Whoa dude! I've been away for a bit since my last post - has anything happened?
It sure has, global economic meltdown, banks being nationalised, the high street looking towards a bleak christmas and analytics vendors convincing themselves that sales will still come flooding in because "now is the time customers need optimisation more than ever'.
I do see that point of view. I also see the point of view of customers that says "We're spending a lot of money, in this climate I have to seen to be cutting costs effectively - do we need that piece of software?". I think the coming months will see more challenges to the ROI of software and consultancy in the web arena.
In a recent poll of data miners there was a mixed response regarding what the current situation might lead to. Across industry as a whole I suspect there will be mergers, and unfortunately job losses in the near future for many companies. In a cold hearted way this might be good for consultants like myself given that companies will become unwilling to offer permanent headcount, in bad ways it could mean I'm out of a job next week as a result of cost cutting in my own organisation!
My good friend Simon Metcalfe says
"Talking to clients they are all saying that there will almost certainly be a drop in Marketing budget but they realise that the best way to get more out of what they have will require analysis and insight.
It's also worth remembering that Direct Marketing as we know it now was born out of the last recession in the early 90's as a cheap way of getting out to customers. Today we now have the web, so I can only see more requirement for our services not less"
Marketing will not get dollars to buy shiny new tools, they will have their budgets slashed but with it they will be asked to come up with more inventive ways of becoming more effective.
I believe the skills of a data mining consultant who's skills are focused on analysing customer data on the web will become ever more useful - thats what I'm telling my bank manager anyway!
