Data & Analytics

We are excited to announce the annual launch of our Global data management research! This year, we surveyed 700 business leaders across the U.S., U.K., and Brazil to get their perspective on usage of data throughout the pandemic. There’s no question that data initiatives have been on the to-do list for over a decade now, but as the pandemic came storming in, businesses quickly realized that data management never made it to the top of the list. In other words, most businesses were not prepared for the rapid transformation they needed to sustain during the global health crisis because their data, simply, was not ready. There are three major takeaways from this year’s study: An acceleration of digital transformation has made businesses reliant on high-quality data. We find that business priorities have remained the same over the last few years: Customer experience and data security. However, these initiatives are more important than ever before, especially when it comes to digital transformation. Seventy-two percent say an acceleration to digital transformation has made their business more reliant on data and data insights. Why? With dramatic changes in customer buying behaviour during the pandemic, and most employees still working remotely, digital engagement and operations have become key to sustaining business growth during economic crisis. Our research finds that seventy-five percent of respondents say they have seen a dramatic change in their customer’s buying behavior during the pandemic. With stores closed, overwhelmed distribution and shipping warehouses, and unpredictable supply chains (bread flour, anyone?) …businesses need to leverage online platforms, like their website and social media, to stay engaged with customers. Nowadays, it’s not unusual for a brand’s customer experience to be solely digital. Furthermore, with increased online activity and non-essential employees working from home, there’s a chance consumer or operational data could be at higher risk of unwanted actions or unauthorized users. This is where data security plays an important role in keeping records, and the business, safe. From the efficiency of the customer experience online to the data that helps us analyze markets and attitudes changing at a dizzying pace…the right data has become indispensable. The need for a data-driven digital operation and customer experience has made companies realize how mature their data functions are, or where there is opportunity for improvement. Data was not ready to sustain the impact of the pandemic. For many years, we have looked at the maturity level of data quality in the market. Our hope was that this maturity level had increased to handle the new demands and desire for insight. Unfortunately for many, levels of quality data continued to fall short. Fifty-five percent of business leaders say they lack trust in their data assets, hindering their ability to be fully data driven. The level of inaccurate data has remained high over the past five years of this study. Organizations believe about a third of their customer and prospect data is inaccurate in some way. Additionally, only fifty percent believe their CRM/ERP data is clean and can be fully leveraged. Poor data quality creates several roadblocks within organizations, regardless of their maturity. While data can be inaccurate for a wide variety of reasons, such as human error or natural data decay, the impact is the same. Ninety-five percent of businesses have seen impacts related to poor data quality. This could mean that poor quality data damages the reliability of analytics (36%), negatively affects customer experience (32%), and negatively impacts reputation and customer trust (32%). These challenges are difficult to overcome in any economy, especially one facing a pandemic. Another challenging area is the inability to be agile with data. While eighty-four percent of respondents experienced greater demand for data insights, sixty-two percent admit a lack of agility in data processes hurt their response to changing business needs. Ensuring high-quality data and agility within data practices is vital to improve customer experience, streamline operations, and accelerate digital transformation. By investing in data management now, businesses can sustain success despite any future market changes that are out of their control. Investing in data now will help businesses weather the next crisis. Over the next six months, sixty-three percent of organizations see data management initiatives becoming more urgent—and the reason is resilience. Nine out of ten businesses are focused on improving data management resilience to at least some degree over the next year. Businesses are investing in several key areas of data management like improving data quality, refining data governance, moving data to the cloud, and automating data processes. With over three quarters of our respondents saying, “investing in data management initiatives today will help businesses better weather the next crisis,” organizations across industries are hopping onto the data train. This means that businesses need the right: People Processes Technology It’s important for companies to invest in the right areas of data today to recognize return on investment more quickly, build data resilience, and secure their future. During the pandemic, businesses continue to struggle with a lack of technology, data quality, and skills. Data validation software verifies data at the point of capture and can automate the data cleansing process, ensuring data pipelines are accurate and contain valuable insights. This will enable team members to analyze and manage valid data and streamline their time to focus on growth-building strategies. The right people, processes, and tools will not only help a business respond to the challenges they face in today’s environment, but also ensure a stable foundation. Now, more than ever before, have we seen the true power of data. With reliable insights, businesses have the strength to confidently pivot strategies as market shifts arise, sustain the impact of the global health crisis, and prepare for what’s ahead. Read the full report to learn how what you can do today to leverage data to respond to the current global health crisis and prepare for tomorrow. Download the research.

