Flexys, who completed a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) and is a member of Future Space, has signed a six-year contract extension with Virgin Money.
Following a project to provide an easy-to-use digital solution to manage Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) repayments and Pay As You Grow (PAYG) options, Flexys will continue working with Virgin Money to deliver an ongoing modern money experience for business customers to help them navigate the challenges of the current economic environment.
Figures show that BBLS made £47bn of loans available to 1.67m SMEs across the UK, with Virgin Money lending £1bn to over 34,000 business customers.
The digital self-service solution developed with Flexys was the first of its kind deployed by Virgin Money and, to date, c.14,000 BBLS loan restructures have been completed via PAYG. The solution enables Virgin Money customers to manage their loan over the full term, helping them make an informed decision about what the best option is for them.
Flexys CEO, James Hill, said, “Working with Virgin Money has been a pleasure for the whole Flexys team, and their continuing confidence in Flexys is gratifying. This six-year partnership will build on the results already delivered and cement a productive collaboration to deliver the best possible service and outcomes for Virgin Money’s customers.”
Flexys provides the market-leading digital-first debt management, collection and recovery solution powered by cloud-native technology. Trusted by major household names in the banking, financial services and utility sectors, it delivers smart solutions that radically improve the speed, ease and efficiency of the debt collection process for creditors and their customers.
KTPs consist of a unique three-way collaboration between a business, a university and a graduate (known as the associate). The KTP scheme is a UK-wide programme helping businesses to improve competitiveness and productivity. The KTP with Flexys Our KTP with Flexys aims to integrate Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technology within debt resolution software, to enable more effective management of debt resolution and improvement of customer relationships and retention.
Future Space is part of our University Enterprise Zone. Future Space connects entrepreneurs and tech innovators with scientists, researchers and graduate talent – to spark collaboration, innovation and growth.
Tasnim studied Sociology at UWE Bristol and graduated in 2018.
In the below blog Tasnim shares her experiences from the last few months:
“In September 2022, I had a great opportunity to join the Green skills programme, which was such an eye-opening experience. I would recommend to anyone.
It showed me the different ways I can make changes to my own lifestyle to become more sustainable, but also to interact with different communities within Bristol, whose aim is to become sustainable. Through this I was able to meet with many different people who come from different backgrounds and create good relationships with them.
During the programme, we were assigned mentors who would help us get a foot into the sustainable world. Xavier helped me with gaining experience with an SME called Buttercup Learning, which helped me gain skills in digital marketing and data analytics.
After my internship with Buttercup, I started my journey in digital marketing by enrolling in the Digital Marketing Bootcamp. I wanted to use this course to develop my digital skills even more.
During my time in my course, Xavier contacted me and said there was an internship going within UWE Bristol with the KTP team. I had an interview with Ellen and was offered the internship.
From the day I started to the last day of the internship, I learnt so much from the team and everyone else around me that I am very thankful for. From my first day, I was excited to understand more about what the team does on a deeper level and use that information to help me through my internship.
The skills I learnt from researching businesses to see if they would benefit from a KTP, to creating videos catering to different audiences, has helped me gain the confidence within my own digital marketing skills but also refine the skills I already have.
The 8 fantastic weeks I had within the KTP team and in UWE have made a huge positive mark in my career but also a memorable experience.”
Tasnim’s internship was funded by Innovate UK KTN through the KTP Capacity Building Fund
As part of Black History Month 2022, we are spotlighting individuals working around the following themes:
Skills
Innovation
Research
Business
This week we are focusing on Innovation.
Mayowa Olanrewaju is a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Associate for Harris Evolution Ltd. A KTP scheme is a UK-wide programme helping businesses to improve competitiveness and productivity. Businesses are provided with applied knowledge and technical expertise to help transform the business.
Based in Bristol, Harris Evolution is a commercial refurbishment company, specialising in quick turnaround projects carried out whilst the buildings are still in occupation. Harris’ work is targeted within three main sectors; Education, Healthcare and Hotel/Leisure.
