John Loury and Michael Sutton want to provide their business clients with data science driven marketing strategies at a level of sophistication competitors can鈥檛 match.
That鈥檚 why Henrietta-based Cause + Effect Strategy and Marketing (CESM) is among a growing number of companies that have joined the Rochester Data Science Consortium founded by the University of Rochester.
鈥淲e鈥檙e really big on transparency and follow-through,鈥� says Loury, CESM鈥檚 president. 鈥淲e say we can deliver high-end, predictable, prescriptive analytics to our customers, and our partnership with the consortium helps us to deliver on that.鈥�
Walt Johnson, the consortium鈥檚 director, couldn鈥檛 be happier.
In 2017, the consortium was given $7.5 million in New York State funding to demonstrate it can help create 鈥渉igh-value, knowledge-based鈥� jobs in Rochester and further the region鈥檚 development as a high-tech hub. Consortium staff do this primarily by working hand in hand with companies to address their data science challenges.
Already, Johnson says, he is beginning to accrue non-state revenue from corporate partners and projects to sustain the consortium and its staff after the state funding expires.
鈥淭his is what I鈥檓 most pleased about,鈥� Johnson says. 鈥淭his shows that the state鈥檚 investment is going to live on.鈥�
Expanding partnerships
When he started as director in August 2017 Johnson was the consortium鈥檚 sole employee with two founding partners on board: Harris Corp. and the University itself.
Since then, the consortium has:
- Hired 6 scientists and a solutions architect with expertise in such areas as data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Three more job openings have been posted, with two more on the way. The consortium has also been asked to hire and manage technical staff by some of its member companies.
- Increased the number of member companies with the addition of Wegmans, Cause + Effect Strategy & Marketing, VisualDx, Excell Partners, New Era Orthopaedics, Greater Rochester Enterprise (GRE), EmployeeChannel, Inc. and Clerio Vision. More are in the process of signing on.
- Occupied a suite at (formerly High Tech Rochester) in the Sibley Building in downtown Rochester. NextCorps provides an additional location for meeting, recruiting, and working alongside new corporate partners.
- Created a pool of skilled data science undergraduate and master鈥檚 students who can step in at short notice to assist a company or a University faculty member or office. This not only helps the clients, Johnson says; it also opens up career opportunities and real-world work experiences for the students.
So, priorities are now shifting for Johnson. He wants to build connections with more University faculty who might be able to lend their expertise in data science鈥攁nd perhaps benefit from corporate-sponsored research.
And instead of worrying about attracting partners, he can now focus on managing a robust pipeline of projects.
Digging deeper into data science
听CESM is a good example of how a company and the consortium work hand in hand. The marketing intelligence company uses data analytics to develop marketing strategies for more than 30 clients, including Xerox, Briggs and Stratton, and PGA of America.
The company, which has 10 employees, began working with the consortium on a project-by-project basis four months ago for two reasons, Loury says.
- Bench strength. 鈥淲e鈥檙e in the process of bringing on several new clients at one time, and it would be difficult to hire enough qualified applicants to meet those needs,鈥� says Loury. 鈥淭he consortium allows us to expand our bench strength beyond our core team, at a moment鈥檚 notice.鈥�
- Access to data science experts and super-computing and cloud capabilities that even many large companies can鈥檛 afford on their own. 鈥淭his give us an ability to do work of an even higher complexity than we normally would,鈥� Loury says.
For example, one of its clients wants to expand sales of its product nationwide. CESM collected and prepared large, detailed data sets showing how various competitors鈥� sales had changed in areas where the client had already successfully introduced its product. They gathered similar data on sales trends from other areas around the nation.
The consortium鈥檚 scientists then developed algorithms to identify in which of those other areas the combinations of competitors and sales trends, among other variables, were most similar to those that existed in the areas where the client has already been successful. This helped CESM predict areas where expansion might be most likely to succeed.
Sutton, the company鈥檚 vice president for client service, says CESM looks forward to working with the consortium on more projects. For example, they would like to develop an algorithm that more accurately attributes which parts of a company鈥檚 marketing effort 鈥� social media, radio, television, or print — are having the largest impact on sales.
鈥淔rom a leadership perspective, Walt (Johnson) and Karla (George, director of operations) have been fantastic,鈥� Loury says. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e been very interested in helping us, and in checking to make sure things are delivered as promised.鈥�
The consortium鈥檚 scientists, Sutton says, 鈥渉ave always been excited to dig deeper. I never got the feeling that there was frustration when the data wasn鈥檛 supporting something we were hoping to accomplish. Instead, we were constantly pivoting to new questions we could ask.鈥�
Thanks in large part to its partnership with the consortium, CESM is hiring two new data-science employees this fall, and will likely add a third next year, Loury says.
And that鈥檚 what makes Johnson happiest of all.
鈥淭he point of the consortium isn鈥檛 to hire a bunch of scientists at the University of Rochester,鈥� he says, 鈥渂ut to attract more people to the region for high tech jobs.鈥�
