SPSS Directions Blog

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Give your preference to an easy to use BI solution

With a wildly successful SPSS Users Conference behind us, we’ve had a few days to think about all the engaging conversations we had with customers at the show. And one theme seemed to run through many of our chats over all those drinks and delicious dinners: BI is still too complicated. Unfortunately, they’re probably right.

Business Intelligence holds out amazing promises to companies of all sizes: better insight into key business metrics, better visibility into business processes, and, combined with predictive analytics, the ability to predict what customers, partners and markets will do next. But many companies have yet to reap the full benefits of BI because they struggle to integrate and maintain a BI system. A recent survey in InformationWeek pointed out that:

• 51% of companies had held back on implementing a BI solution because of “integration and compatibility problems.”
• Another 48% of respondents said they had problems with “ease of use issues” when it came to BI in their companies.

That means half of all companies think BI is way too complicated! But it does not have to be that way.

Instead, companies can opt for an easy-to-implement, open standards-based BI solution that works with their existing back-end data structures. Such systems aren’t any more difficult to use than Excel, yet they deliver much greater business insights than a hodgepodge of spreadsheets (which some 50-80% of companies still use to manage critical BI applications, according to an April report from Forrester).

Considering how complex many BI packages are today, it’s not surprising so many companies prefer to tabulate a spreadsheet than to go through the clunky and costly process of implementing a traditional BI system.

Once a company puts an efficient and easy-to-use BI solution in place, it ends up saving tons of money over the long term as well. Gartner recently came out with a study that proves what any IT manager knows already: companies are spending way too much money on BI upkeep. The Gartner report found that many organizations spend more than 70% of their BI budgets to resolve ongoing problems. And you only spend that much on maintenance if a system is complicated and hard to use.

If I learned one thing in Prague, it’s that what companies want hasn’t changed much over the years; they want simple, streamlined, access to their critical data, so they can analyze it to better run their businesses. And that’s what the right Predictive analytics solutions can deliver – painlessly, I promise. As an example, you can have a look at what says Arthur Seck, Head of Marketing and CRM Department of Natixis Insurance in our blog.

Back in Paris

I'm back in Singapour's offices in Paris this morning... first meeting at 9:00: development of the CRM platform for my customer AssurOne. Thanks for all your imputs during these last two days, Jeremy Garamond, founder of AssurOne has been very interested in sharing your experiences !

OK, Paris is not bad. But I'll keep fantastic memories of these two days with you in Prague. Hundered of images too. Images I'd like to share with you. Here are some wallpapers made from photos I took in Prague between Saturday and yesterday. Feel free to download them (click on the images for high-res. versions)

See you soon,

Guillaume

Adrian Carr : we've never been so close to our clients

Adrian Carr, SPSS vice president of sales for EMEA first conclusions a few hours before the end of SPSS Directions 2007 in Prague...

Jan Jivmark, EMEA Marketing Director : Directions conclusion

Yamaha Motor Europe

Michael Mors Country Manager Germany at SPSS introduces Hennes Fischer, Project Manager of Yamaha Motors Europe.

Yamaha Motors Europe developped a clients and prospects survey solution based on SPSS Dimention.

Theiy quichly obtained better quality on the clients and prospects feedback.

As a result : Yamaha Motorbikes Quads and Scooters are now much closer from clients expectations.

When you learn than "the ability to learn more about customers" is one of the "only 2 sources of competitive advantage", it's easy to consider that SPSS is for Yamaha Motors Europe a key partner.

SAGA : "SPSS helped us to indentify incremental customers"

Neil Hartley Country Manager UK at SPSS introduces Ben Day, head of marketing Control of SAGA Group Ltd.

When you have 6+ millions household in database, you'd better manage properly your data! At SAGA ""we never throw anything away" (25+ years of customer history,...). Imagine the amount of data stored ?

Predictive analytics is not an easy science. But when well used, it permits much more than marketing costs limitation : it helps you to identify incremental customers.

