Leslie Ament reminds us that use of
marketing science and information analysis services has moved beyond a
competitive advantage for companies that seek to grow aggressively. It
has become necessary
to stay in the game.
BI as a SaaS is nothing new, really. However, the interest in cloud
computing, including SaaS, has made BI-enabled SaaS accelerate. That
was the point of this recent article by Leslie Ament and Howard Baldwin.
"Acquiring business intelligence (BI) capabilities through a
software-as-a-service (SaaS) model versus enterprise business
intelligence represents the inflection point of two separate trends in
business. One trend signals the increasing importance of gaining
insight into all manner of business events. These events encompass not
just transactions, but patterns in activity as widespread as customer
responsiveness, network management, supply chain performance, and fraud
detection."
The idea is simple; it's cheaper and much simpler to leverage an
on-demand version of BI technology than using one that's on-premise,
that's pretty clear. However, the larger issue is the durability of
that model in the context of BI which has a tendency to be more bound
into the enterprise.
However, the article goes on to highlight some other advantages:
"With a SaaS application, companies can generally:
Deploy applications faster (weeks rather than months)
Reduce the cost of deployment (by a factor of four)
Avoid the cost of hardware and associated maintenance and monitoring
Eliminate the need for on-site expertise in the application itself"
Acquiring business intelligence (BI) capabilities through a
software-as-a-service (SaaS) model versus enterprise business
intelligence represents the inflection point of two separate trends in
business. One trend signals the increasing importance of gaining
insight into all manner of business events. These events encompass not
just transactions, but patterns in activity as widespread as customer
responsiveness, network management, supply chain performance, and fraud
detection. The focus on business intelligence comes from business
grasping the importance of the axiom: "If you can't measure it, you
can't manage it."
The second trend relates to an increasing interest in the concept
of SaaS. The idea of leasing rather than buying a software application,
and accessing it over the Internet, offers companies many benefits
relating to the conservation of resources. With a SaaS application,
companies can generally:
Deploy applications faster (weeks rather than months)
Reduce the cost of deployment (by a factor of four)
Avoid the cost of hardware and associated maintenance and monitoring
Eliminate the need for on-site expertise in the application itself
There's an old joke about economists: If you laid each one end to end,
they would never reach a conclusion. So, just as there is no consensus
about when this economic downturn began, there's also none about when
it will end.
This begs the question: What do you do in the
meantime? Once the frenzy has somewhat abated, plan to embark on
projects that position your company to come out of the downturn
swinging.
Leslie Ament, Research Director and Managing Partner
of Hypatia Research LLC (and newly designated channel expert for
Customer Analytics and Insight on the B-Eye Network), suggests three
activities to put on your agenda for the year.
Consolidate Your Channels.
A downturn is a perfect time to focus on standardizing your data model. "I worked with one company that sold the same products through multiple
channels -- online, catalog, in-store and even B2B," Ament says. "But
each channel had its own database." This siloed structure gave company
executives no insight into the multi-channel impact of their
advertising or into customer segmentation.
A retailer might have a small business customer who
buys office supplies online but goes into the store for electronic
devices to see first-hand how they work. "If the company consolidates
all of its business units on datamarts or a data warehouse using a
consistent data model, they'll capture all the same data about
customers in the same structure and make it easier to analyze the
information for both downstream and upstream decision-making," Ament
says.
Look for Gaps in Customer Data.
Take the time to improve your insight into customer demographics, both
on a micro and macro level. Ament recommends using services from Dun
& Bradstreet, Acxiom, Experian or others to fill the gaps about
your customers.
On a micro level, look at specific demographic
information about your customers to mesh with what you already have. On
a macro level, use aggregated information from these services to create
attitudinal and psychographic data about potential customers with
similar demographics.
"Use the segmentation profile to predict the success
rate of a particular advertising campaign," Ament says. Knowing this
data has ramifications all the way up and down the supply chain,
because you can better predict inventory requirements to reduce
stock-outs or overstocks, sales and profitability.
Take Time to Collaborate.Ament urges executives -- no matter whether they are in finance, IT or
operations -- to work together to develop a better sense of each group's
business requirements so subsequent BI analysis will make more sense.
She tells the story of a hospital's finance
department that found out through BI analysis that some physicians were
ordering $200 hip-replacement devices, while others were ordering ones
that cost $700. Putting the cheaper devices in less active patients in
their 80s made sense because their life expectancy was shorter than the
device's. With younger or extremely active patients, the
longer-lasting, more-expensive devices were more effective and would
improve range of motion and quality of life.
"Understanding how and why data is segmented a
certain way helps you make the best decision for the patient, rather
than having the finance department make decisions based solely on
cost," Ament says.
The result of all this interim work should be a
leaner, more efficient way to conduct business intelligence analysis
just when you need it most -- when business is improving and transaction
data is flowing smoothly once again.
