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The Power of Data Insight Putting Unstructured Data into Action to Drive Revenue

We are currently living in the era of big data and in just a few short years, big data has gone from an industry buzzword to a strategic business tool that’s altering corporate ecosystems, facilitating innovation, and driving decision-making. In fact, a recent survey revealed that over 50% of organizations say big data will have a major influence on their business performance in 2014, according to ZDNet’s “Big Data Priorities 2013” report sponsored by D&B. When harnessed properly, metrics can help businesses make better, more profitable decisions across company departments, in particular sales and marketing. However, big data is just the tip of the iceberg. Unstructured data— or information that doesn’t fit into a pre-defined data model— remains the largest source of untapped, potential insight. Yet, many organizations have trouble putting it into action due to its sheer magnitude and complexity.

“The explosion of both structured and unstructured data is a growing challenge, as well as an unprecedented opportunity for all organizations...” “The explosion of both structured and unstructured data is a growing challenge, as well as an unprecedented opportunity for all organizations,” said Laura Kelly, Chief Product Officer, Dun & Bradstreet. “For most companies, investing in the ability to make real-time business decisions out of complex data streams is no longer a choice but a necessity. Simply put, if they don’t invest their competitors will, and organizations that fail to embrace data will face a competitive disadvantage leading to potential failure in the market.” In the subsequent pages, we will explore the explosive rise of unstructured data, its value, and how sales and marketing can put it into action to drive profitability.

Rise of “Unstructured” Data The world’s information is doubling every two years. Specifically, Gartner analysts predict that data will grow 800% over the next five years; 80% of that new data being unstructured. From social to email to live chat, individuals and companies are leaving long, complicated digital data trails. When utilized, this information can provide invaluable insight and foresight into prospects deepest sentiments. However, companies have yet to determine a way to tap into this unstructured data to drive business insights. According to a 2011 Unisphere/MarkLogic survey, 86% of respondents admitted that unstructured data is important to their organization, yet only 11% had tools, procedures and policies for managing it . Below, we explore the top three challenges: ✓         

Volume: The sheer volume and growth of unstructured data is the biggest challenge for organizations. Transactions come from a variety of sources—from   online sales to downloads to social networks to blogs—which creates major technical issues.

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Complexity: Unlike fielded data— which allows for quick, side-by-side comparisons— unstructured transactions are mostly text-heavy and lack structure, making it increasingly difficult to analyze using traditional big data technologies.

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Integration: Due to its volume and complexity, unstructured data poses challenges for organizations when it comes to integrating it into existing information systems. Whether it’s because of their lack of know-how or proper technology, companies typically keep structured and unstructured data separate, ultimately decreasing its value.

Despite these challenges, unstructured data still remains the largest source of untapped business intelligence. Organizations that find a way to capture, manage, and

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share such insight across departments stand to benefit greatly, particularly when it comes to their sales and marketing divisions.

Power of Data Insight for Sales and Marketing B2B sales and marketing has never been easy as a result of slow sales cycles and multiple decision-makers. But today, it’s become increasingly more complex. Challenged by an increase in competition, slow economic growth, and a more sophisticated buyer, sales and marketing leaders are asking the same questions more urgently. How do I target the right prospects? How do I increase conversion rates? How can I close more deals? When put into action, insight derived from unstructured data can help industry professionals answer these questions and more. Below, we explore the benefits of data insight for both sales and marketing: Marketing: “Personalize or perish” is the marketing mantra of the 21st century. With prospects wanting a more one-to-one buying experience, past strategies— such as batch and blast campaigns— are no longer effective. Conversely, marketers need to find a way to engage with the right prospects throughout each stage of the buying process. Armed with data insight marketers can: •   Create more targeted campaigns: Blogs, social media    comments, and ratings reflect public opinion. By    leveraging this digital intelligence, marketers can    better understand buyers’ wants and needs. This    knowledge supplemented with existing information    housed within existing CRM or marketing    automation platforms can be used to create more   personalized campaigns. •   Improve lead scoring: Monitoring prospects’ online    footprints helps marketers gain valuable insight into    their behaviors and patterns, which can be used to

   better prioritize and score leads. No more giving sales    leads that are unqualified. •   Identify and capitalize on new opportunities:    Examining consumer web activities, email, and    content can uncover unmet needs and reveal   new opportunities. Sales: The basic rules of sales no longer apply as today’s B2B buyer has drastically changed. Representatives must now be an advisor. In order to build stronger relationships, however, sales agents need access to a wealth of consumer intelligence. Data insight gives sales the ability to: •   Better prepare for sales calls: Research has shown that    sales reps feel they don’t have the right information    on hand prior to making a call. With insight gathered    from news articles, corporate informational web    pages, and social media, sales agents can efficiently    prepare for sales calls, without having to do the   research themselves. •   Build stronger relationships: Insight derived from    social, news, and buyer activity notifications allows    representatives to position themselves as true    business advocates who can recommend the right    solutions to the right buyer at the right time. •   Accelerate and close more deals: According to    research from CSO Insights, companies using    technology-enabled sales intelligence tools win 5%    more of their forecasted deals. That’s because they    are more prepared, productive, and informed.

