February 12, 2012: What Large Enterprises (>$2b) Value Most?
After slicing, dicing, and performing multivariate analysis on our data from "Leveraging Content to Increase Customer Engagement" study, our analysis revealed the three top capabilities valued most by large organizations:
Ability to publish to a variety of devices & formats; 40.5%
For in depth advisory or specific analysis on this topic by company size, industry or geography, please contact JoeA@HypatiaResearch.com or call 781-862-5106.
January 12, 2012: Buying Good Reviews From Industry Analysts?
April Dunford, principle of Rocket Launch Marketing (disclaimer: also a keynote speaker at a Forrester Research Product Marketing Summit 2010) recently posted this question from a B2B startup founder who "asked if it was possible to buy placement in a Gartner Magic Quadrant. The question shows a fundamental misunderstanding that the big industry analyst firms like Gartner Group and Forrester are "Pay for Play". That simply doesn't make any sense." Hypatia's POV: Although we do agree that purchasing a contract or research subscription will likely get a vendor more attention and time with Gartner, Forrester and IDC analysts; there are still a few independent boutique and mid-sized analyst firms who do not engage in pay for play as well. Vendors and service providers of all sizes get Hypatia Research's attention when a vendor's offerings align with our research agenda--which is primarily customer-driven. Briefings, product demonstrations and customer references are all done as part of our due diligence at no cost to vendors.
A boutique [10-15 person] industry analyst and primary market research firm since 2001, Hypatia focuses on four major research areas: Customer Management, Business Intelligence-operational, predictive and social/contextual analytics, Information Management and GRC, and Consultancies. More at http://store.hypatiaresearch.com
In October I was honored to co-chaired a conference on Customer & Marketing Analytics and ran a workshop entitled "Strategies, Plans & Execution Techniques for Aligning Marketing Performance with Corporate Goals".
Attendees
were tasked with using customer analytics and rules-based decisions to
create a customer interaction journey process designed to reduce
customer churn OR to increase customer profitability at an annual rate.
One attendee asked us to provide examples as they had never developed
this in house! One of Hypatia's high level process map is illustrated at right.
Is
your organization equipped to effectively capture, manage, analyze and
apply actionable customer intelligence to enhance corporate performance
and to accelerate profitability? Are all sources of interactional and
transactional customer information such as social, user-generated online
content, purchase data, CRM, call center notes, marketing databases,
survey feedback or voice of the customer initiatives effectively
exploited in your customer management processes?
If not, give us a call....as
industry analysts and practitioners, we can assist your organization
with vendor evaluation and selection criteria, best practices and
industry benchmarks as well as customized advisory services.
November 30, 2011: How to Lose or Gain a Paying Customer in 72 Hours Most of the time we share best practices,
success stories, technology evaluations and market analysis related to
Customer & Market Intelligence. Today is a compare and contrast example.
After driving a wonderfully reliable
12 year old Subaru Forrester these many years, I decided to do my
research (occupational hazard right?) and find my next car--which I
fully intend to drive for the next 10-12 years. (Frugal Midwesterner
that I am).
My requirements and specifications were much simpler
to prepare than a RFQ for an enterprise CRM, BI, Analytics or GRC
application. Thus I rapidly sent this list to several local dealerships
that advertised Black Friday specials. I requested:
Pricing on a 2012 SV/SL model
Included an interior/exterior color choice
Specified AWD
Requested an estimated delivery date if the model selected was not currently in stock.
Imagine
my surprise when I received "canned" email responses from 4 dealerships
pushing "slightly owned fleet vehicles", 2011 models, models that were
not in my choice of color, and cars that obviously did not have AWD. Is anyone listening to the voice of the customer?
I
then called each dealership to inquire about stock. I was told I would
have to come in and speak to a sales consultant before they would check
stock and delivery time-frames for me. I took a chance and visited 2
dealerships in person and reiterated my specifications and requested
pricing and delivery times-frames. Both dealerships promised to get back to
me within 48 hours--although only one allowed me to test drive a similar
pre-owned 2011 model.
Curiously, the internet-only sales
consultants competed with the on-site sales consultants for my
business--without actually providing a quote on the car I wanted--and
without working with each other to reel me in. I was not entirely sure
as to whether the right hand and left hand were simply not in sync with
each other or if internal competition for commissions were at the root
of these poor customer management processes.
72 hours
later and frustrated that no local dealership wanted my business (we are
talking about a $25,000+ purchase that would close before the end of
the month) I called a dealership located a significant distance from my
home. Imagine my surprise when "Craig" checked delivery time-frames and stock for the car selected and got back to me with answers within 1 hour! He further suggested I speak with "DJ"
upon arrival. I hopped in my trusty 12 year old car and made the
trip--negotiated a fair price with a sales consultant "Todd"--and
bought a car on the spot. Isn't it amazing what a bit of teamwork and
customer-centricity accomplishes!
I'm
looking forward to picking up my new means of transportation at a
future date...and am pondering why companies fail to apply common sense
to customer management processes? I realize I'm not purchasing a
high-end Porshe or Jaguar here, but a paying customer should have more
value than having no customers at all.
November 1, 2011: New Case Study: Psion Mobile Computing Devices!
Social Community Investment and ROI A Negotiation: Often a Balance between Profits & Performance
Psion (LSE: PON.L)
makes ruggedized handheld or vehicle-mounted computer devices for
heavy duty applications within airports (luggage handling), supply
chain logistics (shipping and inventory management), and postal and
warehouse management. Operating globally in North America, South
America, Asia, and Europe, Psion has approximately 300 partners who
develop solutions based on Psion devices. The company's aim was to
foster an open source style of development based upon collaboration
between partners to meet as many of the diverse needs of different
industries and use cases as possible.
Challenge
In 2001 through 2006,
the company lost market share to competitors and had some key partners
pull out of projects. In 2008, the new CEO implemented a new corporate
strategy based on the modularity of products and open collaboration
between partners and customers. Senior leadership felt
the company was perceived as a follower in the market rather than a
technology leader or a strong brand. The company recognized the
difficulty in getting partners who are located literally around the
world to collaborate with each other and turned to social media for a
potential solution.
Psion also wanted to gather intelligence on its customer base, gain
insight into the public perception of Psion products and understand why
some sold well in some markets, while in others the products were less
successful.
Read the entire Business ROI Evaluation report exclusively on the B-Eye-Network's Customer Analytics & Insight Channel compliments of Hypatia Research!
End-user
organizations are encouraged to review our vendor selection guide prior
to engaging with a provider of voice of the customer or social media
techniques and/or technologies. Consider visiting our new online store to assist your organization in building a short list of vendors to evaluate. Discounts are available for small and mid-market businesses. Contact Joe Azzolino at JoeA@HypatiaResearch for discounts.
October 12, 2011: New Survey Launch!
Leveraging Content to Increase Customer Engagement!
Best Practices, Benchmarks & Vendor Galaxy Rankings
Hypatia Research categorizes customer-facing content as
encompassing all types of digital interaction channels, online content or digital assets utilized
for sales and marketing, customer service & support, branding, product information,
public relations, social community, and/or webcast business initiatives with
the goal of engaging or influencing behaviors of both known or unknown potential customers.
We would like to personally invite you to participate in
Hypatia's exploration of how organizations effectively leverage content to
engage customers with the goal of impacting acquisition, retention and revenue levels!
Take our survey (less than 10 minutes to complete) and
receive a complimentary executive summary with research highlights as
a "thank you" for your input.
We will need a valid email address in order to deliver
the results, but rest
assured we will never share your contact information without your permission. We appreciate your time and participation in this
solution study:Survey link.
Sept 8, 2011: Hypatia Research Chairing Upcoming Conference!
