This Forbes business story about how the Experian DataLabs was established illustrates the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit that is alive and well at Experian today. “We wanted to create a sandbox for experimenting with data, but the cost was prohibitive for our business unit,” said Eric Haller, Executive Vice President, Experian DataLabs. “So we insourced the build within our DataLab and got 40x the processing power for a lower price.” Read the full article here.

TMCnet’s premium technology blog, TechZone360 featured a byline article by Eric Haller, Executive Vice President of Experian DataLabs about the growing demand for data scientists.  According to Haller, because data science is in its infancy, there’s tremendous room for innovation. Experian’s DataLabs works to assemble individuals from a host of backgrounds with a variety of experiences and encourages them to push the envelope of what’s possible. They look at problems and find solutions that are good for businesses, consumers and society.  Read the full article here.

By Eric Haller and Hiq Lee The American economy rises and falls on the successes of the small business community. As a major contributor to job growth, as well as innovation, small businesses have laid the foundation toward our country’s economic success. But as important as small businesses are to financial progress of our economy, some business owners have experienced their own growth challenges along the way. Perhaps the most significant challenge has been the inability to access financial capital. In the years since the economic downturn, conventional lending sources, such as banks and credit unions, have tightened their lending criteria. Many small businesses, especially those with a limited credit history, have had difficulty demonstrating their creditworthiness and are deemed as high risk. Without access to financial capital, small businesses are not able to order new inventory, hire new employees, react to emergencies or expand their businesses. But what if financial institutions did not just leverage traditional credit information to determine a business’s ability to repay a loan, but also took nontraditional data sources into consideration? For instance, what if banks and credit unions leveraged data on daily sales, accounting information, Web traffic, business valuation or even social media data? The benefits of this scenario could be endless. Not only will many small businesses have a better opportunity to qualify for business loans, but a whole new segment of the small business owner population will be able to obtain financing, namely the new business start-up. With the incorporation of nontraditional data, the small business owner that has one or fewer business accounts has the chance to qualify for a business loan with an affordable rate. In fact, there are a number of online marketplace lenders, or nonbank lenders, that have already begun taking this nontraditional approach. These companies leverage a wealth of data points, such as social media or Web traffic, to help fill the void that a business with limited credit history might have. By combining both traditional and nontraditional data sets, these lenders are able to help small businesses access financial resources, while expanding their own portfolios. For example, consider a beauty salon that has been opened for less than a year, but constantly has customers filling up its chairs and enjoys sufficient cash flow. If we look at its credit history, there may be two small tradelines with positive payment behavior. However, despite the positive performance, its business credit score is relatively low. Under normal circumstances, the salon would have trouble securing a business loan. But, if its social media presence were taken into consideration, the salon could be viewed as the burgeoning business that it is. Combine the hundreds of positive reviews and social media references with its strong cash flow; it could signal that the salon is a growing business with potentially low risk of defaulting on an approved loan. Clearly, without the benefit of this added information, this small business would not be able to access the financial resources to expand. The insights that can be uncovered by utilizing nontraditional data sources can open new doors for small businesses. Additionally, given the opportunity, small businesses can take our economy to new heights, which is good for local communities, our country and society as a whole. *** Eric Haller is the executive vice president of Experian’s DataLabs and Hiq is the president of Experian’s Business Information Services.

In this article from Inc., Eric Haller, executive vice president of Experian DataLabs, discusses the data scientist role and why it is so important that many startups will likely need to hire one in 2016.

This Bloomberg Business Radio interview with Eric Haller, executive vice president of Experian DataLabs, covers Experian’s innovative approach to using big data and social media to help small businesses with credit verification. "The strongest value is for businesses that have not established credit in the past," said Haller. "This is significant because one-third of all inquiries for commercial [lending] are businesses [without] established credit."

In this article written for IT Business Net by Eric Haller, Executive Vice President of Experian’s DataLabs, he discusses how innovations at Experian DataLabs are using breakthrough experiments to do good things with data. According to Haller, Our world is filled with endless amounts of data. From credit card transactions to healthcare records to social media content, we are constantly surrounded by information that is vitally important to both ourselves and corporations around the world. While many companies are in the business of mining data for insights using time-tested algorithms and mathematical equations, few invest the resources to find new breakthrough data insights. This is understandable in many respects, innovation is hard – and not guaranteed to produce results, but it is exactly what we do in Experian DataLabs.

