Ample Insight

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the COO of an eCommerce company specializing industry-leading blue light blocking glasses. We've been in business for nearly a decade and were frontrunners in the space. We've got primary locations in Australia, England, and The United States.

For what projects/services did your company hire Ample Insight?

We were having real difficulty with our data flow processes. Ultimately, we needed someone with vast intelligence and experience to come in, develop a data framework for us to begin building our "house" around.

Garry definitely had both of those. We wanted to know more about our customers and without solid, clean data, we were flailing in the dark. No one could be sure of the answers that we gave based on data before Garry and Ample Insight came along.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted clean data flowing in from as many sources as possible. We also wanted to be more self-reliant when it came to data interpretation. Ample Insight was great to work with because they were happy to share their knowledge and experience.

Our team leveled up their own data interpretation and recording skills purely from exposure. We now work with Garry and Ample Insight on an ad hoc basis because we've been left in a fantastic, very powerful position.

How did you select Ample Insight?

Ample Insight stood out because of the Big Tech companies in their history. Garry himself has worked with some of the biggest names and that kind of clout isn't to be overlooked. Everyone's after the edge and to be able to work with Garry was an opportunity we couldn't miss out on.

Describe the project in detail.

It was a complete building of data flow framework. There was data coming in from all over - but no clear, definable workflow for bringing it together into a symphony of insight. What we had was a bunch of musicians tuning their instruments, but it certainly wasn't anything you wanted to listen to.

Garry and his team came in and provided us the structure we need. Not only that, they checked and double checked our data providing us with scorings of how clean the data was. Then, we set about cleaning up the data sources with poor grades. We needed systems and tools to bring everything together.

Honestly, we didn't know the scope of the project until we really got involved because you don't know what you don't know. Fortunately, Ample Insight does!

What was the team composition?

We mostly dealt with one individual from Ample Insight - Garry - who was great. He was very accommodating to our needs and helped us out when we needed it. Garry was a constant and though others may poke their heads in here or there, we never had to go to anyone else for answers.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Our position once the project had been wrapped up was vastly more improved than when it started. Our data was clean. Our framework was up. We had systems in place (mostly automated) for bringing that data together and telling a coherent story with it. Our leadership team had also jumped levels in terms of data interpretation from our interaction with Ample Insight.

We ended the project almost two years ago, and can genuinely say that it remains one of the greatest investments the company has made, as what was left behind is still paying dividends.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Garry and his team were great to work with. We never had any problems and communication was frequent and clear. We had regular meetings and mostly used Asana as our project management tool.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Garry's insight into data, split-testing, and the like is unsurpassed. He lives and breathes data and working with someone who was so confident about that which we weren't was very refreshing and reassuring.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can honestly say there's nothing to improve upon. The relationship was great. The project completed successfully, and Garry and I remain in touch - mostly me pinging him with the odd question to get his expertise, which he willingly gives me.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the Chief Product Officer of Treelab. Our SaaS platform helps individuals, startups, and leading enterprises alike in managing their core data and day-to-day workflows similarly to an ERP but with much broader and flexible applications. 

For what projects/services did your company hire Ample Insight?

We initially hired Ample Insight to research, analyze, and implement one of our core product lines called Camelot, an application that can automatically optimize production-line resources and logistics for manufacturers.

The difficulty in this project lies in its need to be generalizable across industries and being able to support diverse business requirements. The entire project lasted several months. We were very impressed with the results so we now work with Ample Insight on a multitude of other core initiatives as well.

What were your goals for this project?

The project had multiple performance metric deliverables, which was also broken down into multiple smaller deliverables. Each small deliverable came with an in-depth demo prepared by Ample.

How did you select Ample Insight?

We initially hired Ample Insight to research, analyze, and implement one of our core product lines called Camelot, an application that can automatically optimize production-line resources and logistics for manufacturers. The difficulty in this project lies in its need to be generalizable across industries and being able to support diverse business requirements.

The entire project lasted several months. We were very impressed with the results so we now work with Ample Insight on a multitude of other core initiatives as well.

Describe the project in detail.

We started the project by directly communicating with the CEO of Ample Insight, Garry. His ability to quickly and deeply understand the problem domain through market and data analysis drove the project forward. Through his findings, Garry delivered a full and complete list of requirements and recommendations in order to meet our project needs.

