How Databricks Genie Spaces make data accessible through natural language
How to design and manage a Genie Space for reliable answers
- Article
- Data Engineering
- Databricks
- Data Analytics
- AI & Data Science


Many organisations face the same challenge. Someone has a question about revenue, customer behaviour or operational performance. The data exists, but finding the answer takes time. A dashboard needs to be opened, filters have to be configured correctly, or a Data Analyst needs to perform an additional analysis.
Despite years of investment in dashboards and self-service analytics, there is often still a gap between a business question and the answer. Users need to know where information is stored, how dashboards are structured and which definitions are being used. This not only slows decision-making but also creates dependency on data specialists and leads to different interpretations of the same KPIs.
At the same time, organisations are looking for faster and more accessible ways to gain insights from their data. Increasingly, they are exploring how generative AI can make those insights instantly available to business users.
From dashboards to conversations with data
This is where Databricks Genie comes in. With a Genie Space, users can ask questions in natural language and receive immediate answers based on the available data. Instead of navigating dashboards and tables, they can simply have a conversation with their data.
For example, a user could ask: "Which productcategory achieved the highest revenue growth lastquarter?" Rather than searching through dashboards or asking a Data Analyst to investigate, they can ask Genie directly and receive an immediate answer, potentially accompanied by a visualisation.
That does not mean a Genie Space automatically provides reliable answers. The quality of the responses depends heavily on how data, business definitions and business logic have been organised. Without sufficient context, Genie can run into the same challenges as other AI solutions, such as misinterpretations, inconsistent definitions or answers that do not fully reflect the business domain.
That is why we see implementing a Genie Space not as a one-off project, but as an ongoing process of continuous improvement. This is where the real value lies: users gain faster access to trustworthy insights, while organisations achieve greater returns on their data investments.
A Genie Space is a collaboration between business and data
A successful Genie Space is about more than technology. It requires close collaboration between business users and data specialists.
On one side is the curator. This is typically a Data or Analytics Engineer, or a domain expert responsible for the quality of the Genie Space. The curator selects relevant datasets, captures business logic, manages definitions and monitors the quality of the answers.
On the other side are the business users. They ask questions as part of their daily work and expect accurate answers and visualisations without needing to understand the underlying data model or SQL. Their feedback is essential for identifying unclear definitions, missing context and incorrect interpretations.
The result is more than just a new way of accessing data. Employees can independently find answers to their questions much faster, while data specialists spend less time responding to recurring requests. This creates more capacity to focus on complex analyses, new data products and challenges that require specialist expertise.
How do you build an effective Genie Space?
For the curator, configuring a Genie Space is one of the most important success factors. The order in which context is added has a major impact on the reliability of the answers.
Each step expands the knowledge available to Genie, gradually improving both the quality and consistency of its responses.
1. Define the objective and scope
Start by defining a clear objective.
Who is the Genie Space intended for? Which business domain does it support? And what questions should users be able to answer independently?
Keep the scope deliberately focused. A Genie Space that supports a single process or business domain typically delivers more reliable answers than one that attempts to cover every possible question across the organisation.
2. Add only the relevant tables
Next, select only the data required to achieve that objective.
Ideally, work with a limited set of well-documented tables or views. Ensure that relationships between datasets are clearly defined and simplify complex data models wherever possible.
The clearer the data model, the more likely Genie is to use the correct data when answering questions.
3. Enrich the Genie Space with metadata
Provide context by enriching your data with metadata. Adding descriptions and synonyms to tables and columns helps Genie match user questions to the correct data.
It is also useful to include common terminology, abbreviations and frequently used value patterns. This allows Genie to recognise different ways users may ask the same question and map them to the appropriate data.
In many cases, this step alone delivers a significant improvement in answer quality, even before any additional business logic has been introduced.
4. Add SQL expressions for business logic
SQL expressions provide the foundation for consistent business definitions.
Use them to define KPIs, metrics, filters and dimensions. This ensures that concepts such as revenue, active customers and conversion rate are calculated consistently across the organisation.
This eliminates discussions about definitions and enables different teams to work from the same version of the truth. As a result, users have greater confidence in Genie's answers and decision-making becomes more reliable.
5. Add example queries
Some questions involve complex business logic that cannot easily be derived from metadata or SQL expressions alone.
For these situations, you can add example queries by combining a natural language question with validated SQL.
These examples help Genie interpret similar questions more accurately. This can significantly improve accuracy, particularly for complex analyses and frequently asked business questions.
