1© Cloudera, Inc. All rights reserved.
Cox Automotive: data sells cars
Allison Nau, Founder & Managing Director,
Cox Automotive Data Solutions
Cox Automotive’s Big Data Journey
5 D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 7
Introduction
Founder and Managing Director of Cox Automotive Data Solutions, Cox Automotive UK
More than a decade of experience in big data and analytics
@allisonmnau
@allisonmnau© 2017 Cox Automotive UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
Poll
• In which sector do you work? (select one)
– Agriculture
– Construction
– Electricity/gas/water
– Manufacturing
– Mining, quarrying, hydrocarbons
– Education, health, and social work
– Financial and business services
– Hotel and restraurants
– Public administration and defence
– Real estate
– Tourism
– Transport, storage, and communication
– Retail
– Automotive
– Information Technology
Poll
• Poll results
Poll
• Which of the following best describes you? (select one)
– I’m a technical person
– I’m a business person
– I’m a translator between business and technical people
Poll results
At Cox Automotive, we provide solutions to automotive clients at every stage
of the vehicle lifecycle
STOCK MARKETING SALES SERVICE
@allisonmnau© 2017 Cox Automotive UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
Marketing
Finance
HR
Sales
IT
IT
Marketing
Finance
HR
Sales
Product
Data
January 2015 Vision for the Future
Operations
Operations
In 2015 Cox Automotive recognised the need for change
@allisonmnau© 2017 Cox Automotive UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
In September 2015, the transformation started with 3 things
@allisonmnau© 2017 Cox Automotive UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
Board support BudgetBlank sheet of paper
What do I mean by a blank sheet of paper?
We did not know what
data we had
Most of the business did
not understand
data
Our data was stored in legacy
production systems
The people doing
analysis and reporting
were siloed
There was no strategy
The insight journey
No data
Instinct
Intuition
Intelligence
Prediction
Optimisation
Reports & KPIs
Data Needs
Analytics
@allisonmnau© 2017 Cox Automotive UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
Poll
• Where are you currently on the Insight Journey (select one)
– Instinct
– Intuition
– Intelligence
– Prediction
– Optimisation
Poll
• Results
Poll
• By the end of 2018, where do you think your organisation will be on the Insight Journey (select
one)
– Instinct
– Intuition
– Intelligence
– Prediction
– Optimisation
Poll
• Results
Help our clients make smarter and more informed
decisions1
Provide meaningful, actionable insight to every part of Cox
Automotive in the UK2
Be the authoritative source of vehicle market insight3
Our mission
@allisonmnau© 2017 Cox Automotive UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
Poll
• How is your organisation using data today? (select as many as apply)
– To develop new products and services for our customers
– To improve our operational efficiency, sales, and customer service
– To monetise our data assets in other industries
– Other
Poll results
Poll
• How do you want your organisation to use data? (select as many as apply)
– To develop new products and services for our customers
– To improve our operational efficiency, sales, and customer service
– To monetise our data assets in other industries
– Other
Poll results
Operational capabilities, communication, and education are the foundations for
delivering actionable insight
• Business intelligence for internal use
• Products for automotive clients
• Data solutions for other markets
• Skilled resources
• Mobilising and connecting data together
with appropriate governance
• Appropriate architecture and infrastructure
• Legal and compliance
• Internal communications and education
about data and how to use it
• External education and thought leadership
teaching the benefits of using information
@allisonmnau© 2017 Cox Automotive UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
Actionable
Insight
Communication &Education
Operational Capabilities
Poll
• Which of the following do you think is the biggest challenge keeping your organisation from
becoming more data driven? (select one)
– Operational capabilities
– Communication and education
– Actionable insight
– None – we’ve got it figured out
Poll results
We started by combining some fantastic internal talent with some experienced
external hires
Existing role moved into team
New role filled internally
New role filled externally
@allisonmnau© 2017 Cox Automotive UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
With the team coming together, we needed the right partners
We needed a…
• BI solution provider
• Big data solution
provider
…who understood the
meaning of haste
@allisonmnau© 2017 Cox Automotive UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
We gained some very quick wins by manually
importing data from one data source into a temporary
SQL database to which we connected Tableau to build
useful but not sexy operational reports. Non-
technical business stakeholders could start to easily
see the value in what we were doing.
