Free guide to data exploitation

Data is a fantastic resource, volumes of data are exploding and with it, there is huge potential for tapping into the valuable insights it contains.

By data exploitation we mean "gaining commercial and competitive advantage through the application of data".

This guide is designed to help you exploit your data. The expectation is that you already know who your top spending customers are and which are the best performing products. If you don't, you might like to view our  free guide to delivering business intelligence.

Systems and business processes

It may seem obvious, but before getting embroiled in data, it is essential to understand how a business operates:

• What does your organisation do?
• What are the benefits to your customers?
• How do you make money?

Most organisations have more than one system that contains customer information; from departmental databases and spreadsheets, through to websites and sales systems. Identify the possible sources of data:

Tele-sales, On-line sales, Customer service, Website contacts, e-News letter registrations, Departmental databases, Spreadsheets, Marketing communications and campaigns, Competitive intelligence, Publicly available information, Organisation and contact lists, Market research, External lists and demographics, Product management, Content management systems for off-line and on-line publications, Supply chain and logistics

• How does each system support the business?
• How do these systems interact?
• What rules could be applied to link systems data?

Audit and appraise your organisations data

Review each source, auditing its content to establish it's currency and value. The goal is to understand what each set of data means and how together it provides a complete picture of your business:

• How robust is the data? What business rules were applied at data entry?
• Focusing on customer related data - what is the meaning of the tables and fields?
• Are fields consistently populated and where not, which have missing values?
• Are values standardised and or are there free text entries?

Against each data source, highlight any issues concerning data quality or integrity that may affect the use of the data for marketing or analytical purposes.

Now equipped with a thorough understanding of your organisations data, how can the data be put to use? Where are the issues? And how can these issues be overcome?

Train-of-thought analysis and data exploration

A report will tell you which customers spent the most or products sold in greatest quantity. By applying train-of-thought analysis, you explore the information further to gain insight into why things have happened.

The most likely thought starters will be around customers:

• How many customers are there?
• Are there any obvious differences in classification?
• Where are they located?
• What is their status?
• When did they last respond to a communication, make an enquiry or a purchase?
• How often do they purchase?
• What type of products do they buy?

Some data modelling is usually required to support train-of-thought analysis, these may include:

• Customer segmentation
• Market basket analysis

Recording the results

At each stage of your data exploitation project, results must be recorded in adequate detail for opportunities to be acted upon:

• What rules are needed to improve accuracy of customer information and if they were implemented how would the business benefit?
• Have opportunities for data capture been missed - it the information were collected, how would it improve the organisations understanding of its customers?
• For each analysis, detail the objective, the logic applied, the findings and most importantly the applied business observation.

Presenting the results

Armed with a record of the results and with access to the data used for the data exploitation project, conduct a workshop with all interested parties, business owners, marketing and sales directors, to further explore the results.

Taking action

We have found that a month long project is just the right time to deliver results. It keeps you focused on actionable results and maintains business interest. These steps can make all the difference to the projects success.

Remembers your business can gain commercial and competitive advantage through the application of your systems data. It's just waiting for it to be exploited!

Would you like some help with your project? If that's a yes, we are just a email or phone call away (contact details top right of this page).

Wishing you success in your project.