Get more value from the money you already spend on customers and members.
AI-enabled operating models for better business performance
Change the work before you change the technology.
Commercial AI transformation for mobile, retail and membership organisations across Europe & MENA. Formalus improves commercial performance by identifying where value is being lost, redesigning how work gets done and establishing where AI can make a measurable difference, before technology commitments are made.
Free AI Opportunity Assessment. A free 60-minute executive discussion, followed by a concise written assessment.
Commercial performance. Connected AI. Enterprise control.
Michael Williamson has led this work before, inside the business, using data science and machine learning.
AI makes analysis easier. The value comes from changing the operating model.
AI is making customer scores, forecasts and analysis easier to obtain. A better prediction improves performance only when it changes what the organisation does: which customers receive a retention offer, which promotions are approved, which lapsing members are contacted, and at what cost.
Those decisions recur every week or every renewal cycle. An offer made to a customer who would have stayed, a promotion that gives away more margin than it earns, or renewal effort spent where it changes nothing repeats its cost every time.
That is what commercial AI transformation means: start with the money, not the technology. The organisations that gain most from AI will be those that change how these everyday decisions are made, not those that buy the most tools.
The AI Value Map — where you are now, and what needs to change.
Built for mobile operators, multi-site retailers and membership organisations.
We specialise in mid-market organisations where recurring commercial decisions have a material impact on financial performance. The ranges below show where we usually fit best. They are a guide, not a cut-off.
Keep the customers worth keeping, at the right cost.
For an independent operator, every lost customer has to be replaced at a cost, and every retention offer is money spent. We help leadership decide where that spending works. Your teams keep running retention day to day.
Keep the sales. Protect the margin.
Promotions can lift sales while quietly eroding margin across stores, channels and categories. We help leadership decide which promotions earn their place. Your teams keep planning promotions and setting prices.
Create more member value. Retain more members.
Renewal shows whether members still see value. Many membership bodies are mission-led or not-for-profit, so the aim is a sustainable organisation, not maximum profit. We help leadership decide where engagement, renewal and growth effort makes the biggest difference.
The same retention offer or promotion can make money or lose it.
Two simplified examples from mobile and retail. The figures are illustrative; your own data decides the real answer.
Three customers, one churn flag, one £120 offer.
| Customer | Offer cost | Contribution kept* | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| High value, likely to stay | £120 | £40 | −£80 |
| High value, likely to leave | £120 | £420 | +£300 |
| Low value, likely to leave | £120 | £60 | −£60 |
Same flag, same offer, three different answers. One customer justifies the spend.
*Additional future contribution retained because of the offer, compared with making no offer, after service costs.
Two promotions, each adding £100k of sales.
| Promotion A | Promotion B | |
|---|---|---|
| Margin on the extra sales | £40k | £40k |
| Discount on sales that would have happened anyway | −£25k | −£10k |
| Contribution lost on displaced sales* | −£15k | −£5k |
| Returns and stock effects | −£5k | −£3k |
| Contribution added | −£5k | +£22k |
Same sales uplift, opposite effect on profit.
*Contribution forgone on products whose sales moved to the promoted line, stated as contribution, not revenue. A promotion can still be worth running for acquisition or stock clearance. The point is to know its economic effect before it is approved.
The same discipline, applied to member value and growth.
For a membership body, the same thinking raises questions such as:
- Which acquisition channels create sustainable member contribution?
- Which onboarding changes improve early engagement?
- Which renewal interventions are economically justified?
- Which member services strengthen value and financial sustainability?
Illustrative commercial questions, not measured results.
Repeated across thousands of customers, hundreds of promotions or every renewal cycle, differences like these add up.
Why Formalus, and not a platform, your own team or a consultancy?
Each does valuable work. Customer value, promotion and membership platforms run decision rules at scale every day. Your own teams know your data and systems best. Large consultancies bring capacity for programmes that span the business. Formalus is built for mid-market organisations, and for the step before all three: deciding which commercial changes are worth making, then showing whether they paid. It takes an enterprise-wide view, connecting customer journeys, processes and AI across functions, with cybersecurity, identity, data governance and whole-life technology economics considered from the outset.
Machine learning and P&L experience
Formalus is led by someone who has put machine learning into live commercial decisions and carried the P&L those decisions served.
In practice: churn and value models at O2 and Vodafone, machine-learning pricing at Staples, credit and fraud risk models for tier-one banks at Equifax.The business case before the build
We work back from the outcome leadership needs, so commercial requirements are defined before technology is chosen.
In practice: the approach used with Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, described below.Independent, and designed for enterprise control
Formalus sells no software, licences or implementation. Security, identity, data governance and whole-life costs are designed in from the start, so the change can scale safely.