6. Use prompts for exceptions and behaviour
General instructions can help define answer formatting, language or specific behavioural guidelines.
However, prompts should mainly be used for exceptions. Business logic, KPI definitions and relationships between datasets are better captured in metadata and SQL, as structured context is generally more reliable than text-based instructions.
7. Governance within the Genie Space
Genie automatically respects the access permissions and security settings configured in Unity Catalog. This means users only see data they are authorised to access.
As a result, governance, security and compliance remain centrally managed while users can independently obtain the answers they need. This makes it possible to increase data accessibility without compromising control or security.
Finally, Genie supports language models from Anthropic and OpenAI with EU data residency, provided the environment has been configured accordingly. This allows data to be processed within the European Union, helping organisations meet internal governance and compliance requirements.
Want to learn more about governance in Databricks? Read our article on Data Governance in Azure Databricks.
Start small and continuously improve
It can be tempting to build a broad Genie Space that supports every possible question from day one. In practice, a phased approach usually delivers better results.
Start with a limited number of datasets, preferably well-managed and cleansed tables, together with a small set of frequently asked questions. Then monitor how users interact with Genie, which answers meet their information needs and where additional context is required.
This allows the Genie Space to gradually evolve into a trusted layer between users and data.
Not by creating ever more dashboards and visualisations, but by reducing the distance between a question and an answer. That is where the greatest value lies: faster insights, less dependency on data specialists and better decisions based on trusted data.
Unlock more value from your data with Databricks Genie Spaces
Would you like your employees to find reliable answers in your data more quickly, without relying entirely on dashboards or data specialists? We help organisations design and optimise Databricks Genie Spaces so AI can generate reliable answers based on well-structured data, business context and robust governance. This makes data accessible to a wider audience, accelerates decision-making and helps you maximise the value of your existing data investments.
Get in touch or schedule an introductory meeting to discuss how Databricks Genie Spaces can support your organisation.
This is an article by Bas Verburg
Bas is a Data Engineer at Digital Power and is specialised in Databricks. He works with organisations on complex data engineering projects, helping them build scalable data platforms, improve data quality and create a solid foundation for analytics and AI.
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An essential part of Otis's business operations is the maintenance of their elevators. To time this effectively and proactively inform customers about the status of their elevator, Otis wanted to implement continuous monitoring. They saw great potential in predictive maintenance and remote maintenance.
Valuable insights from Microsoft Dynamics 365
Agrico is a cooperative of potato growers. They cultivate potatoes for various purposes such as consumption and planting future crops. These potatoes are exported worldwide through various subsidiaries. All logistical and operational data is stored in their ERP system, Microsoft Dynamics 365. Due to the complexity of this system with its many features, the data is not suitable for direct use in reporting. Agrico asked us to help make their ERP data understandable and develop clear reports.
Kubernetes-based event-driven autoscaling with KEDA: a practical guide
This article explains the essence of Kubernetes Event Driven Autoscaling (KEDA). Subsequently, we configure a local development environment enabling the demonstration of KEDA using Docker and Minikube. Following this, we expound upon the scenario that will be implemented to showcase KEDA, and we guide through each step of this scenario. By the end of the article, you will have a clear understanding of what KEDA entails and how they can personally implement an architecture with KEDA.
Implementation of e-commerce tracking for Google Analytics 4
MS Mode & America Today used Universal Analytics (UA) for analysing their online stores. They had fully implemented e-commerce tracking, with KPIs such as transactions, average order value, and abandoned shopping carts visualised in Looker Studio.
AWS (Amazon Web Services) vs GCP (Google Cloud Platform) for Apache Airflow
This article provides a comparison between these two managed services Cloud Composer & MWAA. This will help you understand the similarities, differences, and factors to consider when choosing them. Note that there are other good options when it comes to hosting a managed airflow implementation, such as the one offered by Microsoft Azure. The two being compared in this article are chosen due to my hands-on experience using both managed services and their respective ecosystems.
Transitioning from Universal Analytics 360 to Google Analytics 4 and Streamlining Data Analysis
There are currently a lot of developments surrounding Google Analytics, including user privacy (GDPR) and the sunset of Universal Analytics. For Miele X, the digital branch of Miele, GA4 was also one of the topics on their agenda as part of their bigger plans towards a more privacy-centric and vendor-agnostic way of data collection. They enlisted our help to support them with the transition from Universal Analytics 360 to GA4.