Jack Noonan :

Jack Noonan, SPSS CEO is a great fan of technology. While he had to wait hours for a single calculation on mainframes some years ago, he's amazed by the capacity of blogs to publish information in real time.
SPSS Directions blogs is, according to him, a natural tool to reinforce the links between SPSS and it's customers cummunity.

We had the opportunity to ask him a few question. First of all : why SPSS Customers' satisfaction is so high, regarding to this morning round table testimonials ?

BankWest : to improve a challenger marketshare listening to the voice of the customer

"A voice of the customer projet is really an organisational change". And BankWest know the topic...

Enormous issues...
And quick results. WestBank wins 1% marketshare per year now

Sephora : Clementine, our day to day solution to improve Customer knowledge & behavior

Sephora teams Consolidated & Analyzed all of their data - 4 different sources (4 different providers) - to build Sephora's CRM & loyalty program Strategy.

Some examples of operational decisons permitted by Clementine :
- A more accurate customers segmentation, not only based on purchase volume
- When (and why) a customer becomes inactive
- Evolution of rebates offered to best customers for more accurate results
- Competitive analysis of customer behavior between on-line shoppers and others

As a conclusion : we use Clementine everyday. Beyound these examples, it brings up a lot of benefits

Should we conclude that Sephora's development is driven by CRM ?

Keynote : Predictive analytics is a journey

Pascal Boulard, from La Tribune, moderated a dynamic round table No "bullshit", precise insights... Let's take a tour.

Richard Vehroeff, Center Parcs Europe

"Even if a predictive analytics project is an investment, it's ROI is obvious and measurable from the first operation."

Federico Cesconi, CableCom

"We've change the focus of our strategy thanks to predictive analytics"

"Be prepared to face success. Be prepared to anticipate the consequences. Build scalable projects. At CableCom, Churn rate moved from 19 to 2%"

Rebecca Wettemann, Nucleus Research

"Pick one business problem. Build a project. You'll see how predictive analytics will impact your organization. Then, think about the next project..."

Michael Adam, SAP

"For finance, being able to evaluate risks is a key issue beyound financial regulation (Basel2, SOX ...). Predictive analytics is the solution to measure risks and make the right decisions in order to insure companies' capital"

Jack Noonan, SPSS CEO

"Predictive analytics is a journey. If you implement it step by step, it'll be a great journey for your organization."

"As a conclusion, each project should be short, the journey is forever."

Interview : Katherine Gudgin & Hervé Dhelin from SPSS

Katherin & Hervé accepted to answer few questions. Why this blog ? Which objectives ? Sorry for the poor audio quality. The hall of the Hilton Prague was quite noisy.

Leonie van de Vijfeijken, WWF : decrease churn in competitive fundraising markets

Who imagine that WWF uses data analysis and predictive marketing ? Leonie van de Vijfeijken, Marketing Analyst at WWF explains their goals and methodology...

- First of all "data preparation" is a key point. Without a good data preparation, no predictive analysis

Churn limitation is WWF first priority. Predictive analysis helps WWF to limitate churn rate (For instance, people recruited on the street have a high churn rate).

But limitating churn isn't WWF only objective. As they noticed, though data analysis, that 10% of their income is at risk, they needed to optimize their segmentation and recruitement.

As a conclusion, Leonie says:

"Don't forget : if fundrising "markets" are highly competitive, our only goal is to get more money available for our projets to save our Planet."

Predictive analysis is the best way to achieve that goal.

WWF churn model

Arthur Seck, Natixis : industrializing the insurance direct marketing process

David Williamson, COO Southern Europe of SPSS introduces Arthur Seck, Head of Marketing and CRM Department of Natixis Insurance

Building a industrial direct marketing process is not so easy when you have 4 million contacts in database and no direct access to 1.5 million customers...

Direct marketing process evolution

In only 40 days  implementation process... and 10 days later:  1st results. Much better than several quarters to set-up an IT project. Real time marketing era?

For those who prefer precise data, here are some figures. They've been extracted form one of the first Direct Marketing operations launched after the set-up of the Predictive Marketing platform :

As a conclusion : Arthur stresses a "100% level of satisfaction".

