Establishing Data Science Function

Paragon Intelligence partnered with a key public sector organisation within the UK, responsible for providing support to the country’s defence needs. The client approached us to help them explore how machine learning could help them with their operational processes, following a government directive to become more data-driven in 2017. Our client was in need of consulting and feasibility assessment of data science as a function, and there were several loosely defined ideas for machine learning projects that needed evaluation and structure.

Our team at Paragon had demonstrable experience in the public sector and had previously advised blue-chip companies on forming data science teams from the ground up, making us the perfect partner for this project.

The Paragon Solution

We delivered a solution to the client in three separate phases, starting with an audit phase. During this phase, we held focus interviews with senior functional leaders to understand data flow, processes, and operational pain points. The existing data and tech infrastructure were then mapped and prioritised, resulting in a data science roadmap that was signed off by the CIO. This allowed budget and resources to be approved to carry out an initial proof of concept (POC) project to demonstrate data science value.

In the implementation phase, we assembled a team of client analysts, functional leaders, and external data science consultants who worked together to fast prototype and deliver an NLP survey automation tool. The objective of this POC was to reduce manual operational processing time and identify missed content from more than 14,000 surveys produced each year. The tool was delivered successfully, with functional leaders agreeing on the benefits of an automated machine learning approach. As a result, the CIO committed a budget to create an embedded data science function. Paragon advised on the operational model, considering the learning of the previous stages.

This project produced impressive results, including summarising the content of over 14,000 documents generated each year, securing the budget for a data science function of two members, and a project completion time of only four months.

At Paragon Intelligence, we have the experience and expertise to help your organisation achieve similar results. Contact us today to see how we can help you become more data-driven and maximise your potential.

Key Project Numbers

14K documents analysed in seconds

The developed tool summarised the content of more than 14000 documents that were generated every year.

2 new members hired

Budget approved by CIO to fund a data science function of 2.

4 months E2E completion

Project from Audit to Solution Delivery took 4 months.