Another side of Ann
I realised recently that, though Ann and I have been in contact on line for around two and a half years, commented on each other’s blogs on various platforms and exchanged messages, we’d never spoken!
I also twigged that here we see more evidence of the mind that’s currently engaged in creating a nasty murder (it’s okay, we’re talking about part of a novel in the making, not real life) and, as with several other Birds, Ann’s take on life, attitudes and the universe 
.
As well as being an avid reader she refers on her home page here to being a textile artist – ask her nicely and we may be able to get her to post on different aspects of that.
Meanwhile I’ve found a sample and included it a bit further down.
We‘ve seen little so far of the same mind that creates lots of interface design, does testing and writes user manuals for the tools that Qualia Systems provides, enabling businesses to use existing data to make better decisions faster.
Yet that was what Ann almost reluctantly agreed that we should concentrate on as they’ve come up with some new software that addresses problems many potential clients don’t even realise they have – and that can be a bit of a Catch 22 in business unless you can charge customers to become educated 
…
This software application is focused on data, or rather more specifically, making sure that the data a company uses is: Where it can be accessed, accurate and, er, usable.
This isn’t as daft as it might appear at first read through. Most people have heard of the phrase “to assume makes an Ass of U and Me” and before we all get smug, we should acknowledge that this goes on all the time in business and with regard to data!
The Cinderella of Business
Think Cinderella: Taken for granted; does all the grotty jobs (see if you can decipher what it says in the cartoon 
); nobody takes any notice of her; no pretty frocks yet when someone really appreciates what she’s about, whoosh: Belle of the ball! And for all the right reasons.
Now think growing a business: You need to talk to the right people; about what’s important to them; in the right language; at the right time; and offer the best product, service or solution for their needs. Data is always treated as the poor relation in this equation yet right from the beginning of the process we’re dependent on clean, accurate data to help us achieve the better outcomes faster.
Ann can wax quite lyrical once she gets started on this, especially when Ryan helps out explaining the really technical bits. And it was actually good fun to find another two people who understand the potential sexiness of data!
Before long the three of us started to get clearer ideas of not only a potential market (financial services from corporate to smaller companies is one, including IFAs – Ann and Ryan knew that anyway) but also how to make it easy for the market to recognise when this new software should be an essential part of a process.
The Prince Charming of Complex Data?
I’m not going to go into geek-speak because it would soon be absolutely obvious I haven’t a clue what I’m talking about on the technicalities– anyone who does know that language will feel utterly at home visiting the QS website…
For the rest of us, let’s take just one BUSINESS situation that we can probably all get our heads round: Where a decision is taken to migrate data from one or more platforms/ systems to another.
We are talking typically of cases involving complex and/ or multiple sources of data, and anybody who’s been through this situation knows that, even when there are experienced folk around to make the process ‘streamlined and efficient’ it can actually turn out to be a nightmare. One place I worked I saw this ‘up-close-and-painful’. Their new system was bespoke, designed with plenty of TLC by people they knew and trusted – it still took about 3 times longer than it should have to be up and running.
One of the main reasons was the state of the data. I don’t pretend to know data anywhere near as well as Ann but I do know that in all my experience of handling it in numerous and varied sales & marketing situations and campaigns, it’s never been the pride and joy it’s often been cracked up to be: Duplicates, almost duplicates, inaccuracies, dead, information in the wrong field, not anywhere, not consistent – if you can name it you’ll probably find it .
So why not just take a deep breath and take stock?
In short, once you realise the real state that data is likely to be in, is it any wonder that migrating existing data direct to any new platform or system rarely gets clients the results they’re looking for (load success rate), or expect?
Of course, you don’t have to be migrating data to benefit from using the Qualia Systems software, but using it prior to migration will dedupe, clean,’ brush teeth and polish’, boosting the subsequent load success rate of data onto the new system to 99%+. And it can cope with anything from a few thousand customer and prospect records, plans and products to millions.
