Pssst — your data's showing!
Or should I say, the lack of your actually using that data is showing.
The concept of "Big Data" has become a big deal — and big business. There's hardly a credit union conference out there that doesn't have at least one session about the topic.
Given the myriad forms a credit union requires members to fill out, they should have big piles of big data — reams and reams of it, in fact.
Various and sundry experts agree this is a good thing — even if those forms do have members' eyes crossing with fatigue and frustration when they have to write in their name, address and other particulars a gazillion times to take out a loan.
Indeed, the only group that is even worse about this is doctors' offices — is there anyone out there who hasn't sat there asking himself, 'why can't they just grab this data from the other two dozen times I've provided it to them?' when filling out forms in the waiting room?
But I digress.
Numerous data gurus agree that the information CUs already have is a veritable treasure trove of business intelligence…if only credit unions knew what to make of it and how to use it.
In not one, but two recent articles in Credit Union Journal,
So stop letting your data pile up — indeed, let's put aside the use of the term "data warehouse," which implies that your stockpiling that information for a rainy day — and start using it.
And as a P.S., if you're still not sure it's worth taking all that time and trouble, just remember there's one sure-fire way to tell that something is valuable — the lengths people will go to steal it — and protect it.
Editor in Chief Lisa Freeman can be reached at lisa.freeman@sourcemedia.com.