Customer & Marketing Analytics: Strategies, Plans, and Execution Techniques for Aligning Performance with Corporate Goals
Hypatia Research is again chairing this seminar event designed for all those in Marketing, Customer Insight,
Customer Intelligence, Market Intelligence, Competitive Intelligence,
Market Research and Database Analysis interested in knowing how top
performers in both B2B and B2C businesses utilize customer and marketing
analytics. An essential two-day conference that delivers the knowledge
you need for better customer management, marketing, sales, product
management, product innovation, market research, ecommerce,
merchandising, demand management and pricing. The two day conference
combines presentations, panel sessions and an interactive workshop.
Starts:
Thursday November 10, 2011, 08:00AM PST
Ends:
Friday November 11, 2011, 05:00PM PST
Event Type:
Conference
Location:
John Hancock Hotel and Conference Center 40 Trinity Place Boston, MA 02116 US
August 22, 2011: Operationalizing Social Business: The How, What, When, Where & ROI.
Now that information and articles on
social media have proliferated in online tweets, chat, and media
articles...the result is everyone is interested and understands the
"why" of doing social...but the how, what, when, where and tangible ROI
still eludes most organizations.
Following Hypatia's recent primary research study focused on best practices and return on investment-- "Benchmarking Social Community Investment & ROI", --management
consulting firms have seen an opportunity to provide best practice
strategy & consulting services for social media initiatives as well.
In alphabetical order:
1) Accenture entered with a 2011 handbook entitled "Everything You Need to Know to get Social Media Working for Your Business".
[in 298 pages available on Amazon.com]. Surprisingly, the authors
maintain "Case studies should only be used to generate ideas, not as
evidence that any particular strategy or tactic will work for anyone
other than the organization in the case study." Judge for yourselves
what this type of thought leadership is worth.
2)
Capgemini, one of the first management consulting firms to offer
services on SaaS solutions, just announced a strategic partnership with
Attensity
to launch a new comprehensive Social Media Management service, to help
businesses take advantage of online social interactions. [Hypatia placed
Attensity in its Vendor GalaxyTM for Voice of the Customer capabilities
in March 2011]. This partnership is poised to be a game-changer.
3) Deloitte's former CMO and principle Jonathan Copulsky's, latest book "Brand Resilience"
identified seven crucial steps to brand risk management. A
thought-provoking read, Copulsky cites end-user case studies and borrows
from warfare scenarios in regards to social strategy initiatives. For
example, the book cites practices from counterinsurgency doctrine [such
as defensive, guerilla, flanking and offensive warfare] to illustrate
how brand stewards can aggressively defend themselves from intentional
or unintentional brand saboteurs.
4) As of 8/18, HP is in talks to buy Autonomy Corp.
for about $10 billion and plans to spin off its personal-computer
business. Autonomy specializes in software that analyzes documents and
data for so-called "unstructured information" and looks for links that
can be tied together in order to understand relationships between
documents. This could be a significant boost for HP's
information management, and unstructured content analysis [social media]
capabilities portfolio when fully integrated and operational.
Hypatia's POV:
Enabling technologies facilitate leverage of social media, but
strategy, business processes, performance metrics and the ability to
create and leverage actionable insight are necessary to attain tangible
ROI.
August 3, 2011: Hypatia Research Publishes "Enterprise Convergence of Governance, Risk
& Compliance: Benchmarks & Vendor Galaxy Rankings"
75% of Practitioners
Cite eGRC and IT GRC as Important
August
3, 2011 -- BOSTON, MA -- Industry analyst firm Hypatia Research, LLC announces availability of a
primary research study entitled "Enterprise
Convergence of GRC: Benchmarks & Galaxy Vendor Evaluations "detailing
current developments, major organizational challenges, business case
justification and a detailed assessment of this fragmented vendor landscape.
Featuring the unique Hypatia
GalaxyTM in which 28 enabling technology providers that support GRC
initiatives and business processes are evaluated by 10 interdependent
dimensions, the report offers readers actionable insight via 40 pages, 3 case
study evaluations and 15 charts, tables and figures.
Hypatia
categorizes GRC software technology as either an integrated suite of tools,
point solutions, platform or a cloud based architecture designed to facilitate
enterprise convergence of both IT and enterprise GRC capabilities. This viewpoint is predicated on the ability
of vendors to deliver solutions based not only on solving specific issues, but
solutions that flexibly address at a holistic and integrated level all of the
interlocking and interwoven governance, risk, and compliance issues that
companies face no matter where or in what industries they do business.
According
to Howard Baldwin,
senior analyst and co-author of this study, "Some vendors offer GRC for the
enterprise, known as eGRC, focusing on strategic and operational risk
management. Others offer what's known as IT-GRC, focusing on monitoring access
and communications for compliance. The fact that both branches of GRC use
technology to automate highly complex processes is confusing to most
organizations."
Leslie
Ament
, vice president, senior analyst and co-author shared, "Organizations
invest in GRC more often as an insurance policy against unforeseen financial,
legal, regulatory and operational threats rather than for a tangible return on
investment. Our assessment is that this is about to change as companies move
from investing in GRC merely to comply with annual audits, industry or
regulatory standards to proactive decisioning grounded in strategic GRC. The
products that will best serve those efforts will incorporate facets of both
traditional IT-GRC and eGRC, encompassing everything from the security of data
access to insight for risk management."
Over
440 respondents with direct accountabiilty for selection or use of GRC software
and services contributed to this primary research study. Respondent segmentation is 70% large
enterprise >$1B, 23.6% mid-market and 7.3% SMB. This research study is available for
purchase online.
Vendors covered in this research may contact JoeA@hypatiaresearch to inquire about
licensing.
The market for governance risk and compliance
(GRC) software is a maelstrom, the kind of maelstrom that engenders confusion
among both customers and vendors. Some vendors offer GRC for the enterprise,
known as eGRC, focusing on operational risk management. Others offer what's
known as IT-GRC, focusing on monitoring access and communications for
compliance. The fact that both branches of GRC use technology to automate
highly complex processes is confusing. The fact that many vendors offer
capabilities that overlap into both areas is confusing. The fact that many
vendors offer limited pieces of the GRC puzzle is confusing.
In addition, the topic itself covers so many
areas, many of which overlap, hampering companies' efforts. Governance covers
not only how data is accessed, protected, and secured, but also involves
adherence to everything from partnership contracts and service-level
agreements. Risk covers investment in new products, geographic expansion, and
exposure to lawsuits and reputation damage. Compliance covers not only
industry-specific governmental regulations, such as those for the finance or
pharmaceutical industries, but also other government regulations such as
maintaining privacy of customer data; add to this compliance to industry
regulations found in manufacturing and consumer packaged goods.
Feel free to contact Joe Azzolino for North American based companies or Octavio Diaz for companies with global headquarters based outside North America. Alternatively, visit us at our online store.
From the Blogmeister: Follow us on Twitter! June 4, 2011: The Democratization of Enterprise Analytics Access is Just One Part of Operationalizing Analytics--Having just returned from IBM's
business analytics analyst summit, I wanted to share some of the highlights
that are most relevant to Hypatia's subscribers. Final product names are under
NDA until actual product release which in most cases is expected to be in late
2011 and throughout 2012.
Personal
Desktop Analytics--designed for line of business executives that
seek to perform robust analysis without relying on IT. Functionality
includes:
What if
scenario planning
Data
Exploration & Visualization
Import, merge
& data enrichment from multiple enterprise/personal data sources onto
the desktop
Ability to
share within work-groups or across the enterprise so that all are viewing the same analysis
Support for
20+ languages
Integrated
Risk Management--one would expect an IT-centric offering to GRC
from IBM OpenPages. However, I was impressed with the balanced approach
presented during a one on one briefing at the summit. Many GRC solutions
provide either a siloed, bottoms-up view, or an aggregated high level
top-down view. This solution offers both along with role-based and
regulatory templates that can be utilized as accelerators for industry
requirements and/or in preparation for external audits.