I don’t know about you, but I’d say that’s a no brainer – and clients can even have a diagnostic test first…
Oh, and if you don’t have thousands or millions of records to check you’d be surprised what getting your head round eyeballing an Excel spreadsheet and playing around with it can achieve! (Warning: If you’re going to do this, get someone who knows what they’re doing and/ or always play with copies and keep the original data safe.
It’s impossible to see the real beauty of the results of the example of Ann’s embroidery I’ve included here: But imagine attempting to produce an ace result with any substandard, ‘dirty’ elements right from the very start… It wouldn’t reach its potential, would it?
Questions, comments, observations, suggestions, contributions… You know what to do
About Linda MattacksDoing what you love, your bit for humankind and the planet (if that turns you on) and making a decent, let alone great living don't necessarily come in the same package! With a background of sales training, marketing and market/marketing research spanning decades, for individuals and companies across the world from micros to corporations, Linda's finally found her niche... and some truly fabulous collaborators. Female employer, employee or entrepreneur, if you're not seeing the fruits of your potential value in the marketplace why not talk to Linda? Call +44(0)7879 628 367
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10 Responses to Another side of Ann
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The money is in the data! I am assured of it! when talking to Shaun Gisbourne the telemarketer, he always has said your results are as only as good as the data, and he knows how effective good data is.
Now as a small business, we don't quite need the level of stuff that you do Ann, but this interview has made it so much easier to understand what you actually do. Although I do find it odd that Linda finds the numbers/data thing sexy, but then she has a similar background to Shaun….
Good points, Sarah! I would qualify that slightly and say that there is money in the thoughtful analysis and processing of the data.
Any fool can gather data or worse, give clients data dumps but few can make sense of the data in ways that are meaningful or useful. That's what Qualia Systems does – makes sense of the data and further, uses rules to process it and turn numbers into unbiased decisions that would take humans much longer and be more subjective.
Twitter: maverickny
We don't think the data is sexy, but what our software does to it is
Volume of data is only a part of the equation – and so although we have experience of sorting out millions of records for the largest companies, we've also found that smaller companies have complex problems that we can resolve too. For example, we recently did some work for an IFA, where the records were in the low thousands – but the complexity and demands for consistency were very high – and the cost of error was correspondingly high.
In the end it's the risk of error that is the key issue. At one level data clean up is an insurance policy – clients are often surprised by the kind of things that show up in their data.
Human beings are good at spotting some kinds of error and very bad at others. Our software is designed so that as well as performing the common types of checks – like key matching and field format – you can create rules that mimic human common sense.
That's exactly how we work, Sally.
The system doesn't just dump data – it incorporates a domain specific framework of rules that provides a context, so that it makes data into information.
I totally agree Sally, making sense of the data is exactly where the value lies.
It doesn't matter if the question is “who are my best customers”, or “is this data valid”, the process is the same.
To answer either question requires a set of decisions to be made. For a question that is answerable a set of rules can be created and the answers found. The trick is making the process of rule definition quick and cheap. This is where existing rule systems often fall down – slow to run, and expensive to build. By removing those two barriers the software is suitable for both small and large tasks. Areas of application that previously would not have been suitable to the rules approach become feasible.
Sarah: Ask any bloke whether 36 – 26 – 37 is sexy…
(or the equivalent in centimetres)…
Twitter: comfort_selling
Why is it when someone like you explains it Sally it has even me nodding in agreement and understanding that bit more than I did before?
And as for “Any fool can gather data” – too blinking true and what a hash they can make of entering even the simplest of it…let alone do anything intelligent with it…
Twitter: comfort_selling
Thinking aloud here Ryan and Ann, and I guess it goes back to Sarah's comment in a way:
“Although I do find it odd that Linda finds the numbers/data thing sexy”
As I (maybe somewhat clumsily) attempted to point out, it's not necessarily the data itself but rather the images it conjures up and what you can do with it…
Suppose there was one typo in the example I quoted for Sarah and the data should been
36 – 36 – 37…
I rest my case (for now, anyway)
Twitter: comfort_selling