As part of The cloud collaboration report from The EIU, this case study focuses on db5's venture into cloud-based technologies.

1. © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2015
db5 is a consultancy specialising in quantitative research in support of brand marketing with branches in Los
Angeles, New York and Chicago. It is a small but high-profile firm focused on building customised solutions for
every client using a blend of traditional and innovative methodologies; it boasts an extensive list of
household-name clients: Audi, Time Warner Cable, ConocoPhillips, Hyundai, Nestle and many others.
The cash-flow challenge
When db5 started out in 2009, its founders came from the sale of a company with $100m in revenue and
more than 300 staff. The new venture was designed to be leaner and more agile, initially with a half dozen
full-time employees. It needed flexible and powerful IT services that would allow it to compete with market
leaders at a fraction of the annual outlay of these giants. The new system needed to support strong
collaboration both internally, among employees, and externally, with clients, so that everyone involved in
a project could share drafts and revisions and expedite approvals.
“When we looked into traditional, conventional methods of IT infrastructure, the costs were huge, both in
terms of hardware and outsourcing to an IT firm or hiring someone in-house,” says Chris Hubble, db5’s CEO.
“Conservatively, it would have cost over $100,000 to do it, and that’s a heck of a lot of money when
starting up a company—when cash flow is your biggest challenge.”
A lean team of principals
The company operated with only a few hands-on partners during the start-up phase of the business. The
principals of the company collaborated to assess alternative solutions proposed by a variety of vendors
based on a balance of functionality and cost. The expertise of the db5 partners was the most important part
of the firm’s offering, and it needed solutions that would maintain a professional image and solid client-
support capabilities.
An appetite for experiment
The db5 team examined a range of innovative technologies to find the solution. Mr Hubble advises:
“Embrace technology, take the leap, frankly play with it—and remember that if it works out, it will add
value to the company, and if it doesn’t, it’s really not much of a loss.” This appetite for experimenting with
each application was a key factor for success since proponents don’t have to demonstrate ROI in advance.
“I think there is a little bit of shopping around and trial and error,” Mr Hubble says. “It’s like any free
market—it’s competitive, so you do have leverage and aren’t beholden to one particular supplier. We’ve
found cloud solutions to be very nimble—very flexible.”
db5
A professional image: supporting big-name brands on a budget
A case study from
The Economist
Intelligence Unit
Case study
[db5] needed
flexible and
powerful IT services
that would allow it
to compete with
market leaders at a
fraction of the
annual outlay.

2. © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2015
Case study
Perfecting the toolkit
db5 started with one cloud-based “do-all” and then added and removed components to build a customised
toolkit of increasingly specialised solutions. A suite of cloud-based applications facilitates collaboration
among both internal and external stakeholders. For example, db5 uses one application to merge secondary
data with primary market research, putting all into visual dashboards. “For all the work we do in them,” Mr
Hubble says, “our clients are able to have a seat or a licence, and they’re able to access the work live while
we’re gathering and compiling it. They can manipulate the work and make versions in their own right.
When we work in the social media space, that’s highly collaborative with clients, it’s literally iterative on a
day-by-day basis. Changes go back and forth.”
Some of the firm’s clients have large user bases, which gives db5 additional leverage when seeking
customised improvements from providers. “We’ve found all these partners to be very receptive to
constructive feedback”, says Mr Hubble, within reason, of course—they can’t customise everything for
every user.
Hey, this isn’t Outlook!
The biggest challenge was getting employees to integrate new collaboration and data-sharing platforms
into their daily work. Some were accustomed to email and attachments from previous jobs and needed to
adapt to more sophisticated tools. They had to be convinced that the effort of adapting would pay off in
efficiency gains, but they learned quickly.
The firm’s strategy is continuous improvement; while each tool has been rolled out quickly, the overall
cloud implementation is considered to be ongoing and perpetual. Technology champions were needed only
for the most sophisticated platforms the company uses; Mr Hubble adds that “we have someone in the
company called Keeper of the Magic who’s responsible for making sure everybody is excited about the
company and uses the tools”. For more complex software, he says, “we absolutely do have champions. It’s
part of their job description to get everybody up to speed in the first quarter.”
The acid test: client acceptance
db5 achieved its objectives of driving collaboration while scaling seamlessly over a period of rapid growth.
“We started by adopting one do-all,” says Mr Hubble, “and, over time, we tweaked it to what I would call
best-in-class services in each of the different areas.” Employees collaborate to coordinate their research
and analytical work, while clients track projects in real time. One outcome is dramatically improved
responses to urgent client needs, such as research to support “pitches” by advertising agencies. In one
case, Mr Hubble says, db5 executed a global study in less than five days, with key staff working from home.
They used cloud-based tools to collaborate throughout the entire project from proposal to survey execution
to dissemination of results. Client offices around the world had complete visibility into the project using
cloud-based sharing and video tools and the company’s web-based reporting dashboard. As a result, Mr
Hubble says, “Our client was able to pitch the entire advertising and media buying business for an airline,
in half the standard time with twice the collaborative power.”
Cost savings and efficiency were important, but client acceptance was the acid test for every potential tool.
The ability to collaborate with clients and do business with them was paramount—any complaints from
clients would trigger a search for better alternatives. “I’ve seen absolutely no signs of that,” Mr Hubble
says, “and I’ve never worked anywhere that’s had so little client dissatisfaction. Of course, I think the
quality of the work we do here is extremely high, but the fact that clients never complain suggests to me
that [cloud-based solutions] are a win.”
“Our client was able
to pitch the entire
advertising and
media buying
business for an
airline, in half the
standard time with
twice the
collaborative
power”.
Chris Hubble,
CEO db5