My best data decision - Simon Kaffel, BSkyB

by Marketing Direct Marketing Direct 02-Jun-08, 14:00

The creation of the Contingency database, a standalone database delivered from our operational customer management systems.

- Why was it your best one?

I'd like to think that I have had more than one good idea in my eight years at Sky. However, delivery of this database ensured Sky's marketing department was able to continue communicating to customers during the migration of our data warehouses and customer management systems. The migration went live back in 2006, yet we are still reaping the benefits from the data it provides.

- What difference has it made?

Fortunately the impact on Sky was minimal in that, despite undergoing one of the largest changes in Sky's data since we went digital, we were able to continue activity as close to normal as possible. Subsequently this dataset is being used to validate feeds from our data warehouses to our Datamart system, fulfilling campaign activity. My senior database marketing manager has built a solution that utilises this data for checking individual customer information as part of campaign delivery. Best of all, it hasn't cost us anything.

Simon Kaffel, Head of database management, British Sky Broadcasting.