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Data Transformation - a Millennial Mess?

Gary Cole, MD and Founder of Lumilinks is challenging organisations to stop siloing analytics and data transformation as one. Gary urges organisations to start asking data the right questions if they want to succeed in a data driven world

As a Rackspace Alumni and data disrupter, I am applying scientific methodologies to enable organisations to tap into the 'oil rigs' of data and supercharge analytics, saving time, money and manpower.

We've seen brands like Lego, Nike, Procter & Gamble and Burberry spending millions on data transformation and failing. Businesses are leaving the 'trendy' concept of data transformation and it's six figure bills behind and are re-focusing oncost effective options such as data warehousing.

I look at data from three different lenses. Creation, collection, and distribution. In 2006, Humby coined the phrase "Data is the new oil". It must be broken down and analysed for it to have value. Advancing tech stacks are allowing us to easily create data, warehouse it and then analyse it. The question being, how do we then leverage this information to automate someone's day and make processes easier?

Cue, Lumilinks.

I founded Lumilinks in 2019 alongside Jo Dudley-Smith and Dr Tim Drye. On a mission to disrupt the traditional SaaS status quo, Lumilinks are offering analytics as a service. Using A.I. decision-making models we are empowering users to identify the optimum route to goal, helping organisations to efficiently and strategically achieve their business objectives.

We specialise in complexity theory. Which might sound intimidating, we'll admit. Complexity Theory encompasses the principles of predictive analytics, cause and effect and network analysis (how an action or actions can affect your business) in order to enable leadership teams to piece together information from any given time, be it past, present or future.

Think of it as time travel via analytics. If you could analyse your data and follow the breadcrumbs from hindsight to foresight, how much time and money would you save?

Lumilinks view analytics through four lenses; Hindsight, Insight, Prediction and Prescription. Prescriptive analytics combines all four concepts on a deeper level, enabling businesses to prescribe an exact route to growth, versus predicting potential outcomes. We answer the question of 'If I want to achieve a growth of X, I need to spend Y on this marketing campaign as I predict my return to be equal to X'.

We ask prospects 'What level is your business at?'. If you can't prescribe, how will you manage to remain competitive or increase your profit margin? Lumilinks are removing the need for costly and slow data transformation projects.

Concepts like, Data Mining, Deep learning and Big Data are great but these are just tools. Imagine building a cheap piece of furniture - you've got hundreds of pieces and an end goal, but little idea of how to achieve it or how structurally sound it might be. Why not just call the handyman?

If 'our data is a mess' is the problem, then Lumilinks believe the solution is to put more digestible data into the hands of the user. We're enabling organisations to tap into open source data sets allowing us for example, to tell a vendor from a logistical point of view ' this weekend is going to be hot and there is a surge of UK holiday bookings, so you will sell more ice-cream!' There are hundreds of connotations to even that.

The volume of data available from SaaS platforms and CRM's is untold, we enable our customers to tap into that oil rig of information. The true task should not be accessing and paying for data. It should be in putting that information into the hands of someone who can collect it, create a single source of truth and distribute it.

We partnered with Comic relief to pinpoint exactly what neighbourhoods would generate the most fundraising. Using advanced analytics Comic relief had the insight to strategically plan fundraising, resulting in outstanding 660% increase in revenue.

Organisations want to understand how to interpret what they do know, and are recognising what they don't. We can expect to see an exponential growth in the use of data warehousing as an alternative to data transformation going forward.

We act as a strategic partner, replacing the need for huge teams of analysts. We provide an environment for clients to learn and develop a knowledge of advanced analytics, meaning they aren't tied into anything long term. We build, maintain and act as 'keepers' of your data warehouse.

Organisations need to move away from thinking of data transformation and data warehousing as the same thing. Data warehousing is a key component to business intelligence, but most importantly it's about making data accessible.

It's about providing streamlined, enriched data to enable your leadership team as well as your management team to strategically execute against key KPIs which are strategically created by being a data led business. Meaning you keep aware of business risk, while keeping ahead of the curve.

Author: Gary Cole

Gary Cole founded Lumilinks in 2019 alongside Jo Dudley-Smith and Dr Tim Drye who is a former DataIQ Data Scientist of the Year. On a mission to disrupt the traditional SaaS status quo, Lumilinks offer analytics as a service using A.I. decision-making models to empower users to identify the optimum route to goal, helping organisations to efficiently and strategically achieve their business objectives.