Data is King, long live the King

By Richard Vaughan*

It all starts with data. Our core business is providing Customer Communication Management (CCM) in a Business to Business environment. All of our solutions are dependent upon having accurate and relevant data, lots of it. In the business process of producing transactional communications, we would receive, enrich, merge, sort, process and reconcile many sources of data even before one invoice or statement is created.

Once the documents are generated, we then distribute the communications via email, sms, print/mail and digitally archive. This generates more data such as delivered/undelivered and bounce back reports, what device is used to view, when and how the customer has interacted with the digital communication. This is valuable data which can then be used by other departments such as marketing, operations as well as credit professionals.

We have seen an increase in the amount of data that is sent to us and data that is generated by us and we believe that using this data for process improvements is key to our future direction and innovation.

CCM has had to change and develop as both the business and customer requirements have evolved over time at a quick pace. A significant increase in the use of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) as part of the CCM solution has led us to invest in software development capabilities in house, mainly due to the amount of data used in providing a CCM solution.

Our recent investment in and collaboration with Cloud Collections is important to Zipform Digital as we look to develop Intellectual Property between CCM and collections solutions. Imagine having the transactional history and communications available to the end customer at a click of a button, when a sms reminder is received. We are able to: l enrich the collection data with transactional information, l provide a secure link to the PDF of the unpaid statement/Invoice, l enrich with the media preferences of the customer, l refer to credit limits, l communicate the customer account manager contact details, l manage the delivery of the communication, l take care of the necessary bounce back and undelivered work processes, l data visualisation and trend analysis and; l reconcile the process in a secure and compliant environment.

With the increased amount of data in use and stored to deliver an efficient CCM solution, security and data privacy best practices are extremely important. The constant threat from cyber-attack or a breach in security protocol presents a high risk to businesses that need to be proactively managed in the current landscape. In addition to our current ISO9001 certification, we are in the process of attaining ISO27001 certification, which will enhance our reputation and the trust of our customers as it provides the best practice framework of policy and procedures for IT security management.

It is clear that the more data provided results in an improved customer experience, more efficient processes and a better return on investment. It all starts with data and that is not going to change.

*Richard Vaughan General Manager, Zipform Digital Ph: 08 9232 0192, www.zipformdigital.com.au

“We have seen an increase in the amount of data that is sent to us and data that is generated by us and we believe that using this data for process improvements is key to our future direction and innovation.”