My personal comment: as a marketing professionnal, I'd like to be able to reach this level of optimization for each of my customers :+)

Vodaphone NL : a model of Predictive Enterprise

Consumer pre-pay segmentation, a key issue for Mobile Telcos

From classical segmentation low value / high value customers to behaviour segmentation.
As Tom Davenport said this morning. Keeping data is vital. Analysing them is crucial. When you mine & exploit these data to adapt your company's behaviour, you become a Predictive Enterprise.

It seems that a lot of SPSS Directions Attendees have listened carefully these insights

José Luis Martin Ramos, Guardia Civil : CSI:Miami or NUMB3RS haven't invented anything!

As US citizens of Miami mainly speak spanish, they should visit data analyst from Guardia Civil rather than watching CSI:Miami or NUMB3ERS. They whould learn more about delinquancy and statistics.
A quick draw is more efficeint than hundered of figures...

Björn Conrad, Aida : building up an internal analytical know how is critical

The brand new boat of AIDA is already full. thanks to analytics. And AIDA ability to build a comprehensive analytics schedule. One central point : CRM / Datamining

Tom Davenport's Keynote : Competing on analytics, the new science of winning

Tom Davenport lives with analytics from the early seventies. "A geek of analytics" as he says. So we can believe him when he says that "the World has changed". That analytics are everywhere. It's the New World of predicitve enterprises.

How to recognize predictive enterprises ?

Intuition or analytics ?

No matter the origin of the data. Capacity to analyse the right information at the right time in order to optimize decisions...
It's as here in Prague : first of all : plug the right wire at the right place...

SPSS Teams on stage

Did you know the hidden talents of SPSS teams ? you discovered this morning the future Hollywood stars (this is NOT Predictive analysis)

Adrian Carr : Analytics is everywhere

Analytics is everywhere, TV, Press, Baseball, Blackjack or... Sumo wrestling !
And these day to day examples are clear : Predictive Analytics is not only dedicated to ""better decisions". It helps organizations to implement better action

It's what we call at SPSS the predictive enterprise

SPSS Directions Prague : Live!

There we are. SPSS Directions Prague 2007 started 9:00 this morning. I'll try to attend most of the sessions.

Music Maestro !

On this Sunday morning, musicians make Prague's Castle visit even more fantastic...

Welcome in Prague

Hello everybody,

I'm Guillaume. As you'll read or hear, I'm not a native English speaker. I'm French. I'll be with you during all this event. Not to talk. Not to animate. Not as a speaker. Just here to make a few comments on this blog.
As I arrived here on Friday night, I took time for a quick tour in Prague. For those who won't be able to to so, here are some pictures of this magnificent town.
The first photos have been taken on Saturday. As you'll see, there are some tourists here! If you'd like to discover Prague, wake up early very early on monday or tuesday. You'll discover an other city... and be able to attend all the conferences :+)

For executives, “customer engagement” is critical; however technology is still a hurdle

The Economist Intelligence Unit produced a very interesting report entitled: Beyond loyalty – Meeting the challenge of customer engagement

This report deals with is Engagement! And by “engagement”, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) means creating proximity between a company and its customers. It also means offering customers tools to become active.

Did I hear you say “nothing new…”?

Well, actually, the report came up with a host of new findings! Firstly companies are now aware that technology is a key component which plays a major role in their goal achievement.

From Internet-based customer relationship management software to interactive electronic forms, the current tools used to build customer engagement are likely to grow even more popular. About 42% of executives report that they are using online/interactive feedback to collect customer information today, and nearly 60% say their companies will be using it over the next five years.

According to executives, all technologies used today to help engage customers are likely to become increasingly important in the next five years. Many are optimistic that the wide spectrum of on- and offline tools used to manage customer relationships will become more integrated.

Yet, despite their general optimism about the value of customer engagement initiatives, many respondents find these tools difficult to implement within the framework of their organizations.

In conclusion, executives are aware that the timely use of technology is key to successfully managing businesses/customer relationships. However, they only have a limited idea of what these IT tools are today and of their potential in the future. Information system integration is yet another concern to overcome.

Thus, executives need… examples to build up their strategy!

