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Australia’s Commonwealth Bank unveils data analytics platform
Free platform made available to bank’s customers at a time when only 34% of the country’s SMEs are making data-driven decisions
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Australia can now make use of a new data analytics platform to make better business decisions and improve customer experiences.
Dubbed Daily IQ 2.0, the platform is being offered free by Commonwealth Bank (CommBank), which aims to put the power of big data into the hands of its SME customers.
According to a survey conducted by the bank in March 2017, half of Australia’s SMEs use “gut feel” in decision-making, and only 34% use data. Most of the 308 SMEs surveyed cited the lack of time and associated costs as the major barriers to leveraging big data.
However, Australian SMEs had indicated they would benefit the most from big data in areas such as long-term planning, reducing business costs and improving customer experience and loyalty.
“Our research tells us that SMEs want to use data in operational decision-making and now they can in a simple and easy way, every day, over their morning coffee or as part of a regular meeting routine,” said Claire Roberts, CommBank’s executive general manager for SME business banking.
“Many small businesses owners are not experts at data analysis, but Daily IQ does that for them and gives them more time to focus on what they do best.”
Through Daily IQ, SMEs will be able to bring together a suite of data feeds and online tools, enabling them to not only monitor their performance in real time and view purchasing and demographic trends, but to model future scenarios based on current financial and industry data.
Roberts added: “The reason the platform is so powerful is because it accesses CommBank’s 1.2 billion monthly transaction records and links to their bank accounts, point-of-sale information and many other relevant data feeds to give deep insights that typically only the biggest businesses have access to.”
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CommBank said a number of businesses were already using the platform, which integrates with its online banking portal and business banking platform, to make important decisions, such as identifying opportunities about where to open a new store, which customer segments are most valuable, and how to manage cashflow better.
SMEs are also able to benchmark their current performance against industry peers, and track the spending patterns and demographics of customers in any location.
The platform will be rolled out progressively to smaller and micro-sized businesses later this year.
“Through Daily IQ 2.0, our goal is to empower SMEs to take advantage of the scale of CommBank’s transaction information combined with important data feeds and scenario modelling to create a clearer daily picture of the opportunities and risks that exist within their business,” said Roberts.
“SMEs are constantly being told about the benefits of big data, but the reality is that many don’t know where to start or have the time and expertise to produce insights that actually impact their day-to-day decision-making.”
According Gartner, the global business intelligence and analytics software market will grow by 7.3% this year to reach $18.3bn. In Australia, where demand for data analytics tools is hotting up, this market is expected to surge by 13.4% to A$889m (US$684m).
