Merry Hill is one of the largest regional malls in the UK, encompassing over 200 shops such as major flagships Primark, M&S and Next. Sovereign Centros from CBRE were appointed asset managers of the former Intu asset in 2022, and have since expanded the retail, F&B, and leisure offering, with recent high profile openings including Hollywood Bowl and national debuts for Harvey Norman and XF Gym.

When Merry Hill chose to invest in renovating the M&S flagship store, they needed to quantify the impact changes would have on performance. This required a robust simulation of the future turnover and resulting footfall. In this blog, we uncover the steps that CACI took to help Merry Hill understand the impact of refurbishing M&S and gain investors’ approval to execute it.

How CACI evidenced outcomes of refurbishing Merry Hill’s M&S

CACI compiled a report covering an overview of M&S’ current performance, the impact of a refurbishment on the retailer’s turnover and the cross-shopping potential it could bring across Merry Hill. The report also considered factors such as benchmark centre sales where M&S had already been upgraded, annual trips to Merry Hill should the refurbishment not take place, and potential customer loss to Bullring & Grand Central mall where a new M&S was due to open.

The data sources included in CACI’s report were:

• Transactional Spend Data: Derived from real-world debit card spend data from multiple sources, Transactional Spend Data is a fully consented view of spending patterns. It offers granularity into how different groups interact and how customers engage through an analysis of spend by product category.
• Acorn: CACI’s consumer segmentation model combines geography with a variety of demographics and lifestyle data sources, grouping the entire population into 6 Categories, 18 Groups and 62 Types. It supplies insights into the role that demographics plays in impacting the performance of a location and helps identify key users of a site.
• Location Dynamics: CACI’s machine learning tool predicts the retail, grocery and leisure catchments of over 6,000 destinations in the UK. It considers underlying population and spend, competitive landscapes and accessibility to each destination to model overlapping catchments. In this context, Location Dynamics was used to predict the centre’s performance, and overlap with Birmingham city centre, allowing for a comparison to actual sales to understand where and how the centre could grow turnover.
• Brand Dimensions: CACI’s benchmarking tool tracks the performance of 300 major brands over time. In this instance, it examined M&S spend performance nationally and at benchmarked locations.

What value would refurbishing Merry Hill’s M&S bring?

Having been at Merry Hill for three decades, investing in a refurbishment of M&S would solidify its continued commitment to the centre.

Increase in average spend, dwell time & turnover

CACI uncovered that centres with a refurbished M&S store have seen an increase in average spend per head in benchmark centres by 2.2%, which could help generate a substantial turnover at Merry Hill. With M&S accounting for 11% of centre floorspace at Merry Hill, improving its appearance could impact the ambience of the rest of Merry Hill and contribute to an uplift in dwell time, retail spend, and catering for the wider centre. Refurbishing Merry Hill’s M&S would also accelerate turnover at both the store and across the centre, as refurbishment is cited as a key factor for increasing sales.

Appealing to younger, more affluent demographic

Our research has shown that refurbished stores tend to attract younger, more affluent shoppers. While Merry Hill’s diverse shopper profile of Executive Wealth, Mature Money, and Steady Neighbourhoods Acorn groups is well aligned to key shoppers for M&S, key groups have all under performed versus catchment expectation. A refurbished M&S would appeal to these underperforming visitors.

A reported 82% of M&S shoppers also go on to spend in other stores at Merry Hill. Therefore, the new footfall that a refurbished M&S would attract would benefit other tenants in the centre.

Sales growth from new & existing shoppers

Within this project, we were able to quantify the number of new Merry Hill visitors that would be generated as a result of the refurbished M&S, with considering factors including their potential spend in M&S and their spill-over expenditure across the wider centre.

Graeme Jones, Executive Director at Sovereign Centros from CBRE: “M&S has been a big part of Merry Hill for several decades, so any decision about their future is one that needed to be made with real consideration of the potential impact on the destination. When we decided that we wanted them to introduce their latest shop fit, while consolidating from two units into one to create new opportunities, we started to create a proposal for M&S that would make the best possible case for a significant investment commitment. The data and insight from CACI was a crucial element of that business case, emphasising the rationale from a visitor, brand, and landlord perspective. It helped achieve a positive outcome for all parties, and the new M&S store is already beating commercial targets, and has had a big impact on Merry Hill and its visitor numbers.”

Ellie Brettell, Senior Property Consultant at CACI: “We’re increasingly being asked to support decisions like this one, where significant investment is involved and multiple parties need reassurance that the right choice is being made. Our objective, data-driven approach helps provide that clarity. Our contribution to this fantastic deal for Merry Hill was possible because of our expertise working for brands and owners of places – we understand the goals and potential impacts on both sides and can therefore create a report that rationalises a decision for all parties. Our evidence base made it clear that this deal would create positive outcomes for everyone involved, so naturally we’re proud that our work has helped to deliver such tangible success.”

How CACI can help

The insights provided through CACI’s report instilled both internal and external stakeholders with the necessary confidence to make significant investments in the refurbished M&S. To learn more about our products and data available from key partners to generate a single view of the UK property market, contact us today.

Building on the data-driven revolution

In our last piece, we examined how data has become indispensable to successful brand activation within the FMCG industry. As brands grapple with intensifying competition, shifting consumer behaviours, and tighter marketing budgets, one thing has become clear: data-driven insights aren’t just helpful, they’re essential.

Mobility and demographic data have already proven their worth in helping FMCG brands enhance precision targeting and campaign execution. But despite these advances, a fundamental challenge remains attributing success. Many FMCG leaders continue to invest heavily in brand activations, yet struggle to confidently answer the question, “What’s actually driving impact?” This is where Commercial Mixed Modelling (CMM) steps in as a transformational solution.

What is CMM and why does it matter for FMCG leaders?

CMM is a sophisticated analytical approach that blends multiple data sources to evaluate marketing effectiveness across a variety of channels and activities. Unlike traditional attribution models, which can falter in the face of complex, multi-touchpoint campaigns, CMM offers a holistic view. It considers how different factors, both controllable (e.g., media spend, promotions) and uncontrollable (e.g., seasonality, economic conditions) interact to influence outcomes such as sales, brand awareness, or loyalty.

For FMCG brands, where activations are rarely isolated events and often coincide with in-store promotions, retailer initiatives, or national campaigns, CMM provides the clarity needed to truly understand what’s working and why.

Addressing core challenges in FMCG brand activation

CMM directly tackles some of the most pressing issues faced by FMCG marketers today:

• Attributing impact with precision

FMCG activations often form part of a wider marketing ecosystem, running alongside digital ads, trade promotions, and in-store merchandising. CMM enables marketers to untangle this web, isolating the effects of specific activations and understanding their contribution to brand and commercial outcomes, whether that’s increased footfall, improved sentiment, or uplift in sales.

• Integrating diverse data for better decisions

Through the integration of sales performance data, mobility patterns (understood as aggregated, anonymised consumer movement trends), demographic profiles, retailer-level data, and external influences such as weather or inflation, CMM offers a multi-layered understanding of campaign effectiveness. This enables evidence-led planning and removes the guesswork from decision-making.

