SINGAPORE - Almost all companies in Singapore are capturing customer details for data mining use, a study has found.
Recruitment firm Robert Half found that 96 per cent of companies here are capturing customer details for use in data mining - the highest percentage of any country polled.
Every time you use a credit card, a loyalty card or fill in a warranty card, chances are the company you are dealing with is capturing data on you. And this data can reveal a lot about your behaviour - such as what you buy, how you buy it and whether you are likely to buy more.
Data mining and analytics is big business and a new survey has found Singapore companies are among the most prolific users of this data to drive business decisions.
This captured data is used by 42 per cent of Singapore companies when making most of their business decisions, again the highest rate of any country surveyed. Another 34 per cent use customer data some of the time when making decisions. 20 per cent are capturing customer data but are not using it yet.
The survey polled 810 Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) from a range of industries, including 103 from Singapore. Conducted across seven countries - Singapore, Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Switzerland and the United Kingdom - the survey sheds light on the potential of utilising data to enhance marketing efforts for companies.
Ms Stella Tang, Managing Director of Robert Half Singapore said: "Data analytics is even more essential in today's digital age when too many businesses are vying for the short attention span of consumers."
"Understanding the buying habits of their customers will allow businesses to effectively target the right products and provide a better end-user experience to consumers. This is particularly prominent for online and social media platforms such as the marketing messages companies send across Facebook, Google and Twitter."
Setting up a data capture and mining system is not without challenges, according to the survey. Singapore companies struggle with the lack of data available (31 per cent), as well as too much data (29 per cent).
CTOs in Singapore find it harder to recruit skilled professionals than their counterparts overseas (20 per cent in Singapore compared to a global average of 15 per cent).
While data mining is a powerful tool for driving business, it places additional pressure on a company's IT employees to gather and make sense of the data.
The survey found 6 in 10 CTOs believe the workload of their IT staff has increased between 5 and 20 per cent due to the demands of data mining. Another 37 per cent of CTOs estimate the increased workload is between 21 and 40 per cent.
Ms. Tang said that data mining and analytics are skill sets that are increasingly in demand in Singapore.
"Robert Half has seen recruitment activity for these professionals increase by 18 per cent in the last two years," Ms Tang said.