Experian 2010 Annual Report Download - page 13

Business review 12 – 51
Governance 52 – 84
Financial statements 85 – 160
Introduction 2 – 11
11
Information
technology systems
are used to store,
process and deliver
the data that forms
the foundation of the
business
Employee engagement:
listening to Experian’s people
Experian’s global people survey, carried
out every 18 months, provides valuable
insights into the views of employees
and their level of engagement with the
business.
Experian’s second global people
survey in 2009 achieved 84% employee
participation, up from 73% the previous
year, with improvements across
all survey categories. The Group’s
performance is now at or above the
norm in 10 out of 14 of categories when
compared with its closest peer group of
global nancial services companies.
Action plans are in place as a result of
the 2009 survey and the following key
measures of success have been selected:
a tangible improvement in employee •
engagement scores; and
a positive response regarding •
employees’ belief that action has
been taken as a result of the survey.
The next global survey will take place •
in June 2010 and Experian has set an
employee participation target of 85%.
The results, available in September
2010, will be used to benchmark
performance against the 2009 results.
Experian’s target is for the Group
to be in the global ‘high performing
organisations’ category by 2012. In
order to achieve this, an improvement
of 3% points in all survey categories is
required by June 2010 and further 3% by
the 2012 survey.
Data
At the core of Experian’s strategy,
and underpinning its success, are
comprehensive databases of credit and
marketing information on consumers
and businesses. The Group strives
for market leadership in each of the
three key measures of data capability -
breadth, depth and quality.
Experian holds credit application and
payment history data on approximately
500 million consumers and 40 million
businesses globally.
The Group also holds demographic
data on over 260 million households
worldwide, as well as online behaviour
data for 25 million internet users across
more than one million web sites.
Globally, Experian has segmented
more than 2.2 billion consumers in 30
countries, across the world’s most
economically active economies.
The Group invests heavily each year to
maintain complete, accurate and up-
to-date information, while continuing
to add new data sources that may be of
value to clients. For example, Experian
has recently added vehicle accident
data, and income data in the US. It has
added data on consumers to its bureaux
in Russia and Morocco, and has
expanded its Marketing Services data
sources in Brazil.
Experian is the trusted steward of
databases containing sensitive
information. It has an obligation to
protect this for clients, who are the
source of much of the data, and for
consumers, who are the subjects of the
data. The Group therefore operates very
rigorous security and control policies,
which are reviewed on a regular basis.
Technology
Experian’s information technology (IT)
systems are used to store, process
and deliver the data that forms the
foundation of the business. These
systems enable the business to meet
its growth goals by maximising global
technology synergies and leveraging
economies of scale.
IT is foundational in the support of
Experian’s products and services and
is critical to its ability to innovate. For
example, highly secure and highly
available processing centres in each
of Experian’s regions provide world
class service to its clients. Sub-second
response times and best in class
availability are hallmarks of the Group’s
systems.
Experian is committed to the ongoing
provision of market leading, high quality
solutions to its clients. For this reason,
the Group is executing a programme of
global IT integration and consolidation.
This brings competitive advantage,
leverages its global scale and enables
Experian to enhance the value it
delivers to clients. It will also globalise
the Group’s software engineering
capabilities to accelerate revenue
growth and to more quickly build new,
high quality systems.
Credit application and
payment history data on
500 million
consumers and
40 million
businesses globally