• Optimising future campaigns for ROI

With the pressure to do more with less, FMCG brands need certainty that their activation investments will deliver. CMM highlights not just what worked, but where diminishing returns begin to set in, helping avoid oversaturation and refine budget allocation. By identifying the channels, formats, and regions that generate the strongest return, brands can maximise every pound spent.

Unlocking further value through scenario simulation and segmentation

One of the most powerful aspects of CMM is its ability to simulate potential future scenarios. This allows FMCG brands to explore “what-if” situations, such as reallocating spend between digital and experiential or launching activations in a different retailer network, before committing budgets. These simulations go beyond mere optimisation and support strategic foresight.

Additionally, CMM supports multi-level modelling. This means performance can be assessed not just in aggregate, but across segments such as:

• Retailer chains (e.g. how does an activation perform in Tesco vs. Sainsbury’s?)
• Geographic regions (e.g. urban vs. rural engagement)
• Product types (e.g. impulse snacks vs. household essentials)

Such granularity helps marketers fine-tune activations for maximum relevance and resonance with their audience.

Transforming FMCG brand activation with CMM

For FMCG brands, the integration of CMM into brand activation strategies is not just a step forward, it’s a game changer. By enabling detailed impact attribution, uncovering insights at multiple levels, and offering predictive simulations, CMM elevates brand activations from tactical campaigns to strategic growth levers.

Whether you’re determining the true uplift from a sampling campaign, planning activations across national retailers, or seeking to avoid overspend through better budget control, CMM gives you the confidence to act with clarity.

Read our short infographic to learn how CACI’s Commercial Mix Modelling can transform your business strategy.

Ready to take your activations further?

Our FMCG experts are here to help you unlock the full potential of data-driven brand engagement. Get in touch today to discover how CMM can transform your next campaign into a measurable success.

The direct-to-consumer (DTC) subscription space has experienced remarkable growth in recent years, with brands such as Huel, HelloFresh, Beauty Pie and Whoop becoming household names. The appeal is clear, convenience, personalisation, and a regular stream of products delivered directly to the customer’s door.

But as the market expands, so too does the competition. New brands are launching constantly, each offering their own take on the subscription model. In this crowded space, standing out and staying relevant has never been more important.

One asset continues to distinguish the leaders from the rest: data. And not just any data, but high-quality, well-structured, actionable data, paired with smart analytics and insight-driven strategies. For DTC subscription brands, the ability to understand and act on customer data can be the difference between long-term growth and slow decline.

The data advantage in a competitive market

DTC subscription models naturally generate rich pools of customer data. Every order, preference, skipped delivery or cancellation helps to build a clearer picture of who your customers are and how they behave.

This wealth of data is a significant advantage, but only if it’s properly harnessed. When collected, cleaned and analysed, it can power everything from personalised communications to churn prevention and sustainable growth. Without it, brands are essentially flying blind in a market where insight is everything.

Retention: Knowing your customers, keeping your customers

Retention is the cornerstone of subscription success. Acquiring new customers is just the beginning, keeping them engaged and subscribed is where the real value lies.

But customer loyalty is fragile. Understanding why subscribers leave is critical. According to the 2024 State of Subscription Commerce Industry Outlook,

• 38% of consumers cancel a subscription due to financial pressures,
• 37.9% do so because they no longer want the service, and
• 22.2% say the price is no longer justified.

With this knowledge, brands can adopt a more proactive approach to retention:

• Segment your audience to understand who your loyal advocates are, who is at risk, and who may need re-engaging.
• Predictive analytics can help flag early signs of churn, such as skipped deliveries or changes in usage.
• Personalised re-engagement tactics, based on prior behaviours and preferences — can help win customers back with relevant offers, reminders, or tailored product suggestions.

Retention isn’t just about keeping a customer on a plan — it’s about continuously proving your value in ways that resonate personally.

Personalisation: Meeting customer expectations every step of the way

Today’s consumers expect more than a generic experience. Personalisation has become a baseline requirement. A 2024 Recurly report found that 74% of consumers cite personalisation as one of the top reasons for subscribing.

That means understanding who your customers are, what they care about, and how they want to engage. Personalisation is no longer a “nice to have”, it’s a driver of acquisition, engagement and loyalty.

To personalise effectively, brands must:

• Know which messages resonate with specific customer segments.
• Understand if some groups are more motivated by sustainability, while others care more about value for money.
• Adapt product recommendations and content based on past behaviour and preferences.

When brands show they truly understand their customers, they foster deeper connections — and that translates into longer-term relationships. 

Growth: Finding your next customers

Growth in the subscription space doesn’t mean casting a wide net and hoping for the best. The most successful DTC brands take a targeted approach, using their existing customer data to find lookalike audiences with a high likelihood to convert.

• By profiling your existing customer base, you can uncover the traits, behaviours and preferences that define your best customers.
• These insights allow you to find new audiences that mirror these key characteristics, creating highly efficient acquisition campaigns that target the right people, not just any people.
• Understanding why your customers buy from you also allows you to refine your value proposition, ensuring it’s aligned with what matters most to your target audience.

With rich data and actionable insights, growth becomes more predictable, more efficient and more sustainable.

Aligning with customer values

Modern consumers are increasingly values driven. For many, sustainability is no longer optional, it’s expected. A 2023 survey by Loop Subscriptions found that 73% of consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable products.

For DTC brands, this presents an opportunity to connect more deeply with customers by:

• Highlighting sustainability efforts in communications.
• Offering eco-friendly product options or packaging.
• Tailoring messaging for customers who value ethical practices.

Sustainability isn’t just good for the planet — it’s good for retention.

Data as a competitive edge

In such a fast-moving and competitive sector, the brands that succeed will be those that treat data as a strategic asset, not just an operational by-product.

It’s not just about having data — it’s about ensuring it’s high-quality, well-structured, enriched, and analysed in a way that powers smarter decisions across acquisition, retention and personalisation.

DTC subscription businesses have an inherent data advantage. Those who embrace this, invest in it, and apply the right analytical tools will not only understand their customers better — they’ll also build more engaging experiences, stronger retention strategies and smarter growth plans.

Data isn’t just numbers on a screen — it’s the blueprint for competitive advantage.

Want to discover how your subscription business can turn data into a competitive advantage?

Speak to CACI’s data science experts today — we’ll help you unlock the insights that drive growth.

In our previous blog in this three-part series, we explored the ‘meal delivery model’ for the Power BI platform and the tools and teams required to bring this model and its methodology to life. In the final blog of this series, we’ll assess how new practices can be embedded and users empowered as the solution build is underway, as well as how to effectively carry out the handover process for a seamless go-live. 

To read our full whitepaper that outlines additional methodology and best practices to unlock all that Power BI has to offer, click here.   

Embedding new practices and empowering your users

To effectively embed new practices and empower users, evaluating training and resources will be fundamental for a successful Power BI migration. Conducting a training and resource assessment to evaluate users’ training needs and ensure they’re equipped with the necessary skills and confidence to use Power BI will be key to maximising its value. Planning a range of training for various users will be particularly impactful in this case, as will offering the right training to the right users. Communicating expectations, project and migration updates and overarching benefits will also be critical, especially when users are asked to contribute and to change established practices. 

