Datamine - Turning Information into Gold

Wellington company Datamine is proving that geography is not an issue when it comes to changing the way companies market to consumers both locally and internationally.

Established by a group of young Wellington visionaries in 1995, Datamine has grown to become one of New Zealand's leading data mining organisations.

For those in the know, data mining is the way to turn information into gold. Put simply, data mining is the extraction and analysis of information from commercial databases. Data mining has major significance for marketers because it can unearth more detail than ever before about customers, about markets, about products and about profitability.

One of Datamine's two founding directors, Paul O'Connor, says the company started out with himself and one other employee. Today it has 18 full-time staff and has delivered an average revenue growth rate of 92.4% over the past three years.

"We started out with an idea to help companies know more about who their customers are and how they interact with their organisation. The demand has grown as more and more companies have realised the benefits data mining provides."

Since its inception Datamine has worked with some of New Zealand's and Australia's leading corporates, predominantly in the telecommunications, insurance and financial services industry sectors.

And it is now expanding its horizons to the Asia Pacific region, working remotely to bring home-based smart solutions to the world.

Paul puts the company's impressive successes down to tapping into local talent and challenging the accepted. He says that Datamine works hard to maintain its close-knit, performance culture.

Datamine's phenomenal growth was last year recognised in the prestigious Deloitte/ Unlimited Fast 50 list. The list is reserved for the 50 fastest-growing companies in the country.

Paul says Wellington is likely to remain the home base for the company, even with the prospect of more overseas work.

"We aim to continue the formula that has worked for us so far - and that is to promote innovation, partnership, excellence and a strong sense of internal culture - and ultimately, to enjoy both the journey and the destination," he says.