DIGITAL DISRUPTION
DATA IS ALL around us in everincreasing quantities , but for consumer-facing industries like retail , food and beverage and leisure , it ’ s how you use it that really matters . This is the philosophy of didici , a predictive analytics software company which works with these sectors to ensure that analysing data is no longer just the domain of the seasoned data analyst or IT expert .
The UK-based software platform , which promises to help clients “ join the dots ”, was launched in April 2017 by founder Tony Brookes , who wanted to offer a more user-friendly platform than existing business intelligence ( BI ) software to help businesses of all sizes add value to their offering in an ever-competitive market . Brookes had previously worked in financial services and helped CitiGroup manage a $ 185mn budget and 400 people as Global Operations Architect . He then worked for Fidelity International , “ helping them re-platform their entire system ”, as part of separating the US and international arms of their business . These experiences helped Brookes appreciate the vast expense of implementing a BI platform , as well as “ how much you still had to do
when you had put it in ,” he adds .
“ You spend hundreds of thousands on this platform ,” Brookes explains , “ but you ’ re really only 15 % of the way there . There was lots of work integrating it , getting data and shaping it to do what you wanted . It occurred to me that the balance was the wrong way around – you should get at least 85-95 % of the way there , from the platform you choose . You shouldn ’ t
42 May 2018