Optimisation of marketing activities through an integrated dashboard
Valk Digital, an internet company, aimed to adopt a more data-driven approach. The marketing team was already discussing all the data weekly using an Excel spreadsheet, but due to manual data input, it was time-consuming and more likely to fail. There was a need for an automated, future-proof approach based on reliable data.
Insight into the complete sales funnel thanks to a data warehouse with dbt
Our consultants log the assignments they take on for our clients in our ERP system AFAS. In our CRM system HubSpot, we can see all the information relevant before signing a collaboration agreement. When we close a deal, all the information from HubSpot automatically transfers to AFAS. So, HubSpot is mainly used for the process before entering a collaboration, while AFAS is used for the subsequent phase. To tighten our people's planning and improve our financial forecasts, we decided to set up a data warehouse to integrate data from both data sources.
Data quality: the foundation for effective data-driven work
Data projects often need to deliver results quickly. The field is relatively new, and to gain support, it must first prove its value. As a result, many organisations build data solutions without giving much thought to their robustness, often overlooking data quality. What are the risks if your data quality is not in order, and how can you improve it? Find the answers to the key questions about data quality in this article.
Which analysis and visualisation tools are available?
To make informed decisions, insights into your business performance are essential. Various analysis and visualisation tools are available to assist you. The best tool for your company depends on your specific needs. In this blog, we discuss the pros and cons of 6 popular tools: Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Piwik PRO, PowerBI, Looker Studio, and Tableau.
The all-round profile of the modern data engineer
Since the field of big data emerged, many elements of the modern data stack became the data engineers' responsibility. What are these elements, and how should you build your data team?
Insights into market dynamics for a stronger competitive position
FrieslandCampina Global facilitates local teams in Europe, Asia, and Africa. They want to gain a better understanding of the market and provide the teams with new insights. The goals are to strengthen their competitive position and to identify new opportunities for expansion.
Setting up Azure App functions
In the article, we start by discussing Serverless Functions. Then we demonstrate how to use Terraform files to simplify the process of deploying a target infrastructure, how to create a Function App in Azure, the use GitHub workflows to manage continuous integration and deployment, and how to use branching strategies to selectively deploy code changes to specific instances of Function Apps.
How do you collect data while protecting the privacy of EU citizens?
The world of web analytics is constantly changing due to technological and legal developments. One significant event in the field of technical web analytics is the introduction of server-side tracking, which allows companies to have full control over their data flows.
Unlocking the power of Analytics Engineering
The world of data is continuously shifting and so are its corresponding jobs and responsibilities within data teams. With this, an up-and-coming role appeared on the horizon: the Analytics Engineer.
Securing historical data of Universal Analytics using the Google Reporting API
As of 1 July 2023, Google Universal Analytics (UA or GA3) will stop processing data. More and more companies are therefore transitioning to GA4. Unfortunately, historical data from GA3 is not visible in GA4, and if you don't want to lose the data, you must extract everything from UA before 1 July 2024. After that, it will no longer be possible.
A standardised way of processing data using dbt
One of the largest online shops in the Netherlands wanted to develop a standardised way of data processing within one of its data teams. All data was stored in the scalable cloud data warehouse Google BigQuery. Large amounts of data were available within this platform regarding orders, products, marketing, returns, customer cases and partners.
Switching from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
On 14 October 2020, Google launched the new version of Analytics: Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Soon after the launch, it became clear that a number of important functionalities from Universal Analytics (GA3) were missing, and therefore the time to switch seemed far away. Fortunately, we see that the development team on the side of Google has not been idle. Some nice features have since been introduced within GA4 that have narrowed the gap between GA3 and GA4. This article answers the questions that are increasingly being asked about GA4.
Reliable reporting using robust Python code
The National Road Traffic Data Portal (NDW) is a valuable resource for municipalities, provinces, and the national government to gain insight into traffic flows and improve infrastructure efficiency.
Google Analytics 4 vs. Google Analytics 3: What are the pros and cons?
If you want to keep track of free statistics about website visitors and their behaviour on your website, you will quickly turn to Google Analytics. With the free version of Universal Analytics (better known as GA3), it only takes a few minutes to set up basic metrics such as users, sessions and pageviews. For more extensive analyses, you have the paid version Google Analytics 360. As of July 2023, GA3 will no longer be supported by Google. Time to switch to the new GA4. Read all about the pros and cons of the new Google Analytics in this article.
Setting up a future-proof data infrastructure
Valk Exclusief is a chain of 4-star+ hotels with 43 hotels in the Netherlands. The hotel chain wants to offer guests a personal experience, both in the hotel and online.
