Case study
How Orkney Islands Council is tackling housing affordability, education accessibility and fuel poverty
Summary
Orkney Islands Council is the smallest council in the United Kingdom, situated on Scotland’s north-east coast. With a population of approximately 22,000 people, it spans 70 square miles and encompasses 22 inhabited islands. Orkney Islands Council supplies all local authority services for the archipelago, including education, roads, housing, waste collection and more.
Of the many areas of support that the Council provides, three of the focus areas have been to update the Housing Need and Demand Assessment (HNDA), to receive approval to support families and children in need through education and tackling fuel poverty. To address these priorities, the Council needed accurate, up-to-date, and consistent information that would help benchmark Orkney against other parts of the country.
Company size
5,000
Industry
Non-Profit
Products used
Challenge
Lack of robust, credible information due to small yet widespread population
One of the greatest challenges for the Council has been Orkney’s small yet widespread population. This has complicated the acquisition of statistical information – particularly information that is robust and credible. Slight changes in population size can considerably sway numeric results, which has hindered the Council’s benchmarking capability and innate understanding of the financial realities of Orkney’s inhabitants.
Lack of cohesive data specific to Orkney
The Council has previously attempted to extrapolate their own data and information from various sources, such as housing statistics available from the Scottish Housing Survey. Interpreting the results must be done quite carefully, however, as Orkney-specific information must be compared with the rest of the Scottish population, this presents a unique challenge given the demographic make-up of the Islands.
Extreme living conditions: high fuel poverty and intense climate
Orkney has some of the highest fuel poverty in the UK, which has significantly inflated the price paid per unit of electricity. Its rural location coupled with extreme weather (particularly during winter), longer hours of darkness and lower temperatures have been strenuous on inhabitants and expensive to keep up with. The ability to earn is also limited on the islands.
Solution
CACI’s income dataset, Paycheck, has been licensed by the Council to help them better understand the needs and demands of their communities. It supplies detailed insight into current housing affordability amidst the ongoing cost of living crisis, identifies areas of deprivation in which families and children require additional resources or access to education and opportunities, and addresses fuel poverty resulting from the high amount of energy and electricity being pushed out onto the islands.
Paycheck gives the Council a unique, granular point of view and information that has enabled their benchmarking against other local authorities and how Orkney compares to other parts of the country. Through Paycheck data, the Council has also been able to update their HNDA, a document that analyses the projection of Orkney’s population over the next five to twenty years which helps the Council establish the necessary housing and school programmes. The information within this document looks at the affordability of housing, which correlates with residents’ income, coupled with demand.
The Council assesses residents’ incomes against the likelihood of owner occupiers and current housing availability for those seeking private rentals, mid-market rentals and social rentals. This supplies insights that evidence decision-making linked to residential building programmes and determine how fast growth can be delivered.
This has been complicated by the fact that the population across the group of islands is increasing at the same rate as the whole of Scotland at 6%, with vast differences between life on the islands and on mainland Scotland. Orkney residents must adapt to much greater extenuating circumstances that come with higher costs, and the Council has had to find a way to prove these differences through data to the Scottish government. Paycheck has bridged this gap by providing an accurate representation of the current circumstances in Orkney, enabling the Council to strategise and plan for the most suitable house build programmes that have been acknowledged and approved by the government.
Results
The integration of CACI’s Paycheck into Orkney Islands Council’s operations has yielded transformative outcomes, with its robust and credible data supplied proving to be key in decision-making processes. Notably, Paycheck has streamlined the approval of the HNDA, securing the necessary signoff from the Scottish government. Without this approval, the Council would have had to revisit and overhaul the entire HNDA, which would have resulted in a substantial loss of time and resources. Paycheck’s precise income models and predictive capabilities have played a crucial role in ensuring that the HNDA remains accurate and credible.
Paycheck has also been instrumental in redefining residents’ financial realities in light of fuel poverty. It equips the Council with accurate data on residents’ earnings, enabling a greater understanding of communities that are at the most risk with rising fuel costs and may need Council support. The reallocation of resources in education has also been supported by Paycheck.
By analysing school catchment areas and identifying pockets of deprivation, the Council can allocate resources to ensure access to education, fostering a more inclusive and supportive learning environment.
Ultimately, Paycheck has become an indispensable tool for the Council to address the triad of housing affordability, fuel poverty and education accessibility in a comprehensive, data-driven capacity.
Case study
How OneFamily use data to identify demand for new products
Summary
OneFamily is an award-winning financial services company, providing products and services that help modern families thrive. The firm’s vision of “Inspiring Better Futures” means creating products to meet the needs of every generation of the modern family, from dual parents, divorced people and single parents to grandparents, junior savers and family friends.