Finally, Garry brought in a team of experienced engineers and data scientists to execute the project in its entirety. At each step, Garry planned out and communicated thoroughly, providing detailed roadmaps and deliverables.

What was the team composition?

We started the project by directly communicating with the CEO of Ample Insight, Garry. His ability to quickly and deeply understand the problem domain through market and data analysis drove the project forward. Through his findings, Garry delivered a full and complete list of requirements and recommendations in order to meet our project needs.

Finally, Garry brought in a team of experienced engineers and data scientists to execute the project in its entirety. At each step, Garry planned out and communicated thoroughly, providing detailed roadmaps and deliverables.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

While the specific numbers are confidential, I can share that, working together, we greatly improved the performance of our platform. We were able to achieve many performance metrics that we thought were extremely difficult or near impossible. This was done through a tightly integrated partnership between our teams, and creative, out of the box thinking.

This continues to result in an amazing user experience that consistently delights our customers.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We communicated through Zoom, Slack, Notion, and used our own product Treelab as a task management system. Because Garry and his team were a highly efficient and self-sustaining team, we only had weekly catchup meetings and follow up meetings when needed.

Even with our time difference, Garry and his team were able to fully cater to our times, and communication was never an issue.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

There are 2 major takeaways that really impressed us about Garry’s team. First is their amazing technical ability. You can quickly tell the caliber of their team. With backgrounds from Facebook, Amazon and other top tech companies, they are truly outstanding in their ability to take very complex problems and create elegant solutions.

Second is their strength in product and project management. This was important to us because it allowed us to fully trust their team in their progress and timing. We didn’t need to ever “manage” them.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Really, nothing comes to mind. Garry and his team are great to work with and it would be a mistake not to see what they can offer. I’ve been working directly with them for more than a year now and it’s one of the best decisions we’ve made.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the project coordinator at Unilever, a consumer goods company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Ample Insight?

We hire freelancers with different language skills such as German, Chinese, Portuguese, etc. to do some social media analysis for that particular market. Last year, we were in need of Chinese speaking social media analysts.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Garry (CEO) has worked with us on statistic marketing and product launch analytics. He also helped us with three data science projects. Some of the projects are doing a competitor analysis. He would do the analysis of the Chinese market and would write his key findings and recommendations on how we can implement that in our product and improvise our product. He’s also worked with another project by identifying the key markets where we can sell our products.

What is the team composition?

Garry is our main point of contact. Initially, he started as a freelancer and then he evolved into an organization. I’m not sure how many people there are in his company.

?How did you come to work with Ample Insight

We found Garry on a freelancing platform. Considering the Chinese market, the number of tools and data sources that we can use for analysis is very limited. Ample Insight had their own data analytics tool for the Chinese market.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2019, and the work is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We have freelancers working for some of our other markets, but for Chinese, our preference is Garry. His feedback has been great. For seven of his eight projects, he’s received great feedback. There was only one project where he received medium-level feedback. They’re outstanding among other freelancers we’re working with.

They’re very proactive and focused. He exceeded our expectations. The results were fantastic. He answered all of our project requests and even offered additional information and insight.

How did Ample Insight perform from a project management standpoint?

He delivered everything on time and communicates well. We have a good relationship. We use Wrike to monitor our freelancer’s work and especially the delivery of the reports that they provide us. I don’t know how Garry manages it from his side. We communicate via Wrike and email. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The way Garry responds to our emails and project requests is extremely professional. He’s very reliable and trustworthy. We know he’s going to do a good job and the quality of his work will be really good. The thing that stands out the most is for a data science project, we asked him to do some manual analysis on an Excel spreadsheet and what he managed to do is create a data science process that automated all of our work for this specific project.

What our data science team managed to do then is apply the process that Garry created to some other projects that we had. It was very innovative on Garry’s side to do this for us. He provided us with extra insight. He not only does the work but he also makes sure he does it in a right way. When he thinks of a better process to complete the work, he also suggests it to us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, everything has been so positive.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to continue to be responsive. Most of our projects are very urgent and require commitment and communication. Garry has been excellent in responding to emails, making the right point in the emails, and always talking about next steps of making sure he’s moving forward towards the project. When he has a blocker, he instantly tells us. My advice is to keep communicating and being responsive.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of a software development and solutions company

For what projects/services did your company hire Ample Insight, and what were your goals?

