THE DATA AGENCY

A Streamlined WBSO Process

Over the past few years, The Data Agency has grown significantly through several acquisitions. This growth made the WBSO subsidy application and administration process more complex. The technical development teams, composed of programmers from different brands each with their own working methods, added further challenges. To address these issues and implement a new strategy, The Data Agency partnered with Ugoo.

Automated WBSO Administration

The most important goal was to align the process with the workflows of the technical development teams. The process is now structured so that The Data Agency’s product owners create a technical roadmap each quarter and inform Ugoo’s consultants. The consultants then prepare the WBSO application and submit it to the RVO.

On Ugoo’s advice, The Data Agency integrated WBSO administration with the project management tool Jira. The main advantage of this tool is its integrated time-tracking plugin. Because the WBSO application corresponds directly with items on the roadmap, administration has become much simpler. When a story is created, it is immediately indicated whether the development activity relates to a WBSO topic. If so, the hours worked are automatically tracked. Every two weeks, the WBSO-eligible stories and hours are reviewed and finalized.

Collaboration with Ugoo

Since 2021, Ugoo has been the strategic subsidy partner of The Data Agency. Together, we review all WBSO topics each quarter, and annually we go through the administration to ensure everything is in order. In addition, we regularly explore other funding opportunities, such as the Innovation Box, SLIM, and international subsidies.