OneFamily serves over two million UK customers, caring for over £7 billion of families’ money. With over 40 years’ experience, the OneFamily team offers a range of products including protection and lifetime mortgages, children’s and young people’s investments, including Junior ISAs and Child Trust Funds. The business has donated £3.5 million to support customers and communities since 2015 and is committed to responsible investment through climate-impact funds.
Company size
1,000
Industry
Non-profit
Products used
Challenge
Deeply committed to innovation and data-driven decision making, OneFamily faced challenges in effectively targeting their customer base.
Despite possessing the necessary in-house data science skills, they struggled due to limited resources to fully leverage their existing ‘R’ analytics software. These resource shortages therefore hindered their ability to predict market trends and make evidence-based decisions.
As a progressive financial services company with an ethical business model, a critical challenge is to minimise waste and maximise value in all its operations. OneFamily therefore needed to refine their strategy and product development processes using advanced data analytics in order to minimise waste and enhance the precision of their targeting efforts to maximise value to its customers.
Solution
OneFamily uses Acorn and Fresco data for insight into existing customers, including its large Child Trust Fund (CTF) customer base.
Julian explains: “We are a progressive, innovative financial services organisation and we’re dedicated to developing products that meet the needs of today’s generation.”
“That’s why we’re strong advocates of data science, using it to determine strategy and product development and to help us predict market trends. Evidence-based decision making is core to our contemporary, forward-looking approach. Targeting effectively minimises waste and maximises value and relevance to our customers: these principles are important in our ethical business model.”
He adds, “Fresco is aimed at the financial services market so it’s a good match with the information we find most useful as we review and refine our products and portfolios. We can see where we index well across the UK and we can spot new opportunities to meet customer needs.”
Results
Julian was impressed by CACI’s Fresco and Acorn datasets. “They compare well with other segmentation models I’ve used in my career: we believe they’re best of breed products in our sector. They allow OneFamily to segment our family-oriented customer base and see how it’s represented across the UK population. We can zoom in to understand the preferences and needs of customers in granular detail, then locate other similar target groups.”
Data science has helped Julian and his team to identify demand for new products such as Junior ISAs, lifetime mortgages and over 50s family saving products. Fresco and Acorn data also help OneFamily prioritise recipients for cross-selling or upselling campaigns, connecting them with products that meet their current needs.
OneFamily’s insights analysts now run logistical regression models and retention models to predict customer behaviour and preferences. Julian says, “We categorise our customers and apply CACI’s variables to identify high, medium and low propensity groups for a given product or campaign.”
“CACI’s experts bridge the gap, providing specialist knowledge and so we can exploit the datasets to the max. CACI’s Head of Analytics is exceptionally knowledgeable and has steered our retention project so we can use propensity modelling on top of the lookalike datasets. That means we can focus with confidence on incentivising the top three deciles rather than expensively blanket-marketing to the entire base.”
Case study
Northumberland County Council used Paycheck data to inform its Local Plan
Summary
Northumberland County Council looks after a population of over 320,000, in England’s most northerly county. Northumberland is one of England’s five largest counties, with widely distributed towns and communities of varying types and populations.
Company size
10,000+
Industry
Non-profit
Products used
Challenge
The Council’s top priority is making Northumberland a stronger place, economically and socially. That means supporting economic recovery after the pandemic and tackling inequalities within its communities, so residents are healthier and happier.
Like most Local Authorities, Northumberland County Council is focused on post-Covid recovery. Determining what’s changed and where the Council can help local economies and communities demands trusted, accurate income data.
Solution
Household-level Paycheck data reveals areas of need and opportunity.
Senior Economic Analyst Julie Dowson provides data to departments across the council, from housing and planning to public health and regeneration. “Our communities have such wide differences – it’s really important to look at them at a granular level and compare them,” she said. “That’s where the Paycheck data comes in. We need current, household level information to understand exactly where people are experiencing challenges, so the council can target plans and funds to address them.”
She continued: “The cost of living is a very important topic for Northumberland’s council officials and politicians – reflecting the concerns of all who live and work in the county. One example of the way we use Paycheck data to compare incomes and cost of living across the council’s areas is in housing affordability assessments, to identify gaps and shortfalls that create inequality.”
Northumberland County Council also uses Paycheck insight to feed into its annual Economic Performance Assessment and five-year economic strategy. Julie says, “You can’t plan based on subjective assumptions – the Paycheck data provides objective evidence to support our policies, priorities and programmes. That means everyone in the Council as well as our partners and customers can see and understand why we’re focusing our resources in particular areas.”
Results
Northumberland County Council used Paycheck data to inform its Local Plan. The outputs influence Strategic Housing Market Assessments and Land Assessments, which identify potential locations for additional housing and indicate what land may be released for future housing development. This helps Northumberland County Council to plan enough affordable homes to meet residents’ needs in different housing developments across the county.
