We’re delighted to have been named as one of Britain’s ‘Most Admired Companies’ (BMAC) in Management Today’s annual survey, coming 21st in a list of nearly 250 leading firms from a variety of sectors, and taking third place in the ‘Business Support Services’ sector. Our 17,000 colleagues around the world work hard every day to service and power opportunities for our customers and this award is testament to the commitment they bring to our business every day. The hard work doesn’t stop here. We continue to strive for the highest standards across our global organisation, and we remain committed to delivering the very best services that can empower millions of people to stay in control of their finances, and help businesses meet the needs of their customers. For further information on BMAC, the winners and the methodology, please see: https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/bmac
In today's fast-paced markets, businesses of all sizes strive for an edge over competition, especially when it comes to wining over consumers' hearts and minds. Many find that competitive advantage in the way they apply artificial intelligence to improve their customer decision-making for high business performance. Data strategies for high-performance decisioning In today's fast-paced markets, businesses of all sizes strive for an edge over competition, especially when it comes to wining over consumers' hearts and minds. Many find that competitive advantage in the way they apply artificial intelligence to improve their customer decision-making for high business performance.In fact, recent research we commissioned from Forrester Consulting shows that this. The ability to make meaningful decisions that match your customer's context at a given point in time requires a solid understanding of their needs and goals. Having access to relevant data is essential to consistently deliver experiences that matter. Timing and availability of data is equally important to improving your customer-level decision-making; to make those sought-after better, contextual decisions, you need to have the pertinent data available at the right place and time to meet that given consumer's moment of need. For example, in an operational environment, this may translate into accessing the right type, amount and quality of data in real time, so you are able to respond how and when your customer expects. The role of responsible usage of data in building, fuelling, and maintaining your AI-driven business The energy needs of athletes exceed those of the average person. Similarly, in the AI world, data (nutrient) needs for high-performance require consistent markers over a long period of time. Data scientists looking after credit and fraud risk would use the same variables or 'nutrients' that have been traditionally used for conventional scorecard developments to fuel machine learning methods to build predictive models. These are 'proteins' such as application data, any behavioural data your business has on existing customers, credit bureau data, segmentation data, available public information or transaction data. Some trended economic data can be used as input for developing credit risk methods and governance to fit leading financial reporting standards and frameworks (think of IFRS 9 or Basel, for example). Similarly, to assess affordability, you will need to feed your algorithms with disposable income over your customers' lifetime plus data about how they use it. Financial data about customers' savings, and investments allows for more accurate risk management while property related info derived from rental data is useful for extending personalised credit offers. Meanwhile, more and more businesses are using speech and text data obtained through voice recognition to improve the collection process. In fact, recent research we commissioned from Forrester Consulting shows that this 'race for the customer' comes down to who knows them best. The ability to make meaningful decisions that match your customer's context at a given point in time requires a solid understanding of their needs and goals. Having access to relevant data is essential to consistently deliver experiences that matter. Timing and availability of data is equally important to improving your customer-level decision-making; to make those sought-after better, contextual decisions, you need to have the pertinent data available at the right place and time to meet that given consumer's moment of need. For example, in an operational environment, this may translate into accessing the right type, amount and quality of data in real time, so you are able to respond how and when your customer expects. The role of responsible usage of data in building, fuelling, and maintaining your AI-driven business The energy needs of athletes exceed those of the average person. Similarly, in the AI world, data (nutrient) needs for high-performance require consistent markers over a long period of time. Data scientists looking after credit and fraud risk would use the same variables or 'nutrients' that have been traditionally used for conventional scorecard developments to fuel machine learning methods to build predictive models. These are 'proteins' such as application data, any behavioural data your business has on existing customers, credit bureau data, segmentation data, available public information or transaction data. Some trended economic data can be used as input for developing credit risk methods and governance to fit leading financial reporting standards and frameworks (think of IFRS 9 or Basel, for example). Similarly, to assess affordability, you will need to feed your algorithms with disposable income over your customers' lifetime plus data about how they use it. Financial data about customers' savings, and investments allows for more accurate risk management while property related info derived from rental data is useful for extending personalised credit offers. Meanwhile, more and more businesses are using speech and text data obtained through voice recognition to improve the collection process.