This Q&A interview that appeared on Monster.com with Dr. Shanji Xiong, Experian DataLab’s global chief scientist, discusses his career and provides advice for data scientist hopefuls. In this article, he talks about getting to use data for good to impact business and people’s lives. According to Xiong, being a data scientist is fun because data is alive. It talks to you and is always trying to tell you something about what is going on out there. View the full article here.

Good data is a critical part of building a robust business strategy. Organizations use actionable data insight to improve the customer experience, drive operational efficiencies, leverage cost savings, and enhance the bottom line. In fact, the majority of sales decisions are expected to be driven by customer data by 2020. This is not surprising, given the volume and variety of data available to us today. We are spending so much to store and manage this information, we might as well use it to our advantage. Businesses are focused on using the power of analytics and the information they have before them to better serve customers and optimize business processes. However, a new Experian Data Quality study shows that the majority of organizations are not in possession of the high quality data needed for these decisions, which has been the case for the past several years. About a quarter of information is believed to be inaccurate and that poor quality data is affecting many aspects of operations and the customer experience. The main reason for this high level of inaccuracy is poor data management practices. Data management is often fragmented and driven by multiple stakeholders rather than by a single data specialist. This creates inconsistencies in the data and reactive processes for correcting inaccuracies. The good news is this legacy mindset is starting to change. We are seeing more organizations advance their data management strategies to include a central data owner and a number of data management projects planned over the next year, especially around data integrations, data cleansing, and data migrations. The biggest problem organizations face around data management today actually comes from within. Businesses get in their own way by refusing to create a culture around data and not prioritizing the proper funding and staffing for data management. Many businesses know they need to improve their data quality, but often have a hard time defining why an investment is needed in the current structure. Organizations need to invest in the people, processes, and technology around data management to improve this valuable asset and leverage it to improve their organizational performance. To learn more about global trends in data management, download The 2016 global data management benchmark report.  

New findings from the 2015 holidays season were released by Experian Marketing Services a recognized leader in data-driven marketing and cloud-based marketing technology, showing a significant increase in email volume year-over-year. The report, Holiday Hot Sheet: Insights for the Holiday Marketer, indicates that email volume rose 24.8 percent during the 2015 holiday season compared to 2014, across all-industry verticals. Despite the increase in volume, the number of email opens, clicks and transactions also increased. Unique email opens increased 19 percent, unique email clicks increased 10 percent and email transactions increased 20 percent. “As retailers find more ways to incorporate data to create more personalized and relevant emails, we are seeing both volume and transactions increase,” said Spencer Kollas, vice president of global deliverability services at Experian Marketing Services. “The 2015 holiday season showed us once again that marketers are still finding email to be a valuable way to increase sales.” The report highlights other key marketing trends that defined the 2015 holiday season including the popularity of free shipping and an increase in emails opened on mobile devices. Ninety percent of retail email campaigns included an offer According to Experian’s analysis, 90 percent of retail email campaigns during the 2015 holiday season included an offer, free shipping was the most common, followed by percent off. The percent-off email offers featuring coupons or codes increased from 34 percent to 40 percent in 2015, allowing more tracking of responses. Mobile shopping continues to increase The report found that the percent of email clicks received on a mobile device from retailers during the peak of the holiday season increased 7 percent from 2014. In addition, SMS messaging continued to be an emphasis. 88 percent of text messages included an offer with 55 percent of text messages including some percent off. Cyber Monday retained its rank as the top email volume and transaction day Although Thanksgiving Day unseated Cyber Monday as the top online shopping day, Experian Marketing Services research shows that Cyber Monday retained its rank as the top email volume and transaction date. The top three email transaction dates in 2015 included: Cyber Monday Black Friday Sunday after Black Friday The top three email volume dates in 2015 included: Cyber Monday Black Friday Day before Thanksgiving

