Datorium

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a healthcare researcher at an academic institution.

What challenge were you trying to address with Datorium?

We’ve been working with them to better understand a set of data from a 911 system in India. The data quality is varied, and we’re trying to understand what we can learn across different sets data.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Datorium does different kinds of modeling, including random forest. They created a demo in Octain — an Ensemble platform — as well. We’re looking to those to help us understand mortality and other important outcomes from these data.

What is the team composition?

It’s varied from 1–2 people.

How did you come to work with Datorium?

I don’t actually remember if Cameron (Founder and CEO) reached out to me or if I reached out to him.

How much have you invested with them?

For the initial project, we spent less than $5,000 on their services. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership started in 2015. It’s not ongoing in any formal capacity, but Cameron and his group are always there to answer questions. They help me think through new interesting questions with data that may come our way for the work that comes our way.

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

Their work was high-quality. They’re good about turnaround, and the visualizations were excellent. It takes a little bit of political insight for our work, but they were always willing to show us their findings, and then we’d work hand-in-hand to interpret those findings.

How did Datorium perform from a project management standpoint?

There wasn’t much project management. It was pretty straightforward, so I don’t really have a comment on this. We kept in touch via a mix of email and in-person communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Datorium is really value-driven. They’re always going to produce a high-quality product, but they also make sure we’re getting the highest impact out of the data we’re looking at. So, even though we haven’t had a big project recently, I went back to Datorium repeatedly whenever I thought there were potential opportunities.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Any advice for potential customers?

Stay in close contact and provide good context for the data. That’s standard for any project you’d work on.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the EVP of strategy for Spire Digital.

What challenge were you trying to address with Datorium?

We wanted to bring in someone who can augment our experience in AI and specifically focused on speech to text.

What was the scope of their involvement?

It’s a highly confidential project, but I can say that it is a speech to text tool in the legal vertical.

They tested numerous speech engines and then framed a solution around it. They worked on the project from selection, designing and building the solution. The project we did was fundamental to our client.

What is the team composition?

I work with Cameron (Founder) and he brought in some developers.

How did you come to work with Datorium?

Cameron was the best person to do this project. We were at Oxford together. He has the best reputation.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent roughly $400,000 with Datorium.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have worked together since March 2018.

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

Their deliverables and the product they built helped our client get acquired at a very strong multiple. The product was at the heart of their digital information and the product has been used at thousands of sites around the country.

How did Datorium perform from a project management standpoint?

There is nobody better than Cameron, who managed our project. He’s such a great people person and is incredibly intelligent.

What did you find most impressive about them?

This was a truly trailblazing project. There’s no set map to navigate it, and they’ve done amazing work that nobody has ever done before.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re not the lowest cost option, but they’re worth every penny.

Please describe your company and your position there.

VMware is a leader in infrastructure software that allows companies the freedom to work on any application, across any cloud, on any device. As a Sr. Director on the Customer Advocacy team, I'm responsible for delivering insights and recommendations that drive business strategy and contribute to a world-class customer experience.

For what projects/services did your company hire Datorium?

Our team is responsible for surveying our customers to understand how they feel about their experience with VMware, but the problem is that most of our customers don't take our surveys. We brought in Datorium to help us predict the sentiment or happiness of our customers who aren't taking our surveys, by using their proprietary modeling tools and advanced/predictive analytics.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to predict the sentiment/happiness of the customers who aren't taking our surveys so that we can proactively provide them with a better experience.

How did you select this vendor?

One of our team members worked with Datorium's CEO, Cameron Turner, in the past and recommended him. Cameron conducted a proof of concept that yielded valuable insights, so we moved forward with a project.

Describe the project in detail.

Datorium used their proprietary modeling tools and advanced/predictive analytics to predict the sentiment or happiness of our customers who aren't taking our surveys. The model predicted the “happiness level” of each customer using only operational metrics (i.e. without the use of any survey data). In addition to a single, trained model, the deliverable recommended an approach for continuous, online learning, to maintain model accuracy as training data changes over time.

What was the team composition?

Cameron, Datorium's CEO, worked with our team closely throughout the duration of the project. Two other team members were part of the working team.

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

We now have a working model that determines how our customers feel about their experience with VMware, without them having to tell us.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Cameron and his team were incredibly helpful and easy to work with. Part of our team was located on the other side of the world and they were open to regularly have project meetings during very early hours. They were also incredibly responsive in e-mail communications.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Working with Cameron and his team provided a model of best practice in data sciences. The Datorium group delivered exceptional results that went beyond the quality of their deliverable and extended to the process of working with them to get there. Cameron combines the rare skills of technical expertise with business acumen, that allowed us to navigate complex mathematical challenges to achieve business impact.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No