About us

Founded in 2018, Otzma Analytics is a boutique consultancy powered by over twenty-five years of experience in the Data Science, Machine Learning and Analytics professions. We specialise in helping companies get the most out of their data, as well as in analytics auditing: providing an external review of your analytics algorithms to find their weaknesses and hidden assumptions that are preventing you from fully materialising the power of your data.

Our Services

Analytics mentoring

Boost the calibre of your data science team by leveraging our deep expertise and decades of industry experience! We work side-by-side with analytics teams on projects, upskilling in state-of-the-art data science and providing key elements of data projects, such as by developing novel, bespoke algorithms in order to address your organisation’s unique data problems.

Analytics coaching and training

Many companies struggle with their first steps into advanced analytics. At Otzma Analytics, we work with you to map the data landscape of your business, uncover where and how to best deploy advanced analytics and Data Science tools, and help you reap the benefits of your unique data assets, whether it is to optimise processes while minimising costs, or to build out new sources of revenue with data-rich products. We provide one-on-one coaching sessions and manager workshops.

Analytics review

Getting advanced analytics right is tricky. Is your data biased? Are your models causal? Are your predictions stable? At Otzma Analytics, we review your in-house analytics work in order to find what your data scientists missed, check the robustness of the machine learning methods your organisation employs and the validity of their conclusions, and give you the peace of mind that all boxes have been ticked.
Harness the power of analytics!
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Our credo

At Otzma Analytics, we believe that every problem is unique, that your data is unlike anyone else's. We believe in learning, in coming to each problem with a child-like curiosity, ready to be surprised by it. We learn the subtleties of your data and your data environment, and tailor a solution that makes best use of your specific goals and circumstances. And much like every problem is different, so must solutions be: there is no one size that fits all and no one algorithm above all others. Anyone can plot a correlation line, but to really bring business value requires a deep understanding and a rich toolkit to leverage it. Go beyond off-the-shelf solutions and harness the power of tailored analytics. Go beyond traditional predictive analytics and reap the benefits of causal modelling. You care about your data. So do we.
Michael Brand, founder

Who we are

Michael Brand

Michael Brand

Founder

With over 30 years of cutting-edge, international industry experience in advanced analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, machine vision and natural language processing, Dr. Brand’s data expertise is both uniquely wide and uniquely deep. He served as Chief Data Scientist at Telstra Corporation, as Senior Principal Data Scientist at Pivotal, as Chief Scientist at Verint Systems, as CTO Group Algorithm Leader at PrimeSense Ltd (in the machine-vision team that developed the XBox Kinect), and as Director of the Monash Centre for Data Science in his role as Associate Professor of Data Science at Monash University. He has developed solutions at every scale from on-chip to Big Data, from real-time to high-powered computing, and made industry-defining contributions that have earned him 19 patents (more pending), garnered many prestigious industry and academic awards, and underline $100Ms/pa revenues and $100Ms in valuation for the companies he worked with.

Our Clients and Partners

What our clients say

I would like to thank Michael Brand for his insightful review of my report. His remarks were professional, evidence of meticulous and careful examination of both the methodology and the analysis applied in the report. I have learnt a lot from his feedback and have implemented many of his suggestions for improvement which made an important contribution to my work. I highly recommend Otzma Analytics and Michael Brand.

Dr. Ran Porat

Dr. Ran Porat

researcher@Monash University

[Michael, head of Otzma Analytics] helped me gain enormous clarity on how to use machine learning as a strategic objective as well as information and data needs, analytics, and Big Data within the world of Investment Management. He also has great insight into the pitfalls and unintended consequences of managing data science projects. I would recommend Michael for consultancy and training work to help you optimise the business value you gain from data whether it be analytical modelling, data science or using artificial intelligence and more specifically machine learning.

Michael Watt

Michael Watt

CEO@PortfolioMetrics

Latest News

Theory of EI Estimation

Theory of EI Estimation, September 9, 2024

Dr Michael Brand, head and founder of Otzma Analytics, was delighted to be invited to give another monthly talk at the Intenational Colloquium on AI and Software Quality. This time, the topic was high-stakes estimation decisions, and the theory of how to optimise them.

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Paradigm Shifts in Financial Supervision

Cambridge SupTech Lab panel: Paradigm Shifts in Financial Supervision, August 20, 2024

Dr Michael Brand, head and founder of Otzma Analytics, was honored to present FinTracer and to be a panelist in a Cambridge SupTech Lab discussion about the future of financial supervision.

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Error Intolerant Estimation

Error Intolerant Estimation, August 8, 2024

Dr Michael Brand, head and founder of Otzma Analytics, was delighted to be invited to give an RMIT SCT seminar on the topic of Error Intolerant Estimation: a new theory on how to make high-stakes decisions that he has been developing for some years now.

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Avoiding the Pitfalls of Data Science

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Data Science, June 3, 2024

Dr Michael Brand, head and founder of Otzma Analytics, was happy to present this month's talk at the Intenational Colloquium on AI and Software Quality. In this talk, Dr Brand spoke from personal experience, covering lessons from three of his past project reviews. The conclusion: external review is essential for Data Science, and critical to the success of any and all analytics endeavours.

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Securing and Preventing Fraud in Digital Payment Systems

Fraud in Digital Payment Systems, May 3, 2024

We are proud to announce that Dr Michael Brand, head and founder of Otzma Analytics, will be one of four speakers to present in an RMIT Centre for Cyber Security Research and Innovation industry workshop regarding the multifaceted landscape of fraud within digital payment systems, and how it challenges the tension between convenience and privacy.

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Make Me Data Literate

"Make Me Data Literate", March 4, 2024

Dr Michael Brand, head and founder of Otzma Analytics, was delighted to be interviewed by the wonderful Linda McIver for her podcast "Make Me Data Literate", where he explained the importance of peer review in order to put the "science" back in in Data Science, in what turned out to be one of the most popular episodes of "Make me Data Literate" ever.

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