There hasn’t been many world events that have occurred during my 25+ year career that have had such an impact on cybersecurity as the pandemic. As I reflect on the approximate one year mark since we first heard about COVID-19, it’s truly been one for the record books. This is not relative to numbers such as the amount of data breaches that have been caused by the pandemic, but more so because of the long term ramifications. The pandemic opened up many new cyber scams and threat vectors as well as more vulnerable targets due to rapid and – at times – rushed changes organizations had to undertake in order to respond. A good cyber review of 2020 can be found here. Now we are at a tipping point with societal and operational changes companies and cybersecurity professionals will need to grapple with for a long time. I addressed how some of these will affect 2021 in my annual Data Breach Industry Forecast. As we forge ahead, there are two key areas I see as major security concerns with long-term impact: Remote working is here to stay There is no turning back in how, and more importantly, where we do business. What that means is a larger workforce working from home, which spurs a number of concerns and vulnerabilities from a security standpoint. Businesses now have a much broader threat landscape to protect. Not only that, but families need to tighten their security hygiene as well for their personal devices since criminals know we are spending more time at home using these tools. I predict that operationally there will be new strategies to protect systems and a rethinking of best practices in addition to a flurry of new protection software and other technologies to better protect this at-home frontier. Companies will also need to create new trainings for its employees and find better defenses for social networking attacks like spear phishing. Healthcare will never be the same That line is an understatement. Unfortunately, cybercriminals will not take pity and leave the embattled industry alone. Medical information is very lucrative and thieves will continue to take advantage of healthcare organizations’ focus on the pandemic. But they must address security, especially with advancements here to stay such as telehealth. In fact, I envision that operationally we’ll see more third party data breaches as more providers engage outside suppliers for their digital offerings. Also, with increased digital visits there could be more patients visiting smaller clinics or diagnostic testing centers for further evaluations or tests, which opens up more roads where patients’ information is flowing back and forth. Organizations will need to shore up third party security protocols and expectations to try to prevent this type of data breach. We are only at the beginning of this journey to overcome unexpected challenges and manage new ways of conducting business. For more commentary and updates on the cyber-demic, follow my LinkedIn monthly digest.

Digital identity solutions are a crucial component to enhancing the customer experience in digital transactions. Driven by verified data, digital identity as a concept benefits both businesses and consumers. Innovative and effective solutions can prevent costly fraudulent activity and enhance compliance measures for businesses and ensure a more convenient and protected experience for consumers. Consumer preference for digital transactions has grown exponentially and will continue to do so leading to higher customer expectations for a seamless and secure experience. Experian is deeply committed to developing leading solutions and has earned high rankings in industry experience, strength of product and seamless solutions in Juniper Research’s Digital Identity: Technology Evolution, Regulatory Landscape & Forecasts 2020-2025 Report. Juniper Research, one of the leading global analyst firms in the mobile and digital technology sector, evaluated vendors active in the digital identity space based on factors such as size, financial performance, global reach, product range, number of clients and strength of partnerships. Juniper provides the most comprehensive and progressive analysis of the digital commerce market in its market-leading Commerce & Fintech research. The report discusses new approaches in the identity space and highlights best practice recommendations for deployment, in which Experian continues to be a market leader and remains committed to the crucial nature of identity as a concept for businesses. Experian’s proprietary solutions and digital identity services are available through Experian’s CrossCore partner ecosystem, which combines advanced analytics, rich data assets, identity insights and fraud prevention capabilities. Businesses using the Experian CrossCore partner ecosystem can connect any new or existing tools and systems in one place to quickly adjust strategies based on evolving threats and business needs, which helps to improve efficiency and reduce operational costs.

