May 16, 2006... If you're looking to acquire - or sell - prospecting data, you'd do well to get yourself to this year's International Direct Marketing Fair, where a whole host of services will be on show. By David Reed If you use prospecting data in...

CASE STUDY: Handing over the goods.
May 16, 2006... Engineering services firm AMEC needed to transform the task of passing final reports to clients from a tedious slog to a simple transfer. Enter Datanomic International engineering services company AMEC provides design, project delivery...

Legal column: Spencer Davis answers pressing legal questions.
May 16, 2006... Marketing to children has always been a highly emotive area, especially since the advent of online data-capture, which can include names, email addresses, physical addresses and telephone numbers. Many website operators use this data to...

We can't function without the data steward.
May 16, 2006... How much data are you responsible for? And how much responsibility do you have for that data? The two issues are not identical, because data management does not always come with the right level of managerial authority. Much will depend...