The ability to exploit data in a myriad of different ways is key for successful organisations in the information age. According to a report by consultancy McKinsey, "One of the trends that will help shape businesses and the economy over the coming years is leveraging information in new ways. Organisations can do this by using information to make smarter decisions and to develop insights that create competitive advantage and new business models...
The spend by retail banking institutions on business intelligence (BI) IT in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, will reach £4.5bn by 2012, up from the £2.8bn in 2006, says analyst Datamonitor.
Sainsbury's is working with the company behind its Nectar card reward scheme, LMG, to develop an application to enable the supermarket and its suppliers to find out how well products are selling.
Classic British clothing brand Jaeger is to roll out a loss prevention programme based on data mining to cut theft and fraud by a fifth and boost its profit margins by 2%.
Deal Group Media connects online advertisers with affiliates - highly trafficked websites - with whom they place banner advertisements and pay for click-throughs or closed sales. As a pioneer of affiliate marketing, DGM knows the model depends on business intelligence and tracking to ensure advertisers get the optimum return on their investment.