Case study
How Nationwide developed an understanding of individual members
Summary
Nationwide Building Society approached CACI to undertake a major segmentation exercise across their entire consumer database to enhance their understanding of consumers’ online and offline behaviours and its impact on the wider business.
Company size
10,000+
Industry
Financial services
Products used
Challenge
After the banking crisis, Nationwide Building Society wanted to engage with customers and underline its status as a mutual building society. Unlike the big banks, Nationwide is owned by its members and the business model is built on trust and a deep understanding of its customers. This makes it all the more important to respond to their changing needs.
In an increasingly complex financial services environment, developing a common understanding of their customers across the entire online and offline business has been recognised as key.
Solution
The Society approached CACI to undertake a major segmentation exercise across their entire consumer database. This exercise focussed on developing pen portraits of key customer segments, focussing not only on life-stage but also incorporating other dimensions that were relevant to the business, such as affluence, channel behaviour and attitudes.
CACI conducted workshops with key stakeholders across marketing, products and channel management. Models were developed which brought together both Nationwide and CACI’s own datasets (Ocean and Fresco), so that customers could be coded with both an overall life-stage score and a range of dimension scores. The data was pulled together to create a set of pen portraits covering the entire financial services marketplace and Nationwide’s customers within that.
Results
Nationwide Building Society is now able to understand their individual members at a glance, and offer them the right products, services and advice to help them with their banking needs. This new toolset helps Nationwide to understand its customers’ needs, and develop compelling, targeted products, services and marketing messages and has won Nationwide significant new business among younger members.
Case study
How the Duchy of Cornwall is using data-driven insights to support their forward strategy in Nansledan
Summary
Nansledan is a new community being built on the eastern edge of the coastal town of Newquay in Cornwall, England. Over the last decade, the Duchy of Cornwall has acted as master developer and landowner of the development, creating an already vibrant community which will eventually include 4,000 homes, job opportunities and diversification of the local economy to sustainably meet Newquay’s current and future needs.
To bring the vision of a successful and thriving new community to life, the masterplan for Nansledan includes a new town centre, known to the Duchy of Cornwall as “Market Street”. To facilitate the progress an introduction was therefore made to CACI, to demonstrate the breadth of data and consultancy expertise that could be offered to support the forward strategy of Market Street.
Company size
50
Industry
Property
Products used
Challenge
To answer questions around the scale and mix of spaces within the Market Street plans, it was clear that data-driven insights would also be helpful in shaping the forward strategy.
The Duchy of Cornwall also wanted to understand what role Nansledan might play within the wider Cornish market and how complementary offers could be provided so as not to compete with Truro, Newquay and Padstow.
Solution
CACI’s initial report has now been completed and was presented to the Duchy of Cornwall in February 2023. It has already been helpful in shaping the forward strategy for the first phase of Market Street and will continue to inform the scale and the mix of space that comes forward across Market Street and Nansledan over the coming years.
The Duchy of Cornwall now has a much clearer understanding of Nansledan’s catchment area from both a resident and tourist perspective around demographics, spending habits and spending potential. In turn, this is expected to help in the positioning of Market Street within its local and regional market and will hopefully assist with ensuring its long-term commercial success.
Results
While Market Street is yet to be developed, the work undertaken by CACI so far has helped to shape the Duchy of Cornwall’s forward strategy and will continue to feed into the design of the remaining phases of Market Street, as well as other commercial centres that were planned across Nansledan.
Further advice is expected as the development progresses and wider market influences take shape in order for the Duchy of Cornwall to continue to position Market Street appropriately for Nansledan’s growing population, as well as that of other local towns and villages. Using data-led insights on an ongoing basis is seen as increasingly important given the wider context of struggling retail centres around the country and in trying to ensure a vibrant and thriving centre at Nansledan.
Case study
How Kirklees Council enhanced its digital service efficiency with the help of demographic insights
Summary
Kirklees Council has a population of 437,593 and covers an area of 157 square miles. It is the third largest authority in West Yorkshire and is a constituent member of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority. Like many local authorities, Kirklees Council faces a dual challenge of managing budgetary constraints while addressing increasing demand for services.
To maintain the quality of services that residents value, the council has focused on encouraging the use of lower-cost digital self-service options wherever possible. One key area identified for improvement was the handling of council tax inquiries, which significantly burdened call centre resources. Following conversations with CACI about the impact that demographic data insights could bring to alleviate this challenge, it was clear to Kirklees Council that this was the solution to the challenge.
Company size
10,000+
Industry
Non-Profit
Products used
Challenge
With over 190,000 households in the Kirklees area, the council’s call centre received a substantial volume of calls related to council tax. During the 2022/23 period, approximately 16% of these households contacted the call centre about council tax issues. A significant portion of these calls – 47% – were categorised under ‘check or query a bill,’ with 60% of these queries related to checking instalments or outstanding balances and seeking advice. Additionally, 16% of callers made payments through the call centre. Notably, 31% of accounts had repeat callers, with 5% of households calling four or more times within the year.
