Over the last 8 years we have invested in a lot into getting how we deal with data right. Doing so has not only helped get the business back on track, but helped evolve our business model, helped inform how we scale teams and ultimately sell a further 3 times - most recently in July as part of a £2.2 billion delisting. The changes we made show how not only is increasingly important capability in managing data is becoming but how important it is to get it right now.

1. Data maturity
Building a business with data
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2. uSwitch was part of a £2.2bn acquisition of ZPG

3. After seeing steady growth and 4 acquisitions

4. The approach to data
influenced many areas
◉ Profitability
◉ Competitive position
◉ Business model
◉ Team structure
It evolved as we grew
4

5. 3 stages of data maturity as
we grew
5
1Control
Data
Past
2Flexibility
Information
Present
3Influence
Insight
Future

6. Understanding
The business model and challenges
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0

7. uSwitch is a 2 sided platform
Market
aggregation
Access to
volume
Free to use Fee per
transaction
Consumers benefit from more sellers
Sellers benefit from more consumers

8. Four key areas of optimisation
Marketing Product Commercial Regulation

9. Performance under previous ownership

10. Due diligence summarised the
issues
◉ Inability to respond to competition
◉ Poor supplier relationships
◉ Overstretched teams
10

11. Root cause was ability to
manage data
◉ Lack of data expertise
◉ Little visibility of performance
◉ Common tasks with data broke systems
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12. Control
Learning to count correctly
12
1

13. Goals and outcome
◉ Control how data is managed
◉ Understand what has happened
◉ Measure impact of changes
Improve profitability

14. ◉ An authoritative copy of all crucial data
◉ Robust data provenance and governance
controls
◉ A common language across business units
◉ Self service
A single source of truth
(SSOT)

15. ◉ Describes how to think with data
◉ See the world more clearly and accurately
◉ Better data guided decisions
Statistical thinking

16. 16
Letting humans be humans
Photo by Rock'n Roll Monkey on Unsplash

17. A SSOT helped change what
question we could answer
◉ “I have spent £x and made £y”
◉ “I understand the funnel and am able to see
problems quickly”
◉ “This happened when we changed this
system”
Graduate roles replaced by analysts

18. 18
Doubling conversion
Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

19. Randomised controlled trials
◉ Customers to the platform are randomly
assigned into groups
◉ An experimental group who see the new part
of the site being tested
◉ A control group sees what was there before
◉ Difference in response between the groups is
measured statistically

20. Example of an A/B testing dashboard

21. Conversion rate improvements across uSwitch

22. 22
Finding £1,000,000
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

23. Example email from energy supplier

24. Lessons from getting data
under control
◉ Changes the types of questions you can
answer
◉ Improvements across processes compound
◉ Don’t overestimate partners capability with
data
◉ Data can assist most decisions

25. Flexibility
Creating information from data
25
2

26. “
“Information is data endowed
with relevance and purpose.
Converting data into information
thus requires knowledge. And
knowledge, by definition, is
specialized.”
Peter Drucker.

27. Goals and outcome
◉ Allow multiple versions of the truth
◉ Understand what is happening
◉ Deeper understanding of the market
Improve competitive position

28. Multiple versions of the truth

29. 29
Becoming market leader
Photo by Steven Lelham on Unsplash

30. Google auction model

31. Google data on paid search performance

32. 32
The “Ewan shuffle”
Photo by Amanda C on Unsplash

34. 34
Meta products
Photo by Coline Beulin on Unsplash

35. Automated P&L

36. Reconciliation tool

37. Lessons from being flexible
with data
◉ Data flexibility requires a change in mindset
◉ Meta products continue to optimisation
◉ Data influences how you are structured

38. Influence
Creating and sharing insight
38
3

39. Goals and outcome
◉ Influencing external decisions
◉ Predicting what will happen
◉ Innovation and new revenue streams
Protecting and evolving the business model

40. ◉ Need to manage more data and answer harder
questions
◉ Combination of algorithms, technology and
scientific methods to extract insights
◉ Employs techniques and theories drawn from
many fields
Data science

41. 41
Energy inSight
Photo by Coline Beulin on Unsplash

42. Energy supplier inSights dashboard

43. Impact
◉ British Gas changed hedging strategy
◉ Suppliers teams have been replaced by our
tools
◉ MDs are regular users of the product
◉ We hired the first user from British Gas
Created a dependency on our platform and data

44. 44
Influencing the regulator
Photo by Hunters Race on Unsplash

46. Impact
◉ Influence those decision by more objective
measures
◉ It established a strong relationship with Ofgem
◉ Enabled us to understand the impact of these
changes and to plan early

47. 47
Predicting the future
Photo by Hunters Race on Unsplash

48. We can predict the impact of every plan

49. Choosing who to partner with

50. Lessons from influencing with
data
◉ Data helped with each sale
◉ Capture everything
◉ Data needs a story

51. Whats next?
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?

52. Each new technology lowers the
cost of something
Used in novel ways
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53. AI and machine learning are
making prediction cheap
Everything will be customised
around ourselves
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54. Conclusion
◉ Data has had a huge impact on uSwitch’s
success
◉ A data assisted approach accelerated business
growth
◉ All businesses need to adapt as new
technology emerges
Data leadership needs to start at the top

55. Any questions ?
You can find me at
◉ mike@uSwitch.com
Thanks!
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