Vendor &
End-Users briefing are almost completed--pls contact research@HypatiaResearch.com if your
organization wishes to be included.
Social Media
Analytics--according
IBM, is an extension of enterprise
customer analytics--a highly pragmatic philosophy in
our view and one that we have championed over the last few years.
Analytics-savvy organizations understand the power of leveraging
multichannel customer analytics to extract customer insight as well as to
perform market mix modeling in support of budget optimization. IBM
"gets it" that "integrated customer intelligence" is
necessary for organizations working in today's multichannel,
customer-centric environment.
Decision
Management
(released 2010) "combines predictive analytics, business rules and
optimization to automate the very high volume of small decisions made
every day within an organization." This semi-automated solution
provides line of business executives with enough guidance to create
pragmatic support for typical business decisions with enough control over
which priorities or outcomes should be optimized. (See Hypatia's "Decision Science & Customer Analytics" ) In short, decision
management is a set of preconfigured
best practices that include business rules, predictive
models and an optimization engine. Examples of pre-configured
solutions include:
Customer
churn prevention
Credit-card
or claims fraud
Hypatia's POV: Line of
business end-users require a customer intelligence platform that enables them to "capture,
manage, analyze and apply customer insight effectively."
Our Assessment: Much progress has been made on
IBM's vision for Business Analytics Optimization software & service
offerings. In light of acquisitions made within the last few years, we expect
to see some portfolio rationalization in regards to redundant functionality
and/or more integration among customer-facing solutions such as Coremetrics,
Unica, and SPSS.
From the Blogmeister: Follow us on Twitter! May 4, 2011: Announcing Galaxy Evaluations for Social Community Networks
Hypatia Research Publishes "Benchmarking Social Community Investments: Best Practices for ROI"
19% of Companies Expect
Social Initiatives to Increase Sales
May
04, 2011 -- BOSTON, MA-- Industry analyst firm Hypatia Research, LLC announces availability of a
primary research study entitled Benchmarking
Social Community Investments: Best Practices for ROI detailing current
developments, major organizational challenges, business case justification and
a detailed assessment of this nascent landscape. Featuring the unique Hypatia
GalaxyTM in which 20 enabling technology providers that support social
initiatives and business processes are evaluated by 10 interdependent
dimensions, the report offers readers actionable insight via 42 pages, 4 case
study evaluations and 12 charts, tables and figures.
Hypatia categorizes social community technology as an integrated suite of
software tools or online platform architecture designed to facilitate
communication with customers, prospects, partners, or the general public at the
same time. Unlike person-to-person emails, social channels are generally
defined as one-to-many or many-to-many channels. According to
Sue Hildreth,
senior analyst and co-author of this study, "What differentiates social media
platforms isn't usually one major feature or characteristic. It's the
collection of features and technologies that enable organizations to create
rich and flexible social environments for their customers, partners or public
brand."
Leslie
Ament
, vice president of research and co-author shared, "Organizations
invest in social media initiatives for both long term (customer intelligence
gathering and analysis) and short term (marketing and sales campaigns) goals.
Others have no clear idea as to why a member community was launched on either a
website or on a Facebook site--except that everyone else is doing it." Ament
added, "Companies realizing tangible ROI from social initiatives demonstrate
several best practice behaviors:
There is a
strategic business purpose for engaging in social media beyond--everyone is
doing it!
Successful
social media engagement requires an effective strategy, and consistent business
processes, execution plans and actionable measurement metrics
The social
media environment poses challenges that are similar to public and private
clouds--thus, socially-adept organizations know that if they fund public communities--their
competitors may benefit from the investment as well."
Over
300 organizations that utilize social community software and services
contributed to this primary research study. Industries represented included
telecommunications, retail/CPG, manufacturing, financial services,
manufacturing, hi-tech and non-profit. Company size representation was 33%
small businesses, 33% mid-market and 34% large enterprises. This research study
is available at http://store.hypatiaresearch.com/.
For more information, contact Joe Azzolino our Director of Account Services
& Business Development at
978-828-7062 or JoeA@HypatiaResearch.com
April 7, 2011: If Moses & Pharaoh Had Social Media Tools?
With the Passover and Easter
holidays almost here, we wondered "What Would Moses and Pharaoh Have Done"
communication-wise if they had social media tools? (Checkout the very clever video
authored by Aish.com)
Hypatia Research LLC is finalizing a groundbreaking primary research study on
Social Media investment. While
social media is generally acknowledged as being the latest buzz or flavor of
the year in terms of customer engagement, interaction and
brand reach, organizations struggle to justify investment in regards to
tangible returns.
Our research, comprised of over 300 end-user survey responses and
more than 30 interviews will detail the top measurement metrics and key
performance indicators (KPI's) used by companies that effectively leverage
social media.
Moreover, the study will highlight several current use-case examples, best
practices and social media techniques leveraged by successful companies. End-user organizations of social media techniques and technologies
interested in purchasing our research are welcome to visit our new online
store.
For more information, contact Joe Azzolino our Director of Account Services
& Business Development at
978-828-7062 or JoeA@HypatiaResearch.com
From the Blogmeister: Follow us on Twitter! April 3, 2011: Announcing Hypatia Go2Market!
HypatiaG2MTM is a comprehensive
customer & market intelligence
service designed to facilitate an organization's use of our research
findings, benchmarks, market size & forecast, and best practices
across industries and geographies. Subscribing to our growing library
of customer intelligence research is an incredibly cost effective way of
getting the pragmatic, use-case best practices, industry benchmarks, and
performance metrics required to take your organization to the next
level.
An Annual Enterprise Corporate Subscription includes:
Access to all in-depth primary research;
Access to all briefs, webinars, presentations;
A complimentary advisory session with a Hypatia expert;
Corporate-wide license, with 24x7 web access for an unlimited number of users. With tiered-pricing, our research is affordable for companies of all sizes:
Retain and grow market share through Voice of the Customer initiatives
Voice of the Customer (VOC) is the market research process of
capturing a customer's expectations, preferences and aversions and using
the analysis to better target customer offers.
Attend this IBM SPSS hosted webinar Effective Voice of the Customer Techniques, Processes and Metrics, to learn how you can turn customer voices into customer choices - creating a measurable strategy to capture and use customer data across your entire organization.
Hear how VOC analysis can help you justify ROI to:
Improve customer service and support
Gather insight into product pricing, product quality, innovation and ideation
Capture customer information for analysis, profiling and segmentation
Manage brand reputation
COMPLIMENTARY WEBINAR
Effective Voice of the Customer Techniques, Processes and Metrics
Date: Wednesday, March 22 Time: 2 p.m. ET (11:00 a.m. PT/1:00 p.m. CT) Presenters: Leslie Ament, VP, Research & Advisory Hypatia Research, LLC
Matt Madden, Senior Marketing Manager IBM SPSS
February 28th, 2011: VOC Research on the Road Having completed in-depth analysis of over 24 vendors that offer enabling technologies and tools to facilitate multi-channel capture, management, analysis and application of actionable customer insight, Hypatia research has been sharing our findings via webinars, seminars, ROI case studies and a 40 page report. For information on purchasing or licensing "Operationalizing Voice of the Customer: Maturity Models, Benchmarks & Best Practices" for syndication, contact: research@HypatiaResearch.com or ZGR@HypatiaResearch.com.
Accenture, a
global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company seems
to be following in the footsteps of IBM by turning to software solutions and
services as a means of growing its considerable portfolio of
offerings. In February of 2010, the firm announced a strategic alliance
with SAS designed to expand their strategic relationship by
jointly developing, implementing and managing next-generation analytics
solutions. Moreover, the companies declared intentions to jointly invest
in the development of solutions focused on industry-specific predictive
analytics applications, starting with the financial services, healthcare and
public service sectors; as well as cross-industry solutions in the customer and
enterprise management domains. Leveraging SAS software solutions, Accenture
plans to deliver advanced analytical capabilities as a managed service.