Five questions for Data Analyst Dennis
In this video, you will find out what a job as a Data Analyst looks like! What does a working week look like, which clients do our Data Analysts work for and what makes working so much fun? Dennis likes to tell you more about it!
A scalable data platform in Azure
TM Forum, an alliance of over 850 global companies, engaged our company as a data partner to identify and solve data-related challenges.
What to do about broken Looker Studio dashboards?
Did the following scenario happen to you last week? While enjoying your morning coffee, you take a look at your pride and joy: a meticulously created Looker Studio dashboard built with the GA4 connector. You rub the sleep from your eyes and see your charts are all broken. Frantic phone calls from colleagues are pouring in. What is happening? Find out in this post what the consequences of Google’s newly imposed quota on the Google Analytics Data API are.
A fully automated data import pipeline
Stichting Donateursbelangen aims to strengthen trust between donors and charities. They believe that that trust is based on collecting money honestly, openly, transparently and respectfully. At the same time effectively using the raised donation funds to make an impact. To further this goal, Stichting Donateursbelangen wants to share information about charities with donors through their own search engine.
A day in the life of a Data Engineer
For developing modern data applications, a Data Engineer is essential. But what does it actually mean to be a Data Engineer and what exactly do you do? Our colleague Oskar, Data Engineer at Digital Power, explains.
Insight into Google Analytics 4 data
The end date for using Universal Analytics is getting closer and closer. Many companies have been collecting data in Google Analytics 4 (hereafter; GA4) for some time now. The next step is to visualise GA4 data in the right way. This process raises new questions. "When do I visualise my data in GA4 explore?" and "How do I deal with the quota limits for Looker Studio if I want to make GA4 data insightful?". Our decision tree will help you make the right choices.
Working as a Data Analyst
What does a position as a Data Analyst look like in practice? What kind of work do you do? And what skills do you need? Jelmer, a Data Analyst at Digital Power, tells us more about this in the 'From data to action' podcast! Listen to the podcast or read it in the article below.
5 questions for Data Engineer Dennis
In this video, you will find out what a job as a Data Engineer looks like! What does a working week look like, which clients do our Data Engineers work for and what makes working so much fun? Dennis likes to tell you more about it!
What is Data Science?
Everywhere at events and online, stories are told about what 'data science' is all about. Definitions are anything but consistent. They go from 'getting something of value out of data' to 'it's basically the same as statistics'. And a Data Scientist is 'a data analyst who lives in Silicon Valley' or 'a socially skilled IT person who does something with data'. But what is it really?
5 questions for Data Analyst Dennis
In this video, you'll discover what a job as a Data Analyst looks like! What does a working week look like, which clients do our Data Analysts work for and what makes the job so fun? Dennis is happy to tell you more about it!
5 questions for Data Engineer Oskar
In this video, you will find out what a job as a Data Engineer looks like! What does a working week look like, which clients do our Data Engineers work for and what makes working so much fun? Oskar likes to tell you more about it!
5 reasons to use Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
Infrastructure as Code has proven itself as a reliable technique for setting up platforms in the cloud. However, it does require an additional investment of time from the developers involved. In which cases does the extra effort pay off? Find out in this article.
How do I become a Data Engineer?
A few years ago, the job title didn't even exist: Data Engineer. Nowadays, there is a high demand for Data Engineers. Almost every organisation consciously collects data, and the realisation that this must be done in a structured way is growing. If the data you collect is not well organised and correct, you cannot use it as input for making good decisions. Data Engineers build infrastructures that process data. Therefore, they are indispensable to organisations that want to collect and apply their data in a structured way.
Central data storage with a new data infrastructure
Dedimo is a collaboration of five mental healthcare initiatives. In order to continuously enhance the quality of their care, they organize internal processes more efficiently. Therefore, they use perceptions from the data that is internally available. Previously, they acquired the data themselves from different source systems with ad hoc scripts. They requested our help to make this process more robust, efficient and to further professionalise it. They asked us to facilitate the central storage of their data, located in a cloud data warehouse. The goal was to set up the data infrastructure within this environment, since they were already used to working with Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
EP 2: Almost graduated and ready for your first job as a data professional?
How do you find out what you want, and what do you look for in job vacancies? Will you opt for a big or small company, consultancy firm or something else? These are some of the questions that our graduation intern Stijn had to face. He entered into discussions with his colleagues to find answers to these questions. The result? The Data Choice Cast! In this podcast, Stijn asks all his pressing questions and receives tips that help him (and hopefully you, too) to make the right choice for a job in the data world.
