Susan Walsh - The Classification Guru

The Classification Guru Ltd

I love improving the quality of procurement spend data, giving teams clarity so they can make better business decisions and cost savings.

Why not let me take the pain out of laborious data issues and make your life easier?

Whether it's a small or large data set, the accuracy can be improved by identifying classification errors, conflicts or gaps. I can provide a data verification service to efficiently find and correct these in a fraction of the time it would take you or a team member.

And a crucial part of having accurate data is also working with a comprehensive taxonomy, something that can be easily overlooked. I can provide a taxonomy development service to ensure you have all the vital areas covered for the greatest visibility - job done!

If you struggle with the time, resources or willingness to tackle your data, why not get in touch to see how I can make your life easier.

Founder/MD (Mistress of Data)

I love improving the quality of procurement spend data, giving teams clarity so they can make better business decisions and cost savings.

Why not let me take the pain out of laborious data issues and make your life easier?

Whether it's a small or large data set, the accuracy can be improved by identifying classification errors, conflicts or gaps.  I can provide a data verification service to efficiently find and correct these in a fraction of the time it would take you or a team member.

And a crucial part of having accurate data is also working with a comprehensive taxonomy, something that can be easily overlooked.  I can provide a taxonomy development service to ensure you have all the vital areas covered for the greatest visibility - job done!

If you struggle with the time, resources or willingness to tackle your data, why not get in touch to see how I can make your life easier.

Founder

Data Collaboration Alliance

I am a member of the Advisory Committee at the Data Collaboration Alliance, a nonprofit organization that’s dedicated to establishing CONTROL as the basis for meaningful Data Ownership and global Collaborative Intelligence. Our approach of eliminating data silos and copy-based data integration is similar to how societies already protect the value of their currency, identities, and intellectual property - and it works for data, too. My fellow advisors include the Executive Director of the Mozilla Foundation and the ex-CIO of Dropbox. I'm also a contributor to the Data Collaboration Community which offers open datasets, free tools, and free training in the data-centric skills of the future. Visit: https://www.datacollaboration.org/community

Advisory Committee / Instructor

Facet Publishing

Dirty data is a problem that costs businesses thousands, if not millions, every year. In organisations large and small across the globe you will hear talk of data quality issues. What you will rarely hear about is the consequences or how to fix it.

Between the Spreadsheets: Classifying and Fixing Dirty Data draws on classification expert Susan Walsh's decade of experience in data classification to present a fool-proof method for cleaning and classifying your data. The book covers everything from the very basics of data classification to normalisation, taxonomies and presents the author's proven COAT methodology, helping ensure an organisation's data is Consistent, Organised, Accurate and Trustworthy. A series of data horror stories outlines what can go wrong in managing data, and if it does, how it can be fixed.

After reading this book, regardless of your level of experience, not only will you be able to work with your data more efficiently, but you will also understand the impact the work you do with it has, and how it affects the rest of the organisation.

Written in an engaging and highly practical manner, Between the Spreadsheets gives readers of all levels a deep understanding of the dangers of dirty data and the confidence and skills to work more efficiently and effectively with it.

Author - Between the Spreadsheets

CONSTELLIA LIMITED

Connecting Professional Services Procurement people to the Consultancy Procurement Council

Membership Manager

Simfoni

+ Lead spend analytics project delivery across Europe & Middle East
+ Project Implementation​
+ Delivery of product demos
+ Development and delivery of training for Analytics team
+ Product development support
+ Spend analytics
+ Taxonomy development​

Senior Analytics Project Lead - Europe & Middle East

Highways England

Project Support Officer

Philips

Data Verification

+	Administration of product database
+	Working with cross functional teams to resolve issues
+	Develop and deliver training for business hubs to improve processes

Data Product Researcher

Coupa Software

+	Project managing multiple projects simultaneously ensuring all were delivered within time and on budget
+	Management of a team of 14 QA staff
+	Developed and implemented training plan and best practice documents
+	Recruit and train new staff
+	Ensuring consistent quality of work  produced by team

QA Manager

Spend360

+	QA, classification and review of data
+	Excellent attention to detail
+	Managing workload to tight deadlines

Data Services -QA

Fixer of dirty data ★ Spend data classification, supplier normalisation, and taxonomies ★ DataIQ100 x 2 ★DataIQ Data Champion 2022★ Author "Between the Spreadsheets" ★ Creator of COAT ★ TEDx - say NO to NO ★ DataVenger

Are you struggling to get reliable insights from your data?  Do you have duplicates, multiple versions of the same supplier or customer, and multiple date and address formats?  And is it saved in multiple different systems?

The Classification Guru can help.