This enabled us to build momentum.
@allisonmnau© 2017 Cox Automotive UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
That momentum gave us time to build out our scalable infrastructure
Tableau
Server
FTP
Streaming
Data
Production
System
Production
System
Production
System
Batch Data
Master
Node
Data
Node
Data
Node
Gateway
Node
Master
Node
Data
Node
Master
Node
Gateway
Node
Data
Node
Data
Node
Cloudera
Manager
Hadoop Cluster
Production
SystemStreaming
Data
Production
System
Streaming
Data
Production
System
Batch
Data
SOLR
@allisonmnau© 2017 Cox Automotive UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
We also collaborated with other business areas to prototype some new product ideas
Stock InsightRecon ROI
Calculator
@allisonmnau© 2017 Cox Automotive UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
We showed these prototypes of products to
clients.
Clients liked the product concepts. And they
liked the data.
But we needed to better organise ourselves
to bring these solutions to market.
@allisonmnau© 2017 Cox Automotive UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
We reorganised the team into 6 core functional areas
@allisonmnau© 2017 Cox Automotive UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
Data Engineering
Data Science
Business Intelligence
Vehicle Valuations
Product
Client Engagement
Poll
• In your organisation, where does primary responsibility for data sit? (select one)
– In individual business units
– In a central function under IT
– In a central function under marketing
– In a central function under product
– In a central function under operations
– In a central function under sales
– In a central data function, reporting directly into the CEO/Managing Director
Poll
• Show results
Poll
• Does your business differentiate between Data Science, Data Engineering, and Business
Intelligence?
– Yes
– No
Poll
• Show results
3 April 2017 we launched
Cox Automotive Data
Solutions
@allisonmnau© 2017 Cox Automotive UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
We help people make smarter decisions
With consulting services to help you extract the most value
DATA
Meaningful, actionable insight to improve decisions
Tools
Ad-hoc analysis
without any technical
support
Batch
Automated,
scheduled data
delivery
API
Real-time,
automated, system-
to-system enquiries
@allisonmnau© 2017 Cox Automotive UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
Help our clients make smarter and more informed
decisions1
What are you trying to achieve?
@allisonmnau© 2017 Cox Automotive UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
Buy Prepare & Retail Monitor & Respond
Market Prices (Range)
Understand todays market
prices & determine realistic price point
Finalise priceTrack and respond to
prices changes in the market
Supply Status (Changes)
Understand market conditions
Check current market conditions
Has supply changed? Prepare for impact.
Sales
Performance (Speed & Amount)
Determine popularity and where to retail
Finalise retail location Change location?
Vehicle Lifecycle
Market prices, market supply, and sales performance information inform dealer
decisions across the vehicle lifecycle
@allisonmnau© 2017 Cox Automotive UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
Provide meaningful, actionable insight to every part of Cox
Automotive in the UK2
What are you trying to achieve?
@allisonmnau© 2017 Cox Automotive UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
Across Cox Automotive, people have the information to do their jobs better – and
help our clients get the most out of our products
Understand our
customers, so we can
better target them with
the right products
Understand where
there are operational
issues, so corrective
action can be taken
Help our clients
understand the value of
our products to
improve client retention
Be the authoritative source of vehicle market insight3
What are you trying to achieve?
@allisonmnau© 2017 Cox Automotive UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
We’re regularly publishing market research on our blog at coxautodata.com/blog/
@allisonmnau© 2017 Cox Automotive UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
Where do you start?
@allisonmnau© 2017 Cox Automotive UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
@allisonmnau© 2017 Cox Automotive UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
Make a better
decision
Validate the results of the analysis with
your own experience
Analyse the data
Get the data
Identify what data will lead
to a better decision
Understand what
decision you are trying to
inform
Allison Nau
• @allisonmnau
• https://uk.linkedin.com/in/allisonnau
Cox Automotive Data Solutions
http://www.coxautodata.com/
http://www.coxautodata.com/blog
Questions?
@allisonmnau© 2017 Cox Automotive UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
47© Cloudera, Inc. All rights reserved.
Thank you
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