The Movember Foundation launches its first mobile messaging program powered by The Experian Marketing Suite to raise awareness for men’s health.

It was only a few months ago when millennials officially surpassed baby boomers to become the largest living generation. Since millennials are so numerous, it stands to reason, that they could also become the most prevalent population of small business owners in the U.S. As a matter of fact, everyday there are hundreds of new start-ups being created by this younger demographic.

The appetite and need for data within businesses is continuing to grow at a rapid pace. Organizations are viewing data as a strategic asset and using analytical insights for everything from key business decisions, to the customer experience and more. However, the methods for managing first-party data and ensuring it’s accuracy have not kept pace with the growing data demand. The majority of businesses today are still relying on siloed, departmental strategies for data management that have little data governance or consistency in terms of people, processes, and technology.

For those of you attending the Money 20/20 show in Las Vegas next week, billed as the largest global event focused on payments and financial services innovation, the topic of millennials will be top of mind. Why? Because the millenials are 75 million strong, even surpassing the Baby Boomers, and the financial services industry knows that future success depends on learning what matters to millennials and building products and services around those desires. This is true for both consumer lending and small business lending for budding entrepreneurs.

I am part of a community that completely energizes me, makes me believe that there are good people in the world and that makes me want to be better. Over the course of four days in September, my co-workers and I were transported into the world of self-proclaimed “money media nerds” at FinCon, the Financial Influencers conference, where people share thoughts, best practices and update one another on the latest trends. FinCon is THE annual event for the financial media community.

On September 28 in New York City, Experian and Cloudera Cares hosted a panel discussion about how Big Data can be used in a variety of ways as a force of good. The panel included Adam Fingersh, Senior Vice President, Products and Marketing for Experian, Mike Olson, Co-founder, CSO and Chairman of the Board at Cloudera; Board Member at DataKind, Dr. Richard Bonneau, Associate Professor of Biology, Computer Science and Faculty Director of Bioinformatics, New York University; Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Vlad Dubovskiy, Data Scientist, DonorsChoose.org.

Experian is a finalist in the category of “Data-Driven Transformation” for the launch and deployment of the Experian Marketing Suite. During the last two years, Experian made transformational decisions about their marketing portfolio to unify offerings in data, technology and services into a single platform that allows marketers to create rewarding and relevant customer experiences in any channel via any device. This transformation culminated in July 2014 with the launch of the Experian Marketing Suite, a cloud-based marketing platform that leverages Experian’s customer identity and recognition technology, consumer data (the largest in the world), analytics and interaction technology.

Since Henry Ford invented the assembly line and mass automotive production began, the primary objective of all manufacturers and dealers has been to move new vehicle inventory off the lot year after year. But nowadays finding the right automotive customer can be a challenging task. Where do they live? How old are they? How much do they make? By leveraging data to answer these questions, manufacturers can market to the appropriate audience and manage inventory accordingly.

There is no doubt data breaches have become a part of the Corporate and consumer consciousness. As data breaches have become more prevalent and companies are in need of assistance to prepare for and respond to a breach, industry analysts have taken notice of the experts in the marketplace like Experian. In its first report on data breach services, we are proud to have been named as a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Customer Data Breach Notification And Response Services, Q3 2015.