104482Project WorkTOP (Work Transparency & Optimisation Platform)ClosedFeasibility StudiesInnovate UK"Small Businesses, Large Corporates and Public sector organisations in the UK spend over £22B a year on 'generic' consulting activities. This figure, while large, does not include the type of work covered by top end strategy houses and work offered from firms such as McKinsey, or technically oriented service delivery from the likes of IBM. The 'bulky middle' of management consulting includes a wide range of domain expertise and topics delivered in the portfolio, from cost reduction initiatives or revenue increasing advice, delivered across a number of functions (operations, HR, Finance, Technology and Supply Chain) and to the entire breadth of British industry. However, the consumers of such consulting services suffer from what many authors and scholars call 'information asymmetry'; knowing that a problem needs to be solved but lacking the data to be able to make decisions about how such a solution should be delivered. From our research, we know this leads to over specification, higher costs and a less satisfied customer as a result. Leveraging the insights from the Design Foundations grant awarded to us in August 2017, we are building a data led platform to bring transparency to the consulting industry; using big data and a remarkable human centred design interface to support SME's, public bodies and corporates to be empowered to make better decisions. Collectively, a data driven platform that supports customers to author their own work, leveraging bleeding edge technology in Machine Learning and A.I. means that everyone has the same easy access to high quality information. We can save small business (in particular) billions per year in lost revenues and higher costs, ensure targeted and efficient use of taxpayer money in the public sector, and limit wastage by corporate organisations."