|
BEWARE - INFORMATION DISPERSAL!
|
 |
|
| |
 |
|
| |
| |
Overcoming the information hoarding instinct |
|
 Today’s technology has led not so much to the predicted information overload, but to information dispersal. “On any given day, I get communications by landline, mobile, email, text, voicemail, LinkedIn, Skype, and Facebook,” says Johan Lindqvist, PAR’s International Business Manager.
“There is no central point where I can pull them all together and even if there were, I would need to be able to access that point from wherever I am in the world.”
If information management is so difficult for an individual, then how can a company deal with it? The reality is that most companies don’t. Much of a business’s information – which is its intellectual real estate – isn’t in the business at all. It’s on mobile phones, Blackberries, laptops, or in employee’s heads.
Records of workplace communications, which can be vitally important for business integrity, particularly if there’s a dispute, often reside in the short-term online accounts of employees, or mysteriously never went through the company’s server archives because they were sent from a non-synchronised mobile device.
Decisions
This situation would be worrying enough if it only affected day-to-day operations but as CRMs become more sophisticated, companies don’t just use them as repositories of data. They use them to forecast sales, plan production and stock schedules, calculate staffing, and test the health of the business.
If these vital decisions are based on data that’s incomplete, out of date, or simply wrong, then it puts the whole enterprise at risk. Not surprisingly, the ability to store more and more information doesn’t solve the problem. At PAR we find that typically, 40 per cent of a company’s database has inaccuracies, irrespective of its size.
“Information strategy isn’t about finding somewhere to put all this stuff,” says PAR’s International Product Director, Per Löfgren. “Storage is cheap and you can always get more of it. It’s like putting more and more clothes into your wardrobe and then, instead of clearing it out, you buy another wardrobe. You feel as though you have lots of clothes but the reality is that most of them are out of date or don’t fit any more.
“Taking the ‘more space’ approach means that you start using the new wardrobe instead of the old one but when you count up all your clothes, the old clothes are still included in the calculation. This is exactly the way that companies are approaching their information.”
The Information strategy 7-point plan
 At PAR, we believe that the key to this is to develop an Information Strategy. In the same way that we have strategies to manage budgets, sales, growth, and the wellbeing of our employees, then we need to take a strategic view to managing our information.
The start of an Information Strategy is to ask seven key questions:
• What information do we need to have?
• Do we already have any of that information or do we need to find it?
• If we have it, where is it?
• If we know where it is, how accurate is it?
• If we need to find it, how can we do that?
• Once we have assembled the information, how do we keep it up to date?
• How do we add relevant information and delete irrelevant information?
By working through this plan, you can start to develop an Information Strategy that will take your business forward. It’s not easy because we have to overcome people’s natural reluctance to share something that’s of real value to them.
Integration
The integration of all a company’s information should be an achievable goal but employees persist in hoarding information in their own way rather than using a central repository.
Information is a company’s life blood yet people often hold on to it as a mechanism of power and control, as well as a reluctance to trust their valuable and hard-won contact lists to a centralised database.
 It’s a natural instinct that we will only overcome if we can show our employees that there is a true value to centralising information and that the information itself is accurate. That’s why we at PAR have put so much investment into integrating our European ‘master’ database, EuroContactPool, into the most commonly used CRMs: Microsoft Dynamics, SuperOffice, and Salesforce.com
This integration provides a seamless link between your CRM and the most accurate European data available anywhere. Not only can you cleanse, append, and update the information you hold, you can also monitor it automatically and prospect within the European business universe to find new customers.
 At last, there is a central information point that works for all of us.
Clearing out that wardrobe just got easier!
|
|
|
| |
A QUEST FOR THE BEST: UK DATA SHARING ANNOUNCED |
|
| |
There’s a lesson to be learned from one of the world’s leading travel companies that promises to provide the very best accommodation wherever you stay. On one occasion it might be a five-star hotel in one of the world’s great cities. In another, it could be a superior log cabin in the wilderness. What matters is that wherever you are, you’re getting the best.
