With over 2.5 Million terabytes (2.5 exabytes) of data created each day, it is not surprising that companies find themselves awash in data. Many are frustrated that they are not managing to create or extract as much value from these data stockpiles as they would wish.

Earlier this year, Oliver Wyman formally established Oliver Wyman Labs (OW Labs) to use innovative approaches to technology to drive business impact for clients.

The mission of OW Labs is to help clients to unleash the power of the information they already have or could capture – essentially to become knowledge-powered businesses – and through that to drive competitive advantage and sustained impact.

OW Labs is working with clients in three ways:

  • Undertaking advanced analytics on very large/complex data sets to create new insights and understanding;
  • Building MIS reporting and dashboard applications that put the right information in the hands of the people that need it, when they need it;
  • Providing decision support solutions that allow key decision makers to make better quality decisions faster and more easily, and to massively streamline the information and workflow for those decisions.

Many of the solutions that OW Labs has developed are being used by front-line decision makers in the field on mobile devices such as iPads. OW Labs has the technical capabilities to provide comprehensive solutions including data discovery, heavy duty analytics, application development, deployment, and ongoing hosting, maintenance, and support.

“The establishment of OW Labs as a new unit formalises a capability that Oliver Wyman has been developing over the last eight years in sectors that have been at the vanguard of using Big Data to drive business decision making, such as retail and technology,” said Scott McDonald, Chief Executive Officer of Oliver Wyman Group. “OW Labs is now taking those leading edge capabilities across all of the sectors and geographies we serve,” he added.

Matthew Isotta, co-head of OW Labs said: “The ability to capture and deploy knowledge to make better business decisions is an increasingly important driver of success for businesses across the globe. We have pioneered new approaches that combine innovative technology, consulting, and OW’s leading intellectual capital to equip our clients to make decisions better, faster and more easily. These approaches have consistently delivered major financial benefits for our clients that are being sustained for the long term.”

“The merger of high calibre consulting skills and leading technology capability allows us to deliver for our clients a quality of outcome others can only dream of,” said Colin Cobain, co-head of OW Labs (previously Group Chief Information Officer for the Tesco Group). “My whole career has been about driving business change through the application of technology and now we’re able to deliver on this at pace, no matter what data mess you’re in, and with web tools that are incredibly simple and intuitive to use.”

OW Labs will be led by Oliver Wyman Partners Paul Beswick, Colin Cobain, and Matthew Isotta. Beswick and Isotta were previously the co-leads of Oliver Wyman’s retail practice and Cobain served as Group CIO of Tesco from 2000-2007.

About Oliver Wyman

Oliver Wyman is a global leader in management consulting. With offices in 50+ cities across 25 countries, Oliver Wyman combines deep industry knowledge with specialized expertise in strategy, operations, risk management, and organization transformation. The firm's 3,000 professionals help clients optimize their business, improve their operations and risk profile, and accelerate their organizational performance to seize the most attractive opportunities. Oliver Wyman is a wholly owned subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies [NYSE: MMC]. For more information, visit www.oliverwyman.com. Follow Oliver Wyman on Twitter @OliverWyman.