The 24-month KTP project aims to implement transformational innovation through an Advanced Services approach to contract design and development of leadership capacity, which is led by Dr Kyle Alves , Dr Mel Smith and Professor Gareth Edwards. Through the collaboration with UWE Bristol, Harris will move from a standardised service offer to implementing outcome-based service contracts, tailored around individual customer value.
The aim of the project is to transform Harris Evolution LTD into adopting advanced services to the way contract is been set up. This entails getting to know what the customers exactly need and tailoring a service that best suits their needs.
Mayowa commented on the importance of innovation within the project:
“Innovation is so important because companies of the future will be defined by how quickly they can transform and digitalise their processes and respond to their customers’ demands. In a fast-paced supply chain where customers’ needs are constantly changing, organisations need to be ready to satisfy their customers fast. In our own case, I am looking at how we can leverage on Internet of Things(IoT) to understand the customer asset usage and how we can develop a value proposition
We have all seen the benefits of UBER, AIR BnB, 4G, 5G and so on using innovation to succed. Businesses need to be aware of emerging technology if they want to remain competitive. The organisations of the future will be fully digital and we all have to prepare for it. However, the government need to do more to help SMEs in their transformation journey so they can remain competitive”
Mayowa also talked about the benefits of a KTP:
“There has always been this disparity between academics and the business world as they both have unique ways of doing things so having the opportunity to bridge that gap in a partnership is a wonderful opportunity only KTP can give. The business world is now coming to terms with growth and development academics offer and if properly harnessed, businesses can see the benefits in their annual turnovers.”
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) are funded by UKRI through Innovate UK with the support of co-funders, including the Scottish Funding Council, Welsh Government, Invest Northern Ireland, Defra and BEIS. Innovate UK manages the KTP programme and facilitates its delivery through a range of partners including the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), Knowledge Bases and Businesses. Each partner plays a specific role in the support and delivery of the programme.
The Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) scheme is a UK-wide programme helping businesses to improve competitiveness and productivity.
Run for nearly 50 years and now funded by Innovate UK, KTPs have helped fund over 12,000 businesses and increased their innovation and growth.
A KTP is a great opportunity to fast-track your career. We currently have two vacancies for recent graduates to work with businesses at part of a KTP.
Both opportunities are a 24-month fixed term contract. Each role includes management and business skills training provided by the national KTP programme and a further £2k per annum dedicated training budget tailored towards your personal development.
Specialist support from the academic team at UWE Bristol are provided and on completion of the KTP project it is the company’s intention to offer on-going employment to the right candidate.
Business Change Analyst (Digital Transformation & Leadership): My Cookie Dough
The role of the KTP Associate will help identify, evaluate, and target new markets for the company’s management systems. This will require market research, marketing communication improvements, and the implementation of new organisational processes and practices.
About My Cookie Dough:
Based locally in Warmley, Bristol, My Cookie Dough Ltd are a highly-skilled, professional dessert company that specialises in baked cookie dough dessert. Their mission is to spread happiness with Cookie Dough, and do it in a way that is ethically good and sustainable.
The role of the KTP Associate will help identify business improvements and optimisation and will help with the expansion and scale into new markets by enhancing existing and introducing new management capabilities.
About PBShop
Based in Fairford, Gloucestershire, PBShop is a recently established Employee-Owend Trust (EOP) that carries a 20-year legacy of autocratic leadership. The vision is to empower employees to adopt the cultural mindset of collective leadership. PBShop are the first fully virtual bookseller supplying books around the world. UK’s largest virtual inveotruy book supplier working with all the world’s largest marketplace sellers, wholesalers and retail customers.
The Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) scheme is a UK-wide programme helping businesses to improve competitiveness and productivity. A recent graduate is placed within an organisation to help solve a business problem, with access to our academic expertise.
Flexys provides innovative debt management software for companies who offer credit, e.g. financial services and utilities providers. It is based in Bristol and was formed in 2016 by a team of experienced debt management solution specialists looking to dramatically improve on the status quo in the industry.
