Secodip is the largest panel-based research operation in France, tracking on the retail performance of thousands of the most important consumer products and brands throughout the country. Located in Paris, Secodip is a part of the Taylor Nelson Sofres organization, one of the largest research groups worldwide.
Secodip engaged SPSS Consultancy Services to develop a tailor-made analysis tool, using SPSS components including the SPSS analytical engine. A custom interface was provided, modeled on the work undertaken by Secodip's customer service representatives.
Secodip is in the business of being the instant source of insight to its clients, manufacturers of consumer products and suppliers of goods to the stores and supermarkets of France. Its Promethe service combines retail data from stores across the whole of France with survey data from the nation's most extensive respondent panels, to offer clients a range of analytical and interpretative services in the retail sector, and in particular in the fast moving consumer goods space.
One client may have noticed sales of its yogurt are down and wants to know why; another wants to predict the effect of some unseasonal weather on its seasonal range of products; and a third is into the second week of an ad campaign and wants an angle on whether its increased sales volumes are being won from competitors or from first-time buyers, or possibly from future sales to its existing customers.
We now have a unique offering in the market. It has allowed us to expand the business. Now we have reached a comfortable level we can pay more attention to our clients' requests. We can bring better analysis and with better recommendations.
To give instant analysis and interpretation from the vast amount of data available, Secodip's team of customer service agents use Secodip Automator, an analysis tool developed specifically for them to use. It is based on the powerful statistical engine behind the SPSS core product, but it has been given an entirely different interface in a custom development carried out by SPSS Consultancy Services. Using Automator, customer service representatives, who are knowledgeable about their client's businesses but who do not have a background in statistics, can produce the highly focused reports that provide the explanation and understanding their clients are seeking.
Before Automator was created, Patrick Foucaud-Royer, Promethe Service Manager at Secodip Taylor Nelson Sofres in Paris, was faced with an intractable problem. "We were coming from a locally produced tool which was limited in scope, which had been developed a while ago and the people developing it had forgotten how it worked. The company no longer had that expertise internally, and in any case, we needed something with a more international dimension that could increase the quality, capacity, speed and reliability for the product."
Initially, it was considered that the standard SPSS tool may offer the solution, but SPSS Consultancy Services suggested that a custom interface could be developed around the SPSS engine that would deliver the exact combination of speed, reliability and ease of use being sought, and to a timescale and a budget that was much more attractive than developing from scratch.
Patrick Foucaud-Royer had a clear vision of what he wanted the interface to look like, and SPSS Consultancy Services set about creating this. The result of this partnership is Secodip Automator, a product that, on the surface, bears no resemblance to the classic SPSS interface on Windows. The SPSS software has a highly modular structure that offers a rapid development environment around which SPSS Consultancy Services can develop interfaces and create custom applications for a fraction of the effort normally associated with software development.
To the end user, Secodip Automator presents a simplified interface of buttons and lists from which users drag and drop the subjects and items they wish to analyze. It is modeled on the standard flow of work arising from a typical request to the customer services team. The tool cleverly brings together different data sources so that direct comparisons can be made between activity, from store data, and behavior, from consumer panel data.
Patrick explained: "We very often start with no clear vision of what we are looking for and are fishing to see whether the figures tell us anything or not. We needed to be able to do that with very broad, open tool. We want them to find the thing that provides the best explanation of the situation. Automator has made us better at this, and makes the figures really speak and with sharper analysis."
Since implementing Automator, Secodip has seen its share of the market grow by 35 percent - something Patrick Foucaud-Royer puts down to a combination of the technology and the team. Secodip has launched several new services and is planning more. The company has also approached SPSS to produce a second version of Automator that will include a number of refinements and improvements. Other companies within the Taylor Nelson Sofres group are also taking an active interest in using the tool.
"We now have a unique offering in the market. It has allowed us to expand the business. Now we have reached a comfortable level we can pay more attention to our clients' requests. We can bring better analysis and with better recommendations."
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