On November 10, 2010, Accenture acquired Beijing Genesis Interactive Technology Co.,
Ltd. (Mogenesis), a Beijing-based company that provides mobile software outsourcing
services and solution licensing for companies in China. On January 10,
2011, Accenture completed acquisition of customer
relationship management company and mobility software firm CAS Computer of
Germany. Although details of the financial aspect of the deal were not available it is expected that 234 CAS
employees--located in multiple locations, Germany,
the United Kingdom, United States and Australia--will be joining Accenture as a result of this acquisition.
Why
is this of interest to Hypatia?
It is expected that CAS will be folded under
Accenture's ever-evolving software business division but will continue to operate
as a separate business unit. Since SAS offers comprehensive CRM functionality
through its Customer Intelligence Suite, Hypatia asserts that Accenture
targeted CAS for its intellectual property resources and global SMB and
Mid-Market customer base. On November 2, 2010, acquired Knowledge Rules
Inc. a
Philadelphia-based consulting company that focuses exclusively on implementing
and integrating business solutions using Pegasystems' Business Process
Management (BPM) software. Pegasystems, is a developer of on-premise and
SaaS/Cloud-based business process management and CRM software solutions. Accenture evidently plans to expand its expertise, capabilities and service offerings in the customer management arena.
This growth strategy--via a rapid down-market
entre--differs greatly from Accenture's traditional large enterprise customer
base. It also diverges from the strategies engaged in by other
consulting firms with strong IT chops. For example, Cognizant, Deloitte, E&Y, KPMG, PWC and
others typically wrap business consulting services around software solutions
such as Governance, Risk, Compliance & Security, or wrap performance
management consulting services around Business Intelligence/Data Warehousing
software. While Accenture will continue to bundle business consulting with software solutions--similar to the aforementioned competitors--investment in its dedicated software business (CAS
will become a part of Accenture Software) through acquisitions such as CAS, will set Accenture apart.
According
to Accenture, the firm intends to add retail specific
functionality that is currently lacking--such as digital merchandising, distributor management and
analytics, to CAS CRM software and plans to focus on expanding in Latin
America, China and India specifically. Currently, CAS offers
industry solutions (excluding retail) for the following business sectors:
CAS IT Services,
CRM for software producers and IT service providers.
CAS
Consulting, CRM for consulting companies, banking, financial services
CAS
Research, CRM for research, education and scientific institutions
CAS netWorks, CRM for member administration for
organizations & associations
CAS Drive, CRM for car dealerships
CAS carBid, Auction platform for cars
Against
the backdrop of IBM recently scooping up numerous software vendors with
marketing strength such as Coremetrics, Unica, and SPSS and Oracle acquiring
ATG, Accenture's recent
acquisitions and hiring spree sourcing interactive and digital marketing
professionals signals a comprehensive, defensive strategy calculated to
maintain and potentially expand its market share in comprehensive customer management services. Is the
market ready for Accenture to offer customer intelligence, customer management and analytics as a managed
service? Accenture's investment strategies in software, consulting services and
analytics seem to predict a highly lucrative market. @Hypatia_18
January 2011: May this year bring peace, good health & financial stability to all!
Benchmarking Social Media Investments: How Leaders Track Tangible ROI
Challenge: Enhancing the customer
experience, and mining increasingly granular levels of customer data--both behavioral
(interactional) and historical (transactional) for targeted segmentation and/or
precision marketing initiatives often requires new processes, new metrics and
new ways of measuring return on investment.
What best practices should organizations utilize to exploit and to
justify return on social media investment?
Focus: Taking a survey-based approach, Hypatia will uncover the selection,
deployment and assessment processes top performers utilize when leveraging
social media.
Outcome: Our research will benchmark performance as well as provide a Hypatia GalaxyTM
assessment of the vendor landscape that companies should
consider when evaluating options for social media investment.
Thanks
for sharing your experiences with Hypatia Research, LLC. All qualified
respondents will receive a complimentary summary of this primary research study. Please
provide a company email address and phone number in order to receive your
study. Follow us on Twitter: @Hypatia_18 / http://twitter.com/#!/Hypatia_18
December 17, 2010:Deloitte Snatches
Bargain--Positions for Ireland Growth
Curach Consulting, with annual revenues estimated at $9M USD provides business
advisory, delivery and diagnostic services to a range of clients in sectors
such as financial services, technology and public sectors. Focus areas include:
IT strategy and architecture, business intelligence and performance management,
as well as project management and customer channel management. This acquisition
brings Deloitte Ireland's consulting & advisory practice to nearly 400
consultants.
Why is Hypatia interested? With overlapping business advisory and IT
transformation expertise--specifically in customer & channel
management consulting services--this acquisition strategically positions
Deloitte as the new go-to management consulting firm in Ireland. While a
seemingly contrarian move, given that many consulting firms of late focus on IT
and business advisory as a loss-leader and IT outsourcing or IT managed
services as a cash cow, Deloitte is competing on its strengths in multiple
business advisory practices coupled with solid IT advisory and delivery
services.
A contrarian industry analyst firm such as Hypatia, always appreciates company. @Hypatia_18
With Customer Intelligence, Convergence is the New Operational Situation!
Voice of
the customer (VOC) market research technique defined as the process
of capturing a customer's expectations, preferences and aversions. Ideally,
Voice of the Customer analysis produces a detailed set of customer wants and
needs that is prioritized by company objectives or strategic goals.
Additionally, VOC typically consists of both qualitative and quantitative
research processes.
Figure 1 copyright 2010 Hypatia Research, LLC emphasizes the nascent
impact that social media currently has on VOC initiatives. Many organizations are in "listen" or
"understand" or even "categorize" mode, but at best, utilize the following 5
VOC information sources in a siloed approach.
For example, customer
satisfaction and loyalty surveys are largely quantitative in nature, and are
analyzed and reported on via numbers or percentages. Contextual information
such as survey verbatim, online content and emails between organizations and
their customers are seldom analyzed or even shared with the same job
functions/roles that perform quantitative customer satisfaction and loyalty
survey analysis. Moreover, mapping
unique customer identities from quantitative data with unstructured information
is either performed manually or is nearly impossible at present.
December 1, 2010: Is Your Organization Experiencing "Analysis Paralysis"?
In performing advisory work
with clients, Hypatia often focuses on developing business processes and
techniques for understanding how to take action on operational reports and
customer analytics. Most organizations we advise are drowning in data &
operational reports and yet remain in what we term "analysis
paralysis". These companies are unable to systematically create and take
action on the intelligence provided by their own analysis.
So, for anyone in a similar
situation, ask yourselves:
Why
are we producing reports and which role or business team actually reads
them?
Is there an internal team
tasked with creating insight from enterprise or department level reports?
Which role(s) are responsible
for turning insight into pragmatic action?
Will this insight be acted upon
in a timely manner--i.e. in time to take corrective or proactive action?
How do we ensure that our
action items are aligned with our company's corporate strategy and
objectives?
Are employees KPI's and
incentives aligned with corporate objectives?
How should we prioritize our
resources--both internal and external?
Who is ultimately accountable
for taking action on analytics?
We
invite our readers to contact us for vendor / service provider briefings, to
share best practices and to leverage our expertise.
Nov.4, 2010: Copyright Infringement, Lack of Innovative Ideas or Compliment?