The challenge the KTP set out to address
There is a need from utility companies and finance providers to obtain sophisticated insights into their customer’s individual needs and also to predict when early intervention may be beneficial. The objective of the project was to integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technology within Flexys’ software, to enable more effective management of debt resolution and improvement of customer relationships and retention. The ability to more accurately collect relevant data, predict trends and customer behaviours will provide much better tools for the management of repayment plans, thus leading to a high percentage of debt resolution, but also to an improvement in long term customer retention.
UWE Bristol is one of the UK’s leaders in ML / AI. Working in partnership ensured that an appropriate solution was developed that is practical and effective but cognisant of acceptable practices and regulatory boundaries. Currently, this technology is not used commercially in this particular industry; the KTP model offered the opportunity to accelerate its integration into Flexys’ systems, enabling systems to reach the market sooner.
The Solution
Solving this challenge involved creating an innovative machine learning solution, in a collaborative effort drawing upon the expertise from UWE Bristol and domain knowledge from Flexys. Gaining in depth knowledge of the available data was key, along with finding a creative way of using machine learning to extract the information and predictions that were needed.
The Flexys Platform
What changed as a result of the KTP?
Impact and Benefits:
Flexys:
Flexys have benefitted from the expertise provided by the KTP to develop their AI/ML solution. Knowledge and skills have been transferred to Flexys’ R&D team to continue developing and maintaining the product.
The Knowledge Base:
Dr Mehmet Aydin is Senior Lecturer in Computer Science and has long-standing experience in solving real-world problems using AI, machine learning and soft computing methods. Dr Jim Smith is a Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Deputy Director of UWE Bristol’s Computer Science Research Centre. His interests include computational intelligence, machine learning, and interactions between humans and intelligent systems.
The KTP resulted in new research opportunities for the Knowledge Base, including a paper which has been submitted to one of the top journals in AI. It has deepened their experience and understanding of commercial applications of machine learning within the financial technology industry, guiding direction for future research efforts.
The Associate
Hannah Dockings holds a BSc Mathematics from the University of Exeter. Machine learning is her primary interest, sitting at the intersection of maths, statistics and computer science. From working with UWE Bristol, Hannah has developed the confidence and ability for both herself and the company to continue researching new AI/ML methods in future. At the same time, she has gained industry and project management experience that would have been hard to get so early in her career without the KTP scheme.
KTP Associate Hannah winning a Sparkie award at the Tech Spark awards
The Results
Flexys expect this work to develop into a significant revenue stream for the company. It has had a significant impact on Flexys’ sales and marketing effort by establishing them as an innovative and forward-thinking company above competitors.
What the partners have to say:
Jon Hickman, CEO, Flexys Solutions Ltd
“The KTP work Hannah and the team have done has been of great value to Flexys enabling us to position ourselves as innovators in the field of Debt Management technology. This is especially impressive given the corporate giants we compete against. In addition, it has significantly contributed to the sales and marketing effort. We’re proud of the head start we have made in data, analytics and machine learning and we see this developing into a significant revenue stream for the company in the form of DSaaS – Data Science as a Service”
Dr Mehmet Aydin, Senior Lecturer in Computer Science, UWE Bristol
“This project has facilitated a very productive process to implement the recent research results and find out the strengths and weaknesses. It was a privilege to work with Flexys and the associate in this project. On the basis of the results produced by the associate, a fresher idea has emerged to model very dynamic customer behaviours and adapt to seasonal changes.”
This partnership received financial support from the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) programme. KTP aims to help businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills that reside within the UK knowledge base. This successful Knowledge Transfer Partnership project, funded by UK Research and Innovation through Innovate UK, is part of the government’s Industrial Strategy.
The Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) scheme is a UK-wide programme helping businesses to improve competitiveness and productivity. A recent graduate is placed within an organisation to help solve a business problem, with access to our academic expertise.
The below case study is from our KTP with Lyons Davidson:
About Lyons Davidson
Lyons Davidson is a national law firm providing legal services to businesses and individuals. It has been operating across the UK for over 40 years with offices in Cardiff, Leeds, Edinburgh, and headquarters in Bristol.
