According to a report by TechCityUK released earlier this year, Bristol and Bath have been named not only the second largest digital employers outside of inner London but also have Data Analytics & Management in their top three clusters.
Big data means different things to different people, companies, organisations and communities. However, what big data largely has in common is its potential to tell us how things are working or, perhaps more importantly, how they’re not working. This puts us in a better position to identify and make improvements to our communities and our businesses.
“Big data is a buzzword that few can really articulate, because those who have the scientific, mathematical or technical knowledge to understand what is going on are in the minority”
The problem is, how do we know how useful our data could be? Where do we start and how do we conclude when we’re working with such large-scale deposits of data?
There’s also the question of how to store, retrieve and organise our data with our reliance on it increasing rapidly.
“Big data is a buzzword that few can really articulate, because those who have the scientific, mathematical or technical knowledge to understand what is going on are in the minority” says founder of data science organisation Taxonomics, Steve Johnston.
Big data solutions
Big data is something that a lot of companies are grappling with at the moment. With the South West in particular coming up with some of the most innovative solutions in the whole of the UK, we spoke to five specialist companies in the region to find out what they’re doing to solve the big data challenges.
Fed up with the double-standards and lack of a voice for consumers of digital services in the UK, and with complaints and issues raised most notably via social media platforms which, let’s be honest, rarely offer the instant fix we’re hoping for – co-founder of Actual Experience, Dave Page, wanted to find a way to provide a more consistent service for digital users.
“As we suffer through variability in quality of digital services, we can do better than a hash-tag to establish a voice”
Chief Marketing Officer, Leo McCloskey, told us: “Digital is becoming more integrated with our lives, not less. As we suffer through variability in quality of digital services, like online banking, shopping or social networks, we can do better than a hash-tag to establish a voice of quality in digital services.”
Following over a decade of academic research at Queen Mary University of London and half of that again on developing software algorithms and architecture, Actual Experience have developed a system that can analyse vast amounts of real-time data to enlighten people who care about and can address quality issues within digital performance.
“Here’s the problem”: Real-time data streams allow digital service providers
to quickly address quality issues
Having constant feedback on the digital service a company provides means they can potentially fix any issues before the consumer is even affected.
The future of digital quality
With large and international clients already using this highly innovative piece of software, including the likes of ITV and leading Japanese IT company Fujitsu – it’s clear that digital quality and consistency is becoming a priority for businesses wanting to stay a step ahead of the competition.
“The global digital economy is estimated at more than $8 trillion and the trend in all industry is data-driven quality management”
Leo continued: “The global digital economy is estimated at more than $8 trillion and the trend in all industry is data-driven quality management, as with the old adage of being unable to manage what you cannot measure.”
It’s this realisation from digital organisations that has Actual Experience expecting continued growth in the number of customers using their software to meet the increasing demand for improved digital quality.
Taxonomics, a specialist data consultancy based in Bath, combine and analyse data in clever ways to boost e-commerce sales. We spoke to Founder Steve Johnston, who explained: “We find and prioritise opportunities for revenue growth by analysing most of the possible operational scenarios in the data available from our clients to give their technology teams, e-commerce merchandisers, marketers and product buyers smart and profitable things to be doing next”.
“Our innovation is most obvious in the delivery of our reports and recommendations where we use intuitive and beautiful visualisations to focus our clients’ attentions on the biggest opportunities”.
“The use of Big Data analysis for e-commerce is in its infancy,” explains Steve, “and its application for these types of e-commerce data even more so. We are doing it because it is a conceptual and technical challenge, which makes it interesting, but also because it is revolutionary to our clients’ perceptions about how to decide what to do next to grow their business, which satisfies the unfulfilled rebels in us.”
“Big data analysis for e-commerce is revolutionary to our clients’ perceptions about how to decide what to do next to grow their business, which satisfies the unfulfilled rebels in us.”
Steve also told us how much they love the company being based in the South West, calling it “one of the coolest places on the planet”.
He’s well aware that the market for data analytics is growing hugely, arguing that “as with all new areas of business activity, big data analytics will become mainstream in due course”. Not deterred, he told us “Taxonomics will have found something even more interesting to do by the time that happens.”
Bath-based data company Claritize are all about simplicity. They’ve created a piece of software that allows you to quickly and easily gain value from your data, without the need for data scientists.
