Last month, Information Age’s Effective IT Survey found that IT departments’ top priority for the coming year is to make sense of the voluminous data they have accumulated over the years: master data management, business intelligence and information lifecycle management were the three strategies that most respondents intend deploy in 2010.
Looking at the recent financial performance of UK-based data quality provider Datanomic, however, it is clear that this is a driver that has persisted throughout the downturn.
In January 2010, the company revealed that it had succeed in achieving triple-digit revenue growth during 2009 – the third consecutive year in which it achieved that feat – driven by a 40% increase in customer implementations. The company was recently listed among Deloitte’s Fast 500 high growth technologies.
At the root of this success is Datanomic’s core product dn:Director, a data quality tool with applications ranging from customer relationship management to systems migration, which counts such blue chip organisations as BT and Barclays Bank among its users.
According to CEO Dr Jonathan Pell, the most popular application of Datanomic’s technology is in the field of risk mitigation and compliance.
Financial services organisations must comply with a raft of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism regulations, with penalties reaching $100 million and up. “Banks can get huge fines from the Financial Services Authority and other organisations if they trade with terrorists and fraudsters,” explains Pell. “Our software screens their client base and highlights if there is an issue they should investigate.”
Equally, though, the drive for businesses to find new opportunities within the customer information they have already accumulated – intensified by the downturn – has proved lucrative. “It’s about taking all your customer data and purchasing history and getting a single view to see how you can direct your marketing more efficiently,” Pell says. “This is especially relevant in tough times when your marketing spend is decreasing.”
Uptake of dn:Director has been global – “we now have cases of companies running our software from Sydney to San Francisco, and everywhere in between”, says Pell – but to date that has largely been driven by adoption by UK-headquartered global organisations. Now, though, the company is actively targetting international markets, and in January 2010 it opened a new sales operation in New York.
Datanomic, which is privately owned, is growing at home too – the company expanded its headcount by 50% during 2009. A chartered accountant by profession, Pell insists that such decisions are taken prudently.
“We have a pragmatic and sensible budget for the next two to three years, which is all driven through organic growth,” he says. “Clearly, we have a healthy pipeline, otherwise we would not have been able to afford these individuals.”