Here’s what we expect in 2021: Putting a Face to Frankenstein IDs: Synthetic identity fraud – when a fraudster uses a combination of real and fake information to create an entirely new identity – is currently the fastest growing type of financial crime. The progressive uptick in synthetic identity fraud is likely due to multiple factors, including data breaches, dark web data access and the competitive lending landscape. As methods for fraud detection continue to mature, Experian expects fraudsters to use fake faces for biometric verification. These “Frankenstein faces” will use AI to combine facial characteristics from different people to form a new identity, creating a challenge for businesses relying on facial recognition technology as a significant part of their fraud prevention strategy. “Too Good to Be True” COVID Solutions: With the distribution of vaccines underway and wider availability of rapid COVID-19 testing, Experian expects that fraudsters will continue to find opportunities to capitalize on anxious and vulnerable consumers and businesses. Everyone needs to be vigilant against fraudsters using the promise of at-home test kits, vaccines and treatments as means for sophisticated phishing attacks, telemarketing fraud and social engineering schemes. Stimulus Fraud Activity, Round Two: For Americans suddenly out of work or struggling with the financial fallout from the pandemic, 2020’s government-issued stimulus funds were a welcome relief, but also an easy target for fraudsters to commit scams. Experian predicts fraudsters will take advantage of additional stimulus funding by using stolen data from consumers to intercept stimulus or unemployment payments. Say ‘Hello’ to Constant Automated Attacks: Once the stimulus fraud attacks run their course, Experian predicts hackers will increasingly turn to automated methods, including script creation (using fraudulent information to automate account creation) and credential stuffing (using stolen data from a breach to take over a user’s other accounts) to make cyberattacks and account takeovers easier and more scalable than ever before. With billions of records exposed in the U.S. due to data breaches annually, this type of fraud will prosper in 2021 and beyond until the industry moves away from its reliance on usernames and passwords. Survival of the Fittest for Small Businesses: As a result of COVID-19, businesses were left with no choice but to quickly shift to digital to meet the needs of consumers, and some were more prepared than others. In 2020, consumers may have been willing to give businesses time to adjust to the new normal, but in 2021 their expectations will be higher. Experian predicts businesses with lackluster fraud prevention tools and insufficient online security technology will suffer large financial losses in 2021 and beyond. While fraudsters will iterate on new and old methods of attack in 2021, Experian is always innovating to help businesses stay one step ahead. As a leader in fraud prevention, Experian offers a full suite of automated fraud prevention and detection tools that harness data and analytics to make businesses more secure. To learn more, check out Experian’s fraud prevention solutions and download the Future of Fraud Forecast.

As our world becomes increasingly data-driven, the demand for automation will continue to grow. At Experian, we believe that harnessing the power of data can create opportunities for businesses to succeed and society to thrive. We’re proud to have a culture dedicated to continuous innovation and it’s one of the reasons we were selected as the winner of Cloudera’s 2020 Data Impact Awards in the Data for Enterprise AI Category. The award honors organizations that have built and deployed systems for enterprise-scale machine learning and have harnessed AI to automate, secure, and standardize decision making. Cloudera’s annual Data Impact Awards recognizes organizations whose data projects deliver significant benefits to their business and the broader community. Experian was granted the award for the work our Business Information Services’ Data Enrichment Team did to build and launch six different data maintenance applications, which allowed us to more quickly identify data inconsistencies through automation and machine learning. An example of this is Experian’s Velcro application, which is powered by machine learning. In real-time, it can help prevent and resolve duplicate records while also improving the customer experience. This is just one example of how Experian is investing in data-driven solutions to create a better tomorrow on the road to recovery ahead of us. As we head into the new year, we will continue to innovate using the most cutting-edge technologies to make an impact in the business communities we serve. The winners, which each represent innovation and leadership in their respective industry, were selected by a panel of distinguished thought-leaders and expert industry analysts. To learn more about this award win, visit https://blog.cloudera.com/2020-data-impact-award-winner-spotlight-experian/. You can view the full list of 2020 Data Impact Award winners here.

While there is no question the pandemic continues to create a challenging financial situation for millions of consumers, this is not the case for everyone. Because Americans are finding themselves in unique financial situations, there is not a one size fits all solution for maintaining access to the credit economy. As 2020 comes to a close and U.S. consumers and businesses grapple with another surge in COVID-19 cases, it is critical for the credit services industry to continually recognize and assess the impact the pandemic is having on consumer’s financial health. At Experian, our role is to help lenders understand consumer’s unique circumstances, so they know who they are talking to and what risk an applicant represents at any given time. We use the power of data, including traditional credit data, alternative data and consumer permissioned data, to accomplish this objective. I was recently invited to speak with Cheddar’s Nora Ali to share my views on the Road to Recovery from the pandemic, how we can maintain access to the credit economy and ways consumers can protect their credit standing and financial health during this time. You can watch the full interview here. I believe data is key to maintaining access to the credit economy and protecting consumer financial health, especially in environments like the one we currently find ourselves in.  

