The Data Analysis Bureau

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the new product development manager at CarnaudMetalbox Engineering; I’m responsible for the design and development teams. Our company provides high-performance, reliable, and precise canning equipment that can process metals 24/7, seven days a week, and 365 days a year.

We are a traditional manufacturing company working in a challenging industrial environment. There’s been a lot of demand as businesses move away from plastic packaging to a more sustainable one. Our support team and I look for productivity improvements to implement in our portfolio.

What challenge were you trying to address with The Data Analysis Bureau?

We approached The Data Analysis Bureau to work together on a unique project to win funding from the UK government. They have an innovation grant fund that promotes working with other technology partners from outside the companies' engineering disciplines and help them improve manufacturing and productivity.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Data Analysis Bureau is working with us as a true design and innovation partner for the UK government project. The team first helped us define the project, understood the scope, and broke down the work structure to submit it to funding grants. We share a common project board on both teams and keep tracking of the project’s progress.

The project is very complex and has a lot of variables that can affect productivity and quality. We’ve been investigating artificial machinery and have installed sensor kits in our machines. We've worked on supporting those in terms of data management from the center kits. 

We’ve focused on how to get the data from the machine we use into the cloud and use machine learning techniques to predict and analyze the machinery performance so that operators can make more informed decisions — all of this to increase the machine uptime and gain more productivity. We also assess potential solutions for each part of the process and data management trainers that know how to get and compress the data into the cloud. 

Together we’re associated with database and IoT management tools as well as visualization and machine learning aspects. We do systematic checks to identify the right solutions to implement and oversee them during the lifetime of the project. By exploring the data, we can see its value and start developing machine learning algorithms that can predict situations so we can plan and take action ahead of time.

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact is Eric (CEO & Co-Founder). He heads the data science group of engineers. 

How did you come to work with The Data Analysis Bureau?

The Data Analysis Bureau was recommended by a parent company of ours that had worked with them and was very impressed with their work. We got in touch and explained the project and what we were looking for. The team had all the services and expertise we needed and aligned quickly to our requirements. They also had the right people to support us in all phases of data management and provide thorough engineering solutions. 

How much have you invested with them?

The total project budget is £1.5 million (approximately $2 million USD) which is shared across all partners. Our company has invested £150,000 (approximately $210,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our engagement in October 2019, and it’s ongoing.

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

We are measuring our work to make sure the team delivers and meets milestones that fit into the broader project scheme. Everything has gone according to plan and they always find workarounds. They’ve delivered quality feedback and valuable work and get the best out of situations. 

How did The Data Analysis Bureau perform from a project management standpoint?

Our company has executives who have close contact with them as we develop the solutions together. We have technical and project management calls several times a week where we come up with plans with fixed milestones. It’s very important to have good communication working with engineering disciplines and they excel at this. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their adaptability is very important to us. The team works to understand our industry operations and products. They’re very intelligent people that are excellent at identifying objectives. They’ve supported us in understanding how to advance from where our initial starting point was and how to deliver the most benefits to our customers. 

The team has also guided us on how to use data to get the best value for our company. They’re very focused on delivering benefits, and they help us ask the right questions as we go through our learning opportunities so that we can achieve a target together. They have a strong input into how we structure our project times to make sure they are achievable. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re a successful company with high demand and only have a certain number of results that can come in at any given time. I’d appreciate it if they had more team members to deploy and work on certain tasks quickly. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice would be to have a face-to-face relationship with them to find a common way of working. This approach has been very efficient and has helped us align objectives between the two companies and get the best outcomes.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I head up technology and data for Situ Live - we are launching a new concept for lifestyle innovation brands to get their products known and understood by consumers.

Our product experience platform is underpinned by technology to connect brands with mobile-first shoppers in immersive retail destinations. Our first store is due to open in 2021 in Westfield London

For what projects/services did your company hire The Data Analysis Bureau, and what were your goals?

We are looking to build a data centric business that generates behavioural and contextual data based on consumer activities in our digital and physical stores.

We were looking for help to understand the potential for how we collect, transform, report the data to our brand partners but also how we commercialise the data now and prepare for future commercial opportunities that exploit the value of the data we will obtain.

How did you select The Data Analysis Bureau and what were the deciding factors?

Recommendations from multiple people, meeting the team. Decision made on cultural fit, attitude, communications and technical knowledge.

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

The project was packaged as an audit/discovery activity to understand our goals and look at the systems and approaches we already had in place or had planned for.

This was followed by a feasibility study that narrowed the focus to 4 uses cases that were then explored in detail.

The main deliverable was a feasibility report and an technology recommendation to aid project budgeting.

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

The team included Eric Topham who led the data science side supported by Roman Kastusik.

Ivan Scattergood managed the technology side, Trevor Bailey was project managing and George Hancock worked on defining requirements and our main contact throughout the project.

