Enterprise Data More Critical Than Ever

ENTERPRISE DATA MORE CRITICAL THAN EVER TO AUSTRALASIAN BUSINESS

3G, Financial Compliance and RFID driving Data Growth

The information technology (IT) department is no longer the traditional owner of enterprise data at a time when 3G, Basel II and RFID rollouts are all likely to multiply the quantity of data up to 10 times within the next five years. This was the message from Teradata, a division of NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR), on day one of its Universe conference in Melbourne.

According to recent Australian customer feedback compiled by Teradata in the telecommunications, financial and retail industries, it appears enterprise data has achieved an operational role in delivering business insight across the organisation and is actively driving future business strategy. In terms of actual ownership of enterprise data projects, in most cases it appears that the IT department has taken on a support role to an increasingly savvy business manager.

"As business consolidates its ownership of the IT department and outmoded data marts, it is clear that the chief information officer needs to more closely align with boardroom colleagues and acknowledge that IT is now itself integral to the business process," said Julian Beavis, vice president, Australia and New Zealand, Teradata. "A single view of the customer across the business is still the primary role of an enterprise data warehouse, however churn management, operational efficiency, revenue and profitability optimisation are now becoming key deliverables, as enterprise analytics become increasingly sophisticated."

As well as challenging the traditional support role of the IT department, Teradata's findings also point to a massive increase in company data over the next five years. In the telecommunications sector, the advent of 3G mobile services is seen as the likely catalyst behind data volume growth and the analytic complexity that this in turn will incur. Another much hyped technology, RFID, is now becoming a consideration for the retail sector in Australia. If these technologies become widespread, then data volume could increase by up to 10 times over the next five years in some instances.

Change is also afoot in financial services, but for very different reasons. "After a couple of years as the new buzzword in financial services lexicon, Basel II and other regulatory requirements are finally becoming a reality," said Mr Beavis. "The data warehouse now needs to manage more data from business units and functions, as they move to a central repository." In Australia, St. George Bank recently announced a complete enterprise data warehouse rollout, which in addition to delivering the company considerable cost savings and operating efficiencies, is also an integral part of St. George's compliance initiatives around Basel II.

"As I look ahead, I see corporate priorities shifting. Where the first generation of data warehouses were useful for strategic analysis, the next generation is taking a more proactive role in driving tactical decisions at the operational coalface of the organisation," continued Mr Beavis. "These are active data warehouses providing advanced decision support for day-to-day, even minute-to-minute decision making, putting the 'intelligence' into business intelligence."

Organisations presenting on this topic at Universe include Australia Post and St.George Bank, as well as global customers Ford Motor Company, Sainsbury's Supermarkets, RBC Centura Bank, Bank of New Zealand, AT&T and Travelocity.com.

ENDS

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