Improved data quality thanks to a new data pipeline
At Royal HaskoningDHV, the number of requests from customers with Data Engineering issues continue to climb. The new department they have set up for this, is growing. So they asked us to temporarily offer their Data Engineering team more capacity. One of the issues we offered help with involved the Aa en Maas Water Authority.
EP 1: Almost graduated and ready for your first job as a data professional?
How do you find out what you want, and what do you look for in job vacancies? Will you opt for a large company, a small company, a consultancy or something else? These are some of the questions that our graduation intern Stijn had to deal with. He had a discussion with his colleagues to get answers to these questions. The result? The Data Choice Cast! In this podcast, Stijn asks all his pressing questions and receives tips that help him (and hopefully you, too) to make the right choice in choosing a job in the data world.
Collecting reliable data in 6 steps
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, blatant lies, and statistics," said former UK Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. This also often applies to the use of data, because you cannot blindly trust data if you do not know the background.
Digital Power Datahub and Partos launch the Data Awareness series
On February 10, 2022, the Digital Power Datahub and the Partos Digital Lab together kicked off the Data Awareness series with the Intro to Data Awareness. This series of 6 training courses develops the Datahub especially for the members of Partos; non-profits in the development cooperation industry. The aim of the series is to make development cooperation specialists data-wise, so that they can make and measure more impact.
Making impact measurable
The Designathon Works foundation organises Design Hackathons (Designathons) for children aged 8 to 12. The target? Teaching children from all over the world skills to become a 'changemaker'. They are challenged to design solutions for a better world, for example to combat climate change. From the Datahub, we helped Designathon Works fine-tune the impact measurements free of charge. We also made a first move towards automating data collection, analysis and visualisation.
Which data traineeship is right for you?
You are almost done with your studies and looking for an employer that offers you the opportunity to learn everything about the field of data. Or you are no longer challenged in your current position and would like to become more technical. In both cases, you do not want to follow unpaid courses, but you would like to get started as soon as possible for real customers, with a serious salary. Does this sound familiar? Then these data traineeships are really something for you.
A well-organised data infrastructure
FysioHolland is an umbrella organisation for physiotherapists in the Netherlands. A central service team relieves therapists of additional work, so that they can mainly focus on providing the best care. In addition to organic growth, FysioHolland is connecting new practices to the organisation. Each of these has its own systems, work processes and treatment codes. This has made FysioHolland's data management large and complex.
Data-driven website optimisation
The well-known Dutch band HAEVN was unable to perform due to the corona measures. In order to make the most of their time, they wanted to optimise their new website and webshop. They sell merchandise, CDs and LPs through their Shopify webshop. Fans can also download concert films there. The HAEVN team themselves had little knowledge of data-driven website optimisation and asked us for help.
What are cookies?
Cookies. This word comes up a lot in the world of marketing and online analytics. But what exactly are those cookies? And are there different types of cookies?
A scalable machine-learning platform for predicting billboard impressions
The Neuron provides a programmatic bidding platform to plan, buy and manage digital Out-Of-Home ads in real-time. They asked us to predict the number of expected impressions for digital advertising on billboards in a scalable and efficient way.
The COVID-19 Violence Tracker
The outbreak of the corona pandemic in early 2020 has turned the world upside down. In addition to countless infections, hospitalisations and deaths, we also saw an outbreak of violence in many countries. Citizens took to the streets, sometimes violently, to protest against the measures taken, but domestic violence also increased in many places and fear and frustration played a role in racism.
Data-driven work in a crisis organisation
Dienst Testen is a crisis organisation created during the corona pandemic. Under the banner of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS), Dienst Testen ensures that everyone in the Netherlands can be tested quickly and reliably. Dienst Testen does this in collaboration with the municipal health services (GGDs) and laboratories. To quickly gain insight into the corona test figures in the Netherlands, Dienst Testen asked us and a number of other data consultancy parties to create dashboards in collaboration.
Provide insight into cross-sell and upsell opportunities
KPN's Team Digital wondered whether more value could be gained from their existing customers. Using the available data, we looked at where – within the existing online customer journeys – there were opportunities for cross-selling and upsell.
Data-driven optimisation of offline customer service
For some time now, we have been assisting PostNL's customer service department with the optimisation of their online service & contact environment. Various pilots showed that there was also a lot of potential in improving the offline service.
What is data-driven working?
