After reading Tech Journal’s recent article “Big Data Comes with Big Obstacles for Some CIOs,” my advice to CIOs looking at Big Data as a challenge is to identify the keys to make the era that is upon us successful. One such key we’ve identified at Oversight is uniting multiple silos of data. And clearly one of the key silos is detailed information about your customers. The 2012 presidential election should provide the inspiration (or the fear if you don’t act) for gaining a deep understanding of your customers and prospects. The Obama campaign first united their own data sets on the electorate – they combined voter data with fundraising data as an example. They then incorporated external data sets. Further they found ways to work around privacy concerns with certain data sets by “anonymizing” the personally identifiable information. In their case that let them gain a deep understanding of television viewing habits. The important concept is they found a way to utilize every data set possible. And with this detailed picture they were able to target specific voters with the precise message most likely to convert votes for Obama. When an Obama campaign worker met with a voter they knew the pitch to use with that specific voter. When they sent a direct mail piece it contained a message meant for the individual addressee.
The power of Big Data is gaining the insights about specific events and opportunities and then to get those insights in the hands of the frontline. Detailed information about your customers (and your prospects and your vendors) is a prerequisite.
In his opening address to the Association of Government Accountants (AGA) National Leadership Conference, Gene Dodaro, Comptroller General of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), mentioned “detect and prevent improper payments’ at the top of his list of how the accountability community can help to address fiscal and performance challenges facing Federal Government. With Federal Government budgets already tighter and facing further belt-tightening and scrutiny with impending sequestration, Mr. Dodaro emphasized that the ultimate goal is to prevent improper payments from occurring in the first place. He also mentioned that in 2012 four programs didn’t even provide data on improper payments and six others who did had their estimates and the accompanying data rejected because their estimates did not meet OMB guidelines for providing the estimates.
As it regards to the recent Smart Data Collective piece, “
The election is long over but I find it interesting to look at some of the ways that the Obama Campaign successfully leveraged data. The real trick to a Big Data Application (BDA) was demonstrated by the Obama campaign in the way they closed the last mile of the election. Yes they united many different sources of data and yes they analyzed it in many innovative dimensions. But the thing that really drove the value was the fact that the campaign staffers knew exactly who to visit and what to say. When they went to visit a voter, they had a briefing sheet that told them what to talk about to that person, what points were likely to resonate, what would motivate that person to get out and vote. They knew which voters to call on, in terms of voters that they could swing to the President and they knew how to do it.
