Our Data Journey Series: Neil Murphy

Hi everyone! Meet Neil..

The first week of September 2016 was a massive week for Neil. Never one to do things by halves, he completed his Higher Diploma in Data analytics, became a father for a second time and after a couple of meetings with our founders decided the time was right to jump aboard the good ship RWA.

Neil had been bitten by the data analytics bug big time though, struck with the way we can make complex data sources “clear and simple” and despite the broken sleep and nappy changes found he was energised with “endless ideas for data analytics coming out of my head”.

Anyone familiar with Neil’s shy and retiring personality won’t be surprised to hear that even at his initial interview with what was then a retail and pharmacy analytics specialist, he’d planted the seeds for RWA Automotive telling us automotive dealer groups were “crying out for a solution like this”.

We gave Neil a bit of rope to hang himself and within twelve months he was waltzing back into the office with a signed contract for our first automotive client – Renault.

Fast forward another couple of years, son Jordan is now happily in creche and Neil looks after a burgeoning empire that counts Renault, Jaguar Land Rover, Vospers, Corkills and Spirit Motor Group amongst its clients.

So what does Neil’s day to day look like now? Every day is different but he’s involved at all stages of our clients data journey - a natural people person, it’s no surprise to see Neil front and centre in our clients showrooms, finding out what makes their business tick and where the challenges are.

A recent project to visualise performance against industry standard KPI’s (such as absorption rate and stock turn) needed 8 data sources from across a client’s business, and helping clients locate this raw data is another key part of the process.

Once all the data has been collated, the next step is to create and check all the calculations and metrics to ensure what will be seen by the client is “one version of the truth”. After this the front end developers take over, ensuring the visualisations form a narrative that is impactful, easy to understand and easy to action.

Neil jumps in and out of each of these stages for different clients, but with demands for work coming in thick and fast a big part of his role now is developing the team to excel in these different areas. Automotive he says has “it’s own language” and is “a unique business”. Part of the fun of his role is sharing his enthusiasm for the trade with our growing staff.

There’s no doubt the auto dealer trade has experienced a surreal couple of months with forecourts worldwide deserted. Neil’s team aren’t standing still though and are already well into development of a web analytics tool that will enable dealerships to track and refine their digital marketing strategy right down to results on an individual vehicle level.

If you’d like to chat to Neil about how your dealership can use this time to ensure it is as efficient and productive as possible, please drop an e mail to us at auto@realworldanalytics.com.

And in the meantime don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn in order to stay on top of all our news and updates from across the automotive and data analytics industries

Fun Fact: “Neil is no slouch on the golf course with a handicap of 9. When Neil goes for a round of golf with our CEO Conall, he sometimes lets him win.”