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Discover a wealth of data innovation and expertise within the Oakland blog hub – equipping you with all the latest industry knowledge to help your business get the most from its data.

Post Improving outcomes of complex projects using advanced analytics.

Improving outcomes of complex projects using advanced analytics.

A data expert, an academic, a project manager and a lawyer combined on 17 September to discuss how individuals and organisations working on complex construction projects might exploit more data-driven approaches. Recurring themes included taking a whole-life approach, and the need for organisations to nurture data as something that delivered long-term strategic value. Entrenched industry…
Post Big Data and 30 Years of Total Quality Management

Big Data and 30 Years of Total Quality Management

The notion of ‘Quality’ in business performance has exploded since I wrote the first edition of ‘Total Quality Management’ in 1989. That book was the first in the world carrying that title and it presented one of the early ‘models’ of TQM. This was a simple triangle of ‘systems,’ ‘tools’ and ‘teams,’ surrounding a core…
Post Applying digital twin thinking to programme management

Applying digital twin thinking to programme management

Digital Twins – A longer history than you may imagine. The notion of digital twins is nearly 20 years old. American academic Michael Grieves coined the term at the University of Michigan in 2002 when he was considering product lifecycle management. He proposed that a digital model of a physical system (for example, a car)…
Post The Importance of Wellness in the Workplace

The Importance of Wellness in the Workplace

Putting wellness at the heart of our business At Oakland mental health and wellbeing is at the forefront of all we do and during lock-down we have been looking to support our employees in more ways than ever as we all adjust to new ways of living and working. A recent study by Total Jobs…
Post How to win or at least come 2nd in a hackathon!

How to win or at least come 2nd in a hackathon!

No one wants to come second place. No one starts their day thinking “I want to come second place today”. It’s unrealistic. If there is a chance to win, people want to win. This is true for casual running races at the park, for the family board game night that somehow always ends in an…
Post Modelling waste-water resource management via graph theory.

Modelling waste-water resource management via graph theory.

A data engineer, some waste-water and graph theory walk into a bar….. Sludge 101 Right, before we delve any deeper into this, there’s clearly a few questions that need answering. Whilst I imagine the majority of people could have a good stab at telling you what a data engineer does and that graph theory is…
Post Realising value through cloud based rapid prototyping

Realising value through cloud based rapid prototyping

The move for organisations to better utilise their data has become unanimous across all industry sectors over the past few years. However, starting this journey can be difficult for many companies, who likely haven’t had a defined data strategy from the outset and possess a wide variety of data, ranging in both quality and usefulness….
Post Managing your business through a pandemic – in 4 phases

Managing your business through a pandemic – in 4 phases

When it comes to navigating the current COVID-19 crisis, we at Oakland are no different to our clients. We’re all working our way through a situation that we never fully prepared for. Even with the most comprehensive business continuity plans in place, it would have been near-impossible to predict the true impact of this global…
Post What does it mean to be a process-managed business in the digital world

What does it mean to be a process-managed business in the digital world

New possibilities for breakthrough performance provided by the emergence of new enabling technologies and digitalisation seem to be endless.  Explosive advances in IT have enabled the dissemination, analysis, and use of data and information from and to customers and suppliers and within enterprises, in new ways and in time frames that impact processes, organization designs…
Post How to survive and even thrive working from home

How to survive and even thrive working from home

Not Just Another ‘My Working-From-Home Routine’ Blog Look at us! Living through a global pandemic. Incredible! I can say with absolute certainty that this was not, I repeat not, on my list of 2020 New Year’s resolutions! But here we are: living, surviving, and thriving (maybe). Initially, when the lockdown began, my routine was all…
Post The Chief Data Officer – Adapting to life in a changed world

The Chief Data Officer – Adapting to life in a changed world

COVID-19 has dramatically changed the world for almost every business and individual, not least for Chief Data Officers (CDOs). In the new normal world no one can be sure what lies ahead, and those data strategies and plans that looked progressive and balanced a few months ago now require a radical overhaul to meet the…
Post Why organisations need intelligent forecasting

Why organisations need intelligent forecasting

According to the Oxford Global Projects Database (OGPD), which holds data on nearly 12,000 different projects, almost every complex major project is destined to cost more and be delivered later than planned. Less than one in ten megaprojects are delivered on time and on budget, and full realisation of all project outcomes is rare. The…