Solid data basis of digitization

How do I digitize successfully as a company and how can I secure a piece of the data pie? Uniserv, a specialized provider of solutions for customer data management, addressed this topic at its trend forum "Innovative 2016" in Frankfurt am Main.

Around 250 corporate decision-makers, partners and customers met at the event, which takes place every two years. They discussed why perfect customer data must be the critical basis for a successful digital transformation.

Everything that can be digitized is also digitized
In his opening speech, digital Darwinist Karl-Heinz Land explained that information silos in companies are one of the biggest stumbling blocks when it comes to digitizing business processes.

He emphasized that traditional and previously successful companies in particular can no longer hide behind their old business model in the face of digitization.

Because decision-makers who ignore the following three core theses and do not adapt their business model will not survive the digital transformation: Everything that can be digitized will also be digitized and turned into data sets; everything that can be networked will also be networked; everything that can be automated will be automated.

Above all, digitalization brings with it the new customer paradigm "I want everything everywhere and immediately", to which companies absolutely must adapt. Uniserv customers such as DPD and Vorwerk are already taking this paradigm to heart. DPD wants to use perfect customer data to deliver its 320 million parcels per year even better.

To this end, the parcel service provider introduced a uniform master data management system throughout the company. The core objectives are, in particular, faster and more accurate route preparation for drivers in the depots, optimization of Saturday deliveries, expansion of additional DPD premium services, and improved reporting and controlling.

The best-practice presentation by Vorwerk's Kobold Division focused on the introduction of a DQ scorecard, the instrument for making the quality of customer data visible and, above all, measurable.

As a result, the company now has an overview of the current status quo of data quality across all countries. It also makes it possible to identify optimization potential and monitor data quality measures that have already been taken.

The fact that authorities are not only slowing down, but also driving digital processes forward, became visible in another best practice. Due to the new banking regulation BCBS 239 of the European Central Bank (ECB), nationally system-relevant banks must now prepare risk reports ad hoc and thus virtually at the push of a button, as well as ensure timely responses to regulatory queries.

However, in order to meet these requirements, it is essential to digitize the company's own business processes. Likewise, all company and customer data must be valid, i.e., quality-checked, so that the reports required by the ECB contain correct statements.

The presentation showed how DZ BANK, as a nationally system-relevant credit institution, implements the regulatory requirements of BCBS 239 in connection with the merging of business partners with the Smart Customer MDM from Uniserv.

From the business partner master data collected across the Group, any overlapping business partners are identified using matching procedures and merged into a uniform Group business partner ID according to defined business rules.

How does Machine Learning work?

Peter Lehmann, Professor of Business Intelligence in the Business Informatics and Digital Media program at Stuttgart Media University, explained to the participants how machine learning works and why this requires a flawless database. He also presented the new master's degree program in Data Science and Business Analytics.

The part-time continuing education program is supported by Uniserv in terms of content and funding. For this purpose, the university uses the solution and process methodology "Ground Truth", which was newly developed by Uniserv.

With ground truth, a company is able to bring together all the information and data available about its customers, match it, and then aggregate it into the customer's "golden profile."

This "Golden Profile" then forms the basis for a correct 360-degree view of the customer. For the first time, it provides valid data for making predictions about future customer behavior. To teach students how to learn using data, HdM Stuttgart is currently developing two prototypes. One with high-quality data according to the ground truth concept and one prototype with poor data quality.

On this database, each comprising 50,000 correct and incorrect customer records, an algorithm learns to recognize patterns and make predictions. The various learning outcomes are then compared by the students.

Dissolve data silos

In addition, the new process and solution methodology Ground Truth, which Uniserv has developed, was presented at the Innovative. It ensures that the most important corporate asset - customer data - is up-to-date, accurate and complete and that data silos are dissolved.

In this way, all the information available about a customer can be incorporated into the redesign of processes and business models against the backdrop of digitization, for example for the optimization of sales and marketing activities, campaign management, blacklist matching, compliance, or even customer relationship management.

With Ground Truth, it is possible to bring together all customer data - address data, purchase behavior, purchase history, preferences, and the traces the customer leaves behind on the Internet and social media, i.e., their movement data (transaction and interaction data) - from all available systems. This makes it possible for the first time to have a complete, precise, and up-to-date 360-degree view of the customer and their individual approach.

Independent analyst and expert in the fields of information management and governance as well as business intelligence and performance management Wolfgang Martin emphasized that digital transformation is for the survival of a company.

This is why the topic of digital transformation already plays an important role for 63 percent of the corporate decision-makers in the DACH region surveyed by Uniserv in December 2015, and even a central role for 23 percent.

According to Martin, corporate decision-makers are also slowly becoming aware of the connection between a 360-degree view of the customer and successful digitization. Because customers are usually already much more digital than companies, they have a head start when it comes to adapting to the networked world.

Because as sales and business models change, so does the way in which customer data must be recorded and managed. In essence, digitization means nothing other than transforming into a data-driven company. This means that data is one of the fundamental management tools in a digital world.