This strategy will include getting more thorough understanding of customers and what they expect from the company they are loyal to. This strategy will also address the role of technology in creating engagement and identify how new technologies can help to engage customers.

Who can give these executives some examples? Maybe Federico Cesconi, from Cablecom, would be able to help, presenting his own strategy driving the management of customer feedback, leading to predictive analytics

“Beyond loyalty – Meeting the challenge of customer engagement” can be seen on their website at eiu.com.

Should big brother be watching?

It seems that the age-old debate regarding our privacy, and I am talking more importantly about data privacy, is still topical. Since the 70s many laws have been passed to protect our privacy and today the legal protection of the right to privacy varies greatly around the world.

For instance, French governmental structures follow a strict host of processes when dealing with health information, criminal records, financial, genetic or location information. Key data about us cannot be gathered in one place, therefore, say we were to take a trip to our social security center, with just one number, the industrious civil servants dealing with our case would only have access to all relevant health information. When dealing with another governmental structure, say our tax office, we have to provide another identification number with which we accept to disclose only relevant tax information. Another identification number gathers banking personal data and so forth…

My first thought was: what if we had a sole and unique identification number which would grant access to all data about us? All state administrations could, with one line of data, have a quick overview of our family, health or financial situation. It would mean that we might be able to significantly reduce or simply get rid of the much-loved paperwork and flurry of forms we are repeatedly asked to fill everywhere we go. I know for a fact that this is already in effect in a few countries in Europe.

The debate today may also be extended, not only to the government, but also to other citizens and private companies quietly engaged in data-mining on the Internet in stores and so forth. In a recent TV broadcast about target marketing, American ABC broadcasting network compared Procter and Gamble to Big Brother, constantly trawling for information about us. These practices allow marketers to zero right in on us, enabling them to pitch us only things we would want to buy. Should those practices be more heavily regulated than they are?

So let’s lay it all down on the table for one second:
If we were to allow data sharing between state structures or even with private companies, what would it mean for us as citizens, as people? What would we lose? What would we win?  Would we save a tremendous amount of time? Would we lower the rate of mistakes made in our files? Or would it really be a threat to our privacy, an open door to abuses, violation and more control from regulators and companies?

Quite a few question marks here. It will be interesting to see what José Luis Martín Ramos, from the Guardia Civil in Spain has to say about the Public Sector at Directions.

Related contents :

• José Luis Martin Ramos Conference at Directions : Utilising Statistical Analysis at the Spanish Civil Guard

Why is customer disloyalty so widespread today?

A whopping 97% of the 12,000 European customers interviewed by specialist panel Research Now admitted having switched service providers over the last few years. And more than 60% of them in the last 6 months.

By service provider, you’ve got to understand ‘provider of services of any kind’ i.e. insurance companies, banks, mobile phone operators, Internet providers and so forth.

When looking at the findings of this survey, charts show that insurance companies rank first in this ‘customer disloyalty’ trend, closely followed by banks. And why would that be? Why would so many customers leave their bank for another?
Because they think they are not properly rewarded for their loyalty!
Yes. You were probably thinking that people may change for money reasons or because they were made better offers elsewhere, but primary triggers for switching come from the organizations’ inability to reward consumers for their custom.

And guess what? 96% of consumers revealed that they would be more loyal if they were rewarded. Another very surprising finding of this survey carried out by Research Now is that  96% of customers will stick with their provider when they feel that their custom is valued.

Unfortunately, reality is a whole different ball game… Customers don’t feel valued and therefore switch providers and keep switching. Is this trend here to stay?
Personally, I understand their behaviour, being valued by one’s provider is the least one can expect.

This thought-provoking survey makes wonder:
It’s one thing to purchase and roll out the most powerful CRM solutions (banks, insurance companies, Telcos and Internet providers are the biggest users of CRM solutions), but it’s another to take the decision to use CRM properly and push the right buttons.

The last thing I still need to understand is: why are these companies still unwilling to put a real CRM strategy in place?

Any ideas?

Related contents :

• Ben Day Conference at Directions : Maximising Customer Lifetime Value Through PredictiveMarketing

• Have a look at all CRM Speakers at Directions Europe 07