Enlightening Business with Dark Data

The IT industry has been promoting big data for years. But some companies have found the data they needed was closer to home…dormant. And exploiting those dark data could be worth millions.

For at least 10 years, the IT industry promoted the concept of big data: the idea that huge volumes of external data will be indispensable to business. But some companies found the data they needed was closer to home. Exploiting dark data—internal files and logs which have served their immediate purpose and are now in storage—could be worth millions.

Seeing in the Dark

Quadis is a Spanish automotive business whose challenge was to improve the productivity of its call center while selling more products and enhancing control of inventory.

Its agents used a combination of the company’s industry-specific enterprise resource planning software and digital catalogues supplied by automotive manufacturers to take orders from repair shops across Spain. But since the two systems were not integrated, the agents needed to identify parts in the catalogues to find stock, and then place orders in the ERP system. After an order had gone through the system, the data was left unused and effectively dormant.

To exploit this untapped dark data, Quadis deployed Kosmos software from dark data specialist Datumize, on its network to read, capture and store data describing agent activity in both digital catalogues and the ERP system. It pulls data off internal networks and stores it locally or in the cloud.

The first outcome was to link caller ID with ERP records, avoiding the need for customers to introduce themselves and their recent business history. Quadis estimates this could save between 30 and 60 seconds per call, allowing the agents to take more calls each day, and potentially lifting revenue by €3.4 million.

The system also sifted through the history of requested parts. Using a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics, the software was able to forecast client parts needs based on those already ordered. The information gives agents the opportunity to up-sell or cross-sell parts when prompted by an on-screen dashboard. It also helps the business to forecast future demand for parts, making stock control more accurate and reducing inventory waste.