Any data can be fed into the Claritize software with setup taking next to no time; the analysis is then carried out automatically, without the customer having to figure out what they want to analyse, allowing the user to gain their own valuable insights.
“The Bristol and Bath tech scene is very well connected”:
Claritize pitch at a BathSPARK networking meetup
Andrew Carr, founder of Claritize, told us: “There are lots of great, flexible analytics tools on the market, but you need to know what you’re looking for in the data, which statistics are valid when, and how to use them. We found a lot of people were asking for a companion tool to give them insights without having to know what they were looking for. Claritize is that tool.”
Knowing what to look for
The thing that makes Claritize unique amongst the other data analytics software companies is that it doesn’t require a starting point in terms of knowing what you want to find out from your data.
“Claritize can be used before kicking off a big data project, to help to prevent costly mistakes”
Andrew explained: “Our customers are using Claritize as a companion tool to the big super flexible toolsets. They use it to give them ideas for things to look at and investigate before using the big tools to dig deeper if something useful has been highlighted.
Easy to set-up: Claritize is a great first-step for any big data project
“It can also be used before kicking off a big data project, to help to prevent costly mistakes by providing an idea of what could be gained before rolling out an expensive project.”
“In many other regions the tech scene is quite disjointed, but in Bath and Bristol it’s very well connected”
Exploring some of the reasons the South West has become such a hub for these innovative data solutions, Andrew told us: “The tech scene in Bath and Bristol has been around for a long time, with Hewlett Packard, lots of defence work and other mature tech companies, however these are now being joined by lots of amazing startups. In many other regions the tech scene is quite disjointed, but here it’s very well connected.
Businesses have a lot of information and data bound up, often in desktop folders and files that are difficult to find when needed. Bath-based Cloudfind, a company which started life as a startup at business accelerator University of Bath Innovation Centre, is all about giving people a simpler way to work with their business information. It provides a platform in which businesses can easily search and instantly find and share exactly what they’re looking for, as well as other linked information.
Chief Marketing Officer, Robert Curren told us, “We give businesses back between 10% and 25% of their working week.”
Cloud services are becoming part of one of the big solutions to data problems and we wanted to know what make Cloudfind an innovative solution.
“Cloudfind is innovative because it automatically works out how files are related to the things people are working on”
Robert explains: “Cloudfind is innovative because it automatically works out how files are related to the things people are working on. Also, because we take a cloud-first approach. It’s an incredibly complex problem to solve, combining advanced mathematical theory as well as programming.”
“Growth in big data, specifically the big data of years of accumulated files, will increase our market significantly, especially as the larger, generally more conservative companies move decades worth of files into the cloud.”
Bristol-based Cloudant, recently been acquired by IT consultancy giant IBM, demonstrate one of the local success stories in the South West. Founded by Alan Hoffman, Adam Kocoloski, and Michael Miller, the company have developed a way to support developers in automatically distributing data across multiple servers in the cloud to support a faster, more reliable and more accessible database.
They now do this by by providing a hosted and fully managed Database as a Service (DBaaS), available on all major Cloud providers.
What’s it all about? Check out this video for some animated explanations
Speaking to us about some of the most innovative features of IBM Cloudant, Product Manager Simon Metson told us:
“A key feature of Cloudant is putting the database near where it is accessed. We can deploy our system in lots of locations, and synchronise between them.”
“There are competitors in the space”, Simon explained, “but what we offer is a much more integrated experience compared to what others are doing.”
“We can run database infrastructures, from a very small scale right up to hundreds of database nodes, or millions of users”
Market Development Manager, Robin Smith, added: “What’s good for our customers is that we can run their database infrastructure for them, from a very small scale right up to hundreds of database nodes, or millions of users, and from their point of view all that changes is the monthly bill.”
“I knew talented people here in Bristol, and knew there would be a lot more”
For Cloudant, especially as a startup, being in the right location was pivotal for them in terms of making the right connections and hiring the best people. Simon told us how, back in 2013 when the company was founded, he made a case for hiring more people in Bristol:
“I knew talented people here and knew there would be a lot more. The two universities put out great graduates and the city is well connected nationally and internationally.”
Thanks very much to Actual Experience, Taxonomics, Claritize, Cloudfind and IBM Cloudant for talking to us. Keep up-to-date with their progress by following them on Twitter at: @actualexp, @Taxonomics, and @cloudfindHQ.