The Council recognised the need to delve deeper into not only understanding the reasons behind these calls, but also the demographics of the callers, particularly repeat callers. This insight was crucial in shaping the design of effective strategies that would reduce the volume of calls and promote the use of digital self-service solutions. Lacking data or insight about these callers heightened these challenges, which is where CACI’s data would prove to be essential.
Solution
To address this challenge, the Council’s project team collaborated with their Data and Insight (DI) team to analyse call centre data using CACI’s segmentation tool, Acorn. Acorn supplied a detailed demographic and socioeconomic profile of the households contacting the council. The profiling revealed that a significant proportion of both first-time and repeat callers belonged to younger and less affluent Acorn demographic segments, specifically Cash-Strapped Families, Urban Diversity and Hard-Up Households.
Acorn’s Knowledge Sheet, which includes over 800 variables from digital behaviours to channel preferences, helped illustrate that these groups should be the ones to utilise self-service capabilities instead of calling. As these groups continued to call, the Council was compelled to investigate additional factors that could bolster self-sufficiency for residents, such as their website. They quickly realised that if they were to redesign the website to better support self-service options for these target groups, the Council would have a better chance at encouraging behavioural change and telephone enquirers online, thus reducing service demand and achieving cost efficiencies.
Results
With an evidence base provided by Acorn’s detailed analysis, the Council is set to undertake several initiatives to reduce the need for phone calls by further enhancing digital self-service options, including:
- Implementing chatbots: Implementing chatbots capable of answering common queries related to council tax will provide immediate relief and reduce call volumes.
- Council tax balance checker: The Council is developing a quick and easy-to-use online tool allowing residents to check their council tax balance and instalment details without having to call the council.
These initiatives are guided by the insights gained from Acorn, which identified specific demographic segments and their preferences. By focusing on these insights, the Council can effectively target improvements that will encourage the use of digital self-service options, resulting in fewer calls. The enhanced website, combined with the introduction of chatbots and the balance checker tool, will provide residents with sufficient alternatives to calling the Council. These changes will not only improve the customer experience, but ensure the Council allocates resources more effectively to achieve further cost efficiencies.
Furthermore, the Council will be planning targeted outreach activities with landlords and tenants— identified through Acorn segments— to further reduce call volumes. This initiative aims to educate these groups on the available digital self-service options and encourage their adoption.
Case study
Supercharging Hotter Shoes’ customer experience strategy with Fresco segmentation
Summary
Hotter Shoes is the UK’s biggest footwear manufacturer. It’s a digitally led, omnichannel specialist footwear brand with a clearly defined, large and growing target audience.
Company size
5,000
Industry
Retail
Products used
Challenge
Hotter already had a strong heritage in direct-to-consumer marketing when Stephen Shawcross, Senior Global CRM Manager, joined the company four years ago.
Stephen explains: “Like many retailers, we had an abundance of data but it was fragmented. Our first challenge was to bring all the data we had together. We created a true omnichannel single customer view (SCV) that included online, store and contact centre order data, footprint 3D scanning and augmented reality fitting data, web browsing data and email engagement data.
Bringing all data into one location
Creating a single customer view
Solution
CACI’s Fresco data stood out from the competition to offer the level of dynamic detail that Hotter needed. The CRM team was able to match 98% of consumers that order from Hotter to a CACI segment, at an individual customer level.
CACI’s consultant provided “amazing” support for Stephen and the team, with initial training and advice about data mapping and regular check-ins to make sure they have everything they need.
Stephen says, “The big appeal of Fresco was being able to map to an individual customer. A lot of profiling customer systems offer flat pen portraits but aren’t necessarily actionable. CACI matches a customer to a segment and means you can do something with it in real time. We immediately stepped up the level of personalisation beyond buying and browsing behaviour to supercharge our Customer Experience Strategy.”
Results
The combination of buying behaviour, digital engagement, foot-scan data and CACI demographics means Hotter Shoes’ marketing is hyper-relevant and offers true personalisation at scale.
Stephen explains:
“At the highest level, we personalise based on CACI segment, recency, frequency, monetary value (RFM) commercial segmentation and channel preference across all customer touchpoints.”
Hotter is able to create relevant, personalised website homepage images, messages and email content as well as Google pay per click ads, social media posts and direct mail. The profiling is specific and sophisticated – there are currently 27 different direct mail variants. We can prospect with social media marketing, finding and targeting lookalike audiences.
Hotter is also exploiting the Fresco data to support acquisition among new customer groups. Beyond their traditional market of customers aged 55+, the firm is looking to attract the next generation. Fresco segmentation is helping the team identify the most likely personas and to design messages, campaigns and products that will appeal to them.
Case study
Data science drives EDF Energy’s ‘Generation Electric’ campaign
Summary
As the UK’s largest producer of low-carbon electricity, EDF Energy is committed to supporting electric car adoption as part of their vision of a low-carbon future. Using their expertise in energy to benefit EV drivers, EDF Energy created an Electric Vehicle (EV) proposition (vehicle leasing, an EV tariff and home chargers) to be targeted appropriately to existing customers who own an EV, and those who may buy one in future through a nurture campaign.
Company size
10,000+
Industry
Utilities
Services used
Challenge
To target customers suitable for home charge point installation and home energy plans designed for EV users, identifying customers who own an EV was required. With their move into EV car leasing, EDF Energy needed to be able to identify consumers who had a propensity to want to purchase an EV in the future.
Solution
The Segmentation
Data analysis gained from smart meters was utilised in identifying EDF Energy customers who were likely to be EV owners. Predictions were made based on consistent, regular peaks and troughs in consumption combined with demographic filters.
CACI’s demographic data was used to gain an insight into consumer characteristics and behaviours and identify EDF Energy customers who are inclined to purchase an EV.
The Customer Journeys
Data analysis informed a customer journey that was designed by CACI in accordance with customer profiles that had been created, as well as an understanding of the EV buying process. The life stages of the journey reflected a customer-centred approach, recognising the needs of the customer when making a considered purchase:
- Awareness: of EDF Energy in the EV space
- Consideration: EDF Energy in the EV market and EV in general
- Education: on the EDF Energy EV proposition
- Review: against the customer’s specific needs
The journey of the EV proposition was customised throughout, recognising the different needs and requirements of the customer. A customer’s behaviour was a key driver in ensuring the right message was delivered at the right time. The individualised journey optimised behaviours to indicate when the customer was ready to progress, entering a Nurture programme to keep the proposition front of mind when it was suggested they were still transitioning through the average two year-long sales cycle. Interactive content was designed to complement the customers quadrant and enhance the journey and life stage, creating innovate user experiences and providing a personalised journey of follow up communications tailored to the customers interaction.
Results
The campaign is still in its early stages, having recently launched and is already experiencing impressive results. The first email in the campaign’s series resulted in an open rate of 45%. This is 28% above the automotive industry standard!
Case study
How CACI supports British Red Cross identify those in need of support
Summary
The British Red Cross was founded in 1870. The charity’s most important value is kindness. It helps anyone, anywhere in the UK and around the world, to get the support they need if crisis strikes.
The British Red Cross saw very high demand for its services in the UK during the COVID-19 outbreak. When the pandemic started, the Red Cross needed to undertake a huge response to help the most vulnerable individuals and communities in the UK, reaching over 1.5 million people with food, medicine, cash, emotional support and other help and advice. Thousands of extra volunteers joined the charity, helping it to support those who are suffering all kinds of hardship and distress because of the situation.
Company size
5,000
Industry
Non-profit
Products used
Challenge
Identify local areas where there was a need for charity help and support
Ensure services are being allocated to those with the greatest needs
Solution
CACI offered The British Red Cross a three-month trial of its Vulnerability Indicators. After validating the potential of the data during the trial period, the charity took out a subscription. The British Red Cross used CACI’s Vulnerability Indicators to index UK households in every neighbourhood (or MSOA – Middle Layer Super Output Area). Their modelling revealed locations where people were most likely to be in need of support, based on either their clinical, financial, socioeconomic and digital vulnerability as well as wider health and wellbeing factors.
Information that showed the prevalence of single-person households in an area combined with the Vulnerability Indicators was used to augment food vulnerability mapping. The British Red Cross identified households with limited access to third party and community support, creating a priority need for volunteer engagement.
Results
Vulnerability modelling enabled the British Red Cross to deploy volunteers in the right places, meet emerging needs and advocate for targeted financial and practical support for the most vulnerable people at this time.
By defining areas where financial vulnerability is greatest, The British Red Cross applied local knowledge about available support or facilities. Volunteers helping individuals and families access these. If they’re insufficient, vulnerability model insight helps community organisations and charities make a strong case for grant or lottery funding to help improve, using granular data evidence that relates to a specific area.
Where digital vulnerability is a key issue, such as for people living alone without technology skills or facilities, the British Red Cross can reach out to householders using leaflet drops or doorstep visits to offer assistance and information. The British Red Cross also made its vulnerability and resilience modelling and analysis freely available via public web portals.
Case study
How South West Water uses Ocean data to achieve its ambition of eradicating water poverty
Summary
For over 30 years, South West Water (SWW) has been supplying reliable and high-quality drinking and wastewater services to customers throughout South West England.
