Toyota FS Wins InformationWeek "Best in Analytics" Award

"Analytics is all about making decisions. Focus on what decisions you have to make and what actions you have to take rather than starting with data or systems."

That’s what Jim Bander, national manager of decision science at Toyota Financial Services, told InformationWeek. And he knows what he’s talking about — Toyota FS just won the InformationWeek Elite 100 award for Best in Analytics for their work on optimization that keeps customers in their cars. (As someone who owns three Toyota Highlanders, I have a personal stake in this story.)

This groundbreaking project received the FICO Decision Management Award for Debt Management last year. We are proud of our part in helping TFS on their Collections Treatment Optimization project, which scored this prestigious award from InformationWeek.

The metrics Toyota Financial Services uses to measure success illustrate their commitment to their customers. As the article notes, “In the first year 1,600 Toyota, Lexis or Scion owners got to stay in their cars because of how the process changed. And 10,000 customers avoided getting a credit marker on their credit bureau report. In all, Toyota Financial Services estimates that 50,000 external customers and 500 internal employees benefited from the project.”

The InformationWeek article presents an excellent case study on how to do optimization in collections — something I have blogged about before. Congratulations to Jim and his team on this win!