The Goodform CRM Summit is at the London IBM Southbank on Monday 20th May. Visit www.goodform.info for further details

Absolute Data will be running a series of workshops and surgeries for Chamber members. Email us for more details.

In one incident an employee was said to have mistakenly included sensitive personal data about one family in a response to a subject access request made by another. And in the other a student social worker was said to have revealed to the parent of a child under assessment the first name of an individual who had made an anonymous referral about that parent to the council’s children’s services team.

The ICO said that both incidents could be attributed to a “general lack of data protection awareness and training, together with a lack of proper management or checking procedures when dealing with subject access requests or supervising non-employees, such as students on placement”.

The EU view is that the new Regulation “Is one of the biggest market-openers of the last few years,” according to Viviene Reding, as it “eliminates 27 conflicting rules and replaces them with … a mechanism for the whole continent.”

The right to request the deletion of data would be expanded under the Commission’s draft Regulation and Article 17 specifies a specific ‘right to be forgotten’ giving individuals a general right to force organisations to delete personal data stored about them “without delay”.

Information and technology law expert Luke Scanlon of Pinsent Masons recently wrote in the privacy newsletter Out-Law.com, “Everyone wants the ability to protect their identity and not have adverse decisions made about them in relation to employment, insurance or credit, based on information that was once true but, as circumstances change, has become no longer accurate,” he said. “But it is clear, even to the Commission it would seem, that its proposed law cannot practically guarantee that all traces of data that a person has ever shared could be irreversibly erased, even though that is what is written on the label. This certainly creates an unfair expectation, a concern that the Information Commissioner has also expressed.”

The company had had previously purchased data that had turned out to be wholly unsuitable for the purpose of selling cricket hospitality and wanted to utilise Absolute Data’s experience to improve its marketing efforts.

How did Absolute Data help?

Absolute Data was asked to buy 5,000 business addresses that were likely to be interested in buying corporate hospitality for the 2006 Headingley Test match.

We contacted several list managers in order to find the most suitable data, and then rolled out an email marketing campaign to promote the hospitality services available at Headingley. Had we not taken the steps we did, Headingley Hospitality would still be working from unsuitable data, and bringing in less revenue as a result.

How did Absolute Data help?

Liverpool asked Swedish company, Expericard, to produce an exciting, interactive DVD, which could be retailed in Liverpool FC stores.  The idea was that Liverpool fans could buy the DVD which would like them through to the Club’s membership scheme via an Absolute Data online database.  As people interacted with the DVD, various special items were unlocked through some very clever programming and data integration.  Liverpool’s aim of selling its Membership offer in channels that were, up to that point, unavailable was achieved, and Absolute Data collected and supplied a rich array of personal, lifestyle, and behavioural data from the new members.

On average, approximately 7% of people buying new products register a warranty and Homeserve were trying different techniques to improve that ratio and learn more about which customers were buying which household goods.

How did Absolute Data help?

Homeserve asked Equals Marketing to build an interactive CDROM which would be distributed with the warranty information for new household boilers. Through some very clever programming work by Grow Studios, the CD reported information back to Absolute Data’s central database on which sections of the CD were looked at by the recipients.  Homeserve wanted to see a clear, daily dashboard of all marketing activity, and we were only too happy to deliver just that.

To do so, we built a visual dashboard of data which was published to the internet in a secure environment. The dashboard gives a graphical picture of the data collected, including conditional formatting which is able to draw the eye to particular points of interest within the data.

Absolute Data was asked to improve the way that leads and prospects were managed and accounts developed and move Everton away from the reliance on Talent CRM, Excel and Outlook, and good old fashioned pen and paper.

How did Absolute Data help?

Absolute Data moved in, and helped assess Everton’s needs.  We focussed on investigating the sales processes and designing labour saving automated tasks that would be popular with the sales team and therefore increase the chances of adoption and success. On our advice, Everton FC implemented Salesforce CRM, and we worked with the Club and Salesforce’s professional services team to create a superb system to manage corporate and sponsorship sales and accounts.

Everton’s corporate sales management system now gives an unparalleled insight into sales activities and interaction with customers.  The sales team love the system as it saves them time, gives them control, and helps them to earn more money in their pockets.  Management have an instant 24/7 accurate view of the sales pipeline and forecasts, and the sales administrators find it far easier to work with than their legacy ticketing system.  The results have been quite astonishing.  Three Everton staff were trained and have now taken over development of the system giving the club control: something that was part of the requirements through years of frustration relying upon third parties and consultants.  Salesforce is an integral part of Everton’s CRM and data strategy.

Watch this video to see how we have helped

Probably our biggest contribution was our superb insight into exactly how commercial departments operate in professional sport having been there and done it!

Charities Trust ran separate bespoke SQL systems for prospecting and operational management. The two systems did not ‘talk to each other’, which meant lots of unnecessary re-keying of data between the two systems. To make matters worse, the prospecting system was difficult to use and lacking in features.

How did Absolute Data help?

To help solve their problems and increase efficiency, Absolute Data helped Charities Trust to develop a Statement of Needs and then looked in the market for a suitable software solution. Together, we selected Salesforce.com, with Absolute Data project managing the design and build of a new prospecting and CRM system.

Two of Charities Trusts’ members of staff were trained as system administrators and were heavily involved in the actual customisation of the Salesforce solution. Charities Trust now has a prospect management and CRM system which absolutely fits their needs – they can now amend the system as their needs change over time saving money in the long term.