When the business was tasked with developing an affordability model for its customers, SWW set a target of getting customers out of water poverty and onto the right support tariffs where necessary. While its own data and customer insights could act as a starting point, SWW recognised the impact that pairing this with CACI’s Ocean data would have on achieving the desired outcome.
Company size
5,000
Industry
Utilities
Products used
Summary
For over 30 years, South West Water (SWW) has been supplying reliable and high-quality drinking and wastewater services to customers throughout South West England.
When the business was tasked with developing an affordability model for its customers, SWW set a target of getting customers out of water poverty and onto the right support tariffs where necessary. While its own data and customer insights could act as a starting point, SWW recognised the impact that pairing this with CACI’s Ocean data would have on achieving the desired outcome.
Challenge
Water poverty in the UK is a household’s inability to afford its water and sewerage bills, with research finding as many as 34% of bill payers report difficulties to pay fairly frequently due to the cost-of-living crisis. Many households also face a compounded financial burden with other utility bills.
Supporting customers
Coupled with a lack of connectivity, water poor customers are, therefore, often struggling and silent, meaning SWW needed to proactively identify customers who require and eligible for support.
Customer targeting
To best reach and customers with its water affordability toolkit, and even auto-enrol them onto support tariffs and other actions to lift households out poverty, SWW needed to develop and utilise a robust, bespoke affordability model. Built using CACI’s rich income data, SWW confidently understands equivalised income in comparison to household water bills.
Solution
Understanding SWW’s brief, challenge and previous models used by the industry, a bespoke and granular dataset was created to supply a unique and current perspective into equivalised income at a 6/7digitpostcode level, in conjunction with the wider validating characteristics of these customers, the complete SWW household customer and the property base.
SWW built a model which combines this data with its own billing data at a customer level, enabling SWW to calculate the percentage of equivalised income from their customers’ current spend on their water bill at a property level. SWW can further combine this with OBR forecasts of income, housing costs and bill profiles to 2030 to model water poverty and wider outcomes into the future.
Results
From July 2022 to September 2023, over 15,000 customers were auto-enrolled onto support tariffs and brought out of water poverty. The affordability model enabled SWW to directly engage with these customers, build their trust and encourage further contact and conversation, particularly where customers may be entitled to or require additional support or services.
Case study
Acorn data enables the RSPB to deliver relevant and targeted supporter communications
Summary
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is one of the largest wildlife conservation organisations in Europe, with over one million active members. The organisation speaks out for birds and wildlife, with particular focus on the species and habitats that are in the greatest danger. As well as the active supporter base, RSPB’s network includes almost 18,000 volunteers and over 2,000 staff across more than 200 nature reserves. The organisation’s single vision is to work for a better environment rich in birds and wildlife.
Company size
1000 – 5000
Industry
Non-Profit
Products used
Challenge
The simplicity of Acorn is one of the main reasons the RSPB chose and continues to use Acorn. The data captured whilst at a reserve or in the high street just requires a postcode, something which most of the RSPB’s supporters are happy to provide.
Supporting the support
As well as birds and wildlife, the RSPB also loves its supporters and volunteers! Knowing where they live and come from and so distance travelled to, for instance, a nature reserve, is an important part of understanding the RSPB’s audiences.
Solution
The RSPB covers a wide spectrum of activities: managing nature reserves, involvement in species recovery and large-scale conservation projects, deploying national and local fundraising initiatives, operating an e-commerce site, listening to members’ requirements and concerns and ensuring resources are optimally deployed. Acorn, with its combination of location and demographic information, enhances the organisation’s understanding and evaluation of member and volunteer interactions across all of these activities.
Acorn is used for profiling, campaign selections, reporting and insight, for example understanding participants in the RSPB’s annual Big Garden Birdwatch event held every year in January. Ultimately, Acorn helps the RSPB to deliver relevant communications to its supporter base.
Results
- Acorn is applied to records on the RSPB single supporter database, hosted by CACI, ensuring consistency of the organisation’s understanding of its supporters and volunteers
- Acorn helps to personalise communications and content, thereby enabling marketing spend to be distributed with improved efficiency and effectiveness
- The RSPB can better understand audiences for whom only a postcode is known
- Overall, Acorn plays an important role in keeping RSPB audiences engaged with its brand for longer
Case study
Enabling Legal and General to become data led, technology enabled & customer experience-focused
Summary
Legal & General is the UK’s largest provider of individual life assurance products and a top 20 global asset manager. Founded nearly 200 years ago, the company currently aims to improve customers’ lives, build a better society longer term and create value for shareholders through inclusive capitalism. As one of Europe’s largest insurance providers and a major global investor with over £1.3 trillion in assets under management, Legal & General has long-standing expertise in safeguarding people’s financial futures.
