Innovative approach using analytical data intelligence

The degree of change and complexity is unprecedented in today's business environment. Unpredictable markets, copycat marketing, evolving technologies and mounting costs are impacting the way we plan and operate.

Businesses need to continuously evolve and to embrace new methods and tools that enable smarter decisions and cost-cutting methods. One such approach that has delivered significant results is data analytics. Effective Intelligence says it has seen an upturn in interest in data analytics by businesses generating insights from their business or customer data.

The next step up is analytical data intelligence, which is the name given to a solution methodology pioneered and developed by Effective Intelligence, which bridges the data-information-insight-decision gaps in an organisation. It does so through combining solutions and services spanning from raw data to the implementation of automated decisioning platforms.

However, there are many misconceptions about data analytics, the usage and deliverables. As Julian Ardagh, CEO of Effective Intelligence, explains: “Before data can be effectively used for business analytics, customer relationship management or even relatively simple marketing campaigns, the data needs to be cleansed, standardised, validated and enriched.”

There are no national benchmarks of the quality of contact data in SA; however, in analysing the contact data provided to credit bureaus, we find that between 20% and 40% has been incorrectly captured at source. On average, one in three records provided to them have some errors, and about one in seven records have significant errors. This represents the reality of data quality within SA, based on the fact that the source of that data represents all the main retailers, banks and insurance companies dealing with consumers in SA.

Data quality is, however, not a once-off exercise, but the result of a professional approach. Data degrades over time. Phone number area codes or phone numbers themselves change, streets are renamed, addresses rezoned, capture errors occur, etc. In fact, data quality is more than just fixing misspellings, reformatting data or doing a language translation. We regard it as the consistent and comprehensive delivery of timely data to business that supports effective operations and contributes to profit, regardless of its use or application.

Take address validation - much more is needed than just analysing a client database and validating the suburb of a physical address to the local post office. Data analytics must improve ROI on all spend, especially in major areas such as sales and marketing. As an example, only solutions that offer data quality integrated with a marketing repository enable the management of cost-effective client interaction, campaign management and tracking.

Analytical data intelligence offers solutions such as targeted marketing based on customer market segmentation, recognition of sales and market opportunities, accurate business insights with better forecasting, and can furthermore automate decisions for real-time business processes such as loan approvals that can detect fraud.

Analytical data intelligence, therefore, enables businesses to improve profit and cut costs using far greater insight from their customer and business data.

Effective Intelligence is a leader in translating insights from customer and business data into actionable and profitable intelligence that focus on enabling strategies and nurturing operational excellence.

While the businesses environment keeps changing, Effective Intelligence offers businesses the opportunity to stay ahead of the curve - sustainably.