The massive expansion of channels and devices, coupled with the explosion of social media, has presented new paths to connect and engage with consumers, but these trends have also created a “raging tsunami of information” for retailers to manage. These new opportunities and challenges were central themes during the 25th annual Teradata Partners User Group Conference and Expo held in San Diego this week.
Darryl McDonald, Executive VP of Business Development and Marketing at Teradata encouraged companies to create value from this wave by “socializing the data” – combining it with what they already know about their customers, supply chain, financial performance and partners. “Organizations that can figure out how to use this information to differentiate themselves will create a clear competitive advantage,” McDonald said. “By opening up access to the entire corporate ecosystem – and incorporating big data from the Internet, social networks, and unstructured data from emails and call centers – enterprises can generate a supercharged view for both business and technical users, expanding the frontiers of insight and innovation.”
McDonald pointed to companies such as InterContinental Hotels Group, which has driven $2.5 million per month in sales from mobile bookings – a 400% increase in the last year, by introducing an Apple iPhone app allowing hotel guests can make reservations.
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He pointed to recent research from IDC which showed the volume of digital information generated in 2010 will reach 1.2 zettabytes. To address this expanding digital universe across millions of portals, data sources and conversations per second is driving a new era, recently debuted a new online social media platform devoted to The Socialization of Data – designed to serve as an “epicenter for a New Era of Insight.
”McDonald defined the socialization of data as the “integration of data from both traditional and non-traditional sources to present a more complete picture of an entity’s position” in a global market, community or ecosystem. “When you do it well, the Socialization of Data creates an explosion of new insight that can help you create a positive return on investment as well as a return on innovation,” McDonald added. “The Socialization of Data is a business imperative. After all, this is not just about the data you manage. It’s about using intelligence to shape an optimal future for you – and for your network of relationships.”
To help retailers manage today’s more demanding consumers and the exploding array of technologies can now engage customers on new channels, Teradata introduced new features to its Teradata Relationship Manager (TRM), which are designed to help marketers reach huge customer audiences, as well as millions of anonymous online prospects with relevant messages based on enhanced analytic intelligence.
While Teradata’s TRM has been capturing interactions and customer behavior in near real-time for more than a decade, Marc Schroeder, VP, Customer Management Marketing Solutions at Teradata, pointed out that the rules of relationship management are being rewritten. “The future of CRM will be based on real-time, automated, intelligent conversations with customers via emerging communication channels such as the web, increasingly complex mobile devices, and social media,” Schroeder said.
The new features of the enhanced TRM are designed to simplify the connection and interaction between TRM and “virtually any channel,” he said. “Teradata Channel Integration Manager provides a flexible API that allows TRM to deliver personalized leads and capture responses from virtually any interaction channel in near real-time via XML and Teradata optimized web services. Together with newly enhanced lead delivery features, TCIM is an excellent vehicle for delivering personalized offers to online and mobile channels and devices, including social media sites, and collecting responses in near real-time back to TRM – including anonymous visitors, or social media contributors.”
Other enhancements to TRM include customizable reporting, visualization and dashboards that enable marketers and executives to understand the effectiveness of their marketing programs at any level of detail. The new reporting tools, collectively referred to as “Teradata Marketing Intelligence,” provide a mechanism for business users to visualize their data, and access standard reports and dashboards from many platform types, including mobile devices, iPhones, iPads, PCs and multiple browsers.
Other new products debuted at the Teradata event included the release of: Teradata Database 13.10, billed as the first to deliver intelligent temporal analytics which make it easier for customers to create a historical picture of enterprise business transactions and activities; and Teradata Accelerated Analytics, a set of services for next generation analytics designed to help remove silos allow for easier data integration across environments.
