Digitalization and the now available computing powers, information overflow and big data threatens business models of established companies. Sandy Energized Analytics a data consulting and corporate startup of EnBW Energie Baden Württemberg AG knows, how companies get their data to be profitable, usable and delight their customer base with data based new features.
For 2 years now co-founders Claudius Hundt, Sebastian Scholz and Peter Karcher and their team advise companies about unused potentials and the possibility gains. In this interview series you can get to know them and discover, what they know about energy startups, data analytics, data consulting, big data and value gains.
Meet Sebastian Scholz co-founder and data evangelist of SANDY.
What is it that your startup SANDY energized analytics does?
We develop and operate data analytics as a B2B for businesses as analytics as a Service.
This way we provide highly efficient and scalable data science solutions for companies.
What challenges come with being a startup?
Working in a startup is different than project oriented working in a large enterprise. While in large projects labor division dominates, in a startup you are responsible and in charge of basically everything. Starting with questions like “where to hire staff from” to creating a comprehensive brochure. Tasks become more diverse yet more detailed.
What vision do you share with your co-founders?
Both of my co-founders and I have experienced firsthand and in many different projects, that company data is a treasure. Concurrent everyday practice shows, how hard it is to get this data and to run real time analytics for reliable information on them. Often this big company data is seen as a burden or worse waste not held in high regards with a lot of potential value. That’s exactly the point, where we want to help and empower businesses to get the best value from their data. We advise our clients in tangible projects and we put the project into practice.
What is your approach in data consulting?
We focus on a practical and solution oriented execution. Eventually our customers are not receiving a strategy paper but a functional solution and a profitable value. For this to happen it is important to understand, where our customers stand right now. This is different for every sector. In a workshop setting we create a roadmap of digitalization and determine with our clients where we see the biggest potential. For every relevant project there is a “proof of value” phase, in which our data scientists take a data sample of our clients apart to identify patterns and information. If those insights produce a profitable value,
we operate those analytical models in real time.
What future innovations will revolutionize our daily life?
The penetration of our daily life by many tiny sensors and their resulting insights will transform our life substantially. Starting with medical analyses and supervision and leading to the possibilities of autonomic self-driving.
How can we picture your desk?
It always looks a little chaotic. But to keep it in Nietzsche’s words: “One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.”