Graham's Blog

Internet Retailing and VRM

Articles describing the benefits of VRM in the retailing sector appeared in the March 2009 edition of Internet Retailing magazine which have only recently made the digital version available.

Go to their website to read:

VRM: A Good Idea whose time has come - Graham Sadd, PAOGA (pp27/28)

The Whole Picture - William Heath and Iain Henderson, Mydex (pp31/33)

Destination Etail: Just a commodified fulfilment channel - Alan Mitchell, BCCF (pp38/39)

Too busy to blog

I have spent much of the last couple of months trying to drag my jaw off of the floor given wave after wave of revelations of hypocrisy, ineptitude, inefficiency, abuse and downright criminality spread across numerous large organisations, government and regulatory bodies.

To add insult to injury it seems that an apology is believed to be sufficient reparation.

I have been angry for 2 months (not a good time to blog) but we have also been moving forward with the PAOGA proposition to provide individuals with a viable alternative to this unacceptable situation.

In this climate it will come as no surprise to discover that there is an increasing desire on the part of the individual to take back control and responsibility for their personal information to share when necessary under their control, with their consent and for their benefit. In fact, recent market research with a retail focus carried out by the University of Surrey and PAOGA confirmed that "Consumers would like the ability to control data themselves, raising the prospect of a shift from CRM to VRM (vendor relationship management) as e-commerce matures." The full report will be published soon.

And then it was announced - National ID Register & Card to be trailed in Greater Manchester in Autumn 2009 Jacqui Smith, Home Secretary, The Times – 6^th May 2009

So I compared their Government to Citizen proposition with our Citizen to Government service:

58 items of personal information including your name, address, age, gender and biometrics.
1,000’s of items of personal information and documents that are important to you.

Data to be collected and recorded by high street shops (Happy Snaps???).
Data collected, managed, updated and accessed by you.

Data to be stored in a central National Identity Register Database for the benefit of government to protect us against terrorism and immigration.
Data stored in your secure personal digital ‘safe deposit box’ and shared under your control, with your consent, for your benefit.

Data can be made available to private organisations, without your knowledge or consent, for a fee to government.
Data can be made available to private organisations that you choose to have a relationship with for a fee to you. 

Cost to you as an individual - £30
Cost to you as an individual - £0 plus various charged services which you may choose to use or not.

Cost to you as a taxpayer - £5.3 billion
Cost to you as a taxpayer - £0

Your personal information, let us be clear, belongs to you.
It defines who you are. It is valuable, that is why it gets stolen, sold on and abused. 
We want you to begin benefitting from this value.
We want you to be able to take back control and responsibility for your life.
We want to give you a choice.