On Nov 4, 2010 in a Forrester Research publication entitled: "Customer
Intelligence Trends To Watch In 2011: CI Professionals
Are Fighting Wars On Multiple Fronts In Order To Evolve"(authored by Dave Frankland, Fatemeh Khatibloo,
Joe Stanhope,
Zach Hofer-Shall
with
Suresh Vittal,
Emily Murphy, & Michael J. Grant)m Forrester used (without prior permission) Hypatia's copyrighted 2001 definition of Customer
Intelligence:
"Customer Intelligence is defined as the process of capturing,
managing, analyzing & applying customer insight to enhance performance
& to accelerate growth." --copyright 2001 Hypatia Research, LLC.
As exemplified in an excerpt from Forrester's executive summary: "As
Customer Intelligence (CI) matures, CI professionals must adapt how they capture,
integrate and manage, analyze, and apply knowledge about their customers."
The noticeable difference between the two is the addition of the word "integrate"--a subcategory of manage as in to prepare the captured information for analysis.
Copyright infringement, lack of innovative ideas on the part of
Forrester or a compliment for Hypatia Research? Perhaps this exemplifies that
great analysis and unique visions come in small, budget-friendly,
industry-analyst boutique packages?
--Team Hypatia Research, LLC
Story of Hypatia is Now a Movie!
From the Blogmeister:
Henry
Stewart Professional Development Event: Marketing Analytics
When:
Wednesday,
Nov. 10, 2010
From 8:00 am until 5:30 pm
Where:
Map
this event »
John Hancock Hotel & Conference Center
40 Trinity Place
Boston, Massachusetts 02116
This conference is designed for all those in
Marketing, Customer Insight, Customer Intelligence, Market Intelligence,
Competitive Intelligence, Market Research and Database Analysis interested in
knowing how to understand better what the data are telling them and how that
knowledge will impact ROI.
Conference Chairs:
Hannah Smalltree
(Editorial Director of SearchAnalytics, SearchCRM and SearchDataManagement),
Leslie Ament (VP
Customer Intelligence Research at Hypatia Research)
Join us for presentations and conversations on this topic with
internationally acclaimed speakers:
Jonathan Copulsky
(CMO of Deloitte)
Jean-Paul Isson (VP,
Global BI & Predictive Analytics of Monster)
Dr Rex Davis
(Director at Dunnhumby)
Marianne Slight (VP,
Product Management & Product Marketing at Picis)
Nauzar Vimadalal
(Manager of Marketing Operations at Staples)
Dr Steve Gallant
(Director of Data Mining Services for KXEN)
David Hastings
(Director, Advanced Business Analytics COE, Retail, Hospitality, Travel &
Transportation, at Teradata)
Alberto Roldan
(Enterprise Analytics Practice - North America at Cognizant Technologies)
Amit Boob, (Practice
Leader, Analytics Advisory Services: Retail, CPG, Transportation &
Government for Wipro Technologies).
October 11, 2010: MovieTickets.com Case Study: How to Lose Customers & Revenues through Poor Customer Support!
Typically
when Hypatia provides followers with business case study evaluations,
they exemplify best practices, customer success strategies or extremely positive examples of business return
on investment. However, my graduate professor of research methodologies
was fond of admonishing his students with "A negative outcome is as much
a key finding or take-away as a positive outcome." So,
MovieTickets.com, consider this a teachable moment!
Company:
Founded in 2000,
MovieTickets.com, considers itself the worldwide leader in advance movie
ticketing, where you can buy movie tickets and search movie showtimes
for your
favorite movie theaters. According to the company's description, visitors/customers can also rate and review movies, view movie
trailers, read critics reviews, keep up on the latest movie and
entertainment news, view photos and much more. Approximately 57% of the company's employees have more than 10 years of business experience.The company's composition by role/function comprises:
~40% R&D
~40% Administrative
~12% Sales & Marketing
~8% Executive Leadership
Interestingly, not
even 1% of MovieTickets.com employees have role/functions described as
customer service, customer support, chief customer officer, customer
experience manager etc...and that may be at the root cause for this case
study evaluation?
Challenge:
Technical issues with
the website created frustration for customers wishing to purchase
tickets on 10/10/10--a fortuitous day for marriage--but not it seems for
MovieTickets.com. The online order entry system was unable to
recognize passwords, allow new accounts to be created, or to accept
purchases for selected seats offered as availablethrough its online seating chart.
Frustrated customers repeatedly contacted customer support numerous
times and were provided with lame canned responses that did nothing to
address the root cause of the technical failure. More importantly,
customer service did not provide appropriate alternative options for
resolving the issue of customers wanting to purchase tickets. Three
examples of poor customer support on the part of MovieTickets.com are
provided below:
Inquiry:
Sent: Sunday, October 10, 2010
To: Movietickets Customer Service
Subject: Website Customer Service Form Submission
Topic: Technical Problem
Comments: Password problem. Tried all
passwords, but system would not take. Nor would system allow me to create new
account. You lost sales due to technical problems!!!!!
Email or call customer service to resolve any issues. Refer to your order by the tracking number.
Sent: Sunday, October 10,
2010 Subject: FW: Website Customer Service Form Submission
Movietickets.com and Moviewatcher.com are two separate
websites and as such require two separate logins
Open a new browser. Go to www.movietickets.com to access your
account. Sign in to your account via the My account or edit Account link located within the top navigation area, enter
your email address and your password is password. Once you have
access to your account, please change your password.
Once logged in, underneath the Account Information
column; click on change and you can edit your information by simply changing
what is currently in the "email address" field or the "password
field" and "verify password" field. Click on the "Update
Account" button and your new information will be saved.
To complete a purchase or use MovieTickets.com search
functionality, javascript must be enabled in your browser. JavaScript is used
in several instances, such as when a search is performed, when a search is
performed, when you open a trailer window, error checking, or to display
certain banner advertisements. Cookies are used to manage the MovieTickets.com
login
Please include all messages with future correspondence.
Inquiry:
Sent: Sunday, October 10,
2010 To: Movietickets Customer Service Subject: RE: Website Customer Service Form Submission
Now another problem...I was
planning to purchase 8 tickets! See screenshot of seating chart!
Response:
We are experiencing technical difficulties with The
Showcase, we will send this issue over to our helpdesk for resolution.
Please try your transaction again later or select the best available option,
we are sorry for any inconveniences this may have
Please include all messages with future correspondence.
Inquiry:
To: Movietickets
Customer Service Subject:
RE: Website Customer Service Form Submission Importance:
High
This is extremely POOR customer
service. I tried 6X more last nite and today, and am now told this
opera - Capriccio by Strauss is SOLD OUT for the lux seating. Why should I continue to waste
my time when MovieTickets.com doesn't care about customer loyalty??? Your customer churn costs will
eat up your profit margins and then you will wish you had responded to 3
separate customer service emails. I will blog about this.
Email
or call customer service to resolve any issues. Refer to your order by the
tracking number.Tracking #
1337347854-72177323 / customerservice@movietickets.com
/ 1-888-440-8457
Our records indicate that
performance was locked and no longer available for online ticket sales. We only
sell a certain number of tickets online the theater sell the remaining balance.
Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Please include all messages with future correspondence
Result:
Instead of retaining their segment of high value customers--those that regularly purchase LUX seats at $35 per seatupwards of 8 times per year rather than the standard $20 seats for the same movie presentation, MovieTickets.com chose not to offer appropriate support that would have earned these profitable customers' loyalty.
Additionally, instead of offering to reserve two tickets until the online
order functionality was fixed or offering to take the customer's order
and credit card information over the phone, MovieTickets.com chose to not address the root cause of 3 separate emails about customer service and support issues from a single customer.
Moreover,
once the show is question was sold out, MovieTickets.com could have
offered dissatisfied customers [those who tried to purchase online but
were unable to do so for technical reasons on the part of MTC] a
discount or preferred seating on their second choice for LUX seats at a
future movie presentation. But evidently, MovieTickets.com doesn't seem
to care about customer loyalty or satisfaction...and soon, MTC may not
need to care about customers at all...because they may not have enough
to remain in business.