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

A clear report that outlined all the possibilities enabled the business to effectively plan ahead.

The ideas and approaches helped fuel sales conversations by providing an inspirational roadmap that could open up real value to our partners.

The project also identified a longer term unique opportunity that could be developed with some research and is progressing now as a separate project.

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

Highly collaborative style, excellent listening skills and very clear plans with milestones and details of what input we needed to give and when.

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

Clear, articulate and technically excellent not just from an academic data science point of view but also their experience and knowledge of development and implementing data in the real world. Professional and approachable account management.

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

Nothing significant that could be improved - they are delivering complex solutions that need time to digest and feedback on.

Any areas that needed addressing in first drafts - so as long as you can spend the time with them to ensure they get the right direction they showed they can take this onboard, make the adjustments and delivered the right result.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the manager of digital optimization at a packaging company’s technology center.

What challenge were you trying to address with The Data Analysis Bureau?

We started this project to improve upon our data collection and analysis, specifically to help with our beverage manufacturing process in reducing spoilage in production lines.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We needed to collect high volumes of data on our materials to explore the feasibility of architectural design approaches and whether we could leverage visualization and predictive analytics to solve our problem.

At this moment, they’ve provided consulting on our processes. We’re now at the point of defining technologies we need to extract and analyze our data. In terms of storage, we’re looking into using MySQL servers or a more scalable Microsoft Azure option. Then, we’ll move into using machine learning and regression analysis to execute the project.   

What is the team composition?

Headed by Eric (CEO & Data Science Director), there are three elements to their team structure with us: business development, infrastructure and architectural design, and analytics. George (Head of Business Development) helps us to identify our needs and links us to the right people within their groups.  

How did you come to work with The Data Analysis Bureau?

We received a recommendation from our external partnership director. In the past, we’ve used scouts to source technology and supplies. Since then, we worked with their team on small projects to explore their capabilities in data and storage. Through that trial phase, we saw that they were a strong team and that we would continue working on larger projects together.  

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around £15,000 (approximately $20,600 USD). That cost accounts for the discovery portion of their work. This year, they’ll be finalizing the project estimate. I anticipate that it will cost between £50,000–£100,000 (approximately $68,700–$137,000 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since around February 2019.

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

We’ve already been able to identify gaps in our data collection, which will be addressed in later projects. The project kicked off as smoothly because but they remained pragmatic in their approach, and we’re confident in their capabilities. We’ll better be able to measure their success as we progress forward with this project.   

How did The Data Analysis Bureau perform from a project management standpoint?

We see ourselves as project managers, collaborating on timelines and budget management together. So far, our project has been smaller. As we move into our larger project, we’ll be using Smartsheet to share and track progress. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their technical knowledge and ability to convey complex information clearly to our non-technical team has stood out. Further, they can empathize with our technical knowledge while suggesting new ways to approaching our work that we wouldn’t have thought of on our own. Most importantly, they were keen to work with us rather than directing us. 

Their head of business development also has a good way of maintaining communication without being annoying whatsoever. That persistence has been key in our engagement. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, once we get into the meat of the project, we’ll learn more about their working style. For now, I can’t think of anything. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d recommend companies large and small to consider having a conversation with their team. They’re able to support all project sizes by leveraging machine learning, data visualization, and more technical tools. That way, they can support continuous improvement within your company. They may be key to thinking outside the box and coming up with creative solutions for your business. 

Don’t be worried about reaching out to them as an outsourced firm. They can empathize.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of data services at an independent publishing company based in the UK, with a global reach. We provide data services in niche areas of insurance risk and environmental finance.

What challenge were you trying to address with The Data Analysis Bureau?

We were launching our base product. We have a vast database of insurance company data from 3,000 insurance companies across Europe, and we needed to build a nice interactive dashboard for it so that we could sell it.

Since this was our first move into data services, we didn’t have the in-house expertise, and we wanted advice on how to construct it attractively, what tools and software to use, and how to build something cutting-edge and attract audience attention.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Data Analysis Bureau initially helped us identify the right tools to use, how we might construct this from a data perspective, and how we could make dense data more meaningful for users.

Once we decided on Tableau as the correct tool, they helped us source a Tableau designer. That person worked very closely with us in the office, building a series of data dashboards on Tableau.

What is the team composition?

We were talking to two members of their team in the initial phase, and we had one designer that was with us for a four or five-week period.

How did you come to work with The Data Analysis Bureau?

An ex-colleague of mine recommended them when I was looking for someone that could help with data science and visualization.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in April or May 2017, and we continue to work with them on a project basis.

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

We’ve worked with their team every year since the beginning, and we retain them for a period of 6–8 weeks each year. Our database is updated and refreshed each year. After rethinking how we’re presenting data to clients, they create visualizations for us.