The handover process

Prior to going live, ensuring the necessary solution documentation is in place for both user and developer reference will be vital. Holding handover sessions for your BI team, your IT team and management, unifying support and resources and making sure the helpdesk is both responsive and reactive to any technical issues that arise will bolster this.  

To help determine response times for any technical issues arising, users’ needs that would have arisen during the discovery phase of the project must be understood. Departmental or team champions for non-technical Power BI users can therefore bolster outcomes in these circumstances, and managed support can alleviate the burden of updates and adaptations in fast-changing NHS environments.  

Time must be allocated for handover sessions for the BI team, IT team and management. This will serve as an additional opportunity to reiterate the benefits of the new PowerBI solution along with a practical introduction. Consistent monitoring and feedback should be sought out to refine helpdesk processes and continue deriving the full benefits that the solution can provide as the handover stage continues.  

While PowerBI is an exceptionally flexible platform and will expand and adapt to accommodate new data and reporting requirements, having the necessary development resources available to make changes and upkeep the solution will be paramount. 

How CACI can help

Migrating to PowerBI enables NHS stakeholders to achieve new strategic goals and transform their analytical capabilities. CACI understands the value that migrating to PowerBI can bring, which is why we have developed our own set of best practices and key principles for PowerBI migrations within the NHS. We strive to deliver a seamless migration built on our extensive experience in NHS data and technology, prioritising stakeholder engagement, providing reliable reporting, secure data sharing and self-sufficient BI capabilities for data-driven decision-making. 

For more information or help with Power BI project planning, delivery or ongoing managed services, contact us today. To learn more about how you can tap into the power of Power BI, our whitepaper outlines the best practices and methodology that will boost your understanding and usage. 

Read the rest of the series here:

Uncovering the power of Power BI: ‘meal delivery’ model & critical resources

Uncovering the power of Power BI: discovery & delivery framework

In our previous blog in this three-part series, we uncovered the value of thorough discovery and how to build a successful project delivery framework. Today, we’ll explore the ‘meal delivery model’ for the Power BI platform and the tools and teams required to bring this model and its methodology to life.  

To read our full whitepaper that outlines additional methodology and best practices to unlock all that Power BI has to offer, click here. 

What is the ‘meal delivery’ model for Power BI?

The ‘meal delivery’ model is an analogy for Power BI data insight in NHS systems, stemming from a challenge of making data insight (food) available to a range of different NHS users (eaters). In this context, there are a range of preferences and capabilities among Power BI users and audiences to consider. Therefore, data architecture must enable the experiences and nuances within them, catering to the specific needs of various users: 

• Analysts: These users will need direct portal access to usable data building blocks and analytics tools. With the ‘meal delivery’ model in mind, these users will need to select quality ingredients to make a meal for themselves.  
• Executive users: These users need dashboard access to pull reports from selected datasets. They will want the ingredients packaged and provided along with a basic recipe to make the meal in a way that best suits their individual needs.  
• Report consumers: Finally, these users will need Power BI reports sent direct to their inbox or accessible from Teams. They will want the meal delivered to them, ready to eat. 

The people and tools that make it happen

Using all the insights that have been discovered, a plan can be created to maximise Power BI benefits and meet all identified requirements, goals and constraints. The development process and method will determine the pace of the Power BI implementation and the level of disruption to business as usual. It will also define a team’s size, roles, skills required and cost of resources. An Agile Scrum Project method can be utilised here to maximise developer and user collaboration and allow for continuous improvement across each sprint to incorporate change in a controlled way without derailing the project’s progress.  

With Power BI project delivery being split into two workstreams— one being data and infrastructure, the other reporting— this method offers the flexibility to continuously embed best practices and ensure data and infrastructure workstreams do not diverge.  

How CACI can help

Migrating to PowerBI enables NHS stakeholders to achieve new strategic goals and transform their analytical capabilities. CACI understands the value that migrating to PowerBI can bring, which is why we have developed our own set of best practices and key principles for PowerBI migrations within the NHS. We strive to deliver a seamless migration built on our extensive experience in NHS data and technology, prioritising stakeholder engagement, providing reliable reporting, secure data sharing and self-sufficient BI capabilities for data-driven decision-making.  

For more information or help with Power BI project planning, delivery or ongoing managed services, contact us today. To learn more about how you can tap into the power of Power BI, our whitepaper outlines the best practices and methodology that will boost your understanding and usage. 

In the upcoming and final blog in this series, we’ll investigate new practices to be embedded and how to empower your users to ensure a successful handover. 

Read our previous blog in the series ‘Uncovering the power of Power BI: discovery & delivery framework’ here

NHS organisations that pursue data transformation will achieve substantial changes in their data-driven decision-making that ultimately improves efficiency, quality and patient experience. Power BI is an optimal contender for NHS organisations seeking a complete data transformation. However, achieving this and reaping its many benefits requires a carefully planned migration process, necessitating a partnership with a reliable data partner that possesses innate experience.  

Having worked with many NHS organisations over the years to plan and implement data migrations, this three-part blog series is developed from the principles of our Power BI migration methodology and real-world experience of NHS data projects, sharing key questions you should consider asking and areas to address to ensure a successful migration to Power BI. 

As such, the series begins with understanding the value of thorough discovery and how to build a successful project delivery framework. To read our full whitepaper that outlines additional methodology and best practices to unlock all that Power BI has to offer, click here. 

The value of thorough discovery

Unearthing all the information that will influence and affect your migration is a vital—albeit lengthy— first step. Skimping on discovery can compromise the solution’s effectiveness. 

Stakeholder mapping and collaboration

Stakeholder mapping and collaboration can make a significant impact to help define migration goals, as it will unearth possible issues and harvest key requirements to define migrations goals. Workshops with key stakeholders can aid this process, helping establish users’ needs and gauging their use of the Power BI platform. 

Conduct a current state analysis

Reviewing current data architecture, data processing locations and transformation methods will help you intrinsically understand stored data and information flows. During this review, inefficiencies within the operating landscape where your new solution will be situated can be identified and a solid foundation for new data architecture objectives can be built and defined. 

Building the project delivery framework

Building a successful project delivery framework will begin with defining features and functionalities required, including visualisations, connectivity, AI functions, data modelling and relationships between datasets. Ensuring you have a single version of the truth that is built on high quality data will also be critical. Reporting and analysis must also be transparent, enabling users and auditors to visualise how figures are produced. To facilitate this, solutions and configurations by audience type should be proposed to ensure users’ needs and Power BI access requirements will be met. 

Furthermore, developing a full target data architecture and identifying software/licensing requirements based on an assessment of your current analytics development process and available resources will be an integral part of the development of this framework. Availability will also need to be considered, as will security across all apps, including different access levels and permissions. 

