Parnell Woodard has been employing technology for more than two decades to help solve marketing problems. Being a true believer that technology can be used to make life easier (not more complicated) all while making people and organizations more productive and profitable, Parnell incorporated Adaptive Analytics. The company has been helping clients gather, integrate, analyze and visualize their data for over two decades, understanding how complex data can be – but more importantly how users can turn it into business growth and revenue generation.
According to Parnell, he is both awed and humbled to have watched and help drive the rapid changes in the proliferation and availability of data to clients. As someone who watched the internet bubble firsthand during the late 1990s and early 2000s, this explosion of big data has been quite similar. “Companies today are far less reluctant to wade into the big data pool than they were into the internet. But the challenge with big data today is, ‘Where do I start?’,” says Parnell.
The availability of data, and more importantly, knowing how to operationalize it, have contributed to the transformation of so many different aspects of business operations. However, as data availability grows, so does the challenge of extracting valuable insights. Parnell explains that big data doesn’t have to be just for big companies, and it doesn’t have to be a six-figure initiative. Small and midsize firms have started recognizing they have the data they need to make smarter decisions. “You know where that data is within your organization. And likely, you can get to some or most of it through downloads and Excel reports — but then you typically have to cobble that together into some sort of giant Excel spreadsheet to get the answers you need,” says Parnell. “Certainly not ideal. Nor is it anything you can operationalize throughout your organization.”
Adaptive Analytics is continuously sourcing new technologies that enable them to build more customized solutions for their clients. The company is constantly reviewing tools that allow them to address changing client needs, while still supporting their existing legacy systems. Parnell believes that technology is changing at a fast pace and organizations have to be able to adapt to it for their clients while still delivering insights and results. Adaptive Analytics strives for that every day. They have a diligent process that helps gain agreement on the data to be sourced and how and when it’s to be delivered. “This is the most important step in the process, because without it, clients continue to add items to the project because they get excited about what can be done,” explains Parnell. “Oftentimes, they want to add in data they may or may not even use. In our world, it’s called ‘scope creep’ — and it’s a project killer.”
Establishing mutually agreed upon steps or phases of development is crucial to the successful implementation of any project as per Parnell. Sometimes the simplest of projects are far more complex than most realize, for example, just retrieving “revenue” sounds straightforward. But if an organization is retrieving that through an API (application programming interface) with data coming out as XML (extensible markup language), there’s any number of things that have to be transformed in the data. Parnell’s team offers expertise in various areas of data, including; Data Capture (getting the right data), Data Integration (ETL), Data Analysis (modeling/segmentation) and Data Visualization (Dashboards/Reporting), which is why each client is matched with the perfect group of experts to help them achieve their goals. With their proven strategies, Adaptive Analytics can take businesses to new heights.
