“ Data and technology play a huge part in the ongoing development of the business ”
TINA CHRISTISON CRM AND ANALYTICS DIRECTOR , SPECSAVERS
so we are looking to automate a lot of that flow , and that will save a huge amount of time . Our team is doing an initial process as a showcase , then we ' ll upskill the finance team so they can roll it out to all their other processes themselves .”
A central data team could never take on all the work required to automate the hundreds of processes within finance , marketing and other business teams but it can show the way and impart the skills needed to digitise their processes . In this way , the transformation of the business as a whole can be achieved largely in-house without the need to bring in third-party partners .
For now , she is focusing on the low-hanging fruit . A good example is found in the work she is doing with the CRM team . “ Historically there wasn ' t any predictive modelling within CRM , which is quite unusual considering the size and scale of the company . People are very keen to get their hands on data and obtain the insights it can give them – for example in 2020 the clinical teams looked at the impact of the first lockdown on glaucoma and they identified that two-thirds of referrals were missed at that time . That information and other data sources from the eye care sector was shared with the NHS and Glaucoma UK and fed into the government ' s decision to allow optometrists to stay open for wider care to relieve pressure on the NHS , prevent avoidable blindness and provide services to the public who needed them so badly from
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