How CACI can help

Migrating to PowerBI enables NHS stakeholders to achieve new strategic goals and transform their analytical capabilities. CACI understands the value that migrating to PowerBI can bring, which is why we have developed our own set of best practices and key principles for PowerBI migrations within the NHS. We strive to deliver a seamless migration built on our extensive experience in NHS data and technology, prioritising stakeholder engagement, providing reliable reporting, secure data sharing and self-sufficient BI capabilities for data-driven decision-making. 

For more information or help with Power BI project planning, delivery or ongoing managed services, contact us today. To learn more about how you can tap into the power of Power BI, our whitepaper outlines the best practices and methodology that will boost your understanding and usage. 

Stay tuned for the next blog in this series, where we’ll explain the ‘meal delivery model’ and the teams and tools that activate it. 

Benefits of marketing mix modelling (MMM)

For any marketing activities to be successful, understanding consumers’ behaviours and whether a channel is oversaturated is essential. While data and analysis play undeniably important roles in this, marketing mix modelling (MMM) plays an even greater one, representing the merging point of data and analysis with the psychology of consumer understanding.  

Marketing mix modelling (MMM) is a statistical tool that enables an understanding of how each part of an organisation’s marketing activity impacts consumers’ behaviours, sales, return on investment (ROI) and more. Through MMM, an organisation’s performance can be broken down by channel and various types of data can be incorporated to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing activities and determine which are making the most substantial differences to the organisation’s overall performance. 

• Enables organisations to quantify and measure marketing channels effectively to assess which drive the most sales and return on investment 
• Equips organisations with long-term insights that will bolster planning through effective forecasting and marketing campaign generation based on previous performance  
• Helps organisations allocate budgets according to the best performing channels due to measuring growth based on investments
• Instils confidence due to its statistical reliability and being privacy-safe, both of which are particularly important in a post-cookie world
• Offers organisations a holistic view of the impacts that various factors will have on achieving specific KPIs, ensuring marketers can make more informed decisions based on how and when marketing activities will impact KPIs. 

How do marketing mix modelling (MMM) & commercial mix modelling (CMM) work?

Marketing mix modelling (MMM)

Marketing mix modelling (MMM) is used by organisations aiming to understand how marketing activities impact KPIs being measured. Its ability to measure the impact that certain pricing choices, promotional offers, product launches or advertising campaigns may have on sales makes it a game-changer for organisations. 

In MMM, the dependent variable used to assess the relationship between sales and marketing activities is usually:  

• Sales volume: to assess the impact of different marketing activities on sales 
• Revenue: to track the amount of money generated by sales 
• Competitor analysis: to understand how your organisation’s marketing activities are affecting your position in the market. 

In contrast, the independent variables in MMM are the marketing activities or factors that might drive those results, such as: 

• Advertising spend: the amount invested in promotion across various channels. 
• Price: to explore the impact of price adjustments on sales 
• Promotions: discounts, coupons, or offers that could increase sales 
• Distribution: the potential impact of product availability across various locations on sales. 

Commercial mix modelling (CMM)

Commercial mix modelling (CMM) is an analytical approach that examines a variety of commercial factors that drive an organisation’s performance. It begins with collecting data from across the organisation on pricing, promotions, distribution channels, products and more, combining the resulting data into a cohesive dataset.

The insights presented within the dataset help organisations gauge which factors contribute most to performance and where investments result in the highest returns. It also enables organisations to test various scenarios— price changes, promotional adjustments, changes within distribution channels— to assess the potential impact on performance. Through this, organisations can optimise their overall commercial mix to grow and become more profitable.  

How does commercial mix modelling (CMM) differ from marketing mix modelling (MMM)?

While both commercial mix modelling (CMM) and marketing mix modelling (MMM) are granular approaches that help organisations analyse the impact of marketing activities, their scope, methodology and applications differ.  

Scope

CMM offers a broader approach when it comes to evaluating the marketing activities that would impact an organisation’s performance, integrating various functions to optimise revenue and profitability. It encompasses external, non-marketing data sources such as weather, seasonality, competitor pricing, interest rates, etc.  

MMM, on the other hand, is more partial, purely marketing data that offers a more detailed and expansive result. As a statistical analysis method, it quantifies the impact that marketing activities— campaigns, paid advertisements, promotions, etc.— have on specific KPIs. Focusing more on media and investments rather than a wider marketing strategy, its granularity is what marks its stark contrast to CMM.  

Despite the broad scope of CMM, it is just as granular and technical as MMM. 

Methodology

CMM blends analytics, business intelligence and strategic insights, considering both internal and external factors that can affect an organisation’s growth. The approach entails: 

• Scoping & data auditing:
  • Understanding the KPIs and defining whether the model should target revenue, acquisitions, renewals or some combination form the scoping basis. Data auditing includes tech and journey mapping to determine the stages comprising the funnel for lead gen and closing, as well as the tools and tech used at each stage. 
• Data collation & cleaning:
  • This includes a data request to outline the full scope of what can be used in the model, with cleansing, organising and playback taken into consideration to check for completeness and broad accuracy. During this stage, data is also combined and reaggregated for ingestion into the model. 
• Exploratory analysis & feature configuration:
  • Plotting all the raw data to understand distribution and periodicity and exploring this raw data to identify gaps and anomalies is conducted during this stage. Correlation analysis helps find feature relationships and possible collinearity, feature types are configured for use in the model and decay is applied (AdStock) to channel features to simulate the memory effect of advertising.
  • Diminishing returns to channel features simulate channel saturation and other transformations such as smoothing or feature combination.  
• Pre-processing & feature engineering:
  • Calendar and dummy variables can be included to represent milestones and seasonality, with each variable transforming across a range of parameters to find the most realistic behaviour. 
• Commercial mix modelling (an iterative process with pre-processing & feature engineering):
  • Once the model for the approach is scoped (e.g. logistic vs. linear, pooled, nested, hierarchical) and fit for processed features to optimise accuracy and generalising power, it is then checked against existing commercial knowledge and external priors and returned to feature processing to refine variables and tune parameters accordingly.
  • All candidate variables are imported and tested from the pre-processing stage. Finally, the model is refined continually by adjusting variables to optimise statistical measures of accuracy. 
• Optimisation & simulations:
  • The present channel saturation is analysed, the optimal channel mix is delegated for specific budgets and results are presented from scenario simulations to understand which channels have headroom and which are oversaturated.
  • A budget guide is provided for optimising revenue and the ability to plan for different scenarios: mitigating headwinds, capitalising on opportunity and planning contingencies. 
• Next steps & recommendations:
  • Recommendations are given based on budget optimisations and added value. 

MMM, in comparison, focuses on econometric modelling and regression analysis to determine the contributions made by various marketing channels on an organisation’s outcomes. Econometric modelling is a statistical, mathematical approach that quantifies the relationship between marketing activities and business outcomes, built with historical data. Regression analysis is a technique used within econometric modelling to measure the impact of independent variables (marketing activities) on dependent variables (sales or revenue). 

Application

Senior executives and C-suite employees may use CMM for longer-term strategic planning and decision-making, whereas MMM would be used by marketing teams to optimise spending and budget allocation towards campaigns or advertisements.  