2,500 university students across 16 cities have been trained by Experian's experts and young volunteers of the social responsibility project ‘Manage Your Future Now’ project. The project, which was launched by Experian to promote self-improvement among university students, female entrepreneurs, and SMEs, reached the milestone in December and the achievement was celebrated at a recent event at the Experian office in Turkey. Coming from 10 cities across the country, 42 participants gathered to share their experiences. Feedback was positive with everyone agreeing that the project has been beneficial in increasing awareness of social responsibility. The participants were presented with a certificate for their commitment and contribution to the project. ‘Manage Your Future Now’ is a partnership between Experian, the United Nations Development Program and the Habitat Association/Center and Credit Bureau. The initiative includes providing training on financial risks, responsible borrowing, financial management and the efficient management of relationships with banks and the financial sector. Didem Köprücü, Human Resources Manager for Turkey and the Middle East at Experian, said: “We are proud that more people are benefiting under the ‘Manage Your Future Now’ project. Our training is improving every year and I would like to thank all the volunteers and young trainers for their valuable contribution. “The third stage of our project in 2016 will cover financial risk management, as well as financial opportunities for entrepreneur candidates. For this stage of the project we plan to reach 3,000 students and entrepreneur candidates across 26 cities. “However, we intend to continue our project, reaching more people every year.” The project aims to reach 3,000 students by the end of March 2016.

Experian Marketing Services, a recognized leader in data-driven marketing and cloud-based marketing technology, received top honors in five categories for the 2015 Email Marketing Awards. The awards competition was presented by The Marketer Quarterly, the digital magazine for marketers by marketers. Award submissions were judged by analysts from The Relevancy Group, the parent organization of The Marketer Quarterly, and by Marketing Democracy principal Chris Marriott. Experian Marketing Services received more awards than any other Email Service Provider (ESP): Best Reactivation Email — Retail: Boden, ESP — Experian Marketing Services and Movable Ink Best Reactivation Email — Consumer: American Home Shield, ESP — Experian Marketing Services and Epsilon (agency) Best Offer Email: Chico’s, ESP — Experian Marketing Services and Movable Ink Best Triggered Email — Retail: Ann Taylor, ESP — Experian Marketing Services Most Innovative Email: DIRECTV, ESP — Experian Marketing Services and RealTime Email by LiveClicker “We’re always looking to provide the most relevant, personalized content to our customers,” said Kellen Fitzgerald, brand marketing manager at Ann Taylor. “It’s great to be recognized for using our data to better the customer experience, and Experian Marketing Services really helps us optimize this strategy with its data technology and expertise.” “Even as a tried-and-true channel, email still has so much room for innovation. Working with Experian Marketing Services has helped us optimize our data-driven email strategy and focus on bringing that innovation to everything we do,” said Stephen Lamb, Director of Marketing, Digital Commerce, Chico’s FAS. “We’re excited to be recognized for this unique campaign, which resonated with customers and drove results.” “Email has always been a crucial component of the Experian Marketing Suite, and we’re honored to have been recognized in so many different categories for unique and innovative campaigns that helped our clients reach their most valuable customers,” said Ashley Johnston, senior vice president of global marketing at Experian Marketing Services. “In today’s marketing landscape, emails need to be consistent, personalized and relevant in order to attract attention. Our goal is to help our clients do just that.” Experian Marketing Services also was recognized earlier this year with seven 2015 Relevancy Ring Client Satisfaction Awards in The Relevancy Group’s 2015 report The Relevancy Ring — ESP Buyers Guide 2015. Experian® received two Gold awards in Production Services and Integration and five Silver awards in Infrastructure Stability, Creative Services, Technical Services, Deliverability Tools & Services, and Omnichannel Marketing Capabilities. Details about all the winning campaigns are featured in the cover story in Issue 8 of The Marketer Quarterly. To view the 2015 Email Marketing Awards winners, register for a free subscription to The Marketer Quarterly at http://www.marketerquarterly.com. “We’re very pleased that The Marketer Quarterly Email Marketing Awards are recognizing some of the best email creative in the business,” added Dianna Dilworth, editor of The Marketer Quarterly. “The work we reviewed in all of the submissions is a leading indication that not only is email marketing thriving, but it’s making a significant difference in the success of businesses around the globe.”  

This article published in CIO Review magazine by Eric Haller, executive vice-president of Experian’s global DataLabs, discusses the science behind Big Data and how it can be used as a force for good. According to Haller, Big Data only becomes truly powerful when it is compiled, sorted, analyzed and manipulated – when it is translated into the language of business leaders and policymakers. And so the explosion of data has driven the emergence of fields built for the sole purpose of making data usable. View the full article here.