Unpredictable Turn Of Events In Z/Yen’s Predictive Analytics

Monday, 22 December 2014
By Now&ZYen

Ian Harris is a relatively rare sight on the speaker circuit. Indeed, in the analytics world, we might describe one of his appearances as an anomaly, perhaps even an outlier. But in the Civil Society sector; health, membership and charities, interest in Z/Yen’s predictive analytics work is growing fast and Ian is now spreading the word.

Earlier this month, Ian conducted a Charity Focus Roundtable at Baker Tilly. The specific topics covered included:

  • Improving donor/member income and retention;
  • Reducing volumes of unsuccessful contacts;
  • Predicting the effectiveness of grant making;
  • Reducing errors in transaction processing.

Ian’s main message is that predictive analytics is no longer the domain of only the largest most complex organisations, requiring proprietary software and serious data skills. To deliver that message, Ian debunked several myths about analytics and Big Data currently circulating. Powerful tools for analytics are now either free or bundled with ubiquitous software, such as Excel. These tools can be used by information analysts and data jockeys in organisations of any size, with just a little additional training.

The Baker Tilly event was peppered with interactive puzzles and paradoxes, borrowed from Z/Yen’s predictive analytics courses, to illustrate and illuminate the topics.

Z/Yen is now offering a range of coaching and training courses for those clients who want to utilise the skills of their own analysts to get more out of their information. Highly modular, the courses can be tailored to specific sector and/or specific client needs. So far, Z/Yen has deployed the courses in specific client settings, but watch this space, as we intend to launch some general appreciation courses for both senior executives and information analysts, to enable you to ask the right sorts of questions and understand the answers.

If you are interested in learning more about Z/Yen’s predictive analytics work, please contact ian_harris@zyen.com by e-mail or on (020) 7562 9562.