To stay ahead of the competition and on the path of sustained growth, you need clear line of sight to both risks and opportunities through the customer lifecycle. Gaining better insights on customers is critical to achieving that, so you can make all the right decisions, big and small, about your customers and business clients. Based on the conversations we have with our clients, we have noticed that most executives are paying a lot of attention to measuring customer experience and reducing friction across digital touch-points through the lifecycle. For customer acquisition, for example, businesses like yours look at time spent on each micro-step (e.g. data field), dropout rates at each of those steps, and do A/B testing at a very granular level. The idea is to understand all points of friction including points of confusion, frustration, etc., so you can learn from those and improve the experience. But this is not an easy task. The various challenges involved are making sense of the vast quantities of data and the immaturity of that data as well as the construct of that data. Given the fast pace at which data analytics change and evolve, our recommendation is that you invest in tools that are data and/or analytics agnostic. Thinking ahead: leveraging data analytics and cloud-based decisioning platforms to design the right customer treatment There is a largely untapped opportunity to leverage data, analytics, optimisation and decision management solutions – such as cloud-based decisioning platforms – to design the right customer treatment and identify the next best action for that customer. Selecting the appropriate timing, medium, and channel for those actions lead to greater consistency and contribute to having more relevant communications with your customers. The more relevant you are, the more precise you are with the offers and the treatments leading to improved response rates, greater connectivity and interaction with the customer. This results in memorable experiences that enhance loyalty and drive profitability.
This blog is written by Lisa Fretwell, Managing Director of Data Services at Experian. It’s no secret that women are hugely under-represented in careers relating to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). In fact, research suggests that only 13% of the overall UK workforce are women in STEM and, as a consequence, we find ourselves with fewer female role models to inspire confidence and ambition in the next generation. Positive female role models are fundamental if we are to transform some of the preconceptions that girls have about a career in STEM. And part of encouraging new generations into our industry means recognising and celebrating the achievements of those women blazing a trail here and now. That’s why we are delighted to be sponsors of today’s Women in Data (UK) conference for the third successive year. This unique event helps inspire, educate and support women across the data industry. It’s a privilege to be part of the Women in Data community, to get to know more amazing women in our industry and to share their incredible stories. One of the highlights of the event is the annual ’20 Women in Data and Technology’ recognition, celebrating incredible role models who are motivating others to pursue their own career ambitions in the industry. We were particularly thrilled to learn that our very own Louise Maynard-Atem, has been included in this year’s highly prestigious list. Congratulations to Louise on a truly phenomenal and well-deserved achievement. Experian’s goal is to have a workforce that’s as rich in diversity as the people who use our services. That’s one of the many reasons we’re so excited by WiD’s mission. Together we hope to empower and encourage more women into the data industry, supporting the next generation of data scientists who can help shape the future.
Building a credit history takes time. Establishing a credit history early in life can help ensure you have access to affordable credit when you need it. The problem is that people tend to learn about credit and finances through trial and error. This is unfortunate because recovering from financial mistakes takes time, too. In fact, it could take years to rebound from one financial misstep. This trend is especially common for young adults who are just beginning to get their financial feet wet, and it’s one of the many reasons credit education and improving the financial health of consumers of all ages is core to our mission at Experian. As Director of Consumer Education and Advocacy, I get the opportunity to talk to a variety of students and young adults across the country on a regular basis. Millennials and Gen Z are often labeled slackers, but I don’t believe that for an instant. They experienced the financial crisis firsthand in their early years, and they really don’t want to repeat what their parents went through. Can you blame them, really? One thing we know for certain about young adults is they are very interested in learning as much as they can about money, finance and credit, and it’s our goal to be an educational resource to them. As the saying goes, you don’t know what you don’t know. We have a chance to give younger generations the information and tools to know more than previous generations did at their ages. Here are some of my favorite tried and true tips to help set young adults up for credit success: Start small and grow slowly. A secured account with a small credit limit can establish your credit history and help you start saving at the same time. Good credit and strong savings habits go hand-in-hand. You don't need a credit card with a high limit to have good credit. Use the credit you have wisely. Good credit scores are not about having a lot of credit, but rather about how you use the credit you have available. Make a small purchase each month and pay it in full. That will show you can use credit well without taking on debt. Use your cell phone to improve your credit. With Experian Boost, you can add positive telecom and utility payments to your credit history and possibly boost your credit score. In the past, failing to pay your utility or cell phone bills could hurt your credit, but paying on time didn't help. With Experian Boost, that's changed. Use technology to make managing your credit automatic. Millennials and Gen Zers are the most technologically savvy generations in our history. Use technology, such as online banking apps and credit management tools like the Experian app, to automate savings and payments, to alert you to potential fraud and to track your progress as you build your credit history. We know helping people better understand and access credit is a team effort, and we work closely with our advocacy networks to increase our impact. We recently joined the American Bankers Association to provide young adults with financial education. Leading up to Get Smart About Credit Day, we hosted a Facebook Live with Jeni Pastier, Director of Financial Education Programs for the American Bankers Association to address credit topics young adults typically don’t understand or know about at all. You can watch the full video here and find additional articles to get smarter about credit on the Ask Experian blog.