The broader scope of CMM enables senior executives and C-suite employees to gain a complete picture of the various commercial drivers and their impact on marketing rather than isolated results. On the other hand, the granularity of MMM ensures marketing teams strategically plan and forecast how changes in spending across channels might impact sales and plan scenarios accordingly. 

How to build a marketing mix model

The first step in building a marketing mix model will be to collate and prepare your data. This will involve collecting historical data on sales and marketing spend across different channels and should go back far enough in time to effectively capture market conditions and seasonality fluctuations. 

Next, selecting the appropriate model to facilitate this will be crucial. Selecting the model can come from its robustness or flexibility, catering to your organisation’s unique needs. 

Building the model will come after this. This will include defining the relationship between marketing spend and sales or other KPIs and considering carryover effects, saturation or external factors. 

Furthermore, fitting the model will use your historical data to estimate the parameters of the MMM. Once the model is fit, the results can be analysed to precisely determine their contributions towards each marketing channel. 

Finally, the insights gleaned from these results can help you adjust marketing strategies accordingly, increase budgets within the highest-performing channels and reduce it in those underperforming. 

Examples of marketing mix modelling (MMM)

Organisations across a variety of industries can apply marketing mix modelling (MMM) to lead to improved outcomes. A few of such examples include:  

• Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG): Gathering data on sales, advertisements, campaigns and pricing can help CPG organisations understand which channels—digital advertising, TV campaigns, etc.— drive the most overall return on investment. 
• Retailers: From seasonal promotions to discounts and the influence of both in-store and online presence, retailers can leverage MMM to understand peak performance periods, digital sales and foot traffic to allocate budgets accordingly or reassess promotional calendars.  
• Financial Services: Financial institutions can use MMM to evaluate their multi-channel advertising efforts and ensure they are reaching the appropriate audiences, encouraging sign-ups.  

Why businesses should choose CACI to carry out CMM 

CACI supports businesses in their delivery of optimised marketing efficiency by: 

• Determining the value and performance of activity through evolved multi-touch and econometric modelling 
• Producing results to sustain and increase growth through targeted investment and improved marketing performance 
• Delivering improved accuracy, consistency and availability of marketing performance insights 
• Enhancing capability by evolving data, technology and process 
• Supporting the provision of ongoing strategic and delivery resource 
• Helping businesses dig into bespoke segments and utilise in-house data products to unlock insights 
• Offer businesses location-based insights into the effects that marketing has at various levels, from stores to regions.  

Find out more about the impact that marketing mix modelling can have on your business by contacting us today. 

Click here to read our short infographic to learn how CACI’s Commercial Mix Modelling can transform your business strategy.

Sources:

• https://www.ruleranalytics.com/blog/analytics/marketing-mix-modelling/  
• https://www.ruleranalytics.com/blog/analytics/marketing-mix-modelling/ 
• https://kleene.ai/marketing-mix-modelling/ 
• https://www.ruleranalytics.com/blog/analytics/marketing-mix-modelling/ 
• https://gaintheory.com/marketing-mix-modeling/ 
• https://medium.com/@nialloulton/building-a-marketing-mix-model-a-guide-for-marketers-37cc5e41e459 

Dashboards have been quite a topic of contention in certain circles with the recent recirculation of Taylor Brownlow’s essay ”Are Dashboards Dead?”.

While I’m of the opinion that no, dashboards are not dead, they have been undeniably overused and often misunderstood, with a disconnect between a dashboard’s actual function versus our perceived function of them. 

Why is there dashboard fatigue?

Many of us have experienced dashboard fatigue, and rightfully so. As businesses, how many dashboards have we commissioned that were never fully utilised, if used at all? The answer is too many.

The reason for low engagement isn’t the fault of the humble dashboard, but rather that a dashboard was never the appropriate solution for the end user, or its design wasn’t tailored enough to the business use case.  

When faced with a business problem requiring data insights, we often jump straight to dashboard creation. However, there are many other solutions that can be tailored to deliver data insights, such as concise reports and static presentations. With an increased understanding of where dashboards fail, the conversation has shifted to questioning their relevance altogether.  

So, what place do dashboards still have in businesses, and how can we better understand where they excel to drive improved outcomes? 

What potential challenges may arise with dashboards?

There are many instances where dashboards may be less effective or complicate matters for businesses, and other methods provide a better solution. Instances may include: 

• When the user needs a concise answer to a question:
  Dashboards require interaction and exploration, which can be time-consuming. If a stakeholder needs a straightforward answer, a tailored report is more efficient.  
• For business specific, niche questions:
  Not every level of enquiry warrants the resource-intensive creation of a dashboard. For narrow, targeted questions, simpler reporting methods suffice. 
• One-time insights:
  Dashboards are overkill for static data projects, such as measuring the success of a single transformation. In these cases, producing a well-crafted report or presentation is more resource-efficient. 
• If the data is exported for analysis:
  If users regularly export dashboard data to manipulate it elsewhere, it’s a sign that the dashboard doesn’t meet their needs or wasn’t necessary to begin with. 

When might dashboards be the right solution?

Company-wide reporting platforms

Dashboards provide a unified view of performance across teams, offering consistent delivery of insights to aiding faster decision making, customisable filters for views specific to each business unit, efficiency in distributing insights without the need for manual reporting and increased data accessibility through data visualisation. 

Regular cadence reporting

For tracking ongoing metrics such as daily sales, customer trends or campaign performance, and measuring progress against targets, dashboards provide updated insights without the wait. 

Exploratory analysis

Whenusers want to discover patterns, relationships or unknown trends within the data, dashboards allow for interactive interrogation. These tools are especially valuable for data-savvy end users, enabling self-service exploration without requiring an analyst’s intervention. 

Monitoring ongoing initiatives

Dashboards are excellent for tracking live projects or recurring business processes, offering real-time visibility into performance. 

The future approach for dashboards

With the above in mind, we’re moving to a more informed approach where dashboards are no longer a tiresome, default solution, but a carefully considered tool.

The future isn’t about abandoning dashboards, but about being intentional and strategic in their creation and deployment. The key is facilitating dashboard creation in a way that adds tangible value and is thoughtfully configured to provide meaningful, actionable insights that empower decision making. 

How CACI can help

At CACI, we work with you to deliver the best solutions for your analysis needs. Our extensive experience in successfully implementing dashboards across diverse industries highlights several key scenarios where dashboards have proven to be highly effective.  

Whether it’s creating a bespoke, one-off report or developing a suite of comprehensive, customisable dashboards, contact us to find out more about how our user centric approach and industry expertise can help you gain meaningful analytics that will drive strategic business outcomes. 

A new sportswear retailer emerges on the international stage.

Gymshark, a fast-growing activewear brand, has been rapidly expanding its global reach and brand presence as it ventures into the world of brick and mortar. Having recently opened new stores in the UK (Stratford City), the Middle East (Dubai) and a pop-up concept in New York City, this brand with a prominent social media and predominately online presence is now rapidly infiltrating physical retail.

