Case studies
Every situation we encounter is unique in terms of the problem, the work that's already occurred, the availability and quality of the raw data and the understanding that our clients have. We also find a lot of preconceptions and assumptions which can be the cause of blind spots in the clients thinking or a reason why what should be obvious is not obvious.
Systematic review
Sometimes, just a systematic walk through of the problem space can reveal the flaw, maybe a couple of days of consultancy and a logical sounding board with a forensic eye can help move the problem resolution forwward.
Retail
Retailers typically have complex supply chain processes and capture stock counts and tractions at various points along the way. We've worked with retailers to examine how well that data reflects the business and to draw out specific process and transactional issues which are creating anomalies in their stock counts and perpetual inventry, helping point to issues in picking issues, the creation of phantom stock, issues causing and resulting from negative stock counts and so on.
Orthogonal thinking
Organisations can also be very set in their ways. There are well established patterns of thinking and even the consultancies and suppliers to that industry gear themselves around what has gone before. In essence, the ecosystem perpetuates the same modus operandi.
We blend sector experience with cross sector thinking. We worked as part of the Cambridge Service Alliance (pre D&A) where we formed a key component looking at new ways of working, and we find this independent thought extremely relevant to the services we provide. String industry specialists will often walk the same walk, and while many issues are linked to not getting the basics correct, to move forwards you sometimes need to thing differently. We can support you in both.
Health
A review of GP prescribing using publicly available information shows a wide disparity between costs, average costs, quantity of prescriptions, branded v generic drugs, class of drugs etc between practices per head of population.
The automotive industry have warranty claims and one of the skills sets is to examine the root causes of the claims and the fix first time rate, rather than just look to arbitrarily squeeze the costs down and optimise the reviews.
By extending the experiences gained in the automotive space, we can look at GP expenditure not in terms of costs, but the efficacy of the prescribing and the resulting clinical outcomes, non-elective admissions to hospitals for instance. The combination of techniques and taking a cross CCG view was not one provided by existing service providers. They were focused on simple expenditure benchmarking or switching to generic drugs. The benefits came from understanding the value of prescribing not the cost.
Insurance
Detailed analysis of one form of data can actually show unexpected insights into other areas. Following a detailed review on broker performance, the plots highlighted long term broker performance anomalies that pointed to actuarial opportunities and pricing opportunities.
Being able to bench mark any two demographics, whether split by seller, industry, size, market, or a combination of factors, especially where those factors are not rating factors, can test whether there are material differences that should be catered for. The key change has been to create individual feedback loops for each cause of loss, rather than looking at overall loss ratios for the book of business.
Long term data collection
Information about goods and services are often on the news, especially for high value items available to the public such as houses and cars.
Price comparison engines exist for hotels and people are becoming increasingly good at using these to buy the best value items when they go to buy. But its relatively new that the timing of the purchase is being assessed sp that you time your purchase more accurately. On a similar basis, understanding the early indications of product changes, price falls, car depreciation rates etc help inform the decision. Equally, the same analysis helps retailers such as used car dealers, appreciate the stock they should buy and the price they should pay.
Tesla
When Tesla started selling in the UK cars were all on long lead times and stock was in short supply. Unsurprisingly second hand values remained high. However, the brand is relatively niche, the cars are expensive and the transition from early adopters to more mainstream buyers has lead to an inflection in the market.
By collecting lists of all the cars for sale from Tesla across the world, and in the UK from leading used car sites, we are able to see the approximate volume of sales, by model, at an approx price, and how those prices are changing over time, we capture details of approx 1 in 6 of all cars they sell. We are able to model how well Tesla are crossing the chasm of growth.
We share a summary of this information to the public free of charge, this provides a one stop shop for the used car market and a premium search facility where features can be selected to find the cars you desire. We also process the information and provide corporate services to retailers to assist them in pricing and market intelligence.
