Teradata Looks to Better Deal With Data

The 2,700-plus attendees of Teradata's annual Partners Conference in Seattle this week were treated to more than 18 product announcements, five new customer wins, and news that Version 5 of the company's CRM solution is immediately available. Originally unveiled in April, Teradata CRM Version 5 offers increased speed and performance, as well as a more streamlined look to help users better access functionality. One conference attendee from a large health care provider who asked not to be named says that her company has "the collection of data under control, but is now looking at the next step, which is using the information to drive value," and that means implementing a CRM system. "It's the next logical step, and one that we need to take to be competitive." According to Stephen Brobst, CTO at Teradata, the key to deriving value from data is to align it with strategic business goals. CRM, along with analytics, is becoming increasingly important as Teradata, a $1.2 billion division of NCR, expands its data warehousing focus to drive customer value, according to Ron Swift, Teradata vice president of strategic customer relationships. He says that more than 50 percent of Teradata's data warehousing customers are currently using other CRM components like marketing, SFA, or analytics tools in conjunction with their data warehouse. "Saying that data warehousing is not CRM is like saying that a car is just tires, windows, seats, and a steering wheel," Swift says. "Your car needs an engine and for CRM data warehousing is that engine. There is no way to relate to your customers if you don't have the information." Swift says that many Teradata customers admit to drowning in a sea of information and are looking for ways to make sense of the flood of data they collect. According to the University of California at Berkeley, more data will be created in the next two years, than was created in the past 40,000 years combined.