Fibonacci, the Red Olive data podcast

In this episode of Fibonacci: the Red Olive Data Podcast, we chat to social housing data expert Barry McNulty from Epictetus Solutions. We discuss Barry's journey from an economics degree and early career in social housing, to becoming a senior leader in data management. Barry shares how better data analysis can provide evidence-based, data-driven decision making in social housing, and the importance of both data governance and cooperation between housing associations. He also gives his perspective on the potential of machine learning in housing and touches on the increasingly important role of data in regulatory requirements.

In this episode of Fibonacci, the Red Olive Data Podcast, we interview James Gardiner, head of data technology for Admiral Group. James has 25 years of experience working with data and has been at Admiral for the past seven years, recently managing its move to the cloud.

We chat about the importance of applying an engineering mindset to data projects, data governance, the art of the possible and more in a wide-ranging chat.

Here are the topics we discuss with their timecodes:

• How James got into data engineering (1m)
• The importance of emphasising an engineering mentality to data teams (6m 9s)
• Giving people the data to make good decisions, including live streams and integrating it with sales processes (7m 17s)
• Understanding customers to give them the best price, while balancing risk (9m)
• Scoping a project and getting both the right people and architecture in place (10m 35s)
• The importance of “the why” of a project (12m 42s)
• Security is one of the cloud’s biggest risks: how to manage that with good governance (14m)
• Training a young team to respond well when things go wrong (17m)
• Applying machine learning to monitoring (19m)
• Mesh architecture and ML Ops (20m 18s)
• Communicating well with your team and re-using code (24m 30s)
• Using data governance as an enabler, rather than a blocker (27m 50s)
• Learning from Red Olive (31m)
• The important skills for people to learn, and data automation (33m 18s)

David Grainger is as reinsurance statistician with MS Amlin, an insurance company that is a leader in the property, marine and reinsurance markets. He has worked in the IT and data space for several years and has been at MS Amlin for the past 12.

David joins us on this episode of Fibonacci, the Red Olive data podcast to talk about the challenges around data in insurance in what is a very conservative industry.

We also discuss where the opportunities are for businesses like MS Amlin that want to use analytics and insights to future-proof their technology investments and bring reporting and business value to the entire organisation.

Here are the topics we discuss with their timecodes:

• The challenges that the technology teams have to keep up with the pace of change in the business (2m 53s)
• The journey from disparate systems to a single, enterprise-wide platform (6m 6s)
• Difficulties in delivering a single platform when there are many individual programmes going on (7m 59s)
• Dangers of projects that are delivered in silos, and a ‘business as usual’ approach (8m 49s)
• Becoming a data-led business when you have multiple, business intelligence tools (12m)
• How the hub and spoke model works for the organisation (14m 26s)
• Tying the Wherescape, Infosphere and reporting platforms together so regulators can see evidence that there is good governance of personal data (14m 57s)
• Improving fraud catching capabilities (17m 11s)
• Becoming leaner to be fitter for the future (18m 22s)
• What to do when programmes don’t deliver their aspirations (20m 27s)
• Moving to the cloud, future-proofed by the Wherescape tool, and working with Red Olive (21m 33s)
• The effect of Brexit on the business, and moving data when the data is in multiple systems (26m 51s)
• The skills a data professional will need entering the industry (30m)

Today on Fibonacci, the Red Olive data podcast, we talk to Simon Benham, Head of Data Strategy at Catalyst Housing, one of the UK’s leading housing providers in London and the Home Counties. It is now part of the Peabody Group, responsible for 104,000 homes, with around 220,000 residents across London, Kent, Sussex and the Home Counties.

Simon’s background until he moved to Catalyst was in data governance in the finance sector. But is working in a housing association completely different, or does he face similar issues? 