The healthcare firms that rely on BI and information management services to
streamline costs, improve patient care and to enhance clinical research include
Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Aetna, MetLife Insurance, Centers for Disease Control,
Health Net, Inc., New York University Hospitals, St. Luke`s Medical Clinic,
John Hopkins Health System, AstraZeneca Centers for Medicare/Medicaid Services,
and St. Jude Children`s Research.
While the use of BI in the healthcare industry has proven to be an effective
tool for developing strategies for sustainable growth, not all facilities or
organizations are in a position to be able to launch BI strategies.
According
to Leslie Ament, partner at Hypatia Research, LLC, a tight budget is one major
obstacle to BI adoption. "Upfront costs, which range from $2-$3 million,
coupled with ongoing investments in creating business rules, data models or
role-based reporting templates while migrating and consolidating information
into one centralized repository can be daunting," she shared in a statement.
Researchers for Hypatia found that the main barriers to BI adoption are a lack
of resources during a recession; interoperability between diverse departmental
systems-Radiology, Admissions, Financial, Scheduling, Pharmacy, Supply Chain,
Laboratory, Patient Records, etc.; and uncertainties about the future market
and economies with evolving regulations and policies.
"BI
projects of limited scope that demonstrate tangible monetary benefits will be
funded and regarded as an essential investment." said co-author and senior
analyst, Sue Hildreth.
Information
is the currency that companies have used for competitive advantage in
business since the earliest beginnings of barter negotiations and
commercial commerce. Success in barter commerce often depended on
knowledge of sources of food, labor or materials that could be
exchanged. In today’s highly competitive global economy, knowledge of
consumer and business behavior, socio-economic, lifestyle and/or
demographic information, can be transformed through information
analysis (known as decision science, marketing science or customer
analysis) into actionable insight. It is this insight that provides key
decision-making support to companies that seek to enhance profitability
and/or gain a competitive business advantage.
To read the Decision Science and Customer Analysis report entitled,"Competitve Advantage or Necessary to Compete?," please click here.
By
Jeff Kelly, News Editor Jan 2009 | SearchDataManagement.com
Highly
accurate, up-to-date data-especially customer data - is one of the keys to
maintaining strong customer relationships and ultimately growing revenue.Even among organizations that do use data
quality tools - either commercial or homegrown - less than a third have
deployed the tools enterprise-wide, according to Gartner. The consequences are
not trivial. Poor or siloed data can result in missed cross-sell and up-sell opportunities
and can even alienate customers who have come to expect personalized
interactions.
"Especially
in the under-40 demographic, customers do expect a high level of
customization/personalization from companies -- and this puts pressure on
companies to deliver or risk losing their existing customers," Leslie
Ament, managing partner at Lexington, Mass.-based Hypatia Research, said in an
email interview.
So why do
so few organizations use data quality tools for customer data enterprise-wide?
The reason, according to some, is that most companies collect and store
customer data in numerous data sources spread throughout the organization with
no way to connect them. Put
another way, lacking a single view of the customer through a master
data management (MDM) system or customer
data integration (CDI) initiative, organizations lack any realistic way of
applying data quality tools enterprise-wide. Their only alternative is to
tackle customer data quality one department or database at a time.
"Many
larger retailers have upwards of 10 different databases with different schema
for collecting customer data," Ament said. "Standardizing and
normalizing this information is akin to having root canal surgery at the
dentist."
As Hypatia's Ament points out: "Using data
to understand and respond to customers can make a huge difference in a crowded
marketplace."
TMCnet.com
Hypatia's Analytics Report, SMS for Voter Registration, Webcom and Tripwire, Vitrium's Documentrics Challenge
By David Sims
David at firstcoffee d*t biz
Hypatia
Research, LLC has released a report titled "Decision Science and
Customer Analytics: Competitive Advantage or Necessary to Compete"
which outlines "strategies, techniques, vendor products and services"
used by companies, according to Hypatia officials.
Wal-Mart,
American Express, Cocoa-Cola, Staples, Best Buy, Harrah's
Entertainment, Proctor & Gamble, Toyota, Hilton International. AOL,
IBM, and Oracle
are among numerous blue-chip companies using business and consumer data
today, report officials say. In fact it'd be hard to find a
significantly successful company who doesn't use analytics, First
Coffee thinks.
The
report finds that information is "a currency used for competitive
advantage since the earliest beginnings of barter negotiations and
commercial commerce." In today's global economy, knowledge of consumer
and business behavior, lifestyle and demographic information can be
transformed through information analysis, the report finds, in a form
known as "Decision Science, Marketing Science or Customer Analytics."
It
is this insight that is used in decision-making to help companies that
seek to enhance profitability or gain a competitive business advantage.
"In
order to create an effective decision analytics eco-system, companies
need to establish an operational foundation for customer data analysis
and decision-support," says Leslie Ament, Managing Partner at Hypatia.