Despite not yet launching across wider Europe, it’s only a matter of time before these markets will be ventured into via physical pop-ups and stores. Selecting the right locations out of countless options may be a daunting task that comes with the territory, however. So, once the time comes for Gymshark to decide which locations to expand into that will maximise their increasing growing brand recognition and ROI, how should they effectively go about it?

In this two-part blog series, we’ll walk you through a hypothetical European market expansion for Gymshark in France, sharing how the brand can use data to accelerate and enhance their international store network strategies.

Three French cities that demonstrate viable market expansion potential based on insights taken from CACI datasets and segmentation tools will be focused on, as well as key takeaways that Gymshark (or brands in a similar position) could consider when it comes to international market expansion.

How France was identified as an optimal location for a Gymshark European expansion

CACI possesses a complete universe of defined retail areas to consider, a detailed understanding of different types of consumers and where they shop. This enables us to guide a brand like Gymshark to maximise success and value from go-to-market strategy and launch through to expanding into broader brand recognition and market share capture.

With this in mind, and with Gymshark expanding into physical and new regions, we investigated European markets that might fit their need should they decide to expand into Europe.

With Gymshark already a brand on CACI’s Brand Dimensions, a dataset tracking hundreds of the UK’s most popular and emerging brands to reveal spend, sales and average transaction value insights, key groups in French Acorn could also be identified.

Key Acorn groups were identified by using Brand Dimensions data followed by selecting key Acorn groups within French Acorn data, which correlated accordingly. In France alone there are over 10,000 retail areas, each with differing levels of existing premium clothing shops and competitors, types of customers, footfall, population and spend.

By comparing this to the expected view from Retail Footprint Europe, we could identify locations that were currently failing to engage Gymshark’s key shoppers but had the opportunity to.

From these collective findings, we were able to conclude the following three French locations that could benefit from the opening of Gymshark: Paris, Marseille and Besancon.

Why Paris would perform well in a Gymshark France expansion

According to our findings, Paris presents the highest performance potential and should be a primary focus for Gymshark. Aside from being the biggest city in France -an obvious bonus for any brand – Paris presents the best shopper demographic, a strong array of existing premium retailers and the ability to attract the relevant demographic groups that would align to Gymshark’s brand identity of being a premium retailer with similar retailers already in the centre.

Retail Footprint Europe enables the use of transactional data across brands to develop an understanding of the typical Gymshark shopper, brand positioning and establishing criteria for the most suitable locations for Gymshark to consider regarding new store openings.

Considering these criteria, Paris ranked incredibly high on Clothing and Footwear, with the Haussmann-Opera retail area Klepierre centre ranking among the top three across France.

Why Marseille would perform well in a Gymshark France expansion

Marseille presents itself as another viable option as our findings show it to be the middle ground between high affluence profiles and younger, ‘student life’ populations found in other larger, prominent French cities. The city’s strong clothing and footwear and high proportion of premium retailers also contributes to its performance potential. However, its lower ‘young and affluent’ target demographic runs a potential risk.

Why Besancon would perform well in a Gymshark France expansion

Despite Besancon presenting itself as more of a curveball, the granularity of our Retail Footprint findings demonstrate that in spite of its smaller size and lesser known location, the city is home to a strong clothing and retail offering including premium retailers, a high percentage of young and affluent shoppers and is overall more likely to attract the right shoppers.

Key takeaways that Gymshark can consider for a French market expansion

These aforementioned insights would enable Gymshark to better understand their long-term audience capture of sites through physical retail and experiment with different formats and experiential offerings.

Combining Retail Footprint data across Europe with demographic, transactional, brand alignment and footfall data can ultimately be used to shape an evolving store network strategy, and the national view further solidifies an understanding of the entire retail landscape of France.

Through these insights, Gymshark would be able to accelerate store openings with greater confidence and success if or when they decide to expand into Europe.

Ready to Find Your Next Market?

With insights from Retail Footprint Europe, pinpoint the best locations for your brand’s growth across Europe.

Stay tuned for next blog in this two-part series, where we’ll assess which Klepierre centres in these high-performing potential French cities could perform well in a Gymshark French market expansion.

CACI is pleased to share the success story of the readiness package prepared for North Bristol Trust’s (NBT) Power BI tool migration.

North Bristol Trust (NBT) was tasked with migrating their existing reporting tool to Power BI within a specific timeframe while simultaneously futureproofing their service and optimising their data. To achieve this, they turned to their trusted partner, CACI, for support. NBT was confident in CACI’s ability to help them develop a comprehensive migration readiness package and conduct a reappraisal of their warehouse and reporting solutions, where commissioned audits could be presented back to their board.

David Hale, Assistant Director of Informatics at NBT, explained how the readiness package bolstered NBT’s creation of a compelling business case, noting it to be “one of the fastest approved capital cases I’ve ever experienced” with a turnaround time of around 10 days.

“By approaching this in the way that we have, we’ve enabled the navigation of one of the often-held assumptions within the public sector and the NHS that it’s hard to get things done, when actually, with a clear vision and exceptionally good outputs, we’ve been able to move at a pace, which is not normally expected to be the case in an NHS setting,” he explained.

Let’s talk about what really happens when an NHS Trust initiates a data transformation project, including key factors that determine success

How can NHS Trusts and ICS access the much-discussed potential of their data within the real-world environment of a complex, large-scale, over-stretched, pressurised, life-saving organisation?

Enthusiasm about the power of data is widespread and many leaders and managers have glimpsed a vision of how their organisation and function could transform its planning and service delivery with leading-edge insight. They know the possibility is real, because in their Trust, there are certain highly evolved functions, datasets and systems that form an aspirational benchmark. But in reality, rolling out this best practice consistently, to create an ultimately system-wide transformation, is daunting.

We don’t have easy answers or a silver bullet approach. Every NHS organisation is sophisticated and complicated – optimising data effectiveness demands rigorous focus and a commitment of resources. But we do have best practice examples of successful readiness projects we’ve worked on with NHS Trusts, helping them take the most efficient and cost-effective route to data transformation.

We reached a point where we knew we had to make changes in our technology for future scaling. We had to look not only at the commercials with our existing technology, but at our all-encompassing technology. (NHS Trust Informatics Leader)

One NHS Trust recently asked CACI to help them develop a comprehensive readiness package for a major data migration. The Trust’s situation was typical, with constantly evolving technology and a wide range of users with different levels of capability and understanding. There were acknowledged weaknesses in understanding fast-changing tools and technologies – the Informatics team had identified the value of engaging a trusted partner to help bridge any knowledge gaps.

Adopting a user-centred approach was key. The Informatics lead was determined to do the right thing for the organisation and knew the value of a focused piece of user engagement that would allow everyone to be heard and have confidence that their concerns were understood and included in the output.

Trust and openness are key to an effective readiness project. Whether you conduct it internally or using an expert third party partner, it’s important that everyone feels comfortable discussing how existing products and services are working in practice. External specialists can bring objectivity to the process, defusing possible defensiveness or concerns about confidentiality by using and explaining a transparent and proven methodology designed to achieve the end goal of better data insight for everyone.