In our field we are regularly asked whether we want to help organsations to work data-driven. To answer and help with this, it is important to understand how we look at the explanation of data-driven working. At Digital Power, we assume that data-driven working is equivalent to making decisions based on data. Although this may seem like a simple description, there is much more to it!
Digital Power wins prizes at SME Data Science top 50
At the 'MKB Data Science Top 50', 50 agencies competed for the title 'the fastest-growing SME data science agency in our country'. Even before the event, we heard that we were in the top 3! During the Den Bosch Data Week, Marieke got to pitch our organisation.
Achieve more conversions with CRO
Whereas conversion rate optimisation (CRO) used to be mainly in the E-commerce focus, we now see its application in all kinds of forms and fields. The focus here is on improving a particular conversion goal. Whatever your goal is for your organisation or team, CRO requires a good approach. This e-book will help you get started.
From data to action
Every day, we collect data. Think of customer data, website visitor behaviour, information about conversions through all your off- and online channels and the performance of different teams within your organisation. But how do you use that data effectively?
Why do I need Data Engineers when I have Data Scientists?
It is now clear to most companies: data-driven decisions by Data Science add concrete value to business operations. Whether your goal is to build better marketing campaigns, perform preventive maintenance on your machines or fight fraud more effectively, there are applications for Data Science in every industry.
A Career as a Data Engineer? Shape your training
In June 2020, Sander became part of our team. Although he started in the middle of corona time, he soon noticed that he was greatly stimulated to make contact with his new colleagues. This largely came naturally as part of our onboarding program: "This matched perfectly to my needs: I started calling many colleagues myself to get acquainted! "Read how Sander designs his own training as a data engineer."
The foundation for Data Engineering: solid data pipelines
Basically, Data Engineers work on data pipelines. These are data processes that can retrieve data from a certain place and write it in somewhere. In this article you can read more about how data pipelines work and discover why they are so important for a solid data infrastructure.
Social listening in the real estate market
Vesteda was curious if social listening – monitoring and analysing social media discussions about a brand, competitors, products or hashtags/keywords – could add value to the organisation. To this end, we started a project that consisted of two parts: exploring possibilities for social listening in the Corporate Communication department and applying social listening in an ongoing Data Science project.
What is a data architecture?
Working in a data-driven way helps you make better decisions. The better your data quality, the more you can rely on it. A good data architecture is a basic ingredient for data-driven working. In this article, we explain what a data architecture is and what a Data Architect does.
Monitoring BigQuery costs
If you use BigQuery, whether or not in combination with Google Data Studio, it is useful to keep track of your query costs. You also want to know which queries contribute the most to this. In this article we explain how your BiqQuery costs are generated and how you manage them as efficiently as possible.
Better service with the help of data
The Municipality of Utrecht collects a lot of data from contact moments with citizens. This includes anonymous visitor behaviour on the website and online applications, but also phone calls to the Customer Contact Center, messages via webcare and physical appointments at the municipal desk.
Route to data-driven (co-)working
DIGIWEDO specialises in designing and developing responsive websites, web shops and web applications for SMEs (MKB). They regularly receive questions from customers about how to collect, visualise and/or analyse data in the right way. DIGIWEDO does not yet offer any services in the field of data. They asked us to think about how they could expand their existing services when it comes to advice in the field of data-driven working. Within a week, using our data pressure cooker we proposed a clear plan that helps DIGIWEDO to meet customer needs.
The importance of data quality
Are you going to make decisions based on data? Then you have to ensure that your data quality is in order. Good documentation according to a clear process is essential here. Why and how? You can read it in this article.
Data-driven web and customer experience optimisation
Eneco customers can enter into or change an energy contract via the website, but also purchase a charging station or hire an energy coach, for example. Eneco wanted to bring in more expertise regarding the field of digital analytics. We helped Eneco find an extra Web analyst with whom this ambition could be fulfilled.
Social Network Analysis at Election Time
Tuesday, 3 March 2020, was known as Super Tuesday, the day on which several American states vote simultaneously for the Democratic presidential candidate. We use this day as a case for the application of Social Network Analysis. This example is about elections, but you can also apply the same method to a commercial case where you replace the names of the candidates with, for example, different brand names.
The corona dashboard of the RIVM
Our team follows the news about the corona dashboard of the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) with great interest. Creating such a dashboard is quite easy if the data is available. But how do you analyse and interpret it? Our Data Analysts will explain it to you.