We hired Ample Insight to help with data collection/review and analysis for improved forecasting. We were in the middle of building a new Supply Chain product (called SmartSupply) and required another set of eyes for data & logic review.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

This vendor was selected due the background, experience and knowledge that was presented. Ample clearly showed that they had the right attitude, skills and drive to understand the data, out products, platform and how to offer solutions to best fit the product and customer needs we had.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The goal of this project was to help improve the accuracy and granularity of demand forecasts for the products of a major healthcare company (by using another Forecast algorithm). The new Forecast model has an error rate that is just under 8 times* lower than that of the existing production model. Steps taken included understanding data and logic, reviewing alternatives and going through the process of test and repeat for cycle based process and data in/output cycles. From there, when validated and fully tested, logic was handed to us for integration with our product.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

There were 2 people in the core team, 1 in data analysis and logic design, and a second in business and documentation management

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Given the requirements and data provided to us, the Forecast yielded a much better forecast than the legacy forecasting mechanism (with an error rate that is almost 8 times less).

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

All aspects of project management (using an agile approach) was managed effectively and very lightweight. All milestones were clearly defined and met on time.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

We had direct access to the team and there communicated and delivered in perfect unison with our team members. Iterative results were reviewed for feedback and required changes as needed to fully deliver what was expected and more.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Nothing could be improved, great experience working with Ample Insight.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Program Manager for Communitech's Advanced Technology Platforms. Communitech helps tech companies start, grow, and succeed.

For what projects/services did your company hire Ample Insight, and what were your goals?

We support local tech startups and at that stage resources are usually quite limited. The main value of our latest program to those startups revolves around a reallocation of staffing and costs. If their data scientists are so busy labelling and wrangling data then they're not focusing on their secret sauce.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Our director knows the CEO of Ample Insight who he highly recommended. We connected around our plans for our latest offering and the Ample Insight team was instrumental in our first pilots and in shaping the final product.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We start with an initial meeting with our customer and Ample Insight to begin scoping a project within the parameters of the program. The Ample Insight team then works with the customer to arrive at a scope statement that both parties agree to.

Projects then begin with an onboarding period, followed by regular checkins and updates. At the end of a project, the Ample Insight team schedules a hand off meeting to recap what was accomplish, share the final documentation, and provide some insights around what the next steps for our customers could look like.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

The CEO is our main point of contact.Their lead Project Manager for our engagements is always present for data labelling projects. Their lead Data Scientist is always present for technical data science and engineering projects.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Our clients are always happy as evidenced by the NPS score of 100 for the projects completed by Ample Insight so far. Through their feedback, they've shared how happy they were with the attention to detail paid in data labelling projects, UX and UI design overhauls, and engineering projects.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Professional, communicative, and succinct.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Ample Insight is the kind of team you want to work with on your projects. What I find most impressive with their team is the level of efficacy they all demonstrate.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

When we were first piloting this new offering, we had to figure out each other's working styles and adjust. Through great communication and feedback we landed on a process that's clear, effective, and efficient.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO of an AI based real estate valuation and forecasting platform in Canada.

For what projects/services did your company hire Ample Insight?

We are the most accurate valuation tool in Canada at the moment, however, the spread of error of our valuations in some regions and for higher end properties was higher than what we anticipated. We hired Ample to help us visualize our data to realize our data better. In addition, we asked them to try to see if there will be any benefits in data augmentation for the purpose of reducing error deviation.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We reached out to our contacts in our accelerator and they suggested three trusted vendors, we analyzed them and selected Ample as they they have done more data science work in the past.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The first stage was to do data analysis and visualize our historical data on a map. Next, Ample analyzed our data further and made a benchmark model and tried different augmentation and feature selection scenarios.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked with the founder and a data scientist.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The new visualization tool which is built using Tableau will be integrated to our website for customer attraction. We can also use it to be informed about market changes in real time. Data augmentation on the other hand will help us to improve the accuracy of valuations for rare properties in our own models.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was very effective. The team was knowledgable, and passionate about the project. The communication was at the minimum level, to the point and smooth.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The knowledge of the team, the management was helpful and always monitoring the progress and did his best to obtain the best solution. They even came up with suggestions of the approach that we have not thought about. Very impressive performance.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Not really.