Case study A case study from The Economist Intelligence Unit db5 A professional image: supporting big-name brands on a budget 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 [db5] needed flexible and powerful IT services that would allow it to compete with market leaders at a fraction of the annual outlay 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 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 clientsupport 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 have leverage and aren’t beholden to one particular supplier We’ve found cloud solutions to be very nimble—very flexible.” © 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 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! “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” 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 have champions It’s part of their job description to get everybody up to speed in the first quarter.” The acid test: client acceptance Chris Hubble, CEO db5 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 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 here is extremely high, but the fact that clients never complain suggests to me that [cloud-based solutions] are a win.” © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2015 ... 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... for an airline, in half the standard time with twice the collaborative power” The biggest challenge was getting employees to integrate new collaboration and data-sharing platforms into their daily... 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