Abbey National has saved an estimated £15.2m by using data
profiling and analysis software to help the bank make better use of
customer data.
The data profiling software from Avellino cost Abbey National
£35,000 in project and set-up costs, excluding software licences.
The software allows the bank to assess the state of its customer
data in existing databases and ensure its integrity before it is
mapped into datawarehouses from peripheral data stores. It checks
how fields are populated and whether the information held in the
fields is what is expected.
Such moves are an important IT task for banks, giving greater
visibility of customer data so it can be used in a more targeted
way.
Duncan Brown, an analyst with Ovum, said, "The problem is common
for first- and second-tier financial organisations. It is a legacy
problem in that every product was on a different system.
"The difficulty it is trying to tackle is to get a single view of
the customer. Firms have tackled this problem in different ways,
from scrapping all the data and starting again, using application
integration technology or deploying some sort of datawarehousing
technology."
Vicki Peacock, head of information strategy and quality at Abbey
National, said, "The manual effort is small in relation to the
quality of analysis gained. We are able to have a greater
understanding of our relationship with our customer and to offer
them suitable products.
We have greater confidence in customer information, can gain a
better return on marketing campaigns and make savings on mailings
through better targeting.
"Its primary use has been in two areas: to understand the data in
projects involving its migration and to proactively manage the
governance of the data. In other words, to ensure that where the
integrity of data is important, it is protected and no damage can
be done. In addition, it helps with benchmarking and
analytics."
A clear view of the data must be gained before mapping a business
case for its potential use. Then, once the data is migrated, its
integrity can be ensured.