P.S.
We found a fantastic version of this opera with a stellar cast on
NetFlix. So not only will MovieTickets.com lose our $72 for
tickets...we can sip our own bottle of wine with a home-cooked dinner at
less than 1/4 the cost of the LUX restaurant food/drinks offered...and even
invite a few friends over as well.
Capriccio / Strauss
In 18th-century France, a poet (Simon Keenlyside) and a composer (David
Kuebler) debate which of their artistic contributions is more important
while a widowed countess (Kiri Te Kanawa) listens to their arguments and
considers which one to choose as her lover. Staged by the San Francisco
Opera, this lavish one-act conversation piece was the final opera penned
by German composer Richard Strauss. Maestro Donald Runnicles conducts
the orchestra.
September 27, 2010:Vendor Rankings for Voice of the Customer Solutions We are pleased to announce our new vendor
evaluation & rankings methodology--Hypatia's GalaxyTM. Hypatia, a professor of astronomy,
philosophy and mathematics, would have been gratified to learn that our team
decided to trademark our evaluation methodology after her.
Vendors have been evaluated according to 10 weighted criteria, inclusive of
number of customers, and product strategy or vision. 7 out of 22 vendors evaluated
have made it into Hypatia's orbit. One third of the remaining vendors are
closing in on Hypatia's GalaxyTM, while another third have quite a few light
years yet to travel. Can you identify the leaders?
P.S. Hypatia of
Alexandria (c.370-415 AD), invented several
scientific devices--the astrolabe, plane-sphere, and hydro-scope (hydrometer).
These instruments were used to calculate the distance between
planets, the position of visible stars at any time of the year, and
the gravity of liquids respectively. September 20, 2010: Voice of the Customer Practices Lack Maturity at Most Organizations! Investigating how companies
develop and execute voice of the customer (VOC) initiatives was a real
eye-opener for us!
We initially thought mature organizations would have more sophisticated
processes, measurement or analysis criteria, and a proactive course of action
for various scenarios encountered. In short, our hypothesis was that in mature
organizations and/or large enterprises (>$1b), VOC initiatives would be
"operationalized" across the enterprise.
However, in creating our
maturity model, benchmarks and best practices, we found a wide range of
procedures, organizational structures and techniques in use among the 400+
companies interviewed and surveyed. Nonetheless, we identified four main
maturity categories that fit a majority of organizations.
Level One: Nascent VOC
Processes
Level Two: Limited VOC
Processes
Level Three: Operational
VOC Processes
Level Four: Visionary VOC
Processes
More importantly, our study provides actionable recommendations on how
companies currently benchmarked at Levels 1 through 3 can improve their return
on VOC investment by migrating to the next maturity level.
We invite our subscribers and vendor community to contact Jeff Baker: (
jeffb@HypatiaResearch.com) to order your copy
of our benchmarks, best practices, and vendor evaluation research study. August 31, 2010: NEW RESEARCH! Operationalizing Voice of the Customer (VOC): Benchmarks & Best Practices Challenge: An organizations'
stakeholders often communicate with companies through mechanisms such as blogs,
call centers, consumer generated media, verbatim service technician notes and
survey write-in fields. In fact, many innovations in customer service, product
enhancements and promotions have come through these ad hoc or contextual
communications with customers. Moreover, public companies are beginning to
leverage discovery & insight technologies for brand and reputation
management initiatives. Companies value the anecdotal feedback gained through
customer advisory boards or focus groups, but rarely create a systematic
process for analyzing and acting on this valuable information.
Focus: How do high
performing organizations "read the tea leaves" and operationalize valuable
contextual customer insight? Our
research will benchmark performance across key marketing functions: brand &
corporate reputation management, product marketing, customer service, media
relations, and customer retention, acquisition and profitability.
Outcome: Our research will offer
readers Hypatia’s GalaxyTM guide for selection of
the right tools, services and enabling technologies as well as explore best
practices currently in use by forward-thinking companies in capturing,
analyzing and operationalizing voice of the customer intelligence.
August 3, 2010:Hypatia Tapped to Evaluate 2010 CRM Market Leader Awards
Clients
& Colleagues:
For
the third year in a row, Hypatia Research, LLC is honored to have been selected
to evaluate leading IT consultancies, service providers and software vendors in
the Customer Management, Business Intelligence/Analytics, Marketing Automation, and Sales Force
Automation categories. Thank you all for sharing your time with Hypatia
Research this year! We hope to continue our interactive dialogues!
Winners
will be formally announced in CRM Magazine's August 6th issue, but
here are the highlights:
Consultancies - Winner:
Deloitte
Leaders: Accenture, Capgemini, IBM Global Business Services, Infosys
Ones to Watch: Innoveer
Enterprise Suite CRM - Winner:
Salesforce.com Leaders: Microsoft, Oracle,
RightNow Technologies, SAP
One to Watch: NetSuite
.
Midmarket Suite CRM - Winner:
Salesforce.com
Leaders: Microsoft, NetSuite, Oracle, RightNow Technologies
One to Watch: Sage
.
Small-Business Suite CRM -
Winner: Salesforce.com
Leaders: Maximizer Software, NetSuite, Oracle, SugarCRM
One to Watch: Consona
.
Sales Force Automation -
Winner: Salesforce.com
Leaders: Microsoft, NetSuite, Oracle, RightNow Technologies
One to Watch: Sage
.
Incentive Management - Winner:
Xactly
Leaders: Callidus Software, Merced Systems, Synygy, Varicent Software
One to Watch: Softscape
.
Marketing Solutions - Winner:
Unica
Leaders: Alterian, Aprimo, Eloqua, SAS Institute
One to Watch: Oracle
Business Intelligence - Winner:
IBM
Leaders: Oracle, SAP BusinessObjects, SAS Institute, Tibco
One to Watch: Microsoft
.
Data Quality - Winner:
Informatica
Leaders: DataFlux (SAS Institute), IBM, SAP, Trillium Software
(Harte-Hanks)
One to Watch: Talend
Pls contact us [JeffB@HypatiaResearch.com] for permission in regards to quote reviews and
other media /promotional outreach.
July 23, 2010: New Research in August!
Operationalizing Voice of the Customer: Best
Practices & Benchmarks for Turning Enterprise Feedback Management into
Customer Insight
Organizations'
stakeholders often communicate via blogs, call centers, consumer generated
media, surveys and service call verbatims. In fact, many innovations in
customer service, product enhancements or merchandising tips have come through
these 'ad hoc' or social media communications directly with customers.
Companies value this 'anecdotal feedback' gained through advisory boards, focus
groups or contextual communications, but rarely do they create a systematic
process for analyzing and acting on this valuable intelligence.
Learn how high performing companies "read the tea leaves" and
operationalize valuable customer insight. This research features benchmarks,
best practices and Hypatia's GalaxyTM guide for selecting the right tools,
services and enabling technologies.
July 5, 2010: Success Strategies in Information Management & Business Analytics
This 2010 awards program recognizes
providers of Information Management & Business Analytics solutions, tools
and management consulting services. Vendors may submit up to 3
customer entry forms for consideration. Alternatively, clients may
also nominate vendors and professional service providers for Information
Management & Business Analytics projects completed during 2009-2010.
Nomination forms will be accepted through July 30, 2010.
Entries will be judged according to both soft and hard performance metrics.
Award winning entries will be
published in Hypatia's upcoming "Success Strategies" study.
Historically, less than 10% of all entries are selected for these awards.
Customer and vendor briefings are now being scheduled. Contact us to request a
customer / vendor nomination form, share best practices, and to update us on
product launches, success stories and lessons learned.