How to use Social Network Analysis to understand public opinion
The Corona measures are a much discussed topic on Twitter. The crisis team not only fights against Corona's effects on public health, but also tries to maintain legitimacy for the decision to keep certain measures in place among the public. With this practical case we explain how you can make public opinion on Twitter transparent with Social Network Analysis.
Social Network Analysis: how to gain insight into social media networks
If your organisation is active on social media and you want to optimise the online strategy, you need to know what is happening online around you and the impact of your activities. Social Network Analysis can help you with that. We explain what it is, how it works and the purposes it serves.
How text analysis helps RNW Media to listen and take action
RNW Media builds online communities in countries with limited freedoms. In these communities, young people can read and discuss sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and civil rights. In addition, RNW Media is working on advocacy – putting the interests of young people on the map with governments.
From data to action for public services
There's no denying it. We all work with data and we generate huge amounts of new data every day. The data on our supermarket customer card, the disposal of household waste at the smart container, checking in with public transport, the number of hours our TV is on or refilling our parking meter. But how do you use that data effectively?
Clear dashboards for the IC team during the Corona crisis
In times of the coronavirus (COVID-19), a good overview of the patients in the scaled-up intensive care of the Utrecht medical centre is vital. Employees must be able to view patient characteristics, the most current lab readings and the course of patients' vital signs at a glance. In addition, up-to-date insight into the bed occupancy per department and the capacity of the nursing staff is required. We immediately got started to provide the necessary insights for UMC Utrecht. As a way of also contributing in these times of crisis, we offered our hours free of charge.
Measurable impact on social change using a data lake
RNW Media is an NGO that focuses on countries where there is limited freedom of expression. The organisation tries to make an impact through online channels such as social media and websites. To measure that impact, RNW Media drew up a Theory of Change (a kind of KPI framework for NGOs).
A new tagging structure for the App and website
Univé is the only Dutch insurer with a website, App and physical stores. They therefore follow an omni-channel strategy. According to its own '1 digital front door principle', the insurer also wanted to offer customers the opportunity to take out/change insurance policies and report damages via the App. They asked our Data Analysts to make the new funnels measurable.
Effective data-driven working
On the one hand, large amounts of available data are wonderful: after all, you can learn a lot from it. In practice, however, many organisations collect much more data than necessary. They often have so much information that they don't know what to look for. Or relevant data is actually collected, but it is not used optimally as input for decisions.
Data training at the Digital Power Data Academy
Venturn's consultants are active in the maritime and logistics sectors. The service provider itself organises soft skills training for their employees. In addition, there was a need for training in the field of data-driven work. Venturn asked us to develop tailor-made data training.
The proven added value for Fietsvoordeelshop
Fietsvoordeelshop has seven physical stores and a webshop. It is one of the most successful bike shops at the moment. In the field of data, the bicycle shop mainly worked with Excel. This means that a lot was done manually, every week. Due to the growth of the organisation and the increasing number of processes, the Excel file became increasingly large and unclear. Fietsvoordeelshop asked us to demonstrate with a data pressure cooker of five days that data-driven work could be of added value.
Responsible data collection and processing
From 'ethical data to doing' is easier said than done. Some of the ethical considerations in the field of working with data are laid down in the Privacy Act (GDPR). Depending on the context, there are many more questions to ask ourselves. If something is legal, this does not automatically mean that it is also ethically responsible.
Analysis of ratings and reviews of the Philips Hue app
The Internet of Things (IoT) system from Philips Hue, part of lighting manufacturer Signify, includes a mobile app. This allows end users to control their smart-home lamps both locally and remotely. They rate their experiences with the mobile app and the rest of the IoT system via Google Play or the App Store. Due to the large number of ratings and reviews, it is time-consuming to analyse them manually and recognise recurring themes.
How do you find the right data scientist?
More and more organisations are getting started with data science. A logical consequence of this is clearly a growing number of related vacancies. But how do you set up a useful job description for a data scientist – and mostly: how do you actually pick the right one? We're giving you some hints on what to do, and what not.
What is data analytics?
Every company collects data. But what exactly is data analytics? Why do companies collect data? Why are they investing in data analytics? And what can you do with it yourself? Let us explain.
From ethical data to action
The introduction of the new privacy law (GDPR) in 2018 has ensured that many organisations put privacy high on the agenda. In this article you can read about the 5 ethical risks of working digitally and using data. We also share a concrete solution: the Responsible Data Framework.
Determining the location of gardens using Data Science
Residential investor Vesteda is working on a new website. If an available rental home has a garden, the location of the garden must be listed on the webpage of that home. This information was not yet available in the database. We were instructed to determine the location of the garden based on the coordinates of the homes.
