Chief executive of UK-based data, services, and software company 4GLOBAL PLC (AIM:4GBL), Eloy Mazon, recently sat down with Proactive to discuss significant contract wins in Mexico and the Middle East.
Maon detailed the company’s international expansion, the intricacies of calculating social value, and the promising future ahead.
Thomas Warner (TW): A couple of contract wins were just announced, the first one in Mexico, Guadalajara. What can you tell us about that?
Eloy Mazon (EM): Yes, we’re really excited about this contract as it really talks to our strategy for international expansion, certainly one of our core markets, which is the North American market. Guadalajara bought access to our data and our platform, in particular, to draw insight around social value.
They are one of the 16 cities that are going to be hosting the World Cup in North America, hosted by Canada, US, and Mexico. They want to utilise this tournament to really drive transformation in the city around physical activity, sport, and how to generate more social value.
Our data and platform, that's around (the) social value calculator that we've developed with Sheffield Hallam University, is so important to them. It allows them to understand and identify where the value will be driving for and therefore target their investments. It really allows them to monitor and evaluate the impact that those investments are having.
So they can identify, monitor, evaluate, and correct if needed. They can demonstrate to the people that the huge investment they're making in the World Cup is an investment in the long term for the city.
TW: Trying to calculate something as complex as social value is an enormous undertaking, isn't it?
EM: It is. We’ve spent a phenomenal amount of time developing not just our technology but really getting all the data needed to generate these really valuable insights. We’re now tracking an estimated 14 million unique individuals in the UK, Europe, and starting in North America, generating about 4 billion data points.
It’s that sort of big data that allows us to work with people like Sheffield Hallam and adopt their frameworks and models around social value. We can calculate and predict how physical activity will impact other areas of society, like health, social cohesion, reducing crime, and attach financial values to them. Our model is adopted by many governments around the world.
TW: That segues to the second part of the announcement, the other contract win over in the Middle East. What happened there, Eloy?
EM: In the Middle East, we’re targeting three regions as part of our international expansion: North America, Europe, and the Middle East. We’ve identified that the most effective way for us to operate there is through partnerships. We’ve built strong commercial partnerships in the region, one is with AlJazeera, with whom we are signing this new contract. It’s very much the same, helping them with our data, our platform, and our knowledge to deliver huge value to their end client.
TW: Eloy, is there anything else you’d like to add before we sign off today?
EM: The often question that I get asked is, what to expect from us? And I think as I always say, more of the same. We’re going to continue doing what we set out to do. We’ve got a strong second half of the year ahead of us as we said in our trading update of the 27th of September, and we’re really excited about the future. We want people to come on the journey with us.