Almost a year worth of a global pandemic has galvanized a past of relative stability and predictability, bringing chaos and disruption and signaling a different, certainly unexpected, future. As this future unfolds, it will be the actions that business leaders and their teams take now, amidst the crisis, that will determine the fate of their organization. Navigating the current complexity and change requires the ability to effectively address the urgent needs of the present, make immediate choices, and allocate resources. The pace is fast, and actions are decisive – in fact, companies have acted 20 to 25 times faster than expected since the coronavirus pandemic started, according to McKinsey[1]. Modern decision automation facilitates technology and business strategic alignment This search for increased nimbleness and improved strategic alignment has been a recurrent topic in our conversations with clients from around the globe. What we hear is that the pandemic has boosted their search for solutions that create synergies across technology and business groups and allow for an optimal use of their IT investments. As organizations are accelerating and driving their digital transformation, they are pursuing simpler fit-for-purpose solutions to lower their costs, drive internal alignment and operational efficiencies, and help them meet and exceed all-time high customer expectations in less time. Decision automation platforms such as Experian PowerCurve bring all those elements together, taking the complexity out of the customer decision making process. This crisis has accelerated the need for automated decision management solutions that are secure, can easily scale to meet emerging needs and changes in demand, and be upgraded seamlessly to avoid getting stuck on outdated software and unnecessary long and complex IT infrastructure overhauls. That sheer need for readiness has led to more, accelerated digital transformation. McKinsey Global Survey of Executives[2] shows that companies have accelerated the digitization of their customer and supply-chain interactions and of their internal operations by three to four years. Additionally, the share of digital or digitally enabled products in their portfolios has accelerated by seven years. These findings suggest that during the crisis, companies have prioritized refocusing their offerings to solve for the needs at hand rather than made huge leaps in product development in the span of a few months. With 60% of consumers having higher expectations[3] for their digital experience than before Covid-19, businesses big and small are acutely aware they must reshape their customer journeys to come out of this crisis reinforced. That requires the ability to access and manage more data sources, more attributes, more advanced analytics faster, more easily, and through a more consistent customer experience. It ultimately requires a platform that enables decision management in a digital world. In this regard, Forrester Research states in its new report; The Forrester Wave™: Digital Decisioning Platforms, Q4 2020[4], that “Experian’s PowerCurve really shines at keeping the leaders who are accountable for business results in control of decisioning by providing transparency into the decision logic and insight into actual results.” The capability to ingest and analyze high volumes of owned, third-party, and alternative data combined with seamless and flexible customer consent and protection enables faster, more effective and accurate credit decisioning, resulting in better risk management for the organization and better outcomes from clients. Technology has been fundamental in helping weather past crises and emerge stronger each time Of the hundreds of organizations currently using our decisioning software and platforms, some are prioritizing speed, like many community banks stepping up to support consumers going through hardship in a matter of weeks. Others such as Standard Chartered leverage Experian’s credit decisioning technology and machine learning capabilities to drive financial access in underbanked communities. For global financial institutions and leading retail brands, it’s all about regaining control over how and when they deploy the most relevant credit decisions and strategies while leveraging their existing data. They especially appreciate PowerCurve’s business-user-focused tools, which have received industry recognition[5] for the way they enable organizations to design strategies, including decision logic that can leverage machine learning models pretrained on prior customer behaviors. Many found in our cloud-based pre-configured data and decisioning capabilities the best way to solve for their customers’ immediate needs. It’s the case of AU Bank in India, where they leverage our standard, ‘out-of-the-box’ applications to accelerate their own transformation and continue to redefine the banking experience for consumers in the markets they serve. Other clients with sophisticated, decision-driven business processes prefer highly configurable solutions for their business-users to help them address specific needs. Personally, I feel energized by this challenge and excited about our commitment to helping more businesses find new ways to meet and exceed today’s consumer demands. Through our decisioning platform, organizations can listen to their customers, adapt their business models, adjust their offerings and innovate to drive a strong top line so they are better positioned down the road to recovery. Our decisioning solutions span the entire customer lifecycle and are used by credit and risk managers as well as developers to increase the knowledge about customer and market needs and be ready to solve today’s challenges and take on tomorrow’s opportunities.     1 McKinsey Global Survey of Executives, October 2020. 2 How COVID-19 has pushed companies over the technology tipping point—and transformed business forever. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/how-covid-19-has-pushed-companies-over-the-technology-tipping-point-and-transformed-business-forever 3 Experian Global Insights Report September / October 2020 https://bit.ly/GIR_sep-otc 4 The Forrester Wave™: Digital Decisioning Platforms, Q4 2020 5 Experian’s profile, The Forrester Wave™: Digital Decisioning Platforms Q4 2020” Report.

