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> Of all the ways in which companies can gain a competitive advantage, the development of a granular understanding of their customers is among the most valuable. This level of understanding includes generating accurate, deep and actionable content on the main determining factors that generate commercial value, such as the individual profile of customers, their buying habits, their preferences in the use of channels and their expected response to changes in our own tastes and that of the competition. Advanced analysis, using techniques to apply statistical and mathematical modeling on customer data (Customer Analytics), is a powerful market lever that is here to stay.

DATA, A STRATEGIC OPPORTUNITYEvery day more than 2.5 trillion bytes are generated (that is equivalent to 2.5 followed by the exorbitant amount of 18 zeroes!). This is not only

information generated by transactional and operating systems that are already fully established into mature solutions as basic support to modern businesses (ERP, SCM, CRM, etc.). They also come from other sources external to the company, both structured (built into directly-analyzable databases) and unstructured (such as sound, video, open text), and oftentimes they even come directly from the customer and his interaction with other existing or potential customers (such as through Internet social networks).

These phenomena are increasingly known by the generic label Big Data. This huge amount of information available has generated a strong trend around Customer Analytics, which has allowed for a deeper, more valuable knowledge about customers and what they want. This serves to improve products and services while gaining higher profitability. Hence it is no

wonder that the market value of Big Data, including infrastructure, software, and services, stands at 880 million in Latin America, of which 191 million correspond to Mexico, according to IDC figures.In the foreseeable future, we will see how this trend will continue to accelerate; an aggressive increase is expected in the next 5 years in the digital information analysis market, expected to grow 3.3% more than the previous year.

WE NEED TO DEVELOP A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE BASED ON INFORMATIONIn an environment of intense competition such as the one we are living in, where the pressure for revenue growth and market share does not yield to the pressure for efficiency and operational optimization, we find ourselves with a resource that (thanks to the evolution of our information technology and communications) is no

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By: Juan Pablo Llamas, Director of Accenture Analytics. Accenture Mexico

VALUe THROUGHINFORMATION

longer scarce—the world of data that continues to grow and grow at an ever increasing pace. Market data is growing, and so is our productivity data.

Thus, the strategic importance of Customer Analytics also grows exponentially, as the availability of relevant data for obtaining insights about customers intersects with our ability to assess directly, quantitatively, and in a timely manner (almost immediately), the validity and ability to turn our market interventions into profits.

As a strategic lever, the analysis of our customer base through advanced models allows us to:

• Deepen and strengthen relationships with customers through a relevant and appropriate offer (to the point of personalizing it)

• Promote the development of new products that offer relevant and tested advantages

• Optimize resources focused on commercial efforts in a timely and quantifiable manner

• Maximize revenue through statistically-shaped price models

• Outmaneuvering competitors by anticipating—not reacting— to disruptive market forces

Are our organizations making the most out of the potential of customer data, both internal and external? Are we discovering new business opportunities and feeding the creation, collection, management, and exploitation of this data? Are we offering the right products, at the right price, to the right customer and at the right time?

Chances are that the rate at which information increases will leave room for many opportunities in this regard. And it is even more likely that the possibilities for Big Data focused on Customer Analytics are outpacing our ability to focus, pay attention, and execute (both at the technical and business levels) regarding the vast ocean of data in which some are already starting to drown.

Although it is worth noting that for many organizations in our environment, a true awareness of what can be done (and what is already being done) in this area of Big Data Analytics has not yet dawned.This represents a huge market advantage for those who do understand this. Even

if this advantage, by its nature, will be expectedly short-lasting.

It would be fair to add that those who do not manage to get on board this new technological revolution (that of the analysis derived from the maturity reached by information technology) will simply disappear.

DIFFERENTIATION THROUGH INFORMATIONThe field of Customer Analytics consists in examining individual, historical, multidimensional information from the current and potential client database with the help of specialized tools and analytical models derived from scientific application.