June 20, 2010: Hypatia Tapped as Advisor to Analytics Conference Hypatia Research, LLC is honored to
have been selected as the industry analyst adviser to a Customer
Intelligence-focused conference scheduled for November 10, 2010 in Boston,MA
entitled:
Marketing
Analytics: Gain the Knowledge to Control Performance
This Henry Stewart produced
conference, uniquely designed for the business executive rather than IT
professionals, will cover marketing analytics from Precision Marketing to
Customer Intelligence during a one-day "Boot-Camp". Speakers and
panelists will present 30 minute interactive sessions on topics such as:
Customer Segmentation: Who Achieved
What, When and How?
Cross-Sell, Up-sell, and Influence:
The Virtues of Affinity Analysis
Show & Tell with Predictive
Modeling: Clients Speak!
Exploiting Customer Data with Advanced
Marketing Analytics
How to Enhance Analytics using
External Data: Presentation and Q&A
Advanced Marketing Analytics +
Customer Intelligence = ROI: Lessons Learned in the Trenches: Panel
Discussion
For information on sponsorships or registration,
please contact Julie Kerry, Senior Producer, Henry Stewart Conferences at: Julie@hspublications.co.uk.
Our new Vice President of business
development brings over 15 years of expertise at technology companies such as
Oracle, Business Objects, Sybase, Ingres and Aberdeen Group/Harte-Hanks. Previous sales management roles have ranged from Senior Account Director,
Regional Sales Director and Director of Marketing to Director, Global Business Development.
Jeff holds a BS degree in Biology from SUNY Brockport, NY. A
former New Yorker, (and closet Yankees fan), Jeff enjoys following Boston's
best teams and preparing family feasts in his spare time. Jeff can be reached
at: JeffB@HypatiaResearch.com.
May 24, 2010: "Agora" The Story of Hypatia Makes it to the Big Screen! Agora, which opens in New York
on Friday, is a big-budget two-hour
Roman epic that features Ms. Weisz (Oscar Winner for "The Constant Gardener, 2005) as Hypatia, the Neo-Platonist
philosopher and astronomer-mathematician credited with
inventing the hydrometer and the plane astrolabe.
Agora, whose title
refers to the public square and marketplace
where ideas were debated in the ancient Greek world, is directed by the
Spanish-Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Amenabar, who wrote the screenplay
with Mateo Gil. He originally envisioned a movie about the history of
astronomy from Aristotle to Einstein but changed direction when his
research brought him to Hypatia and the period just before the start of
the Dark Ages.
"She was an exceptional
woman, a virginal
intellectual who managed to impose herself as an important figure, a
reference point in the philosophical and political life of Alexandria
during a crucial epoch" Mr. Amenabar said. See full article by Larry
Rohter of the NYT at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/movies/23agora.html
We can't
wait to see the story of our namesake...Team Hypatia
Story of Hypatia is Now a Movie!
Hypatia: 5th Century Philosopher & Mathematician
From the Blog Meister:
May 12, 2010: Tekrati Cites Hypatia Research, LLC as Business Intelligence & Analytics Influencer to Watch!
Whenever you look for the purchase decision influencers in business
intelligence (BI) and business analytics, you end up looking at the
trade press. And there's some noteworthy news on that front this week:
media giant TechTarget announced
that they've acquired the BeyeNETWORK
properties and network of experts. TechTarget plans to leverage
BeyeNETWORK experts to build out their footprint in BI via the new SearchBusinessAnalytics.com
destination site.
Regardless how this M&A looks once the dust settles, it will have
a definite impact on the influence wielded by the BeyeNETWORK experts.
Many of these experts are solo or small-group professionals with deep
subject matter expertise. The group includes analysts, consultants,
lecturers and authors. They tend to have closely held relationships with
their clients and industry contacts. They influence purchases,
implementation, and best practices around enterprise business
intelligence, data warehousing and analytics software. They engage with
the market, and formulate and promote their own opinions. They can also
play important roles in the influencer ecosystem as intermediaries --
bringing the viewpoints of more powerful influencers, such as vendors,
directly to their own contacts.
If you're in the BI market, monitor BeyeNETWORK and TechTarget over
the next 3 to 6 months to see which experts get more play, which get
less, which get lost, and any new experts attracted by the larger
combined media site. Keep your focus on the individual influencers, not
the BeyeNETWORK brand itself.
For example, some of the BeyeNETWORK experts I recommend putting on
your watch list: Merv Adrian, Lou Agosta, Leslie Ament, Steve Dine, Neil
Raden, Craig Shiff, James Taylor, and Colin White.
April 2, 2010: An Executive's Guide to Customer Data Analytics, Part II
Implementing customer data analytics requires attention to
methodologies, metrics and
technologies.
Before trying to secure additional budget or resources, audit all
customer-related performance
metrics along with the methodologies or formulas used for each. For
example, does your organization
capture:
Campaign metrics based on uplift?
Trade promotion results based on single products or multiple
product attachment
rates?
Percentage change in customer complaints?
Percentage change in customer migration rates?
Customer risk profile?
Net promoter score?
Customer recency, frequency and monetary (RFM) value metrics?
Customer profitability per customer on a quarterly, bi-annual or
annual basis?
Customer lifetime value (CLV) metrics?
The holy grail of customer analytics is closely tied to a virtuous
circle of closed-loop
performance metrics -- which is next to impossible to accomplish in a
multi-channel consumer
environment. However, it is highly possible to improve an organization's
customer analytics
processes with a goal of enhancing the customers' experience and
corporate profitability. To do
this, organizations must define and standardize performance metrics at
the corporate level.
Corporate-level agreement on how metrics are defined and calculated
is as necessary as
enterprise standardization of data dimensions across data marts. Failure
to do this renders any
report analysis and insight derived wildly inaccurate. Do you want your
senior executives making
critical decisions based on highly inaccurate information?
Some examples from our research at Hypatia Research LLC include:
An office supply retailer utilized specific marketing metrics to
calculate "uplift" from a
trade promotion run on printer ink and internally announced the
promotion as a rousing success.
However, at the profitability level, the company actually lost revenues
on the promotion as
market-basket analysis revealed that the promotion did not influence
shoppers to buy other products
with higher profit margins. In short, they paid for expensive media
advertising, store signage,
direct marketing and reduced the price of printer ink below cost and
realized a negative return on
both trade promotion investment and product sales.
Another company utilized activity-based costing (ABC) as the
preferred methodology for
calculating product category profitability. However, Hypatia found that
one team included the
actual cost of both production and raw materials in their calculation
while other departments added
in an average cost of sales per product SKU.
Many industry associations, market research firms and industry analyst
firms publish industry
best practices and/or benchmarks that can be used for guidance.
Understanding industry norms,
maturity models[1]
and best practices
is a good starting point for organizations that want to improve their
customer analytics
capabilities. More...
Attaining true "customer intelligence" is both art and science --requiring attention to
technology, including customer data analytics, processes and
organizational mindset.
Prior to the recent global melt-down of 2008-2009, many executives
believed that marketing,
branding, customer interactions and social media investments were mostly
about creating buzz around
an organization's product or service offering -- an intangible
investment that didn't require
justification. The new post-recession paradigm calls for senior
executives and marketers alike to
create alignment between key performance indicators (KPIs), marketing
performance metrics,
corporate goals and shareholder earnings in order to prove value and
remain relevant to multiple
stakeholders. Hypatia Research LLC studies confirm that more than 50% of
marketing departments,
sales and business development professionals, and customer service and
support teams continue to be
tasked and measured in a non-integrated, often ad hoc, fashion. In
short, companies actually
committed to measuring marketing performance continue to rely on a
patchwork of linear and
non-integrated metrics. more...
Don't miss the other installments in Hypatia's customer data analytics
guide
January / February 2010: Now that IBM has acquired both SPSS AND Initiate Systems software vendors with advanced analytical AND data integration/quality capabilities should re-evaluate their go2market strategies in order to compete more effectively.
