FUTURE-PROOFING WITH HOZAH

Naomi Bishop

Co-founder and director of Hozah

SWBR speaks to Naomi Bishop, the co-founder and director of Hozah, a fully automated parking payment system. Here, she highlights the importance of looking to the future to secure your business.

What value does futureproofing add to Hozah?

As a Smart Cities technology company, future-proofing is the underpinning of Hozah’s entire ethos. We believe that certain industries and processes within those industries are behind when it comes to technological advancement. Hozah has approached land management within Smart Cities as a sector and has found that rather than the hands-on, fairly physical approach that’s been taken in the past, you can manage physical assets digitally without the need for high-cost physical labour. Thinking about not just what is better to manage city assets now, but what the demands on the Smart City will be in the future is key to creating robust technological systems that will stand the test of time. Data and technology are evolving fast, but by future-proofing you can ensure that what you create is not just fit for market now, but forms part of creating the market of the future.

How does using big data help you in this future-proofing process?

I think it’s critical that companies use data and the information it gives them to steer company direction. Data plays a big part in forming patterns, gathering information, and gaining key insight into behaviours. I think to be able to future-proof anything you need to first understand the intricacies of its target market and how it’s currently being used: where are the areas for improved efficiency, where are there potential gaps in service, what don’t people like and what can you do to change that in the future? By doing that you remain one step ahead and always think about not just what is needed now, but what will be needed in ten years from now.

Do you have a real-life example of when future-proofing through using big data has been a success?

We work very closely with local authorities all over the UK. One real-life example of when big data was used to make key decisions was in the implementation of EV charging points nationwide. Most councils have a green agenda and are looking to improve emissions profiling across their towns and cities. Hozah was able to help make key decisions in this regard and future-proof these decisions, helping to

"I think it’s critical that companies use data and the information it gives them to steer company direction. Data plays a big part in forming patterns, gathering information, and gaining key insight into behaviours."

identify the types of vehicles currently in the area. The council needed to decide what EV chargers they needed, where they needed them, and how fast the chargers needed to be. As an existing supplier to the council, Hozah were able to provide vehicle types, emissions profile, length-of-stay, and peak times for cars using city car parks to ascertain the investment required to deploy the best and most efficient EV charging points across the cities. This ensured the most green and efficient methods were used in the car park, forming part of the future Smart City.

Do you have any tips for SME owners who are starting to consider using big data to futureproof their own businesses?

Know your data and know its boundaries. Hozah was born in the era of GDPR and is incredibly disciplined in data storage and usage. With great power comes great responsibility, and I would say that is certainly true of data provision. It’s crucial that you treat data respectfully and securely. By having good robust data processes from the off, you can future-proof yourself as a business and ensure that you’re able to handle the vastness of big data moving forward.

How do you predict big data might influence your business decisions over the next year?

When making business decisions, you always have to expect the unexpected. With that in mind, I don’t think anyone was quite expecting the 2020 we had! However, there’s always something on the horizon that has the ability to derail you. In terms of how big data can aid decision-making, I think we’ve seen firsthand the impact that something like COVID-19 can have. So, with that in mind, our future plans are made based on the key behaviour changes we’ve witnessed in 2020, considering which trends we think will form in the future, and where our focus should lie to ensure the future-proofing of the company. Whether that’s automatic solutions, contactless systems or green policies, we can use data to start to understand what we need to do in the immediate future in a post-COVID world, but also for the Smart City of the future.