PAR’s philosophy for our market-leading EuroContactPool B2B database is the same. Whether you’re trying to access engineering companies in Germany, bakers’ shops in Ireland or telecoms giants in Scandinavia – you can be confident that our data is of the highest quality possible.
 That’s why, when it comes to choosing our partners, we’re very picky! At PAR, we don’t believe that we understand the business environment in every country, but we do believe that there’s someone in that country who does.
The UK market
The UK business environment is an interesting one. It’s easy and relatively inexpensive to start a business; taxation and employment law are largely similar across the UK, whilst MBOs, mergers and acquisitions are frequent. As a result, it’s a very volatile market; one with great opportunities but that’s also difficult to manage from a data perspective.
The UK is a vitally important environment for any business looking at pan-European sales and marketing and for that reason, we’ve chosen our partner carefully. From this month, PAR and the global information services company Experian have agreed a data sharing partnership.
Good fit
The link between Experian and PAR is a good fit. Both companies have developed from being holders of pure lists of information into providers of sophisticated analytical products that support businesses’ decision-making processes, strategy and growth.
Under the agreement, Experian’s UK business information will contribute to EuroContactPool, significantly improving the quality and extent of our UK data offering.
In turn, Experian will have direct access to EuroContactPool, which currently holds 23.5 million business records and 17.8 million named executives in 15 European countries. This will enhance Experian’s data offering for pan-European projects where there is a requirement for matching, cleansing, data enrichment, analysis and the provision of prospects.
 Per Löfgren, International Product Director for PAR, says: “We’re delighted to reach a partnering agreement with Experian, which is a well-respected company with a focus on data quality. We see this as a great opportunity for both companies.”
Facts about EuroContactPool >>
|
|
| |
PAR STEPS IN TO THE CLOUD WITH SALESFORCE.COM |
|
| |
“If you have a CRM containing information that is inaccurate, incomplete or way out of date, then it can do more harm than good,” says Johan Lindqvist, PAR’s International Business Manager.
Following the huge success of our Microsoft Dynamics and SuperOffice CRM plug-ins, we have taken our first step into cloud computing with the launch of a plug-in that integrates EuroContactPool with the highly-successful salesforce.com CRM.
PAR Connector for Salesforce creates a seamless link between the Salesforce CRM and our European ‘master’ database, EuroContactPool. This immediately gives Salesforce users access to a pan-European business universe of 24 million business records and 18 million named executives in 15 countries.
No compromise
The user can access EuroContactPool through the regular Salesforce CRM menus. Icons for other functions, such as account update and to retrieve a contact from an existing account are intuitive and do not compromise the user’s familiarity with the Salesforce interface.
PAR Connector allows Salesforce users to search, download and update their CRM database with the latest information about companies and contacts in a simple way. Data records can be accessed on an individual basis or by importing several branches or departments under the same company name. Users can also search the database to find similar organisations to their existing best clients.
Johan Lindqvist, International Business Manager at PAR, says: “PAR Connector for Salesforce answers a real need. Our research shows that it takes a sales person 15 minutes to find out the right things about a customer. This can now be done automatically at less than a tenth of the cost.”
As company records are downloaded, they can be automatically included in PAR’s monitoring service, which allows for continuous updates. This includes the removal of inactive companies, saving time and money spent following up fruitless leads, as part of the PAR Data Quality concept.
To deliver the solution, PAR has worked with Saaspoint, one of the largest cloud consulting and development companies in the world, which has already completed more than 700 salesforce.com-related engagements. This represents PAR’s first collaboration with Saaspoint.
 “At PAR we recognise that cloud-based technologies have impacted on enterprise computing and will do so increasingly as mobile platforms develop and traditionally office-based operations are moved to the cloud,” says Johan Lindqvist.
Click for demonstration SalesForce >>
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
 |
PAR is a company within the Bisnode Group and Sweden's market leader in direct marketing and business information.
We help you to keep, develop and get new clients in Sweden, Scandinavia and Europe.
 |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
