By Mike Ramsey
Ford Motor Co. is making a bigger deal of big data by appointing
a global chief data and analytics officer who is tasked with
pulling together the disparate efforts around the company to gather
and use the enormous amount of digital information flowing in the
company.
Paul Ballew, who ran consulting firm Dun and Bradstreet's global
data and analytics and previously held the same position at
Nationwide Insurance Co., returns to Detroit for the position. He
left General Motors Co., where he was the chief sales analyst, for
Nationwide in October 2007.
The auto industry has been trying to find ways to use the huge
amount of data flowing into individual companies to better forecast
consumer behavior and make smarter business decisions. But until
recently the successes have been scattered.
As cars become more connected to the Internet and smart phones,
and even the machines building cars go online, the amount of
information a company can glean is set to explode.
"There will be a large wave of even more data coming into the
company," said Mark Fields, the Chief Executive Officer, said in an
interview Monday. "It's really important to have a centralized
person bringing that together."
Ford already has had some success in using the data it has
gathered. Ford created a new system for ordering vehicles for its
dealers that analyzes sales and inventory data in a given region of
the country and then tells the dealer what kinds of cars, and even
what options on those cars, the dealer should order. This replaced
informed guesses by dealership managers. The result is that cars
have been sold much faster because the cars that the data predicted
will be the hottest sellers are ready to go on the lot and
consumers don't have to wait for an order or potentially take their
business elsewhere.
Across town, General Motors Co. has been forging ahead with a
massive effort to construct its own data empire. It has built two
data warehouse centers and hired 8,000 information technology
workers in the past two years. Its efforts are handled by GM's
chief information officer.
At Ford, Mr. Ballew has his own division to create and will
report directly to Bob Shanks, the chief financial officer, who
also is in charge of corporate strategy.
Mr. Fields said the data also have helped Ford determine the
exact level at which it must limit sales to corporate fleet
customers, such as rental car companies, in order to maintain
strong residual values. Sales to corporate fleets can undermine
used-car values if a flood of late-model used vehicles come on the
market at the same time to compete with vehicles that consumers
bought at dealers.
The use of so-called Big Data has been criticized at times as
more flash than substance as some companies find it tantalizing in
its potential, but are unable to use it in a practical way.
However, the tools to analyze and bring together the data has
improved and more companies are bringing in people such as Mr.
Ballew to organize disparate efforts around a corporation.
"Today our analytics give us insight, instead of hindsight and
where we want to head is foresight," Mr. Fields said.
Write to Mike Ramsey at michael.ramsey@wsj.com
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