Company size
10,000
Industry
Financial Services
Products used
Challenge
James O’Keefe, Commercial Director and Transformation Lead, explains: “Legal & General had set out a clear strategy to drive growth in our direct sales business by being a data led, technology enabled and customer experience-focused digital business. It sounds a simple approach, but we had unique challenges to tackle in our disparate legacy systems and data. The post-GDPR landscape is a critical context too: like all responsible organisations, we’re committed to being compliant, but we’re also looking ahead to the future of global digital privacy.”
“We needed a data and technology partner that could help us think our data strategy through and work with us to define the practices, processes and technology solutions to make it happen. The end game was better use of first party data for effective segmentation, in order to deliver more impactful and relevant customer experiences to customers and prospects.”
Solution
James and his team worked with CACI’s consultants to develop a data and technology roadmap to drive commercial and customer growth. “We needed a foundation of lawful and accessible first-party data that we could enrich with third party data to provide meaningful customer insight at a sub-segment and attribute level,” James explains. “This would inform and enable customer and prospect engagement.” CACI provided overall consultancy, practical advice and skills to accelerate development plus on-demand technical support.
Legal & General had already selected Adobe Campaign Standard for marketing campaign execution. James asked CACI to deploy this as a first step on the journey to delivering a fully evolved, data-led customer experience strategy. “In any transformation programme, it’s worth looking for quick ways to deliver value early on, to prove the ROI and demonstrate results,” James says. “We had a gap in our tech stack that Adobe Campaign filled. CACI worked with us to join data sources, create clean and enriched datasets and to launch the platform. It was an important proof point that delivered good campaign results, gaining buy in and further commitment from stakeholders as well as investment from sponsors.”
With the CACI Demographic Data API, Legal & General is getting even more value from their Acorn and Ocean datasets and CACI-built custom segmentation. Using this real-time connection, CACI provides Legal & General with Ocean characteristics in real time, such as wealth, age and attitudes, to match with prospects and customers in a privacy safe and compliant manner. This means they can be assigned a best-fit persona and served the most relevant and useful customer journey immediately. It also informs and refreshes Legal & General’s models. It’s an innovative way to put together powerful technology and data to create personalised customer experiences from the very first moment.
Results
Legal & General now has proven technology and data to enable business growth through better customer experience. It’s designed for continuous evolution and development, as Legal & General gathers more insight from every campaign.
“Our approach is access, analysis and activation,” says James. “Access means lawful and structured data that’s accessible for segmentation. Analysis means being able to derive insight and create models from the data that tell us where and how to engage most effectively. Activation is executing the campaigns efficiently and feeding results back in to continuously improve customer experience.“
“When people want protection and life assurance products, it’s often as a result of a key life event that can be hard to predict. For example, getting into a serious relationship, buying a property together, a job change, having a child or experiencing a bereavement. Understanding our existing customers gives us modelling data to focus on effective contacts with prospective customers, giving them information they want and need at the right time, through their preferred channels.”
CACI’s Ocean consumer data enriches Legal & General’s first-party data, giving a clearer picture of preferences, behaviours and motivations. The team can prioritise marketing spending and campaigns to make the biggest business impact. Legal & General customers and prospects now receive marketing communications that feel relevant to their life stage and priorities.
Case study
How data & analysis support Lancaster University’s Future Places Centre
Summary
The Future Places Centre (FPC) builds on Lancaster University’s pioneering projects on pervasive computing, the Internet of Things (the IoT) and the natural environment, on ‘futures thinking’ and data science. Funded by the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council), the FPC works to create a portfolio of applied research endeavours that help the University and the communities it serves better understand the places in which they exist.
Company size
5,000
Industry
Education
Products used
Challenge
Professor Richard Harper, Co-Director of the Institute for Social Futures at Lancaster University, explains: “We need research data to help energise the change agenda in the North West for space and place. We want data both for measurement and to help us reimagine the environment and community and see things differently. It’s a broad remit.”
Senior Research Associate and Data scientist, Jan Hollinshead, used CACI data in previous commercial roles. She approached CACI to talk about how the data might be applied in the context of academic research. “We’re looking at how to segment the human population, so profiling data for the community seemed really relevant. We decided to take the CACI data for a year, to see whether it delivered value for our projects.”
Solution
According to Richard: “We’ve used the data as a resource that brings together sociodemographic information to categorise the communities around Morecambe Bay. Because our project is about making changes over a five-year period, it provides an essential baseline measure.”
The team also used it to challenge assumptions about the characteristics and economy of towns and sociodemographic groups around the Bay. This can help them focus more effectively and objectively on the most pressing issues and opportunities to investigate.
Acorn helps the FPC team understand the demographics of residents and communities in focus project areas, so they can attract a diverse range of people to those areas.