Given the work they do, we can’t measure KPIs. What we found is that the data visualization work that The Data Analysis Bureau’s done for us has been powerful, particularly as a marketing tool.

When we demonstrate the database to prospective clients, the data visualizations have a wow factor. That’s helped distinguish us from the competition and put us on the front foot with clients, who see our services as quite innovative. The fundamental reason for them seeing it that way is the tool that their team building.

How did The Data Analysis Bureau perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been very good. Their team got very involved, and the designer they provided came to work with and embedded themselves with us. The Data Analysis Bureau kept tabs on that less frequently, but they know that the relationship is going fine.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I found them to be approachable, patient, and eager to understand our business. They’re happy to explain things to non-technical people.

The Data Analysis Bureau’s team has a personal approach. They’re quite responsible and flexible. There were some things that we wanted to do, that didn’t exactly fit in with their way of working, but they were quite flexible in meeting our needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

From our perspective, it all went very well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

In my experience, they’re experts at what they do, and they charge reasonable rates for the service they provide.

Clients need to make sure that they engage with them properly. The more interactions and engagements there are, the better the results will be. If they have a thorough understanding of what the client is trying to achieve, they’ll deliver. They have experts available for that.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder, director, and skipper of a sailing team.

What challenge were you trying to address with the Data Analysis Bureau?

We wanted assistance with a technical innovation project. Our goal was to develop an autopilot system for steering sailboats. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

We contacted them to see if we could use machine learning and AI technology to build an autopilot that was fast, safe, and reliable. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with a team of five at the most, but some people shifted in and out depending on what phase of the project we were in. 

How did you come to work with the Data Analysis Bureau?

I was referred to them through a personal contact of mine. The CEO and I went to the same university. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2018, and the work is still ongoing.

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

The project is still ongoing. However, at this stage, we have a system that we can run in a simulated environment. It outperforms the previous system by nearly 10%. So, we’re seeing continuous improvement. 

How did the Data Analysis Bureau perform from a project management standpoint?

The challenge was that the project was loosely defined because we weren’t sure if creating this product was feasible. However, they did an excellent job of staying on track. The team balanced innovation and the use of new technologies with making sure that the process was progressing. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were engaged and immersed themselves in our business. That, combined with their knowledge and technical skills sets them apart from other vendors. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

If there was one thing, it would be more continuity with team members. However, I don’t see that as a big negative. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend keeping the communication channels open and constantly engaging with them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of product management at Person Centered Software. We provide electronic care solutions for over 2,000 locations across the UK and in some parts of Australia.

What challenge were you trying to address with The Data Analysis Bureau?

We needed data around the deaths in the care homes analyzed in order to provide statistics to the public health sector in England, which is why we hired The Data Analysis Bureau.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Data Analysis Bureau has done a few projects with us. They’ve collected data and reported statistics regarding deaths in care homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The team has also built a dashboard as a care sector benchmarking tool. This enables care providers to anonymously compare their performance with those of other care providers. Users could also look at trends, such as weight loss, using the dashboard.

The Data Analysis Bureau is now looking into building predictive models to forecast the risk of infection, weight loss, and other factors. 

What is the team composition?

We work with 6–7 people.

How did you come to work with The Data Analysis Bureau?

They were introduced to us during the pandemic, so we decided to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent £20,000 (approximately $28,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in April 2020, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

We haven’t launched the products yet, so there are no statistics to share. However, their team presents clear weekly updates to us. We are pleased with the initial data analysis project and decided to continue the engagement with a plan of making it long-standing.

How did The Data Analysis Bureau perform from a project management standpoint?

The Data Analysis Bureau works in sprints. We use a Jira board, have weekly standups, and do monthly progress checkpoints.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are engaging and personable. They bring in skilled resources to fill the areas where we need help.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to utilize their data analytics skills to have the best project outcome.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO at Get-Optimal. Get-Optimal is a UK based global technology company and diversity and inclusion provider whose core product is Job Ad optimisation. Our core technology optimises Job Ads using AI and ML for diversity, inclusion and SEO

For what projects/services did your company hire The Data Analysis Bureau, and what were your goals?

We hired T-DAB to create, build and push to deployment an AI and ML led Job Ad optimisation SaaS product that can be integrated with key technology partners, CRMs and ATS platforms globally.

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

We entered into an exhaustive process with a number of potential vendors. We accessed people, capabilities and technology.

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

This is confidential.

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

15 across the whole technology piece including but not limited to CEO, CTO, Data Scientists.

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

Its still too early to feedback.

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

It took some iterations but it's now in a good place to proceed. They are exceptionally well organized and very good communicators.

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

The way they approach each challenge, the diversity of viewpoints and the ability to work through often a unique set of challenges.

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

None that have come up yet.