In its recent decision to partner closely with Accenture, SAS has already determined that leveraging the comprehensive services of a management consulting firm will allow them to gain market share without incurring additional costs.
Hypatia believes that more software vendors will adopt a similar approach in 2010 and beyond.
December 30, 2009:
From
the team at Hypatia:
May 2010 be a year of peace, good health & economic stability to all.
December 1, 2009: Glad to see that Forrester Research is keeping up with independent boutique
firms.
Hypatia Research, LLC, which focuses
exclusively on Customer Intelligence Research, published and put forth
this research finding [including that Marketing is both an Art + Science] back in 2006!
Nevertheless,
we decided to share this very interesting point of view by Forrester's Dave
Frankland below.
Team Hypatia Research, LLC
Will the next generation of CMOs come from the customer intelligence discipline?
Posted by Neil Davey on Mon, 23/11/2009 - 16:54
In
the not-too-distant future, organisations looking to fill the post of
chief marketing officer (CMO) may not peruse the marketing department
for the perfect candidate. According to a study by Forrester Research,
the next generation of CMOs will in fact hail from the customer
intelligence discipline.
The report, "The Intelligent Approach to Customer Intelligence",
suggests that changes in consumer behaviour, and a subsequent struggle
to understand customers, will force businesses to put greater stock in
customer intelligence.
Author of the report, Dave Frankland, describes this as "injecting
science into the art of marketing". He points to comments by Andreas
Weigend, Amazon's former chief scientist, that individuals will
generate more data this year than in the combined history of mankind.
An incredible statement to make --but one that bears contemplation.
In his blog, Frankland says:
"Customer Intelligence (CI) professionals sit at the nexus of this data
explosion, while also dealing with tectonic shifts in customer
behaviour, and an increased demand for marketing accountability."
November 10, 2009: Stay
tuned! Senior analyst Louis Olds
will be among those featured in today's BeyePERSPECTIVE podcast at
9AM. Panelists selected will weigh in on the pros and cons of the
infrastructure versus services approach to technology, the rise of business
analytics, and data management in an era of solid state disk and superfast
processing power. Replay will be available on Nov. 12th.
November 2, 2009:
Hypatia
Research, LLC was pleased to be asked to adjudicate the 2009 Vision Awardssponsored by the BeyeNETWORK. This year's
winners include:
Data Access, Integration & Executability:Initiate Systems, Ochsner Health System
Operational BI: MicroStrategy for Nygard
International
Performance Management: Actuate for St. Thomas
Elgin General Hospital
Software-as-a-Service BI: Adaptive Planning for Pep
Boys
"Congratulations
to all the recipients of this award," states Ron Powell, cofounder of the
BeyeNETWORK. "In this time of limited budgets and stretched IT resources, it is
reassuring to know that successful companies are taking the necessary steps to
improve the way their organizations derive business value from the wealth of
data available to them."
Special
kudos to Teradata and Actuate who won this award in their respective categories
for the second consecutive year.
Know Thy Customer: For Every Action,
There is an Equal & Opposite Reaction[1]
Determine Objectives & Goals First
Ensure Your Information is Accurate Before Creating
Interaction Rules & Techniques
Once the foundational work of customer data
management has been completed (See Customer
Data Management: How Leaders Attain Tangible ROI, c.2008 Hypatia Research, LLC), companies need
to determine why, how and when customer insight should be exploited.
In short, develop a plan that takes into account current resource and technical
capabilities versus future desired outcomes based upon enabling technologies
available. Certain analytical tools lend themselves to specific real-time
customer interactions such as reduction of customer migration or fraud, while
others are better suited for long-range customer issues such loyalty and
lifecycle management.
Remember, for every
customer interaction, there is an equal & opposite reaction!
For example, GMAC Insurance, a subsidiary of GMAC
Financial Services, provides auto insurance policies through multiple channels
-- direct to customer, web self service, and through automotive
dealerships. The company became an early adopter of online customer
interaction tactics.
Read our case study to learn more!
Best,
Team Hypatia Research, LLC
[1] Sir Isaac Newton, Third Law of Motion
September 17, 2009:
PRESS RELEASE: "What
Healthcare CIOs Need to Know About the American Recovery & Reinvestment
Act & Electronic Health Records: EHR Technology &
Government Funding" [BusinessWire Link:]
This comprehensive 50+
page report [http://www.hypatiaresearch.com/images/HypatiaResearch_ARRA-EHR_CoverTOC.pdf]
complete with client case studies, and figures takes account of:
Beyond the obvious value of centralized
access to patient data, electronic records systems provide health providers
with multiple benefits:
Accuracy & Error-Checking: Automated alarm systems notify physicians if drugs prescriptions are
contraindicated for patients
Reporting & Decision Support: EHRs Healthcare
professionals may compile & analyze data to spot trends
Medical Knowledge-base: Advanced EHRs allow physicians and nurses to stay abreast of medical protocols,
and in key developments
Near-time Actionable Insight: Intelligent health records systems (IEHR) that exploit natural language processing [NLP] or semantic
analytics to aggregate & analyze unique clinical data
Select Cost Savings & Improvements in Patient Care Efficacy
Hypatia Research interviewed
dozens of healthcare providers and found that EHR supported significant
improvements in patient care. Examples include:
Increased compliance in diabetics
from 8.6% to 28.5%
Reduced
errors in patient charting for allergy information from 36% to 11% via electronic
reminder alerts for prescribing clinicians
Increased
the percentage of women over age 42 receiving mammograms from 24.5% to 49.4%
Avoiding approx. 42 potential
anti-coagulant overdoses per month via alerts on duplicate prescriptions
According
to senior analyst and co-author Sue
Hildreth, "EHR isn't a cure-all for the healthcare
industry's ills. However, while the upfront costs of adoption are significant, EHR does
have the potential to significantly reduce paperwork and administrative
overhead, as well as improve the speed and accuracy of both medical care and
medical claims processing." Hildreth added, "The key to attaining EHR benefits
is through successful user adoption--which is heavily dependent on selecting the
right EHR solution and training hospital employees adequately."
NEW REPORT: "What
Healthcare CIOs Need to Know About the American Recovery & Reinvestment
Act & Electronic Health Records: EHR Technology &
Government Funding"
Hospitals and physician
clinics vary widely in their level of adoption of computer technology.
From paper charts and over-filled filing cabinets, to enterprise-wide
electronic records systems with online prescribing and digital imaging,
healthcare facilities are at all stages of IT adoption. Many in healthcare and
government want to see that wide gap in IT capabilities closed and more
providers moved to adopt electronic health records (EHR) systems in order to
improve the healthcare industry's ability to transmit, share and access
critical patient data when and where it is needed.
EHR applications range from simple electronic patient charts with demographic
data, problem lists and medication lists, to integrated intra-hospital networks
with access to diagnostic images, e-prescribing, physician notes, and decision
support tools to alert physicians and nurses to potential errors or omissions,
and to advise them on the best practices.
Proponents claim EHR not only improves patient safety but can save
hospitals--and potentially the U.S. healthcare system-- millions of dollars.
Skeptics claim EHR benefits are over-rated, and point to the high cost of EHRs,
which typically run in the millions of dollars, and to past .implementation
failures --such as LA Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and its failed attempt to get
its physicians to adopt a computerized physician order entry system in 2003
--as proof that EHR's may not be right for all healthcare providers.
This report features a comprehensive directory of Healthcare consulting
services providers, select vendors, and government funding resources in
addition to case studies and assessments of 30 EHR solution providers.
July 11, 2009:
Research Trends
Overview Webinar: "Enterprise Feedback Management to Actionable Customer
Insight: Maturity Models & Best Practices"
