Sift Digital, the Bristol-based user-centred design agency, has relaunched as Edo following its demerger from parent group Sift.
Edo, which also has an office in London, said the rebrand would re-affirm its proposition “as progressive change and technology consultants”. 
The firm has a strong heritage working with private and non-profit clients including Tesco, Ofcom, Nesta and British Heart Foundation.
Edo managing director Nick Torday, pictured, believes there is huge opportunity for businesses to use technology to drive cultural change and the customer experience.
He sees an appetite amongst corporates and central government to apply the same brand of customer centred consultancy.
Sift was co-founded in 1996 by Ben Heald, who remains chair of both the Sift group and Edo.
So named as it could ‘sift the good from the bad’ in terms of valuable online content, Sift began as an online publisher. Its AccountingWEB platform is now the world’s largest community of accountants.
In 2000, Sift Groups was founded to offer Sift’s community platform to external clients, with early client engagements across a diverse range of sectors, from global publishers like Euromoney to the NHS.
By 2012, when it rebranded to become Sift Digital, it had grown to develop platforms and communities for a large number of external clients.
Its proposition began to shift much more towards customer experience and change management consultancy, including working with Amnesty International to help it understand the role digital and technology would play in its global transition programme of devolving human rights capabilities back out to individual nations.
At the start of last year Sift and Sift Digital went through a statutory demerger process to formally separate, with Sift Digital relocating from the main group headquarters to an office in The Quorum on Bond Street.
Today, to complete the process of becoming an independent business, Sift Digital rebranded to Edo – Latin for ‘to raise up’.
Edo, which has 42 employees working across Bristol and London, is led by Nick Torday with Alex Barker heading the user experience team and Kieran McBride leading strategy and planning.
Ben Heald said: “Sift Digital demerged from the rest of Sift to better support its growth ambitions. Becoming Edo is the next stage of their evolution. Working with both organisations as chair will enable me to ensure that despite being separate companies, we’ll continue to share, collaborate and learn from one another.”
Nick Torday added: “This is an extremely exciting time for us as a company, as we reaffirm our customer-focused consultancy offer as Edo.
“We will continue to work with clients as Edo to ensure that technology and culture are at the heart of transformation to create rewarding experiences based on the real needs of customers.
“Ultimately, we want to shape the future of organisations in order to drive measurable business impact.”
