THE POWER
OF DATA SCIENCE
T U R N I N G I N F O R M AT I O N I N TO I N S I G H T
An extract from Perspective:
The understanding your customer issue
Essential insights into the issues facing your industry today
The power of data science – turning information into insight
What can data science
achieve, and how can it
help your business? Anita
Dougall, CEO & Founding
Partner, Sagacity, explains.
Compliance with Anti-Money Laundering
We are helping our clients by providing
(AML), Know Your Customer (KYC) and
moving dates, duration of occupancy
sanctions requirements continues to be a
and confirmation of whether a property
key focus, as companies are required to
is occupied at all. This enables water
meet growing regulatory demands.
and energy providers to adopt the most
appropriate strategy for collecting any
Establishing a business case for introducing
outstanding debt, or even prevent it
and developing a data quality management
from occurring in the first place. It can
Data science transforms simple data
programme is often predicated on the
also allow for more accurate debt
cleansing into valuable customer insights
extent to which data quality issues impact
provisioning or write-off.
using mathematical, statistical analysis
the organisation and the likely return on the
and computer science skills to find and
investment in data quality improvement.
interpret data.
Emerging technologies within
the industry, such as smart meters,
Current challenges
will help organisations to tackle the
The concept of using data-driven insight
Rebecca Hammond, Head of Utilities at
‘change of tenancy’ challenge better.
for decision-making isn’t new, though it
Equifax, talks about the challenges her
Until then, making sure customer data
has been prominent in the press in recent
clients are facing:
is as accurate, complete and up-to-date
years. The likes of Amazon and Google hail
as possible will be the best way to really
data as being at the core of what they do,
“With the duty to supply services,
but the rise of ‘big data’, ‘data science’ and
uninformed or misinformed changes of
‘data insight’ has reached far beyond Silicon
tenancy and a lack of written contracts,
So, what does this mean?
Valley, as businesses across the globe reap
knowing who customers are is one of
At Sagacity, our customers come to
the rewards from valuable data insights.
the biggest challenges still facing our
us for a variety of different reasons,
clients today.
from wanting to turn data into customer
The power of insight
‘know your customers’.”
value insight, ensuring their data meets
So why is data more topical than ever?
We’re working closely with our clients to
regulatory standards, to being able to
Not only are companies now recognising
help them gain insight into who currently
share data with credit bureaus.
the power of the insight which data
occupies a property and what their financial
science can generate, but they are also
position is, i.e. if they’re experiencing a
becoming increasingly aware of the
situation of financial vulnerability and so
necessity to keep up with regulation.
making sure customers are treated fairly.
Approx. 90% of all the
data in the world has
been generated over
the last two years.
EQUIFAX
Large companies
have, on average,
six different systems
holding ‘master’ data
about their customers.
READ MORE...
Poor data quality can
cost between 15-25%
of operating budgets.
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The power of data science – turning information into insight
If a company isn’t able to unlock the
In summary, by using data as an aid to
potential in their data and put it to good use,
know and understand customers better,
they’re simply standing still.
organisations can go a long way in the quest
for improved customer satisfaction ratings.
The differentiators are those who are able
Such ratings don’t necessarily come easily,
to put high-quality data to use, in order to
but if you truly understand your customers,
make hair’s breadth decisions.
treat them fairly, provide them with what they
want and resolve any issues quickly, the likely
Poor data has a significant, and often
results are increased brand loyalty, potentially
costly, impact on both the customer and
lower acquisition costs and higher profits.
business alike, with correspondence being
incorrectly addressed, missing information
Data sources and articles used by Sagacity for research:
and increased billing errors all resulting
http://europe.newsweek.com/quora-questionhow-data-science-changing-506672?rm=eu
in a poor customer experience and high
levels of complaints.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2016/
04/27/will-we-soon-no-longer-need-datascientists/#470579a955f3
The cost of acquiring a new customer
https://www.siliconrepublic.com/careers/
data-science-ireland
greatly outweighs the cost and effort of
retaining existing customers, so when it
comes to knowing your customer base,
it really does pay to have good-quality,
insightful data.
An intelligent solution
Sagacity’s QTOX Solution, powered by
Equifax data, delivers clean, accurate and
http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/
digital-mckinsey/our-insights/making-data-analyticswork-for-you-instead-of-the-other-way-around
http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/
digital-mckinsey/our-insights/getting-big-impactfrom-big-data
Idea in brief
THE SITUATION
Data is more topical than ever as
companies recognise the power of the
insight which can be generated and the
necessity of keeping up with regulation.
THE CHALLENGE
As companies are required to follow
compliance procedures to meet
the increasing regulatory demands,
compliance with AML, Know Your
Customer and sanctions requirements
continue to be a key focus.
THE TAKE AWAY
Focus on data quality is key to ensure
compliance with regulation and for
organisations to truly understand their
customers, which in turn will help drive
customer retention.
https://datascience.berkeley.edu/about/
what-is-data-science/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/
2013/05/130522085217.htm
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complete data, which creates customer
insights to recover cash flows, enhance
billable revenues and increase profits
without influencing demand.
QTOX manages multiple data formats and
integrates seamlessly with client systems
to improve data quality and is underpinned
with powerful analysis capabilities to provide
insight into customer value.
EQUIFAX
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