It’s one thing to catalogue data queries and requirements as users express them, but to deliver an effective new solution, Trusts must understand the underlying rationale and how data is supporting critical processes and decisions. Our experts were able to explore and question effectively, so different users’ experiences were fully understood in an organisational context.

A third party like CACI has unique capability to discern what the underlying requirements might be for a successful transition and elevation in technology. Our relationship feels grounded in practicality and addressing real problems. (NHS Trust Informatics Leader)

For this project, CACI’s Healthcare Insight consultants first analysed the Trust’s existing reporting outputs and infrastructure, to gain a comprehensive view of its architecture. They engaged with internal and external data analytics stakeholders to understand their needs and preferences and to assess the board’s strategic data and reporting priorities.

The output was a detailed report of all quantitative and qualitative findings. From this, the Trust gained new understanding of their existing functions and capabilities and the changes required to succeed in the future.

The next step was to align with the Trust’s data strategy and produce a blueprint for the future, outlining new data architecture, data governance, licensing requirements and enablement. This evidence-based blueprint, compiled by trusted and experienced experts, made it possible for the Trust to create a compelling business case for change. It was a major accomplishment for the Trust’s informatics team that the capital case was approved faster than ever before, taking just ten days.

By approaching this in the way that we have, we’ve overturned a common assumption in the public sector and NHS – that it’s hard to get things done. Actually, with a clear vision and exceptionally good outputs, we’ve been able to move at a pace that’s not normally expected in an NHS setting. (NHS Trust Informatics Leader)

As external CACI healthcare consultants, we have a privileged viewpoint, because we work with a range of NHS Trusts and can identify common challenges, barriers and imperatives. By applying this insight, we help NHS leaders access a system-wide perspective that can make a big difference in achieving their data effectiveness goals.

Get the full picture with our Data Effectiveness white paper

In this blog, we’ve shared an example of our user-centred NHS data effectiveness approach in practice. If you’d like to know more about the rationale and how it’s evolved, as well as how it’s designed to tackle key issues in the complex NHS environment, we’d love you to read our white paper. Download it free now.

If you’re ready to start a conversation about how our data effectiveness experience could help your organisation please get in touch with Susan Brooks in CACI’s NHS team.

Discover a proven and efficient approach to preparation and planning that paves the way to meaningful data transformation for NHS Trusts

It’s widely recognised in the NHS that harnessing data effectively holds the key to understanding and improving performance. When Trusts and ICS can gather and analyse a full and accurate range of patient and service data, they can better understand and anticipate patient needs and can shape service provision and manage capacity to enhance outcomes for patients.

The will is there to make this happen, amongst managers and clinicians. But the scale and complexity of NHS organisations and their data universe makes it difficult to make meaningful progress. Somehow, NHS leaders need to find a way to understand the dauntingly dense web of data, processes, requirements and systems in their Trust and form a workable plan of action that moves the entire organisation forward.

In your NHS organisation, some functions, datasets and systems may be highly evolved. You may regard them as an aspirational benchmark for the whole organisation. But in reality, rolling out this best practice consistently, within a fully connected data ecosystem, is daunting.

Working hands-on with NHS Trusts, the CACI Health Insights team has evolved an approach that empowers leaders to crystallise their current data reality and desired future state, so that pragmatic action planning is possible. We call this approach Ready, Set, Go. Structured preparation and discovery form a foundation for realistic planning and delivery of priority data effectiveness projects, ensuring synergy between projects and constant progression towards a single, system-wide goal.

The three stages of data transformation

1. Ready…

Readiness is the foundational phase of the approach. This means understanding and documenting current reality, then focusing on stakeholder engagement. Once stakeholders are on-side, you can work with them to define their requirements. Clearly setting out the planned benefits of change and (making sure that there are no unintended side-effects for other stakeholders) brings everyone to a clear vision of the desired future state. During the readiness phase, you’ll also establish standards and processes for quality assurance and governance.

2. Set…

Now that you understand the whole context and have determined the key projects to address, you can lay the foundations for data success by initiating transformation activities. It’s important to set timeframes and allocate resources across the entire transformation programme, so your delivery projects are realistically achievable in harmony rather than competing with each other. You may need to iterate the phasing so that the entire plan of discrete, connected projects is robust. Progressing at pace is key, so stakeholders can see and experience improvements at tangible milestones, but the schedule must be realistic, taking account of available internal and external staff with the right skills, and making sure that vital NHS activities are not hindered or disrupted.

3. Go…

As data transformation projects are completed, you move into a development phase. This means optimising data effectiveness by building the structures and outputs you need to extract ever-increasing benefit and insight for improved outcomes. Targeted learning and development sessions in all functions will enable data users to build their expertise in critical business practices. For ongoing management, you’ll need to use internal or external data experts in a cost-effective way, to maintain, optimise and continually enhance your data, so you can keep pace with new demands and opportunities to improve patient outcomes.

Stepping into the future of effective NHS data

The aspiration for every Trust is a single, complete data platform and analytics solution, providing accurate and consistently formatted data. Following the Ready, Set, Go approach, you can map a path towards seamless provision of historic, real-time and projected data. This will include strong and effective governance for sharing data securely, plus well controlled and monitored access to data for different users.

In the Readiness phase, mapping user requirements reveals the priorities with the greatest potential to transform efficiency and outcomes. In our experience, one of these is provision of self-service analytics and reporting tools that are both powerful and easy to use. By planning your data transformation project to deliver this, you can empower different people, teams and functions to create and tailor queries and reports, regularly and on demand. This cuts down reporting bottlenecks and reduces the pressure on under-resourced analyst teams.

When actionable reports can easily be tailored to the recipient and audience need and level of understanding, with meaningful visualisations and comparisons, you will be able to unlock the full, democratic power and impact of your data to inform strategic and clinical decision-making that improves your most vital NHS performance measures. Adopting the Ready, Set, Go approach can put this transformative outcome within your grasp.

Get the full picture with our Data Effectiveness white paper

For more context about the challenge of unlocking data effectiveness in NHS organisations, our white paper has further detail and examples of how our user-centred approach to defining data transformation priorities can work in practice. Download it free now.

If you’re ready to start a conversation about how our data effectiveness experience could help your organisation,  please get in touch with Susan Brooks in CACI’s NHS team.

To understand why your NHS organisation is data-rich but insight-poor, you need a system-wide perspective as a basis for structured change

The potential of NHS data is exciting. It’s also accessible – there are proven examples of effective and constructive data use that provide valuable reporting and insight for clinical service development. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

NHS leaders know that NHS data within and outside their organisation is infinite, complex and continually collected. It’s very powerful when it’s analysed effectively, so the insight can be channelled to the right person in a way that they can understand and use. However, for the most part, this doesn’t happen enough.

Managers and analysts work hard every day to try and generate the insight that’s so desperately needed. They’re typically thwarted by scarce resources, time, understanding, technology and specialist skill. There’s often a lack of consistency, momentum and sponsorship across the system and organisation.

This holds back ICS, Trusts, teams and individuals from delivering the best service to patients and optimising their strategy, resources and operational plans.