In this sense, we can start from the analysis of the records available to us and which we have on hand in the organization, but we should not be limited only to this, we must seek to encompass the social and sensory universe of the client, to give context and projection to the information we have in our regular records.We know that an excellent salesman knows their customers in this way, he does not only have a photo, with an address and some recent bills, but remembers in detail the specific preferences, personal and familiar

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characteristics, each person’s history in their evolution as a customer, the satisfactions and problems they might have encountered with us, but also with other products or services consumed individually ... remember their sensitivity to variations in the price, offers, novelty items…

But unfortunately we know that this salesperson is extinct in virtually all industries and markets: Globalization, acceleration of innovation, disruption of the digital world, have forced us to a transformation in which it is virtually impossible for one person, the more dedicated, hardworking and focused they can be, may be able to manage the volume and complexity of new commercial, economic, and social challenges.

Without tools, without new capabilities of information management, we would drown due to the new scale of things, the new acceleration of the world in which we live. However, it is very clear that the degree of knowledge and familiarity of that mythical figure of the traditional salesperson of mid to late last century gives value to the

customer receiving exceptional service, and creates value for the salesperson, which will surely meet their goals while helping their clients achieve theirs.

In our globalized and complex world, not only in the personalized service environment, but also in mass markets, it is possible to achieve this level of knowledge, that relevance and that adequacy for the customer, despite the volume and scale which sometimes seem to depersonalize the modern world. With appropriate Customer Analytics practices we can recreate that experience. And the customer, increasingly, will be expected to have that capacity.

In a sense, these trends require competitive organizations to focus on applying advanced analysis in order to find patterns, trends, relationships, preferences, etc., that are relevant to the business and to promote better decisions, based on the information. In this way, it manages to offer the right products at the right price, to the right customers at the right time, with customer experiences that increasingly are, again, more personalized.

We could say that the digital revolution, rather than pushing us away more and more from the individuality of the person, the value of the subjective and the intimate experience of familiarity, is actually leading us into a world where there can be truly personalized experiences again, more satisfying and less crowded, and therefore more relevant and pertinent to our tastes, preferences, aspirations and expectations.

That's the new world of the growing and constant application of Customer Analytics, which we are recreating from the company, accelerated by the competition and the strength of innovation, about digital technologies that enable —and ensure— that the trend does not stop, but accelerates day by day.

HOW CAN WE CREATE VALUE USING CUSTOMER ANALYTICS?The required capabilities assembly for the Customer Analytics practice constitutes in itself one of the biggest challenges for organizations that are aware of the need to compete with Big

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Data levers: Creativity, knowledge of the business and operations, commercial intuition, scientific-experimental training, mathematical formalization and statistical modeling, domination of application, and infrastructure specialized in structured and unstructured data management…

This combination of talent often uneven, in high impact functional teams which allow the transformation of the organizations and their outlook on clients and the market, is the reason why it is so difficult to find spearheading people in the field of science data application to the increasing value of the customer.

But it also requires a sustained and sustainable commitment of time, the process of Customer Analytics, from the synthesis of the business challenge to the deployment and operation of data-driven business initiatives, such as any learning process and deep understanding, is not a linear process that can be gone through once and for good.

Once you understand the practice and its implications as an engine of value creation, it should become an inherent ability in a continuous disposition of the organization, towards learning and its conversion into relevant value deals for its customers, effective and productive for the company.

The process of Customer Analyticsis recursive, and each interaction enriches and improves both the results and the methodology itself. Thanks to this process, new dynamic business opportunities are identified, the analysis potential is exploited, and actions that generate quantifiable and quantified results are determined.

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR US?Generating data of all kinds, and our ability to manage them and turn them into relevant information will continue to increase at high speed —it will continue to accelerate—. With this, the opportunities to generate useful knowledge about customers, enabling companies to achieve competitive advantages, will continue in a foreseeable expansion without limit.Practices of Customer Analytics will continue to develop and become, increasingly, a means to solve the need to create value through information. For customers, to be known and recognized as individuals with characteristics, tastes, preferences and needs, will no longer be a luxury and will start to be a necessity, it will begin to be a generalized expectation in all areas.

And we know that the only way to satisfy the customer is to match or even exceed their expectations... We also know that without satisfied customers and repeat business, there is no organization of any kind, with

no strength or path with worth in this world which justifies staying in business.

Therefore, if we want to not only stay in business, but grow and do so efficiently and steadily, generating profitability and creating opportunities for the future, we must be able to combine science and expertise, data and intuition, analysis and execution, creativity and technology in a single dynamic; in a lever of Customer Analytics which will allow us to grow with our customers and take advantage of the possibilities that are within our reach in this era of the Big Data.

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