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32 PrecisionMarketing February 22 2008
Special Report Report subject Online Data Cleaning
With quick, easy and cheap online data serv- which operates Cameo-Online. removing the need to ship disks or tapes from
ices now available, it is harder for companies This will be extended as the user base one location to a bureau and back, a minimum
to argue that they do not have access to appro- evolves, following the launch of the service in of 24 hours is saved.
priate screening data. At the same time, rising April 2007. Evans believes the demand in the “Traditional users of bureaux have found
production costs have made it necessary to future will definitely be for the ability to “go the ease of use attractive because they can do
eliminate as much wastage as possible. right into the data”. data cleaning for themselves hands-on. It
“It has brought up the issue of data quality Where some rivals have attempted to tackle means they have a lot more control over the
and minimum data standards as well as the new users and sophisticated users by offering data cleaning and lead times,” he says.
costs associated with not doing it, such as fines, different “skins” over their services, Cameo- Using a database bureau can feel like a black
legal action and bad publicity,” he says. Online has a single view. But online tools have box solution, however good the account man-
Users of Capscan Ondemand tend to be data Steven Day been designed to support every skills level. agement, because data processing takes time
managers with the confidence to select and ‘Compared to our system “Online help is critical to the success or failure which may not appear to be productive.
define the data sources and hierarchies they two years ago, the current of a service. If you have a product that is com- Online, you can at least sit and watch the
want to use, rather than rely on the services of iteration has gone through petitive, but not very good for the less sophis- progress bar as your job is worked on.
a bureau. Hiles believes this is building a mar- a significant upgrade’ ticated user, it won’t succeed,” he says. “Typically our service will run 50,000 records
ket for richer online service propositions. This is a challenge if service providers are per hour, but the capacity is there to handle
“Along with confidence in screening data, focusing on power users, rather than general 200,000 per hour. Unless you are doing millions
users now understand what they need to do to users. It is not uncommon for an organisation of records, that is reasonable,” says Evans.
make their marketing more relevant. There is a to have one expert who deals with data clean- Growth in database size is likely to be the
growing expectation of online service providers ing. But if that individual is on holiday or off only obstacle to the development of online data
to make that as easy as possible,” Hiles argues. sick, a non-expert has to be able to log in and cleaning. But computing power has kept pace
With multiple different providers competing understand how to get data cleaned and with growing record sizes, even as the cost of
for this new generation of online data man- enhanced if time is short. servers is coming down. The more users sign
agers’ budgets, the points of difference between One notable aspect of the user base, accord- up for these systems, the more they will be able
each one are becoming critical. Capscan ing to all of the service providers, is that agen- to invest in adding backroom power.
stresses its independence as a supplier, with no cies are a key user group. “Data planners in That will become even more critical if online
particular dataset given precedence. agencies who use our service like the just-in- profiling and data hosting takes off in the same
At EuroDirect, it is the reverse which is seen time element. It fits with their schedules and way. Even if the input files are small, matching
as a strength. “We decided that as well as data time scales because agencies are always doing them against universal data sets from the Elec-
cleaning, suppression and enhancing, we last-minute work,” says Evans. toral Roll through to lifestyle databases takes
would focus on profiling, so our system has a Compression of production schedules is a a lot of computing grunt. But then, whoever
number of Cameo tools loaded,” says Chris notable development over the last five years, thought Google would end up having the
Evans, head of onlne services at EuroDirect, with shorter turnaround times at each step. By answer for everything? a71
On demand
data intelligence for marketers
Shorter timescales, higher targets. The pressure on direct marketers has never been greater.
So it makes sense to choose a partner that provides ‘on demand’ access to snapshots of the
quality and quantity of your rapidly changing customer and prospect data.
At meta-morphix, our speed of service means that you Isn’t it about time you worked alongside a partner that
can make informed decisions on quantities, matching can provide you with data insights precisely when you
levels, or mailing outputs at the last moment. need them?
This intelligence can then be instantly applied to tailor our Contact Guy Looker or Rob Salmon on 020 7089 6400 or
cleaning, screening, and de-duplication services to suit via e-mail at sales@meta-morphix.com
your marketing objectives. We can also provide up to
the minute advice and guidance on when, whether and
meta-morphix limited,
how to match your data to all the commercially available
7th Floor, New London Bridge House,
suppression and validation files.
25 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9SG
Tel: 020 7089 6400 www.meta-morphix.com
In short, we can advise on every aspect of data strategy
and combine this with expert information on how to reduce
wastage, increase response rates and protect your business
from brand damage.
No wonder we are one of the fastest growing bureaux
in the UK.
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