Cox Automotive: data sells cars

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


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


In September 2015, the transformation started with 3 things


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


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


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


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


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


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.


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


We also collaborated with other business areas to prototype some new product ideas

Stock InsightRecon ROI

Calculator


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.


We reorganised the team into 6 core functional areas


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


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


Help our clients make smarter and more informed

decisions1

What are you trying to achieve?


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


Provide meaningful, actionable insight to every part of Cox

Automotive in the UK2



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



We’re regularly publishing market research on our blog at coxautodata.com/blog/


http://coxautodata.com/blog/

Where do you start?



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?


https://uk.linkedin.com/in/allisonnau

http://www.coxautodata.com/

http://www.coxautodata.com/blog

47© Cloudera, Inc. All rights reserved.

Thank you