If read off-site hit http://blog.tmcnet.com/telecom-crm/ for the
fully-linked version. First CoffeeSM accepts no sponsored content.
Experian QAS Offers New Web-Based Point-of-Entry Email and Phone Validation Services
QAS Email and QAS Phone are designed to reduce time wasted on manually identifying and fixing incorrect email and phone information while assisting organizations to develop a more accurate view of its customer base.
"Organizations that invest upwards of 20 percent of operating expenses on online media advertising or partnerships for lead generation, visibility or for customer loyalty programs risk squandering email marketing budgets on bounce reports that provide customer intelligence after the fact," stated Leslie Ament, managing partner at Hypatia Research, LLC.
"Our research found that use of good quality data, checked at the point of entry, results in higher open rates for email [ > 30 percent] and reduces soft and hard email bounce rates as well as the potential for being blocked as Spam by certain domains. Fewer bogus email addresses also has a positive impact on an organization's conversion rates and future investment decisions in media advertising."
In the News:
"Decision Science & Customer Analysis: Competitive Advantage or Necessary to Compete?" by Leslie Ament, published on MyCustomer.com.
Wal-mart, American Express, Coca-Cola, Staples, Best Buy, Harrah's
Entertainment, Proctor & Gamble, Toyota, Hilton International. AOL,
IBM, Oracle are among numerous blue-chip companies that believe
leveraging business and consumer data is necessary to compete in
today's economy. What used to provide a 'secret sauce' or competitive
advantage to companies savvy enough to exploit the value of customer
data within their own proprietary databases, has now become a rather
lucrative service business for vendors able to provide key components
including customer analysis; list and data enhancement; customer data
integration; and database marketing services. Hypatia Research, LLC explores this area.
What do insurance, consumer goods, retail and manufacturing companies have in common? Each relies on a complex value chain of partners engaged in collaborative business processes in order to develop relationships and deliver goods or services to customers.
"Get Marketing ROI Now! How to Set Goals, Develop Plans, Measure & Quantify Results" published in CRM Magazine, by Leslie Ament
Many people believe that marketing, branding & communications are all about creating “buzz” or increasing visibility & awareness of an organization’s product or service offerings -- an intangible “investment” that cannot be measured or justified.
In these days of shrinking profits and corporate belt-tightening, if a person or a team’s contributions cannot be measured or justified in relation to profits, it is considered a non-essential expense.In other words, marketing professionals are prime targets for cost-cutting measures at organizations of various sizes across many industries.
Therefore, the $100K question becomes, “How should marketing professionals justify their value in contributing to an organization’s financial success?”
"Output and Demand Need Careful Cohesion" published byThe Financial Times of London.
"Hunter-Douglas Slashes Inventory with Collaborative Forecasting" by Leslie Ament. Published by Consumer Goods Technology. "Demand Attention" as published in Supply Management Magazine, by Leslie Ament of Hypatia, Calculating ResultsTM
Integrating demand more effectively with procurement would revitalize companies' Supply Chains and help to cut costs says Leslie Ament of Hypatia Market Research & Communications.
"The Demand-Driven Company: the next business model?" by Leslie Ament. Published in Logistics Europe.
Product-intensive companies have long been searching for sustainable business advantage. For many years, ERP and/or Supply Chain systems promised to deliver the desired results: improved internal operations and incremental speed to market. However, in today's extended, collaborative, e-business environment, the models have changed so drastically that companies need to anticipate and respond to dynamic market changes with greater speed and flexibility.
"Winning Ingredients for Establishing Your Customer Intelligence Ecosystem"
Leslie Ament, Managing Partner with Hypatia Research & Consulting, LLC will be moderating a panel discussion with industry leading experts designed to help CRM & Business Intelligence practitioners deploy Customer Intelligence Management programs. Participating companies include: Teradata, Salesforce.com, QAS/Experian and Dun & Bradstreet. http://www.crmaconference.org/agenda/day2.html
Hypatia Research,
LLC, http://www.HypatiaResearch.com
delivers high impact market intelligence, industry benchmarking, best practice,
and vendor selection research for how businesses use technology and service
providers to capture, manage, analyze and apply customer intelligence to
enhance performance and to accelerate growth. Coverage areas include:
CRM, Business Intelligence, Customer Analytics, Marketing Automation, Database
Marketing, and Customer Data Integration and Quality. Since its
inception by co-founder Leslie Ament in 2001, clients have relied on
Hypatia for industry insight, expertise and independent research for
guidance in assessing various technology and service options. Like our
namesake, Hypatia, we are committed to Calculating ResultsTM for our
clients.
Hypatia of Alexandria (c. 370-415 AD), invented
several scientific devices--the astrolabe, planesphere, and hydroscope (hydrometer). These
instruments were used to calculate the distance between planets, the
position of visible stars at any time of the year, and the gravity of
liquids respectively. Hypatia was the first woman to make substantial
contributions to the development of mathematics, astronomy &
philosophy.