Here are the topics we discuss with their timecodes:

• The differences and similarities between the financial services and social housing sectors (55s)
• How data can help deal with the shortage of affordable homes (3m 10s)
• Getting data into one place and improving the quality of data (3m 30s)
• Staying focussed and engaged while dealing with the background of a merger (4m 50s)
• Dealing with the audit and risk committee (7m 30s)
• Who to involve when planning a data project and ensuring data quality (12m 10s)
• Biggest challenges and opportunities when using data in the housing space (15m 20s)
• Understanding customers through data, leading to a better service (17m 37s)
• Approaching the integration of two companies’ systems (19m 18s)
• How to communicate best during a data project (21m 10s)
• Challenging those who hide behind the GDPR (25m)
• Using data to improve sustainability (27m)

Hello and welcome to Fibonacci, the Red Olive data podcast, all about data and analytics where we hear from leading specialists and get their take on the industry. We are joined today by Simon Hopkins, Director of Resources at Blind Veterans UK. This provides free support and services to vision-impaired, ex-Armed Forces and National Service personnel. 

Simon has previously held a variety of roles in the third sector at CFO, CEO and COO levels and started his career in professional practice, qualifying as a chartered accountant with KPMG in London. 

Simon is a regular columnist for Charity Finance magazine, publishes and speaks regularly on subjects ranging from financial sustainability to digital disruption. 

Here are the main topics of conversation with their timecodes:

• Learning how to rethink the relationship between money and data when moving to the charity sector (3m)
• Understanding that the customer is more sophisticated and multi-layered in the charity sector than people think (4m 41s)
• Integrating data, and the idea of one platform going out of fashion (6m)
• How important it is for a single view of data at the top is in bringing an organisation with you (6m 52s)
• Simon’s work at Blind Veterans (10m)
• Formulating a data strategy (11m 28s)
• Connecting with other organisations to help the vulnerable (16m)
• Data-rich solutions that could connect multiple sources into a marketplace of help (22m)
• Thinking of the GDPR as an asset (27m 44s)
• Where a marketplace of help could emerge from (31m)
• A map of veterans’ needs and how it helps anticipate what their future needs will be (33m)
• Using data from patients’ smartphones to help determine when interventions are needed (34m)
• The skills that you need to enter a career in the data industry (40m)
• Working strategically with Red Olive (44m)

Welcome to the latest episode of Fibonacci, the Red Olive data podcast where we speak to Carly Lund. Carly is the Chief Digital and Data Officer at YSC Consulting, a boutique professional services firm that specialises in leadership consulting. YSC helps organisations identify and develop the leaders they need to achieve their business strategies and it has been working on a massive programme of data work.

A chartered psychologist, Carly has a proven record of building, developing and leading global consulting teams that design and implement talent management solutions. We chat about the sophisticated data modelling and data science programme of work for which Carly is responsible at YSC, how automation has improved her organisation’s data quality by 100% and how data is opening new services and solutions for YSC's future business strategy.

Here are the topics with their time codes:

• How data has interacted with psychology in the past (2m 03s)
• Integrating data with YSC’s services and building data assets (4m 54s)
• Bringing the organisation with you while implementing change (7m 38s)
• How Covid and clients have driven transformation (11m 53s)
• The importance of repeating and reenforcing your messages (14m 36s)
• Building workflows to capture data consistently to build data sets (15m 09s)
• Using existing data to build efficiencies and improve services (16m 52s)
• The importance of using external data consultants (21m 54s)
• Benefits of data-driven conversations with clients (24m 10s)
• Excitement around personalisation of services (25m 44s)
• The future role of data in understanding people in organisations (27m 44s)
• When people are happy to provide data, and when they are not (30m 29s)
• Marrying data skills with commercial ability (33m 0s)
• Skills that the leaders of the future will need to thrive (34m 30s)

Thanks for joining us for episode four of Fibonacci, the Red Olive data podcast where we discuss the issues that businesses need to consider when extracting more value from the data they hold.

Steve Taberner, head of data platforms at Kingfisher plc, chats with Nicky in this episode. Steve is a business intelligence and analytics leader with a track record of delivering innovation, modernisation and transformation in large organisations, including Travis Perkins, Elsevier and Vodafone.

• How data has been essential for companies making decisions during the pandemic (2 minutes 16 seconds)
• Using personas to understand your customers (3 minutes 50 seconds)
• What winning in a marketplace means (7 minutes 39 seconds)
• Using data to improve supply chains (9 minutes 15 seconds)
• The main challenge faced when using data models to make decisions (11 minutes)
• Creating a self-service culture in an organisation (12 minutes)
• The importance of persuading people to think about reports in a different way (14 minutes 24 seconds)
• Capturing trial knowledge within an organisation through a data platform project (17 minutes 21 seconds)
• Top-down buy-in and bottom-up awareness is key to a self-service data model being successful (19 minutes 18 seconds)
• Whether a centralised business intelligence function is needed in a modern business (20 minutes 48 seconds)
• The biggest changes coming in the next 18 months (23 minutes 44 seconds)
• What skills should people look to develop if they would like to progress their career? (25 minutes 52 seconds)

 If you want to join in the discussion, please drop us an email at [email protected]. And please do subscribe to the podcast using whichever service works best for you.

Ben Barrass is the group head of data at Centaur Media, a provider of market intelligence and publisher of publications such as Econsultancy, Design Week and The Lawyer. He is responsible for planning and execution of the data strategy across all the digital subscription products the company runs. With over 19 years of experience across a range of digital business operations, he is a marketing technology expert.

Coming up in the episode:

• Ben gives the perspective of a data professional in a central team within a large organisation containing different businesses that service very distinct audiences. (1m 35s)
• Moving print-based publications to digital successfully (3m 17s)
• Standardising and harmonising services, reports and removing silos of knowledge (4m 40s)
• A new way to think about what data we collect and whether it is worth sending an email to the people on your email list that never open it. (9m 23s)
• How to use data to help people that have been in the organisation for a long time (14 m 3s)
• The importance of building data collection in a project from the outset and the dangers of relying on ‘phase two’ of a project (20m 52s)
• The increasing importance of data literacy in an organisation (25m 53s)

In today’s episode of Fibonacci, the Red Olive data podcast, we continue our discussion with Chief Data Officer Robin Hayden. Check out part one if you missed it. With over 20 years of experience in the industry, Robin has seen and done it all. In this part, Robin shares:

• What to consider if you are having a data strategy re-think.
• The approaches and technologies that are better than ELT (Extract, Load, Transform).
• Changing your thinking so that you can gain efficiencies and steal a march on your competitors.
• Thinking about data as something that will make the product experience a lot smarter, rather than simply as something you do in reports.
• Integrating machine learning models with products.
• The benefits of focussing a data team on their core competencies.
• Skills people should think about developing if they want to get ahead in the industry.

Let us know what you think by emailing us at [email protected], and please subscribe to the podcast to make sure you get to hear every episode.

Welcome to Fibonacci, the Red Olive data podcast. This new, regular podcast is another way for us at Red Olive to help empower businesses to extract the value from the data they hold. We will be talking to different figures within the industry and asking them about the latest trends in AI and big data, getting their take on the issues that matter to them and amassing some hints and tips along the way. 

In our first episode, we are joined by Chief Data Officer Robin Hayden. He has worked for over 20 years in the field of data and has a wealth of experience in machine learning, AI, large scale engineering, analytics and product development across various chief data officer roles. He has delivered over 100 machine learning models into production, been responsible for tens of millions in additional revenue and hundreds of millions in spend.

Our wide-ranging chat covers lots of different areas, including:

• How edge computing could lead to several benefits, such as greener computing. 
• What the future might look like as products become connected and smarter.
• The crypto space and its relationship to a more democratic sharing of resources.
• Data ethics and how the bias in some algorithms could be an opportunity for civil society to have a conversation about years of discrimination.
• The opportunity offered by the cloud for engineering teams to focus on activities that differentiate their offering from their competition.
• CI/CD as a provider of early, fast, cheap feedback in the development process.

Have a listen to the podcast and let us know your views by emailing [email protected]. If you like what you hear, please subscribe to the podcast on whichever service you get them from.