Discovering Datahug

Hi there, Helen here! I’m not a regular blogger, but blogging is just thoughts and opinions and well, I have a few of those so here’s to writing them down!

Everyday, someone somewhere has an idea that they feel will change the way we do business forever. They feel they will change the world. Very few do, but when my friend told me about Datahug I felt it might actually be true. What’s more, the idea comes from our very own Irish shores. The founders Conor Murphy and Ray Smith went to UCC and UCD respectively. The more I learn about the company the more I wonder how I have not heard of it sooner. Am I the last to hear about them? Let me explain why I am so in love.

Datahug is a very simple concept. It’s about finding out who knows who and how well they know them, then using that information to hold onto clients and, very importantly, win new business. Datahug provide an innovative automated relationship intelligence service that analyses communication traffic in your business so you can build a professional network of all relationships connected to your company.

Anyone that uses a CRM system knows that manually inputting information is the only true guarantee of efficiency. What is more, we all know that when we are busy, feeding information into our CRM systems falls to the bottom of the priority list. This along with human error can make the systems only as effective as the people using it. That is not to say that I don’t love some of the systems out there (ahem, Salesforce).

This is where Datahug slips into the equation, it analyses email and other communication data to unlock the real social network in every organization. It tells you who knows who, how well they know each other and when they last spoke. Every night Datahug processes email header information (as well as other communication tools if linked to the package) to build this network and to keep you up to date with the latest insight for your organisation. No email content is ever accessed or processed, just the headers the date the sender address and recipients of the email. It is fully automated and requires no manual intervention. There are also options for individuals to deny or hide personal movements within the working sphere.

Imagine being European sales manager based in London and before you check in with the head of sales in Spain, you can see how much regular contact they’re having with your key accounts. True transparency in communication. No longer would you be able to lie to your boss about how much communication you are having with a client. He (or she) is able to see for themselves. It also allows managers to free up more time for the day to day running of departments as they’ll be able to spend less time chasing up staff reports.

Or think about that key account you are trying to land, you can use Datahug to identify how many links there are between employees in your company and theirs. You can see for how long they have been in contact or how regularly, therefore putting you in a better position. You can also use it to identify opportunities for general networking.

Unfortunately I’ve not had the opportunity to try out this software from the company that’s won such awards as the Silicon Valley Innovation Award, Enterprise Ireland iGAP Award and Maples & Calder Spark of Genius Award, but it is now added to my mission list and unlike Tom Cruise, it’s not Mission Impossible. I’ll be watching this space as its hold over me only grows. Its core is based on relationships and at the end of the day I still believe that’s what it’s all about. People is power, money is motivation.