In practice: if we introduce a delivery partner, any financial interest is disclosed in writing before you decide.Value measured, not assumed
Findings are graded by the strength of their evidence, and the return is tracked against a baseline taken before anything is built.
In practice: our prices are published on this page, before you speak to us.Leaders in all three sectors on working with Michael.
“Michael is a strong, seasoned leader with excellent customer vision – and able to turn that into tangible commercial plans. Transformed Vodafone’s thinking about prepay mobile in a very short timeframe. Made a major impact across Vodafone’s operations across EMEA. One of the very best.”
“Michael has one of the strongest strategic minds that I have come across in business. He demonstrated a great ability to analyse and understand customer needs and experience particularly in a complex multichannel environment.
Michael is also a great listener to not only customers but his teams and colleagues which made him a trusted colleague.”
“The work identified and prioritised the biggest commercial opportunities, helping us focus on the areas with the greatest potential business impact. Michael then helped us shape the high-level commercial design for the future operating model, working back from the business outcomes we wanted to achieve so the commercial requirements were defined before technology decisions were made.”
He has used AI to run the business, not just to advise on it.
Before founding Formalus, Michael Williamson spent 25 years in General Manager, Vice President and C-suite roles, using data and machine learning to run customer-facing businesses and answering for the results.
That includes senior leadership at Symantec, a global cybersecurity company, and Equifax, a global data, credit and identity business: experience that shapes how Formalus builds security, identity and data governance into every design.
The figures below come from those roles. They show the scale of the decisions he has been accountable for, in the same kinds of business Formalus now serves.
£1.8bn P&L
End-to-end P&L as General Manager, O2 Pay & Go, from acquisition to renewal.
30+ countries
Global commercial growth at Vodafone. UK share of new customer acquisition volume moved from fourth to second in six months.
800 stores
European marketing, analytics and promotions at Staples across around 800 stores and 19 websites, including machine-learning dynamic pricing, on €2.5bn of regional sales.
11 quarters reversed
Decline turned into eight quarters of growth at Norton/Symantec across EMEA.
O2 · Vodafone · Staples · Norton/Symantec · Equifax · Helvar
These figures come from executive roles held before Formalus was founded. Formalus client results are reported separately, against measured baselines. See the full operating record →
Find the value. Redesign the work. Prove the return.
Successful transformation starts with the decisions that drive commercial performance, not a list of AI tools. Formalus maps customer and member journeys, identifies where value leaks, turns cross-functional decisions into build-ready requirements, supports the business through implementation and measures the contribution achieved.
One connected method. Four decision-led phases. No commitment to the whole programme.
- Free Value Signal Free AI Opportunity Assessment Is there enough commercial value to investigate? Free Get Your Free Assessment Sponsor agrees the Phase 1 scope
- Phase 1 Value Map Discovery & Audit Where is value being won and lost? From £15,000 See Value Map Leadership prioritises the workstreams
- Phase 2 Value Blueprint Requirements, Specification & Redesign What must change, and is the investment justified? From £25,000 See Value Blueprint Board approval; baseline locked
- Phase 3 Value Assurance Support through the build Is the build preserving the approved decisions and value case? From £5,000 a month See Value Assurance Alongside: your technology partner builds Go-live; assurance complete
- Phase 4 Value Ledger Value Realisation & Optimisation Is the investment delivering attributable value? From £5,000 a month See Value Ledger The next justified Value Map
You own the decision. We own the rigour behind it.
Your executive leadership
- Owns the commercial target
- Approves the investment case
- Sponsors the operating-model changes
- Remains accountable for the realised outcome
Formalus
- Assesses the commercial opportunity
- Designs the decision and process changes
- Develops the investment case
- Defines benefit measures and commercial governance
- Provides Value Assurance and the Value Ledger, as commissioned
Your operational teams
- Supply data and process knowledge
- Validate assumptions and practical feasibility
- Implement the process changes and run them day to day
Your technology partner
- Detailed technical design
- Build and integration
- Technical deployment and operation
Formalus is independent of software, licence and implementation sales, and discloses any referral or delivery-related interest before you decide.
How sure we are of each finding.
Every figure is labelled illustrative, modelled or measured, and experience from previous executive roles is reported separately from Formalus client results. How we grade evidence →
Retention spending keeps rising, but churn is not falling.
Promotions are lifting sales but squeezing margin.
Renewals are softening, or new members cost more to win than they bring in.
The board wants a credible financial case before approving more AI spend.
Which of your commercial decisions is costing you most?
Start with a Free AI Opportunity Assessment. Discover where AI could improve commercial performance and whether a more detailed investigation is justified.
A free 60-minute executive discussion, followed by a concise written assessment.
Get Your Free Assessment