Lyons Davidson is a responsible business with certification for the quality of its approach to its impact on the environment, the security of its systems and the investment it makes in its people.
Innovation, along with client experience, has been fundamental to Lyons Davidson’s success. An emphasis in delivering this cost-effectively is leading the company to seek digital solutions whilst offering various online tools to maintain its competitive edge and expand its business.
The challenge the KTP set out to address
Reforms on costs recovery in the personal injury market will consolidate the number of providers and increase business opportunities and new client acquisition for the remaining providers. This means the volume of personal injury claims for the remaining providers will increase putting further pressure on their relevant teams. More than 50% of Lyons Davidson’s business resides in personal injury claims and remaining in the business requires a lean and effective processes.
The current legal advice helpline is operated via graduate employees and qualified staff and providing this service on a 24-7 basis adds to the overall cost of the service. The business was also looking for a solution to improve the customer journey where calls could be triaged but a call back needed to be arranged as the relevant advisor was not available.
The aim is to integrate an intelligent system built on Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning within the existing call handling system to support claimants and provide information relevant to their enquiry/claim which can then lead to further action.
Implementation of a technologically advanced helpline will deliver the level of service that Lyons Davidson is recognised for, increasing client satisfaction and company reputation.
Why was the KTP the right mechanism to achieve this?
The KTP structure provided the most appropriate model for achieving the project goal, enabling Lyons Davidson to maximise the potential of the Legal Advice system and transform the business. It allowed Lyons Davidson to grow its expertise in AI/ML and innovative service delivery using knowledge based on cutting edge research from a leading University AI research group, which would have been difficult to obtain via consultancy.
There was no off-the-shelf option that the company could consider as current AI/ML advice services are typically offering primary advice and information on subject areas where there is less risk tied to potential incorrect information. What was created through this KTP was bespoke and highly refined.
Had Lyons Davidson considered recruiting an AI practitioner directly, it may have been more challenging to find someone with the precise skill sets required as practitioner skill sets vary greatly. Academic involvement in the project removed any risk associated with potentially recruiting the wrong skill set.
The solution
Through initial research and implementation of currently available dialog management solutions and expertise in conversational AI from UWE, together with the KTP associate it was possible to identify gaps in currently available systems which centred on current natural language processing challenges and challenges with scalability.
This lead to the development of a user led tasked orientated dialog management system based on a novel extension of Behaviour trees, more commonly associated with games development, where conversation knowledge is separate from the underlying system and a simpler, more visual interface for design, development and debugging.
What changed as a result of the KTP?
Impact and Benefits
For Lyons Davidson:
Cost savings and efficiencies through automation to parts of the client journey in relation to their legal claim life cycle.
Automation of client interactions has allowed staff to focus on the more specific and complex tasks whilst also ensuring that client satisfaction has improved as they are able to get immediate responses to requests.
Has allowed for the capacity and focus to look into future development areas which otherwise would never have been possible and to provide new solutions to business partners.
For UWE Bristol:
Further experience in dialogue management and Natural Language Processing (NLP) and enhancement of experience in working and collaborating within industry in developing and researching new ideas and solutions and identifying how these can be implemented to tackle industrial problems.
Provided valuable opportunities to develop and explore expertise in considering and embedding the principles of ethical research in complex areas dealing with highly sensitive data.
Identified of a number of topics for further research which have fed into current and future course curation as well as research projects for undergraduates, MSc Data Science and MRes projects.
For the KTP Associate:
Through exposure between both a research knowledge base and business setting the associate has developed leadership skills required to co-ordinate different institutions in bringing an innovative solution to market as well as a developing a greater knowledge of how the insurance claims and legal service industries operate.
The associate has since been employed by Lyons Davidson to continue developing the project further as well as taking control and exploring future development across other areas of the business using AI/ML.
Quantifiable benefits
16,500 customers currently using messaging service as part of their claims process and will be exposed to automated information and manage actionable tasks independently.
