Darrell Ludowyke

Leading data specialist Empirics has announced a substantial growth in its business with the addition of four of Australia’s largest superannuation funds to its client base: AustralianSuper, Cbus, HESTA, and Hostplus.

Together these four funds manage over four million industry super fund member accounts.

Under the new arrangements, Empirics will provide its MarketSuite platform to each of the funds – offering access to its data integration and analytics, predictive analytics, campaign management and social listening tools designed to target, understand and predict member behaviour.

Empirics forms part of Link Group’s Information Digital and Data Services division. The announcement follows Link Group’s acquisition of the funds’ administrator Superpartners in December 2014 and is the next step in Link’s broader integration process to migrate the funds on to its own administration platform over the next two years.

Empirics Chief Executive Officer Darrell Ludowyke said the company’s unique analytics offering meets growing demand from funds to drive more effective member retention, engagement and reporting strategies.

“The Empirics business has gone from strength to strength in the past year, and we have really consolidated our position at the forefront of providing data analytics and related services to super funds.

“The MarketSuite platform is improving member engagement, enabling funds to segment membership, analyse and predict member behaviour and provide a more targeted and relevant experience for members more than ever before,” Mr Ludowyke said.

Empirics is a leader in data analytics for super funds, providing data visualisation, analytics and communications services to over 25 major super funds in Australia who today represent nearly 10 million super fund members.

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Darrell Ludowyke

Australian superannuation funds are increasingly competing for members though the use of data analytics to target and predict member behaviour, according to leading data specialist Empirics.

Empirics today added the $900 million Australian Ethical Investments as its latest client, adding to a raft of super fund client wins over the past year.

Empirics Chief Executive Officer Darrell Ludowyke said the company’s proprietary predictive analytics capability addresses growing demand from funds both large and small to drive more effective member retention strategies.

“We’re seeing a real surge of interest from funds who are moving on from reporting, which essentially looks backwards, to using predictive analytics to look forwards and see what these insights can do for their fund, particularly how they can help engage and retain members.

“We are very pleased to be working with a fund like Australian Ethical, as it’s a unique offering that promises to invest members money in a way that aims to not only help members maximise their retirement income, but also to invest in positive, sustainable change for society and for the environment.”

“We believe the growing understanding of our services among super funds like Australian Ethical demonstrate the maturity of the industry,” Mr Ludowyke commented.

Mr Ludowyke said the industry is changing rapidly, “driven by increased competition and legislative changes, with funds having to work much harder to retain disengaged members who are consolidating their super elsewhere, rolling out or moving to other investment vehicles such as SMSFs under the advice of financial planners”.

Australian Ethical Head of Marketing Paul Smith said the fund decided to appoint Empirics due to the team’s experience and proven track record in applying analytics to a broad range of businesses.

“We are particularly attracted to the potential for analytics to inform decision-making directly based on hard data, as well as monitor our existing campaigns with tangible return on investment figures,” Mr Smith said.

Empirics will apply its superannuation analytics to Australian Ethical’s 20,000-plus members, to provide the following outcomes:

1. Data visualisation and analytics to provide a snapshot of member segmentation and engagement, with dashboards and reports to help easily identify useful and critical trends
2. Advanced analytics, including behavioural modelling and predictive analytics, to pre-empt customer decision making and purchase habits, target best prospects and create tailored customer engagement
3. Development of relevant and targeted campaigns and personalised communication to engage and grow existing members as well as target future customers with data-driven predictive insights.

“Predictive analytics may sound like just another buzz word, but funds are seeing what it can deliver. Previously analytics used to mean identifying and segmenting members, however today we can accurately predict behaviour, inform business and marketing strategies and then track and measure direct causal outcomes,” Mr Ludowyke concluded.

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