24 technology


How Big Data makes for a better business


Writes Paul Hinds, partner at Beyond Analysis Data, data everywhere


The rapid emergence of new payment methods, such as mobile wallets, and the ever-increasing rise in social media usage has led to a veritable data explosion. As a result, businesses everywhere are either embracing or being forced to face up to the Big Data challenge.


Rather than relying on gut-instinct and outdated metrics, savvy business leaders are now turning to the insight generated by the analysis of behavioural data to enable them to make informed business decisions.


Big Data is more than the latest buzzword; it is, however, also nothing new. Whether it’s customer data, transactional data, local market data or communications data, every company has at least one data source at its fingertips. The Big Data trick is gleaning insight from the data madness; and prioritising data strategies to businesses solve their biggest issues and opportunities.


Long-term customer engagement


As the number of data sources increase, the value that businesses place on them is growing. This has meant that companies are now under pressure to better understand, engage with and respond to their customers.


The good news is that the information is readily available. The bad news is that although the opportunities for harnessing this data are pretty much infinite, analysing that data and using it to drive profit, is a complex issue. This is particularly


Partnering on email achiving


Reading-based C2C, a leading provider of email archiving and information management solutions, and DataWave, the industry’s leading provider of email archive migrations, have formed a partnership that will enable users on other email archiving platforms to migrate their existing archives to C2C’s advanced ArchiveOne platform.


DataWave’s flagship product PAMM was the first 100% software-based email archive migration solution capable of moving from “any-to-any” environment.


PAMM continues to evolve as the industry’s best solution for archive migrations.


DataWave has a long history of successful migrations with customers around the globe, which is perfectly suited to C2C’s international presence.


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apparent when following a customer through the maze that is their purchasing journey. Just knowing what a customer bought and when, whether a product or service, is no longer enough; businesses need to understand long term consumer behaviour and what customers are doing once they’ve left the shop doors or after they’ve logged off.


But where to start?


Quickly collecting, interpreting and acting effectively on customer data can be a real differentiator in terms of developing positive customer relationships and engagement, as well as driving your business forward.


Although businesses think that Big Data can only bring a long term return to the business, in fact the opposite is true. It is certainly possible to use it to deliver a quick return for businesses. The mistake that many companies make is trying to bring all of it together, all at once. What they should be doing is taking the time to understand what their version of Big Data should look like for their particular business, pick one area of focus and focus energy and resources into delivering against it.


Short-term rewards reap long-term gain


Although true customer loyalty is about long term retention and engagement, in today’s challenging economic environment retailers need to act fast to entice new customers and win back the lapsed. Customers are less and less likely to wait around for their reward; they want


DataWave’s migration supports Autonomy Zantaz EAS formats, making C2C’s recently- announced trade-in promotion for Autonomy email archiving customers (Switch and Win with C2C) even more attractive for legacy archiving users on Autonomy platforms.


Isansys Lifecare announces next- stage funding


Isansys Lifecare, the provider of complete real-time physiological patient data services and systems, has closed a major funding round with Isle of Man investors and has been awarded a grant from the Technology Strategy Board’s Smart awards programme.


The funds will accelerate the roll-out timetable into UK hospitals of the company’s CE-marked clinical surveillance and early


instant recognition and gratification. The trick for retailers is to deliver this loyalty kick without devaluing their brand offering. We all know of high profile retailers that are all about discounts and vouchers; savvy customers will rarely buy from them at full price when you can search online for a 20% off code.


Here’s the Beyond Analysis six-point plan for getting started:


1 Be clear on your business objectives, and those of your customers


2 Understand what data you have right now (and what you don’t)


3 Align points one & two and then create your own Big Data plan


4 This should NOT be a three-year, all-singing all-dancing plan; plan in detail for the first 12 month, then in high level for years two and three


5 Only include actions that can be tested and measured – so you can learn and develop proof points


6 Be committed to your data; if you’re in it for the long haul so will be your customers


To data infinity and beyond


In the fast-moving world of Big Data, businesses need to make sure their business objectives match the current needs of their customers. The future is about intelligent customer engagement. It’s about marketing to and engaging with the individual. To achieve that, companies need to know what customers think, and understand what they do and why. In today’s challenging and competitive economic climate, businesses must reassess whose views matter. Their employees, partners and customers could just be the best people to tell them how to make it a success. Big Data has been around for some time as an idea; it’s now time for businesses to turn it into action.


warning platform – the Patient Status Engine – and enable its use to be extended across the entire patient population, from paediatric through to adult and geriatric care.


The grant of £100k will contribute to the development of an expanded version of the Patient Status Engine (PSE) enabling its intended use to include a broad range of paediatric patients from neonates up to active adolescents, leading to the realisation of an end-to-end early warning system that will be clinically validated in a major children’s hospital in the UK this year. The expanded PSE will produce high-quality, continuous real-time vital sign data as input for Paediatric Early Warning Scoring (PEWS) algorithms. These algorithms have already been proven to deliver significant clinical and economic benefits by being able to predict when adverse events or patient deteriorations will occur – giving nursing and clinical staff sufficient warning to take early preventative action.


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – MAY 2013


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