The development will extend the benefit that customers will obtain in accessing claims information out of hours. Currently 22% of customers access their portal out of normal office hours
It is estimated that 5-10% of customer messages will be answered through the dialog management system, directly saving case handler time. This is in addition to the adviser time to be saved when applied to provide advice and call filtering for helpline calls.
What the partners have to say
Mark Savill, Managing Director, Lyons Davidson:
“We have enjoyed working with UWE Bristol to build an innovative solution that has benefited our customers, our people and our business. The Knowledge Transfer has been very effective and collaborative, and has helped us overcome technical problems to develop a product that maximises the impact of the use of AI and ML within an area of our business. The experience has also helped change the way our development teams work and communicate and the way we approach problem solving. The whole process has been supportive and helpful and delivered a great platform for us to build on.“
Professor Jim Smith, UWE Bristol:
“Knowledge Transfer Partnerships provide a win-win scenario for the three main legs of the project – university, company and associate. As an academic, the opportunity to test new ideas and develop co-designed research agendas that reflect real-world needs is invaluable.“
Dr Mehmet Aydin, UWE Bristol:
“It is always a privilege to collaborate with industry to implement the research results and realise them in the real life. This project helped build a good collaboration with the company and developed an automatic chatbot development tool, which facilitates a transferable knowledge across many industries. The results produced by the associate were excellently helpful to demonstrate the proof of concept and further develop into industrial solutions.“
KTP Associate Chris Tapply, UWE Bristol/Lyons Davidson:
“Being given the opportunity to undertake this KTP I have been able to enter into a field of work which can be difficult to enter as an undergraduate. This has given me the chance to develop my skills and interests with huge support and guidance all whilst developing an innovative solution to a business objective as well as providing further research opportunities for UWE Bristol. “
This partnership received financial support from the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) programme. KTP aims to help businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills that reside within the UK knowledge base. This successful Knowledge Transfer Partnership project, funded by UK Research and Innovation through Innovate UK, is part of the government’s Industrial Strategy.
UWE Bristol Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) team have secured a new KTP with Sysmax. The application, led by Ellen Parkes from UWE Bristol, was funded under Innovate UKs Management Knowledge Transfer Partnership (MKTP) scheme which is part funded from BEIS (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy).
Based in Guildford, Surrey, Sysmax is a compliance and competency management company specialising in project, risk, and engineering management offering a comprehensive suite of products that help their clients to evaluate competency, improve performance, and deliver compliance across their business.
With specialist support from the academic team at UWE Bristol Business School, the aim of the 24-month project is to develop and embed the necessary management capabilities and leadership skills required to grow the company in line with its strategic ambitions, and increase its effectiveness and productivity in a scalable and sustainable way. Through the collaboration with UWE, Sysmax will establish a strategic approach for the identification, analysis, and targeting of new markets for compliance and competency management systems.
This collaborative project between Sysmax and the Bristol Business School at UWE Bristol provides a route for the transfer of research informed knowledge in Marketing and Leadership, and best practice to the company, whilst providing rich case study material for teaching and applied research, in return.
Basil Omar, Senior Lecturer in Strategy and Enterprise, UWE Bristol and KTP Academic Lead
This partnership received financial support from the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) programme. KTP aims to help businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills that reside within the UK knowledge base. This successful Knowledge Transfer Partnership project, funded by UK Research and Innovation through Innovate UK, is part of the government’s Industrial Strategy.
Danielle Sinnett is a Professor in Green Infrastructure (BNE) / Research Centre Director, Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments at UWE Bristol.
Dr Sinnett is an environmental scientist with expertise in green infrastructure and land regeneration. She is Director of the Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments and a Professor in Sustainable Built Environments. Her research has focussed on green infrastructure primarily as a mechanism to regenerate brownfield and contaminated land, and its beneficial role in urban environments.
She has over 20 years’ research experience examining the establishment of green infrastructure and its benefits for urban populations and carried our research with funding from the Forestry Commission, EPSRC, NERC, Innovate UK and WHO.