Results
“This data is colouring in what we know about the local population. It means we can define things better and more sharply,” says Jan. “It’s easy to talk about data in spreadsheets, but that doesn’t mean anything until people see it related to places they know on a map. That’s a big plus for us, with our remit to share the data widely with a range of audiences.”
Richard agrees. “CACI’s data is workable and tractable – we can visualise it powerfully and link it with digital maps. For instance, we’ve showed in pie charts that for people in Morecambe, ill health is often linked to being older, whereas in Barrow, more young people are unhealthy, which indicates different causes and circumstances.”
“Another advantage is that we can show that the data is objective, because it’s from a professional third party. A lot of our partners may have been using their own data, which doesn’t always give them the full context or range.”
The FPC extended its agreement for Acorn data for the entire five-year duration of the Future Places project. There’s potential to work with more partners in the charity and public sectors, sharing valuable insight about the communities they serve.
“CACI data gives us direct insight, but it also usefully highlights what isn’t there and where we need to build up more data and research. It’s an important anchor,” Richard concludes.
Case study
How Isle of Wight Council supported local housing needs
Summary
The Isle of Wight Council is a unitary authority located on the Isle of Wight near the south coast of England. It is made up of 40 councillors from 39 wards. The Council is responsible for all local government activities on the Island.
The Isle of Wight is a beautiful, interesting and relaxing place to be. While the pace of life may be slower on the Island, the Isle of Wight Council is an innovative, forward thinking and dynamic organisation. The Council has an ambitious corporate plan with a vision for the Isle of Wight to be an inspiring place in which to grow up, work, live and visit.
Company size
5,000
Industry
Non-Profit
Products used
Challenge
Danika Barber, Public Health and Strategic Analytics Lead explains: “We looked at what other councils had done to quantify affordability and knew that we needed to understand incomes across the Island in order to put house prices and rent costs in context of the local, permanent population.”
Danika and her team recognised that they needed to account for the typically more expensive second homes and holiday rentals on the Island, as well as a ‘hidden homeless’ population such as extended and overcrowded households, those in unstable tenancies and those key workers in less well-paid roles who are vital to the Island economy.
Solution
The work was commissioned by the Island Housing Conversation, a Regeneration Department project designed to inform and work with local councillors, housing providers and developers. The goal is to support stakeholders in building new homes of the right types and sizes in the right places to meet the local population’s needs.
Danika and her team used land registry square footage data to show how affordable the different sized properties are. It’s true that on the Island, unlike some other areas of the UK, more residents can afford to buy or rent a flat. However, most can’t afford to buy a three-bedroom home to accommodate a family.
Looking at the overall UK picture, while house prices appear cheaper on the island, salaries and incomes are much lower. Connecting house prices with real earnings at a granular level showed true affordability in each ward.
Results
- The interactive tool is really powerful, making the information and data meaningful and impactful.
- People understood the implications immediately. When shown the interactive map for lower quartile income affordability, it raised a gasp from the audience. Residents in this group cannot afford to buy or rent anywhere. It’s vital that this is addressed for the wellbeing of the population and the health of the local economy.
- The data insight was very well received at the meeting and afterwards. It was successful because of the combination of relevant, granular data and the visual presentation in PowerBI.
- Other departments asked Danika what PowerBI could do for them – they wanted to be able to visualise data in a similar way and understand local differences and needs in the Island population.
- Danika’s team has also been using PowerBI to present Covid-19 data and work is underway to develop a range of other similar dashboards for other business areas.
Case study
Detailed local population insight to inform service provision in a new Central London life sciences hub
Summary
Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation was previously known as the Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charity. It is an independent foundation whose mission is to invest, partner, engage and influence to come at big health challenges from all angles. The Foundation and its family of organisations collaborate with communities, partners and hospitals, using its assets to transform lives.
Impact on Urban Health is part of the Foundation, with a specific remit to make urban inner London and similar areas healthier places to live.
Company size
200
Industry
Non-Profit
Products Used
Challenge
Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation has created a 300,000 square foot life sciences hub with world-class lab facilities. The development is adjacent to the Guy’s Hospital campus in Southwark and will form part of a new health innovation cluster in central London.
To assess the impacts and benefits of the development for the local community, the property team asked Impact on Urban Health to help them understand more about the needs, lifestyles and characteristics of the people who live nearby.
Assess impact and benefits of the development
Understand the needs, lifestyles and characteristics of those nearby
Solution
Data Analyst Alessandra Denotti is responsible for generating insight for Impact on Urban Health projects. She used CACI’s Acorn demographic data to map profiles of the population in the immediate area around the proposed Snowsfields development.
Results
Project Director Emma Davies studied Alessandra’s insight presentation to understand the local population better, in order to design and propose relevant services within the Snowsfields development plan for local residents to use.