How does Data Science work in daily practice?
Organisations wanting to get started with data quickly ask for Data Science solutions. Data Science is often seen as the holy grail of data-driven working. But what does a successful Data Science project actually look like in practice? And how can it serve your organisation? In this series of articles, we take you through all the elements you need to achieve success for your organisation with Data Science.
The Data Analyst as a promoter of a data-driven organisation
Data analysis leads to clear, action-oriented insights that ensure the right decisions are made. At least, that's how it should go. To the frustration of many Data Analysts, they view carefully presented insights but little reflected in concrete actions.
Step by step data-driven working with the Digital Power Building Blocks model.
RetailTrends is a family business with a media platform for retailers. Over the years, the company has developed from a publisher of a single print magazine to a multimedia platform. This consists of two websites with news and background articles about the industry; a print magazine; an online magazine; and events. Interested parties are kept informed via various newsletters and social media channels. Some of the content is only accessible to members.
Application of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and text mining for process improvement.
Fair Wear is a non-profit organisation that aims to improve the working conditions of employees in garment factories. The NGO has collected a lot of documentation about its activities in recent years, for example in the form of reports from a complaint line for factory employees, reports of audits that check whether factories comply with the guidelines, and reports of training for factory employees. This information is stored as typed text, usually in Word or PDF format.
Reliable insight into crowds on trains and stations using an algorithm
An increasing number of people are traveling by public transportation. Several stations in The Netherlands are being rebuilt or renovated to keep up with the growing number of train passengers. For the rebuilding and layout plans, information was needed on station traffic. NS Stations also wanted to improve transfer safety in collaboration with ProRail.
Digital transformation for cross-channel customer experience using data.
The Van Gogh Museum is the most visited museum in the Netherlands. More than 2.2 million people visited the museum in 2017. Data is collected from all those people. Data from the website and other online marketing channels, but also offline data from ticket sales at the box office, for example.
A comprehensive understanding of the customer journey with Google Analytics and R
ONE Business websites allow users to buy subscriptions to various magazines. The online sales funnel can hereby be dynamically divided for each offer. For example, it is possible to give users free term choices or to limit them to a specific offer. Because the sales funnel is dynamic, it is impossible with the standard Google Analytics implementation to gain good insight into the customer journey. ONE Business asked us to provide insight into where people opt out and why. This will enable them to optimise the funnel for more online conversions.
Storytelling using data
Organisations collect as much data as possible to map out the Customer Journey. After analysis, this combination of quantitative and qualitative data provides insight into the what and why of customers or visitors. These insights should prompt action. It is important to communicate the insights well, so that the right actions are taken. You can do that with storytelling.
Digital transformation and better internal collaboration thanks to insight into offline and online data.
Publisher Malmberg collects a lot of offline and online data. More and more educational institutions are using online licenses in addition to (or instead of) printed teaching materials. To properly make use of this, Malmberg uses monthly reports. The in-house data team compiles these as input for specific departments. Malmberg asked us to strengthen this team and make the internal processes around data more efficient.
More reach, engagement and online conversion thanks to insights from online content dashboards
Elsevierweekblad.nl is an online platform with news, opinion and background information. Various authors write articles on a variety of relevant topics on a daily basis. Elsevier Weekblad wanted to get a better grip on the content formula behind this. This required insight into the extent to which the types of content contribute to reach, engagement and sales of subscriptions.
Call reduction thanks to digitisation of customer service
'How do we reduce the number of calls to customer service asking: where is my package?' During a Learning @ Location Day, our multi-disciplinary team of data professionals worked on this PostNL challenge.
More relevant insights from Google Analytics
'How do we extract more relevant insights from our data using Google Analytics?' During a Learning @ Location Day, our multi-disciplinary team of data professionals worked on this Nespresso challenge.
Streamlining web development using a tag management plan
To have a good overview of the results of multiple websites at the same time, you need a clear structure as a basis. RNW Media has several project websites, some of which are available in different languages. Our own web development team is responsible for the build and maintenance of this. They set to work with a building block model for building new websites. We were asked to provide a structural solution for measuring all websites.
Increased ROI in healthcare campaign thanks to improved insight
Various departments within Univé made decisions based on data from multiple data sources and separate reports. As a result, each department made decisions based on different information. The departments were also not always aware of each other's performance. We investigated how the integration of the data sources using the Microsoft Power BI visualisation tool could improve decision-making.