Knowledge exchange is an important component of Professor Sinnett’s work and she was the lead academic on a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust (GWT), funded by NERC and Innovate UK. This project developed a benchmark for the planning, design and delivery of green infrastructure: Building with Nature and embedded green infrastructure expertise into the wildlife trust. This was a 30 month project, running from Summer 2015 to early 2018. This work has resulted in a NERC Innovation Fund to examine the feasibility and market for a national benchmark. Danni was also commissioned to undertake a review for NERC in the translation of green infrastructure research into practice.
The KTP aimed to formalise GWT’s role in advising Local Authorities and the development sector on the impact of development on nature conservation. The project established a new benchmark for green infrastructure offering consistent technical information on key features, and a quality rating to incentivise and reward developers for high quality green infrastructure.
Danni is the module leader for Sustainability in the Built Environment (UBLMR4-15-M) and Urban Greening (UBLLA1-15-M) and teaches on a number of other modules.
Working with Flexys to integrate Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technology within debt resolution software, to enable more effective management of debt resolution and improvement of customer relationships and retention.
Research Interests
Dr Mehmet Aydin is Senior Lecturer in Computer Science with long-standing experience in solving real-world problems using AI, machine learning and soft computing methods. He has led and taken part in numerous research and industrial projects involving data analysis and modelling and problem-solving aspects in supervisory, consultant and researcher capacities. His research resulted in a long-list of publications in internationally peer-reviewed and well-recognised journals and conferences, and the impact of his research can be evidenced with citation metrics.
Business/Sector Interestsand a brief description of how your academic expertise could be practically applied for a business partner
Mehmet has experience of being the academic supervisor on two KTP projects.
One, still in progress, concerns data analysis and machine learning to understand customer behaviours in the area of debt management. The other, recently successfully completed, was with Lyons Davidson. This concerned the use of artificial intelligence for natural language processing and task-oriented dialogue management, creating automated systems for answering customer queries.
These, combined with his extensive experience of modern software development practices (for example, he is module leader for UWE’s final year module ‘Enterprise Systems Development’) provide him invaluable experience with project management and tools throughout the workplan. In particular his research experience and wide experience of formulating problems as learning tasks, then designing, implementing and evaluating machine learning-based solutions, give him the expertise needed to support collaborations.
For more information about Mehmet’s work please click here
For more information about Knowledge Transfer Partnerships click here
Working with Lyons Davidson to establish an automated legal advice helpline utilising complex Artificial Intelligence that can deliver suitable solutions to a wide-range of possible enquiries.
His interests include computational intelligence, machine learning, and interactions between humans and intelligent systems. The quality and impact of his research on interactive and adaptive AI is evidenced by citation metrics, (over 13000 citations to his work as at 16/8/21) through awards like 2001 ACM-SIGEVO prize for papers ‘deemed to be seminal’, membership of various IEEE Technical Committees and Task Forces, membership of the EPSRC peer review college, and editorial boards of leading academic journals in relevant fields.
In 2018 he contributed an invited chapter on the role of AI within Confidentiality and Linked Data to the National Statistician’s Quality Review. More details can be found on his website.
Business/Sector Interestsand a brief description of how your academic expertise could be practically applied for a business partner
Professor Smithhas led numerous successful projects concerning the hybridisation of metaheuristic approaches with machine learning, and mathematical approaches funded by the EU, EPSRC, DSTL, other governmental agencies from the UK, US and Brazil, and commercial partners.
His experience in delivering successful projects in commercial environments, includes applying AI to areas such as adaptive vision-based production quality control, interactive design optimisation, characterising Video Conference Meetings, privacy preservation in published official statistics, modelling customer behaviours, and speech recognition.
Jim has led three KTPs to successful completion (one ‘good’, one ‘outstanding’ and one under review) and a fourth is already delivering value to company, associate and UWE’s research agenda.
For more information about Professor Smith’s work please click here
For further information about Knowledge Transfer Partnerships please click here
