Smartlytics Consultancy

Please describe your company and your position there.

Signal AI is a data provider company expanding towards a strategic external intelligence across industries. Within Global Solution Engineering team, I am the Senior Analyst working with Smartlytics to create bespoke dashboards for big clients.

For what projects/services did your company hire Smartlytics Consultancy?

We partnered with Smartlytics in order to have dedicated analytics resource to build and maintain BI dashboards. For larger client project where a visualisation build is part of the deal, Smartlytics have supported in building the data architecture and dashboards in Power BI.

How did you select Smartlytics Consultancy and what were the deciding factors?

We chose Smartlytics because of their agile and flexible approach, from ad hoc tasks to fully planned projects. They were also very willing and able to meet any changing needs from clients.

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

Project Demo Phase 2 is a follow-up on an earlier internal project, focusing on having a visualisation portfolio of our data. The designs for new and upgrading visuals plus optimising the data model behind the Power BI dashboard were taken on board well and the final results met the very tight project deadline.

How many resources from the Smartlytics Consultancy team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Youssef was the main developer for this project, with Will, Youssef and Omar supporting.

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

The outcome of this project was closer to the desired deliverable and required only a week or so or testing and feedback to be finalised. Smartlytics communicated well with us in understanding the minimal brief.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The communication was clear for the briefing stage. The build phase was a little difficult to get a sense of progress, but this was also more back-end processes. The testing phase was very responsive which was great!

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

Their flexibility to work within the scope and around needed changes within a tight timeframe is impressive.

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

The clarity on what falls into scope and bug fixing vs what is a change request could have been clearer. Part of the change request for this project should really have been flagged much earlier in line with the brief.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a research associate for a market research organization that does market research in the insurance and financial industries. I work on the development of digital tools like the database and data visualization of fintech entities. We're working on a secondary project, which involves global alternative finance benchmarks. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Smartlytics Consultancy?

We needed help with development services. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Smartlytics Consultancy is using Power BI  to help on our global alternative finance benchmark project. They created our Power BI dashboards consisting of several pages of different data types. The dashboard also has visualizations like bar charts and country comparisons over time. 

They also convert premade designs into mock-ups and clickable and functional Power BI visuals.

What is the team composition?

We work with Mostafa (Managing Director & Lead Consultant), Ian (Data Science Consultant), and other team members who help when needed. I also spoke several times to Leon (Junior Analytics Consultant).

How did you come to work with Smartlytics Consultancy?

They performed well on the test task that we gave them. The task involved converting data in the form of spreadsheets and instructions into Power BI visuals. 

How much have you invested with them?

Our organization has invested around £40,000–£50,000 (approximately $55,000–$70,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership started in April 2020, and it is ongoing. 

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

The project is ongoing; we haven’t published it yet. Everything is good so far. They’re very professional, have very good communication, and are experts on data analytics and Power BI. 

How did Smartlytics Consultancy perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication with Mostafa is clear. We started with two calls a week, and we currently have weekly calls. In each meeting, we describe the next week’s tasks. We use Power BI, Excel spreadsheets, and SharePoint.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive aspect is their ability to solve hard problems and find workarounds.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I can think of for them to improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d advise them to prepare detailed specifications.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for an organization called Holland & Barrett. We have over 1,000 stores within Europe and we’re classed as Europe’s largest health and wellbeing retailer. Our company sells anything that is related to wellness including food powders, vitamin supplements, and more. We have an annual turnover of around £800 million (approximately $1 billion USD). Moreover, we have a digital business that has a turnover of  £150 million (approximately $208 million USD).

I’m the head of multichannel operations and within that role, I oversee the subscription platform which includes the marketing, UX, fulfillment, and trading proposition. Furthermore, I also look at the supply chain management and operations for the digital team. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Smartlytics Consultancy?

We started using Smartlytics over three years ago in an interim capacity to help fill some of our analytics roles in-house. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

They help us with our data science and automation needs. Additionally, they assist in our reporting tasks on Google Analytics where they’ve put insights together and create actionable items to drive the business forward.  

They report on a consultancy basis, but they also perform bespoke work for us including tag auditing. The team continues to provide the same services while we have some colleagues on paternity and maternity leave.

What is the team composition?

We work with their lead consultant, and we’re also quite familiar with a lot of their internal data scientists and data analysts. 

How did you come to work with Smartlytics Consultancy?

We saw that they were effective, cheaper, and had the best idea. Some agencies would want to charge double for the services they provide to us. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent £50,000 (approximately $69,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership began in March 2018, and we continue to have projects with them. 

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

They are really good. The great thing about dealing with them is that they come across as a small business because they give all of their focus and attention to us. They are also very professional. We really feel that they treat us as one of their key clients and we get a really good engagement from them.  

One of their teammates has also created so much growth and value within our subscription proposition. It has really helped us to move and make some intelligent decisions on how to grow our revenue in that area. Smartlytics has really allowed us to grow our business exponentially and also contributed to the success of our overall digital proposition.  Above all, they are upfront and honest. 

How did Smartlytics Consultancy perform from a project management standpoint?

They have met every single deadline that we’ve had. The team is also capable of doing nitty-gritty work and they always come to us with good analysis. We have a really strong and robust structure. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They don’t just come in and do their job. Instead, they identify areas of opportunity for us and are not confined to what we ask of them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think they have any areas to improve. Smartlytics is reliable and open-minded. We’ll continue to partner with them for a long time. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They are naturally engaging with stakeholders and always eager to learn about their third-party customer’s business. They don’t just offer their services, they really care about providing beneficial solutions. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

Customer Success Manager at SME software provider in the digital preservation space

For what projects/services did your company hire Smartlytics Consultancy?

To provide an automated replacement for a slow and cumbersome Excel reporting solution that we were having to use for important system usage stats

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

Down select across 4-5 potential providers, SmartLytics won out on cost, flexibility and general attitude.

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

Discovery phase where they learned and shared our pain, followed by familiarisation with our data set and use cases. Then iterative solutions that increased in accuracy and usability culminating in delivering the solution integrated into SharePoint

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

• Data Analyst
• Account Manager

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

This has made our reporting much ore agile and adaptive, we can now share these performance stats around the business and use them to guide our decisions. Instead of 3-4 hours effort per week to get a weekly report, we now have 10 minutes effort per week to get a daily suite of reports

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Always available over MS Teams and email and quick to jump on a call when needed, really responsive and supportive

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

They were very calm and professional and willing to go over and above.

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

N/A