If you’re in procurement, do you find it hard to see how much you are really spending with one supplier, and on what?  Have you got free text descriptions which mean you have multiple versions of the same item, often misspelt and not against the correct GL or categorisation? How can you make the best negotiations with your suppliers, the biggest cost savings, or manage your supplier list if you don’t have the correct information?

Or if you work in sales or marketing, is your CRM full of junk data, poorly formatted and even missing information, and maybe saved in multiple different systems?  Your team could be wasting time contacting redundant leads, or worse you could be sending out expensive print out to the same address twice, or addresses that don’t even exist.

We bring clarity and accuracy to data and help teams work more effectively and efficiently, finding cost savings through spend and time management, supporting better, more informed business decisions, delivering a strong ROI and delivering back to your organisation faster and more cost-effectively than using large consultancies or spend analytics providers.

While most people dread having to classify or cleanse data, my team and I love it! We are hugely passionate about providing clients with accurate and meaningful data, and because I have been doing this for a decade, I can do this much faster and more accurately than people who might look at their data infrequently.

We can help prevent costly mistakes from happening.

There are many solutions available to automate data classification, but these are never 100% accurate. I've developed a method that my team use to efficiently and accurately classify, cleanse and verify data to minimise the errors in the same amount of time.

When working with large volumes of data it's hard to spot these errors even if you know what you're looking for and especially in Excel, let alone if you don't. With my team and I’s knowledge, experience and tools we can do this for you, freeing up your internal resources.

Fix your dirty data now - www.theclassificationguru.com

Monica Kay Royal

nerdnourishment

As a Data Career Strategist, I help professionals change careers and become a data analyst by leveraging their current skill sets.

My Data Career Strategy Program offers:
Personalized career roadmaps: Tailored guidance based on your background, skills, and goals.
Curated learning resources: Hand-picked content to focus your efforts and avoid information overload.
Practical project experience: Build a portfolio of real-world projects to demonstrate your skills.
Networking strategies: Learn how to effectively connect with others in the field.
Interviewing strategies: Learn how to showcase your value to potential employers to land a data job.

Check it out here ➡️ https://nerdnourishment.com/

Data Career Strategist

Podcast Host

As an Audit Analytics Consultant, I help internal audit departments build a data-driven audit approach which leverages the use of data analytics to make their audit procedures more effective.

Founder (Chief Data Enthusiast) | Audit Analytics Consultant

LinkedIn

Teaching data professionals how you can protect the data you work with on a daily basis for your data analytics and machine learning projects.

LinkedIn Learning Instructor

Instructor, Data Analytics & FinTech Bootcamps

Northwestern Mutual

Lead Product Manager - Behavior & Risk Analytics, Cybersecurity

American Express

Product Manager - Data Analytics & Innovation, Internal Audit

Arizona Public Service - APS

Business Data Analyst

Pinnacle West Capital Corporation

Data Analyst / Senior Information Security Auditor

Information Security Auditor II

CliftonLarsonAllen

Senior Information Technology Auditor

Clifton Gunderson LLP

Information Technology Auditor

IT Audit Intern

Helping professionals break into data without breaking anything | Instructor at edX | Host of Data Podcast for Nerds! 🤓

I am on a mission to bring the data community together and share/learn/grow 🌱 I provide mentoring services for folks trying to break into data and am the host of the Data Podcast for Nerds!  

🔔 Follow me here and check out my YouTube channel

Happy Learning!!



If you are interested in deep diving into my personal bio...

I like to think that much like Liam Neeson, I have a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career.  Just over 13 years (ok, maybe not that long..)

My formal education is in Accounting and Management Information Systems. This allowed me to enter the world in as an Information Technology Auditor. During this time, I made sure to participate in all the varieties of projects available to me. Information Security, Logical/Physical Security, Cybersecurity, Application Controls, Change Management, Social Engineering, Vulnerability scans and Pen testing, Data Privacy, Financial Analysis.

Once I was introduced to Data and Analytics, I was hooked and on the move. I progressed to areas where I was able to be more involved with data, specifically data governance, data management, data literacy, and data visualizations. I advanced into enterprise analytics where I was exposed to programming and data science. I even briefly served as a system administrator, which was probably my most unique experience. Well, besides my first job in Food Management.

I eventually moved back into cybersecurity where I could focus on my passion for data overlapped with security, risk, and compliance; specifically related to behavioral analytics by obtaining formal training in Behavior Design.

Circle back to my current state and mission of helping others, I am now working for myself at nerdnourishment and teaching with edX 🤓


Tools Used to Assist in my Journey
- R
- SQL
- Python
- Tableau
- PowerBI
- Knowledge of awesome nerd related topics

taplio

The Battle

Susan Walsh - The Classification Guru

Monica Kay Royal

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