A SOFTWARE development firm has teamed up the University of York to explore how data analytics can be enhanced with computer gaming technology.

MooD international, which is a double Queen's Award for Enterprise recipient, has recently won a further round of Research & Development (R&D) funding from the EU in collaboration with the University.

Based at York Science Park, MooD International develops software to help businesses solve complex operational challenges.

The business has focussed on capturing relevant data, not only analysing its affect on businesses but the causes that led to the data being produced.

Now MooD's core development team is working with the University's computer science department to analyse and how cause and effect data predictions and analysis can be combined with computer gaming technology.

Simon Smith, chief technology officer at MooD, said: "Our technology helps people think about how they organise their organisations; the architecture of an enterprise, and combining that with operational data to assess how a company is performing.

"We are now in the third phase of work, which is using that data to give an insight into what moves should be made, and working out how things will turn out.

"It's about people getting one step ahead, and anticipating what the outcome is going to be, and putting things in place to make sure they achieve the outcome they want.

"A lot of data analytics is just data, but that's not good enough, we want to know what causes something.

"We can join that causality work into what is being done in gaming intelligence research, and we are looking at the techniques people are using in developing digital games."

As part of the project, MooD has recently taken on a research assistant from the University in the form of Daniel Whitehouse, as the company looks to further grow its team of developers.

Professor of Computer Science at University of York Peter Cowling said: "Our Artificial Intelligence approaches have made a real impact on the digital games industry, and now is the time to realise the potential in wider business.

"And for that reason, I’m really excited about working with MooD International. They are not only working with us on the underlying technology, but can also make the translation into the business domain – showing how the investments that their enterprise customers are making can actually impact the things they really care about."