Success Story KIND Hearing aids

Solid growth - so far and also in the future.

#STORY

As one of the world's leading family-owned companies in the field of hearing aid acoustics and ophthalmic optics, KIND can look back on a long, extremely successful company history. In the course of the accompanying growth to over 700 specialist stores and around 3,000 employees, the amount of customer data has also increased enormously. It now amounts to several hundred thousand master data records. Accordingly, the quality of the data stock was not optimal, especially with regard to completeness, correctness and up-to-dateness of the data. This made it difficult, for example, to perform strategic analyses in the area of business intelligence and predictive analytics for the development of new sales and business models as part of the digital transformation.

However, to continue the successful course of the company, it is an important prerequisite to have a full view of the data, to be able to adapt quickly to new circumstances, and to have its costs and risks under control. Paul Themann, Head of IT at KIND, explains, "Our stated goal was therefore to consolidate data and make it available to the entire company."

With this in mind, those responsible at KIND decided to set up their own customer data solution as a central master data platform. In this environment all customer data was to be brought together and consolidated for a unified view of each individual customer and partner, the so-called 360-degree view.

As a name for this project with a constitutive character, the significant and speaking title "Phoenix" was chosen. Hitachi Solutions, a specialist in the implementation and optimization of ERP solutions, was brought on board as the implementing project partner. "In terms of data quality, we chose Uniserv," says IT expert Paul Themann, explaining the decision, "because the company can look back on a decades-long history in data quality with successful projects and the cooperation with the colleagues from Hitachi Solutions worked excellently in our interest from the very beginning."

Step by step to a secure database.

#SOLUTION

To achieve the goal of a unified, enterprise-wide master data platform, KIND worked with Hitachi Solutions and Uniserv to take a step-by-step approach, especially when it came to data quality.

1.

Data Cleansing

In a first step, Uniserv initially analyzed, postal-checked and cleansed KIND's complete data inventory, which comprised several hundred thousand data records, as part of its data center service. This created the essential prerequisite for ensuring that the data to be transferred to the master data platform was postally correct, complete and, above all, up-to-date.

2.

First Time Right

Subsequently, regular sequential comparisons (batch procedures) were initiated and implemented with the Data Quality Batch Suite, DQBT for short, from Uniserv. This ensured that the data quality once achieved from the initial data center service is also permanently maintained, i.e. data aging is counteracted. Every year, around 45,000 streets are renamed and around 1,850 place names change. If these changes are not tracked, a database ages almost automatically.

3.

Uniserv Relocation

Not to mention the approximately 8 million relocations each year. Against this background, Uniserv performs regular comparisons against the relocation and decease files as part of a third step as a data center service. And it is precisely the tracking of deaths that is particularly sensitive. After all, nothing is more damaging to a positive corporate image than one-off or possibly ongoing correspondence from deceased persons. Just think what this means for the surviving dependents.

4.

Auto-Completion

Last but not least - and to close the circle of permanently assured data quality - KIND has also licensed the auto-completion function. This is because all KIND stores are connected to the central master data platform so that employees on site can enter customer and address data directly. And, in the spirit of "first time right," this data is transferred and created correctly as soon as the data is entered. With Auto-Completion, every time an address element is entered or changed, a drop-down menu opens as soon as an employee starts entering the data. This menu is filled with suggestions that correspond to the previous entry. From these, the employee can select and complete the started entry by clicking the mouse or using the keyboard and not commit any typing errors. This prevents the data from becoming successively dirty again later on.

Torsten Katthöfer, Managing Director Sales & Marketing at Hitachi Solutions, summarizes: "Within the framework of the excellent cooperation with the specialists from Uniserv, we have created a quality-oriented master data platform with this procedure, which will enable our joint customer KIND to carry out improved marketing campaigns in particular in the future. But also strategic analyses within the framework of business intelligence as well as predictive analytics."

Quickfacts:

Optimized data quality for efficient and profitable customer master data.
360-degree view.
Data as required by the business for processes.
Support throughout the project by experienced consultants.
Support during the change process as part of the project.
Comprehensive added value and more.

What is Due Diligence?

Due Diligence, often shortened to Due Diligence (DD) in accordance with the English legal and business language, refers to a risk assessment carried out with "due diligence", which is generally performed by the buyer when purchasing company investments or real estate as well as when going public. Due Diligence reviews analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the property as well as the corresponding risks and therefore play an important role in determining the value of the property.

Within the scope of Due Diligence checks at Kind, for example, it is examined how many data records are available, how high the proportion of duplicate or multiple data records is, and how complete and up-to-date the data is. Also, if necessary, the overlap with the consolidated KIND dataset can be checked to quantify the proportion of new records.

Overall, it can be said that the manual effort for data cleansing and maintenance is minimized, while the operational processes are optimized and accelerated. There is now a unified view of the data. The knowledge resulting from this database is the prerequisite for effective business processes and revenue growth. In addition, an improved customer journey is now possible, with personalized offers for a positive customer experience.

About KIND

KIND is the leading family-owned company in hearing aid acoustics and is now also present in the optical sector. With a total of over 700 stores and more than 3,000 employees, KIND is one of the most successful and fastest growing companies in its industry worldwide. KIND continuously develops its high quality standards in close cooperation with experienced ear, nose and throat specialists and health insurance companies.

KIND bears special responsibility as the largest trainer in the hearing aid acoustics industry. The company's employees are among the most qualified in the industry.

audifon, a KIND Group company, also develops and produces modern, high-performance hearing aids in Kölleda/Thuringia. The products are sold worldwide through the company's own sales companies and distribution partners in over 65 countries.

With KIND Optik, people also experience the best vision and appearance in a new way: thanks to individual advice from KIND opticians, state-of-the-art technology and the best price-performance ratio.

More information at www.kind.com

About Hitachi Solutions

Hitachi Solutions, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a key member of the Hitachi Group's Information & Telecommunications Sector and a recognized leader in proven business and IT strategies and solutions for companies across a wide range of industries. The company provides value-based services for the entire IT lifecycle: from operating system planning to integration, operation and maintenance.

From its offices in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Canada, India, China and Asia Pacific, Hitachi Solutions provides high-quality products and services to customers worldwide.

For more information about Hitachi Solutions, please visit www.hitachi-solutions.de.