“Data is useless unless it can be easily integrated and accessed across the enterprise.”

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Take it Virtual Data is useless unless it can be easily integrated into existing information systems and accessed across the enterprise. However, as mentioned above, mission critical data is often trapped in storage silos, making it difficult to move, share, and retrieve. In the past, making unstructured data accessible was a complex and highlyexpensive process which took weeks or even months. Today with best-in-class Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) solutions, organizations don’t have to jump through hoops to access data insight. Essentially, these sophisticated solutions transform and package structured and unstructured data into actionable business intelligence which can be accessed quickly from a simple Web interface without the complexity and cost. With a DaaS solution, businesses can take advantage of the following: ✓         

Improved data quality: Dirty data can greatly impact critical decision-making. Data-as-a-Service solutions cleanse records with address standardization and entity resolutions features giving organization a “single version of the truth.”

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Increased agility: With DaaS, business leaders can access data in real time without any major strains on IT. What’s more, there’s a great deal of flexibility as users can move data easily from one platform to another without the need to reconfigure network tasks.

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Boost in cost efficiencies: Companies no longer have to go through the long, arduous—not to mention costly—task of gathering and cleansing data because DaaS providers have already done the work for them. This not only reduces costs, but allows decisionsmakers to focus on more pressing projects.

While the demand for data insight is catapulting DaaS solutions to new heights, not all solutions are created

equal. Below we explore how D&B’s DaaS solution, D&B Direct, helps organizations tap into big data to drive growth.

D&B Direct: Helping Organizations Pair Unstructured and Structured Data for Growth D&B Direct gives organizations the ability to combine structured and unstructured data to gain a clear view of prospects, customers, and markets. The Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) solution seamlessly connects your existing data with D&B intelligence, social profiles, news, and more directly in your applications—providing you with the foresight you need to capture new business and grow customer relationships. Not just beneficial for sales and marketing, D&B Direct can also provide digital intelligence to both finance and operations departments to help decrease risk and improve supply management. Below, we explore the four chief use cases: Finance Your finance team needs instant insight to improve the quality and speed of decision-making to drive better business results. With D&B Direct, businesses can identify, screen, and negotiate the best new deals with potential customers and suppliers. Users can select a company, or multiple records, from its database and connect to the DaaS solution, which pulls in financial, predictive analytics, risk ratings, ownership, and family tree data. This gives users a 360-degree view of the company and allows them to make strategic decisions based on accurate data. Operations & IT As corporate infrastructure gets more complex and data grows exponentially, it becomes increasingly challenging to achieve a single view of the customer. With D&B Direct, you can simplify customer data management. Integrate data across disparate systems, connect unstructured data from multiple sources, and embed intelligence in

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core business applications to enable smarter decisions across your enterprise. When all of your teams share a single, complete view of the customer, they can deliver more accurate billing, a better customer experience, and improved customer retention rates. Sales As trusted advisors, sales representatives need all the knowledge they can get to build stronger relationships. With D&B’s DaaS solution, agents can supplement their existing records with detailed company information and predictive analytics right into their CRM system. Armed with more data about key decision makers and influencers, sales representatives can better prepare and pitch products. Marketing

Bringing it All Together with Market Research Businesses can no longer afford to ignore the fact that deriving insight from unstructured data is critical to maintaining a competitive edge. Organizations must move away from making decisions based on gut feelings and foster the use of data across their entire organization. While employing DaaS solutions helps in collecting, organizing, and analyzing data, the real change starts from the top. Senior leadership must teach their staff ways in which they can use data to drive strategic decision-making. Get ahead of the game with proactive insights and stop reacting to changes in the market.

For marketers, it’s all about finding the best new prospects and improving the buyer experience. By integrating D&B intelligence into your existing database, users can build accurate buyer profiles, and optimize targeting, positioning, and nurturing of prospects. What’s more, D&B Direct’s lead form solution allows you to create shorter forms without sacrificing information as the solution enriches submissions with its patented Entity Match technology.

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About Dun & Bradstreet® (D&B) Dun and Bradstreet (NYSE:DNB) is the world’s leading source of commercial information and insight on businesses, enabling companies to Decide with Confidence® for 172 years. D&B’s global commercial database contains more than 220 million business records.The database is enhanced by D&B’s proprietary DUNSRight® Quality Process, which provides our customers with quality business information. This quality information is the foundation of our global solutions that customers rely on to make critical business decisions.

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