I recently had the opportunity to discuss the current state of #data collection, analytics, and AI in an interview with @CIODive. As technology advances, businesses can collect and analyse more data than ever before. However, most of that information ends up languishing, seldom being used or even catalogued. Recent research suggests that partly, this happens because businesses are unaware of what data they store or don't know how to get actionable insights out of it. This lack of visibility into data stores affects organisations' readiness to apply artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML): advanced analytics require data to be properly managed and organised. At Experian, we believe in taking an outcome-focused approach to analytics and AI as we look at activating the power of our data AI outcomes. We work backwards, from high-impact client and consumer outcomes, and bringing to bear the analytics, AI and data to achieve them. This way, we can assess more accurately what effort across data collection and analytics is required to achieve an outcome. Executed effectively this can avoid an enormous amount of investment in people, time, data. If you're interested in this topic, I'd recommend you to read the article in full: http://bit.ly/AImlShri_CIODive
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Today, we stand at the forefront of a digital revolution that is reshaping the financial services industry. And, against this backdrop, financial institutions are at vastly different levels of maturity; the world’s biggest banks are managing large-scale infrastructure migrations and making significant investments in AI while regional banks and credit unions are putting plans in place for modernization strategies, and fintechs are purpose-built and cloud native. To explore this more, I recently had the privilege of attending the annual Reuters NEXT live event in New York City. The event gathers globally recognized leaders across business, finance, technology, and government to tackle some of today’s most pressing issues. On the World Stage, I joined Del Irani, a talented anchor and broadcast journalist, to discuss the future of lending and the pivotal role of data and AI in building a more inclusive financial system. Improving financial access Our discussion highlighted the lack of access to traditional financial systems, and the impact it has on nearly 100 million people in North America alone. Globally, the problem affects over one billion people. These people, who are credit invisible, unscoreable, or have subprime credit scores, are unable to secure everyday financial products that many of us take for granted. What many don’t realize is, this is not a fringe subset of the population. Most of us, myself included, know someone who has faced the challenges of financial exclusion. Everyday Americans, including young people who are just starting out, new immigrants and people from diverse communities, often lack access to mainstream financial products. We discussed how traditional lending has a limited view of a consumer. Like looking through a keyhole, the lender’s understanding of the person in view is often incomplete and obstructed. However, with expanded data, technology, and advanced analytics, there is an opportunity to better understand the whole person, and as a result have a more inclusive financial system. At Experian, we have a unique ability to connect the power of traditional credit with alternative data, bringing a more holistic understanding of consumers and their behaviors. We are dedicated to leveraging our rich history in data and our expertise in technology to create the future of credit and ultimately bring financial power to everyone. The future of lending After spending two days with over 700 industry leaders from around the world, one thing is abundantly clear: much like the early days of the internet, today, we are at the cutting-edge of a technical revolution. Reflecting on my time at Reuters NEXT, I am particularly excited by the collective commitment to drive innovative, and smarter ways of working. We are only beginning to scratch the surface of how data and technology can transform financial services, and Experian is positioned to play a significant role. As we look to the future, I am excited about the ways we will create new opportunities for businesses and consumers alike.
The advertising ecosystem has seen significant transformation over the past few years, with increased privacy regulation, changes in available signals, and the rise of channels like connected TV and retail media. These changes are impacting the way that consumers interact with brands and how brands understand and continue to deliver relevant messages to consumers with precision. Experian has been helping marketers navigate these changes, and as a result, our marketing data and identity solutions underpin much of today’s advertising industry. We’re committed to empowering marketers and agencies to understand and reach their target audiences, across all channels. Today, we are excited to announce our acquisition of Audigent—a leading data and activation platform in the advertising industry. With Audigent’s combination of first-party publisher data, inventory and deep supply-side distribution relationships, publishers, big and small, can empower marketers to better understand their customers, expand the reach of their target audiences and activate those audiences across the most impactful inventory. I am excited to bring together Audigent’s supply-side network as a natural extension to our existing demand-side capabilities. Audigent’s ability to combine inventory with targeted audiences using first-party, third-party and contextual signals provides the best of all worlds, allowing marketers to deliver campaigns centered on consumer choices, preferences, and behaviors. The addition of Audigent further strengthens our strategy to be the premier independent provider of marketing data and identity, ultimately creating more relevant experiences for consumers. To learn more about Experian and Audigent, visit https://www.experian.com/marketing/ and https://audigent.com/.