TransUnion’s Canadian operations have tapped Alterian, an enterprise marketing platform provider, to help the credit and information management company segment and analyze its consumer database.
Starting in the first quarter of 2008, Toronto-based TransUnion will deploy Alterian Engine and Alterian Data Discovery and Visualization, among other applications. The company chose Alterian partly thanks to its familiarity with the system: its US-based parent company has been using Alterian for more than three years.
“One of the first reasons we looked at Alterian was because we had a chance to see how the US had been using it,” said Tom Higgins, director of analytics for TransUnion in Canada. “The US is doing some similar things — it deals with the same client issues and challenges as we would, and we really liked what we saw. Alterian gave us a lot of flexibility in terms of the types of data mining we can do and how quickly we can manage projects and answer questions that clients have.”
Company executives believe the Alterian Platform will allow TransUnion to build stronger client relationships. Higgins pointed out that the company’s previous systems and platforms were geared towards day-to-day business operations and transactions, not data mining. It was difficult to drill down for and analyze information needed for client interaction.
“Alterian gives us a platform that has the tools for us to be able to do that and access that data directly, play with it and analyze it,” Higgins said.
TransUnion will start performing initial tests on the Alterian platform within the next six weeks.
“I hope that TransUnion will be able to give clients a better perspective on how their businesses sit within the market and a better understanding of what the market looks like,” Higgins said. “There are fewer data sources in Canada to show how people are behaving with credit and what the credit market looks like, but we can open up that box for our clients and give them insights and intelligence they didn’t have before.”
TransUnion provides data management, advanced analytics and decision-making to business clients. For consumers, the company provides tools, resources and education on credit management.
Alterian offers database, digital and operational marketing applications. Its clients include Princess Cruises, General Motors, HSBC and Dell.