For the past several years, Experian has been on a journey to help drive financial inclusion for millions of people around the world. This has required significant focus on how we operate, who we partner with, and the products and solutions we offer. Four years ago, when we decided to partner with and invest in Finicity, a leading financial data aggregator based in Salt Lake City, we did so on our strong belief in consumer-permissioned data and our shared vision with their leadership team. At the time, we knew Finicity’s commitment to empower consumers and drive the digital revolution fit perfectly with our priorities. Over the years, this has proven to be true time and time again as we’ve leveraged Finicity’s technology capabilities to create enormous opportunity for our clients and improve financial access for consumers. One example is our partnership on Experian Boost. With the support of Finicity’s infrastructure, more than 4.9 million consumers have connected to Experian Boost to contribute their on-time payments for their telecommunications, utility, streaming service and cell phones directly to their Experian credit reports. Through Experian Boost, and access to real-time consumer-permissioned data, we are increasing financial inclusion by helping lenders identify more consumers who can pay responsibly. In an equally powerful testament to the power of consumer-permissioned data, our partnership with Finicity is helping streamline the homebuying experience for consumers and lenders. As a distribution partner of Finicity’s Verification Solutions, we are delivering Verification of Assets (VOA), Verification of Income (VOI) and Verification of Income and Employment (VOIE) to the mortgage market. This innovative digitization of data and analytics is streamlining experiences for borrowers and is a critically important step in modernizing the mortgage process. Additionally, we have clients successfully utilizing Finicity’s Verification Solutions in automotive underwriting, personal lending, tenant screening and other sectors. Earlier this week, Mastercard closed its acquisition of Finicity. This move, along with the overall trajectory of market demand, is testament to the fact that we clearly invested in the right capability, the right team and the right vision at the right time. But our journey together isn’t over, it has just been reinforced and will continue with Finicity even under new ownership. Our commitment to working with Finicity does not change with this news, it is only enhanced. Our drive to accelerate digital lending, empower consumers and drive more consumer-permissioned data solutions is higher than ever. We will continue to partner with Finicity, now part of the Mastercard family, as a central component of our strategy. We look forward to a continued strong relationship with this new, combined entity as we continue to bring innovative solutions for consumers and businesses to the table.

As businesses across the globe have started to see their operations stabilize, they will be tested once again as the world faces another resurgence of the Covid-19 but this time consumer expectations will be much higher. According to the latest Experian’s Global Insights Report, 60% of consumers have higher expectations of their digital experience than before Covid-19. The study which surveyed 3,000 consumers and 900 businesses in 10 countries, including: Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States, found that while many consumers may have stayed loyal to businesses they frequented before COVID-19 initially, that may no longer be the case.     High expectations for security and convenience compounded by the increased demand for online payments, banking and shopping are pushing businesses to re-imagine the customer journey and the investments needed to drive future growth. In fact, the study found that one in three consumers are only willing to wait 30 seconds or less before abandoning an online transaction, specifically when accessing their financial accounts. This means that businesses have an increasingly short time frame to prove the experience will be safe and convenient.  Businesses have no choice but to invest in their digital presence and experience. We believe the cost of doing nothing will be greater than what it will cost to invest in the customer journey. While half of the businesses we surveyed have either mostly or completely resumed operations since Covid-19 began, only 24% are deliberately making changes to their digital customer journey. This is not enough.    The integration of data, analytics and technology is the key to enable businesses to quickly adapt decisioning strategies to minimize risk, preserve valuable relationship and remain fair and compliant. In order to strengthen digital transformation, Experian recommends that retail banks, payment providers and retailers consider the following:  Understanding the customer    Businesses need to understand their customers more than ever before. They need to understand their behaviors, preferences, and financial situation. Each transaction creates hundreds of different touchpoints that financial institutions and retailers need to accommodate across all devices. The tricky part is using the right technology to put all the datapoints together and to link them into one single-view of the customer.     Use of AI to improve and automate customer decisions  Being able to make the right decision is more important than ever. Today’s economic conditions are unprecedented, and unfortunately we don’t have historic data to count on. Therefore, we need to use data and technology better than before. In the area of artificial intelligence, businesses are strengthening the security of mobile and digital channels, new credit risk analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) models and increasing digital customer acquisition and engagement.   Strengthening security of mobile and digital channels  Businesses need to provide not only a convenient experience but also a secure one. In order to improve security, businesses need to use a multi-level approach where they can easily access and layer fraud solutions to catch more fraud and reduce friction for genuine consumers.   Discover more insights from our longitudinal study of the impact of Covid-19 on businesses and consumers.