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Standardising your data for accurate data-based decision
making!
Whether
you are looking after sales, marketing, purchasing,
finance or the business as a whole, you need to be
certain that the information on which you make your
decisions is reliable, complete and has a consistent set
of definitions.
The latter
point especially can cause major problems, especially if
your interpretation of the data is different to that of
someone else. Just like comparing apples with
oranges - yes they are both fruit, can be similar size,
but taste rather different.
Scenario
However,
it is usually not that simple to standardise definitions
that give each piece of information the same meaning,
and is
made far more complex where the following situations are
true:
-
Your
database or accounts system has been in place for
many years, with many different staff using the
systems over time. Data entry may have been
inconsistent over time.
-
Your company has acquired other businesses
and their systems have been merged with your own. Data has
often been loaded as-is, rather
than being accurately translated and imported.
-
Your
company operates more than one CRM, database or
accounts system, exacerbating the issues raised in
the first two points.
-
Old
operational systems have been migrated into new,
with new data definitions and code structures put in
place at the time of implementation. However, data
from legacy systems still remains in the same
format.
-
You
look after a group of companies, all running a mix
of financial, sales and operating systems. You
need to see the bigger picture but as information is
presented quite differently by each company, there
is no easy way to achieve this. Again, this is made
worse if any of the previous points are true.
-
Finally, if you use different companies (or brands)
to market similar products, and the product codes
and descriptions vary for virtually the same item,
taking a customer-centric marketing approach without
having a system that first links similar products,
can result in customer confusion, defection and lost
sales.
Cost to your business
Having
inconsistent data can have a major impact on your
business - in more ways than one!
-
Missed opportunities - you want to
cross-sell or up-sell a
new product to a segment of your database. To ensure
relevance you want to find people who previously
purchased a specific product or mix of products. But
due to inconsistent codes and descriptions on your
product file, and the way sales values are banded,
you cannot select the people you really need.
Result - higher marketing costs, less
response, less orders, less profit.
-
Poor decision making - you're
looking at product demand in order to determine your
sales, marketing and stock holding strategies for
the coming months. However, from one system you get
one picture. From another, a somewhat different
answer. From product records you believe there are X
existing customers. But your reports show Y, and
even then, the numbers just don't add up. You
therefore go with your gut feel and end up with
incorrect sales and marketing strategies, and
purchase more stock than you need.
Why? Usually because you don't have a
single view of your data and customers, and the data
you do have has different meanings across systems.
-
Financial direction - looking
through reports, sales values are not as you expect.
Why? Because the business
performance analysis is based on value bands rather
than raw values - and the way the bands have been
created is different across systems and/or
companies. For instance, in one system the bands are
1-4, 5-9, 10-19, 20-99. In another,
1-10,11-25, 26-50... So if you select '10', you get
results in one system of 10-19, and in the other,
1-10. Then there is the question of variations in
sales reporting and differences across KPIs. Only
half of the products sold are reported and KPI
significance varies. Why? Because
of coding variations between old and new product
ranges and differences in the formulae and base data
used to create the KPIs.
Cost-effective solution
Whilst
there are several expensive solutions to this kind of
problem, Tech4T take a practicable, affordable and
timely approach. You provide us with a copy of
your data and we will sort it out for you - doing just
the work you need!
 We first
audit your files, report the findings, then develop the
rules to standardise data definitions across multiple operational,
CRM, order processing
and accounts systems. We
ensure fields align correctly - esp. if data is taken from
spreadsheets - and that product, profile, marketing or
category codes, values and descriptions, together with
fields such as job title, function, marketing measures,
etc. are uniform, with any value ranges standardised
across all records. This prevents data
misinterpretation, enables more accurate list selection
and helps identify gaps in your data.
We then
populate incomplete addresses, remove duplication,
then combine and enrich your databases, lists and
spreadsheets - ensuring no information is lost.
We can
then transform your data to a single customer view which
we can set up online to drive your marketing, and also
to deliver business and marketing intelligence using
Excel spreadsheets set up as dynamic dashboards. Then,
at a frequency to be agreed, you supply a new extract
and we will bring the files, single customer view and
dashboards up-to-date.
Enhanced files can be supplied back to you in whatever
format you need! Give us a call on
+44 (0)1733 890790
Click here for world clock and our support times
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