NHS leaders know that they need to crack the data conundrum, but it’s a tall order without taking focus away from daily priorities

In such a complex and busy environment, it’s hard for any individual to grasp the system-wide position. There’s rarely time or opportunity to step back to survey the scene across an organisation or connected entities.

As external CACI healthcare consultants, we have a privileged viewpoint, because we work with a range of NHS Trusts and can identify common challenges, barriers and imperatives. By applying this insight, we help NHS leaders access a system-wide perspective that can make a big difference in achieving their data effectiveness goals.

Current challenges for NHS data

• There’s a massive volume of complex, constantly changing data
• It’s held in many data sources and repositories
• There are many users with diverse requirements
• These users have widely different levels of data literacy and expertise
• Trusts rely on a mix of modern and legacy systems and tools
• Some departments have enjoyed greater investment than others
• There are crucial governance issues, including patient privacy and data security

Identifying these top-line issues and how they are affecting service planning and delivery in your unique organisation is a key first step. There’s a clear need to approach the problem holistically. But squeezed budgets, limited resources and a lack of time stand in the way of major, system-wide projects. Everyone in the tightly stretched NHS is busy dealing with current workload already. There’s no appetite for launching an amorphous, resource-hungry transformation programme. Trusts need a structured, thorough and efficient approach to identify issues in a finite timeframe.

A practical approach to inclusive, system-wide data effectiveness

Traditionally, data transformation tends to mean adopting new products or technologies. The problem is that they only offer a tactical solution to one small part of the overarching data problem. Worse, they can sometimes aggravate issues in other parts of the system.

We observe that data architecture is at the core of system inadequacies for many NHS Trusts. Data feeds and flows are poorly constructed and insufficiently flexible to meet the diverse needs of those who work with data and need the insights generated from it.

Addressing the data challenge from a user perspective

Delivering effective data solutions and tools relies on a clear understanding of what users really need from the data. We have identified three communities with distinct requirements:

Executives and leaders who demand trusted insight and high-level views of data. They work with KPI scorecards and look for drill-down access to data from individual divisions, programmes and patients, so they can explore strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and anomalies in performance by understanding the data behind them. They need current, historic and comparative data views.

Clinical leaders who need real-time and trend insight to help them predict demand for services. They need detailed waiting list information and data tracking that can drill down to programmes, wards and treatment functions so they can understand and assess demand and response. They use this to optimise day-to-day activities as well as in planning future service developments.

Analysts responsible for tailored and specific report generation across different periods. They want the capability to select data for specific organisations and to deliver data in different formats and channels to meet the different requirements of their users. Their productivity and output depend on detailed, centralised data that’s accurate and easy to work with.

To unlock the potential of your data you need to engage with all senior stakeholders, including clinicians, to understand their priorities and how they are currently using data in practice. Finding the resources and capability needed to take an objective look can be challenging. Some Trusts have engaged us to deliver a short, consultative engagement to provide a clear overview, without committing to excessive spend or investment in products.

Get the full picture with our Data Effectiveness white paper

We’ve pulled together the key points of our approach in this blog, but if you have time for a longer read, our white paper has more detail and examples of how the user-centred approach to defining data transformation priorities can work in practice. Download it free now.

If you’re ready to start a conversation about how our data effectiveness experience could help your organisation please get in touch with Susan Brooks in CACI’s NHS team.

At a time when budgets are under so much pressure, facilitating Home to School Transport (HTST) efficiently has never been more important. Millions of pounds are being unnecessarily spent on passenger transportation, with limited efficiencies or cost-cutting initiatives in place through a lack of supporting technology or tools.

With spiralling costs, tightened budgets and limited capacity, local authorities are struggling to delivery their statutory obligations. So, what can be done to save costs while optimising HTST capabilities?

Most substantial challenges local authorities face with Home to School Transport (HTST)

• SEND costs are set to triple to £1.125 billion over the course of a decade, according to the Isos Partnership for the County Council’s Network 
• Havering Council is spending £6.5m per annum on transporting 420 pupils, resulting in £2,500 per pupil 
• Birmingham City Council is currently spending £19.4 million on transporting vulnerable children to school  
• Norfolk County Council is spending £40m to arrange buses/taxis for 4,100 children with extra requirements, or more than £9,700 per child. 

Local governments must find ways to:  

• Efficiently plan routes buses to minimise contracts and private taxis
• Deliver safe and reliable service to pupils
• Ensure safeguards are in place to protect vulnerable pupils
• Establish communication with parents, schools and councils
• Offset increasing council deficits through efficiency savings.

What CACI technology solutions can help local authorities overcome these challenges?

Pin Routes: Route planning & optimisation

As a next-generation route planning and optimisation software, Pin Routes helps local authorities plan and optimise routes for school transport. It is cloud-based, scalable software that features advanced algorithms and a state-of-the-art user interface, with functions including strategic analysis and static (periodic) and dynamic (daily) planning.

Pin Routes considers the individual needs of each child, special school requirements, vehicle capabilities, provider capacities and driver skillsets to help achieve lower costs and carbon emissions.

Pin Live: Live route management

This live route management software ensures all parties stay informed in real-time, giving parents and schools peace of mind with up-to-date information, keeping local authorities in control and simplifying the process for drivers and service providers.

Acorn: Consumer segmentation

CACI’s consumer segmentation tool, Acorn provides demographic, lifestyle and behavioural insights of pupils. Acorn unlocks detailed insights about families’ financial backgrounds which can be used to determine those pupil households who could contribute towards transportation costs.

Access to this data equips local authorities with additional capabilities to better assess pupils’ eligibility for school transport while at the same helping the Council to meet with its statutory obligations.

Longer-term benefits local authorities will enjoy with CACI’s data and technology solutions

Saving operational costs:

• Councils will have more time to effectively plan at a strategic level
• Vehicles can complete more tasks
• Pin Routes will ensure councils can undertake ‘what if’ analyses for future scenarios to uncover and implement strategic efficiencies
• Inputs can be scaled up and higher volumes of transport can be supported each year.

Improve efficiencies: 

• Planners and schedulers can prioritise journeys quickly, effectively and on a regular basis
• Transport providers can take the most effective routes between homes and schools to save on fuel, mileage and drivers’ hours
• New tasks can be imported as they are booked and teams can pick these up as part of their existing plans, ensuring the right tasks will be prioritised.

Improve ESG and resident-centric operations: 

• Councils can be confident in delivering a consistent service to residents
• Journeys will be made efficiently, reducing the spend on fuel and vehicle maintenance. Monthly cuts in CO2 emissions will also be recognised.
• Enhanced scheduling and routing will increase driver and resident satisfaction as journeys are prioritised and optimised.

CACI is already a trusted data partner to the public sector and has a proven track record of delivering cost-effective, sustainable logistics solutions to organisations within the private sector.

Whether through our innovative software and communication technology like Pin Routes, Pin Live and Acorn, our expert consulting services or our innate public sector knowledge and experience, we are committed to supporting your organisation in achieving its goals.

For further information on how CACI can help transform your route optimisation operations, please register here.