Home Top Innovative Companies to Watch 2023 Tasman – We assist businesses with setting up centralized data platforms

Tasman – We assist businesses with setting up centralized data platforms

In an exclusive interview with Biz Tech Outlook, Tasman, an expert-led data agency, unveils its journey of transforming raw data into actionable insights. Tasman's co-founders share their vision for the company's future, emphasizing the importance of making data relevant and actionable in the fast-evolving world of technology

Tasman - We assist businesses with setting up centralized data platforms

What is Tasman? What services does your company provide, and how does your company differ from its competitors?

Tasman is an expert-led data agency that bridges the gap between raw data and actionable business insights. This is critical: more than 85% of data projects fail— mostly because even after investing vast resources on data cleaning, modelling and reporting it just does not connect with what the business needs.

That’s why Tasman was founded. We believe small companies are the innovation engine of the economy and want to make sure they can make the best possible decisions. To help them with this, we focus not just on data technology, but on deriving tangible value from that data.

To get them there, we assist businesses with setting up centralized data platforms — seamlessly combining data from various platforms, like Salesforce, Facebook Ads, HubSpot, and Xero; to then transform that data using sophisticated data modelling techniques; and to visualise the insight it provides in a series of dashboards and reports.

What distinguishes Tasman from its competitors is twofold: we genuinely believe data is only valuable if it is actionable, and we want to help our clients get an internal data team to replace us. And so, that is what we do: build the infrastructure to support great, relevant insight — and then hand it over to an internal team. We think that way we can ensure that businesses don’t just gather data, but actually use it and grow.

Lastly, it’s very important to realise that in order to be great in Artificial Intelligence, businesses really need to get great at Business Intelligence first. We help them on that journey.

Data is the fuel of business. How do you perceive its importance, and how do you assure your clients regarding their data security?

In today’s world (and for sure in the start-up and scale-up ecosystem we work in) data is absolutely critical for sustained success. It’s not just about numbers and figures; it’s about the stories it tells, the insights it uncovers, and the decisions it drives. And so, most of our projects are not just about creating a great-looking chart of dashboard — they are about telling a story, understanding a business’ drivers, and transforming a decision-making culture for our clients. Sometimes it is a lot more like change management than data management. That takes a lot of work but it’s really worth it when it pays off.

For us at Tasman, ensuring the sanctity and security of our client data is paramount. We recognize the trust our clients place in us, and in return, we are unwavering in our commitment to robust data protection practices. That means we take all the active efforts we can (stringent security systems, strong encryption, best practice permission structures, etc) but also make common sense decisions like the fact that we always work within our client’s clouds, meaning that their data never leaves their own servers and systems. This makes it a lot easier to hand over as well when we onboard the internal teams we want out clients to have.

Can you walk us through the journey of TASMAN and the strategies you followed to ensure the business remains successful?

Tasman was founded in 2017 and we are now 24 people with offices in the United Kingdom and The Netherlands. Growing quickly during a global pandemic (with some of our travel & hospitality clients not making it through) and during the tech recession in the last year was exhilarating but also often quite overwhelming; but our focus on quality (and great clients) made sure we grew revenues 40% year-on-year and could attract top-notch talent.

That relentless focus on providing the best possible service in the most efficient way permeates everything we do — and it informs decisions about scale (we grow steadily, avoiding scaling pains), delivery (we operate in agile sprints which allow us to be as flexible as possible with our ever changing client needs) and strategy (relentlessly focussing on client business value). So far it has worked out great.
How do you envision the company in the long run, and what lies ahead in your business avenue? Please enlighten us on how you have made an impact in the data industry.

We are highly respected members in the relatively newfangled “modern data” ecosystem. We contribute to conferences and organise regular meet-ups, e.g. in Amsterdam. We keep talking to as many data practitioners as possible about the need to make data relevant and actionable — and we think we are being heard!

The data business is of course changing fast with the advent of machine learning & large language model applications. Two reflections: Foremost is that AI is a fantastic co-pilot for our engineers, and will make us much more efficient for instance in cleaning data or unlocking the insights it contains. We will be able to do much more for smaller budgets for smaller companies — and that’s great.

Second is that great AI needs great data to train on — and that is exactly what we provide. So we see an opportunity as well to help our clients get ready for this revolution. Structured, well-labeled, representative datasets really matter in this new world.

Drawing from your experience, how should the next generation of businesspeople plan their journeys?

In technology, change is the norm. That means that what you learn today might just not be that relevant tomorrow. This is true both for engineers and businesspeople alike. I would very much recommend anyone starting in this field to learn the metaskills: get great at learning new skills, and at seeing the bigger picture. That will always put you ahead.

Additionally I’d say that more than ever we need technologists who are motivated by really making a difference and don’t pursue tech purely for the sake of tech.

What was the triggering point to start TASMAN, and how did your previous experience guide you in steering the company towards success?

Tasman was founded in 2017 by Thomas and Rob who both had a long experience in the London data ecosystem. Thomas continues to built the data team at Peak Labs, a brain training company that under his tenure as Head of Data grew revenue and subscriber numbers 10x and was purchased by Hachette Livre in 2016. He realized that other ambitious, fast-growing companies could use the same type of tools & techniques that Peak used to make this happen — and so, Tasman was born.

Tasman is the name of a Dutch captain who was the first Westerner to ‘discover’ New Zealand. At heart, we think of ourselves as just that: explorers. I am a physicist by training myself, but have always been very interested in liberal arts. I’ve always found this a great combination: analytical skill combined with a hunger to actually understand the world. As a Dutchman growing up in Belgium and working in London I have had the good fortune to work with great teams, fantastic advisors and inspirational coaches — and I wish that for everybody just starting out, even in a world of remote work.

“Our beliefs guide everything that we do, from our priorities to our principles.”

 We are highly respected members in the relatively newfangled “modern data” ecosystem.

 

 Company Name : TASMAN

 Website : www.tasman.ai

 Management Team

 Thomas in’t Veld – Chief Executive   Officer
 Rob Hick, Co-Founder & Chief Data   Officer

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