BLUE LABEL INTEGRATED ANNUAL REPORT 2016
66
Operational overview
continued
Blue Label Data Solutions
(BLDS) is
one of South Africa’s market leaders
in consumer data, big data, validation,
verification, cleansing of data and
lead generation. BLDS is accredited by
the Direct Marketing Association of
South Africa, of which it is a founding
member.
The focus this year has been on
accumulating “big data” in-house,
recognising that there are benefits
to be reaped in organising and
channelling it. A sophisticated “big
database” is currently being
developed in order to aggregate,
process, analyse and prioritise vast
sets of customer and transactional
data, from across all the subsidiaries
in the Group and their partners. The
project entails normalising and
harmonising vast numbers of records
into a single usable profile per
customer. The output already reveals
patterns and trends for improving
customer engagement and spend,
while enabling cross- and up-selling
opportunities to be identified
throughout the Group’s subsidiaries.
During the year, databases continued
to amplify and now exceed 62 million
consumers, from which 2.2 million
qualifying leads were generated,
while sending 879 million SMSs.
BLDS remains mindful of its
obligations in terms of POPI and the
Financial Advisory and Intermediary
Services Act, as well as of “treating
customers fairly” – as is relevant to
the financial services industry.
In October 2015, the Velociti call
centre was disposed of at a loss of
R5.4 million. The contribution from
this segment to core net profit
equated to R16 million (2015:
R24 million).
Solutions segment
This segment specialises in providing data and analytical support services, as well as inbound customer care
and outbound telesales contact centre services.
62 million
unique cell numbers
31.5 million
ID numbers linked
to full contact
details
1.95 million
right party contacts
1.7 million
e-mail addresses
linked to IDs
16.6 million
on opt-in register
33
numbers
contact details
1.95 million right party
contacts
1.7 million e
-
mail addresses
linked to IDs
16.6 million on opt-in
register
How we operate
In a targeted approach of mining data and harnessing
algorithmic technology, our data scientists transform large
and complex datasets into effective and insightful
marketing data, where characteristics of underlying
consumers are identified, and in turn, consumer
behaviour, patterns and trends are profiled. In short:
The richer the data, the more precise we are in lead
generation
.




