World Vision case study of Sigma,an analysis tool based on the Alterian database engine

One of the major issues charities have been concerned with for many years is the inability to access donor records for marketing analysis purposes—donor information has literally been locked up. Charity database tools such as Raiser's Edge and Alms have been built to provide donor details on a record‐by‐record basis rather than to provide summary information across the entire base. These tools carry out this function very well and have the added benefit of providing data to call centre staff as they make or receive calls from donors. As each charity has to compete more intensely for their share of donor value, however, more detailed behavioural analysis of donor bases is required. To do this, access to the entire donor data is essential, not one record at a time, but structured in a way that allows ad hoc querying. This paper discusses the various technologies that can be used to access donor data for analytical purposes and explains the merits of a new database engine developed by Alterian that allows easy and fast access to many records across multiple data tables. It also shows how one organisation has used the engine to develop a bespoke analysis tool for the charity sector and how a leading relief and development agency, World Vision, is using this tool. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications