Insights success the 10 best analytics firms in 2017

The way of business solutions

Company of the Month

Prashant Pansare, MD Inteliment Technologies (India) Pvt. Ltd.

BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT Sorting Ideal BI Tools for a Successful Organization

IN CONVERSATION Systematize your Enterprise with Enhanced Big Data & Analytics Skills

Editorial

W

e live in a world where things around us are ever changing.

For the past several years, there has been a substantial amount of eloquence in the field of Data Management pertaining to empowering the business user through better analytics. As business analytics requires quantitative methods, statistical analysis and methodical exploration of an organization’s data, it is adopted by companies committed to data-driven decision-making. The goal of analytics is to present data about your business in such a way that you can easily make sense of what that data means. But with many businesses, the more data they have on hand, the less it makes sense.

The Growing Potential of Analytics in Industry

With the Big Data market growing, and with unstructured data adding parameters of velocity, variety and volume, the data world is moving on to more predictive analytics. There is one world of data in the ‘Hadoop World’ and another in the classical data ‘Warehouse World.’

In Data Science, the analysis goes deeper in terms of algorithms and storage and is also more domain-driven. Even though data science is used as one branch in analytics, a lot of analytics development can be seen. With the advances and the ever-changing technologies in analytics and business intelligence, it is allowing CIOs to go bigger, go deeper, go faster, go cheaper and go mobile with business data. The current scenario trends center as much on tackling analytics challenges as they do on taking advantage of opportunities for new business insights.

In businesses, analytics measures current process and measurement metrics are just in time, predictive and need a lot of augmented intelligence. However, we’re developing more complex mind analytics when it comes to buying patterns. Today, we have a fragmented set of tools to manage analytics and it would slowly get integrated into one view. This new type of analytics can give us insight on what the customer feels and what are their experiences. Thus, the availability of smart information will emerge.

Though for businesses, an Analytics has a great scope in upcoming times. At present, all the cloud-based and predictive analysis solutions given by industries in retail, telecom and healthcare have collectively resulted in rapid growth of industry and economy. With data fast emerging as the new gold for businesses around the world, the analytics industry is set to witness an exponential growth.

Abhinav Chandrayan

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Senior Editor Ariana Lawrence Managing Editor Abhinav Chandrayan Co-Editors Sachin Bhandare Pooja Jain David Smith Stephanie Andrews Contributors Sourav, Piyush Art & Design Director Amol Kamble Co-designer Vanshika Mittal Picture Editor Alex Noel Art Editor Pranita Mane Visualiser Shweta Ambilwade Business Development Manager Akansha Garewal Marketing Manager Dhruv Apte Business Development Executive Rutuja, Shikha Research Analyst David Circulation Manager Swapnil Database Management Sharad Technology Consultant Vishal More sales@insightssuccess.com

September, 2017 Corporate Ofď€ ces: Insights Success Media and Technology Pvt. Ltd. Off. No. 513 & 510, 5th Flr., Rainbow Plaza, Shivar Chowk, Pimple Saudagar, Pune, Maharashtra 411017 Phone - India: 020-69400110, 111, 112 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: Visit www.insightssuccess.in

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Copyright Š 2017 Insights Success, All rights reserved.

CONTENTS 8 Can Analytics Change the Way Companies Collaborate and Consume Technology?

28

AI (Artiď€ cial Intelligence)'s CALIBER CAN BE DIFFERED.

36

B&B Analytics:

Delivering Transparency, Safety and Sustainable Performance

42

Knee Deep in Data

18

Inteliment Technologies: Scaling Globally with Product and Thought Leadership in Analytics Industry

16

22 BUSINESS SPOTLIGHTA Sorting Ideal BI Tools for a Successful Organization

IN CONVERSATION Systematize your Enterprise with Enhanced Big Data & Analytics Skills

M76 Analytics:

Chrome DM:

24

Delivering Data Driven Results across Verticals

26

Providing Absolute Analytics Driven Business Solutions

nFactorial:

32

34

The Top-notch Employee Experience Solutions Provider

ProGen Business Solutions:

TechnoData Analytics:

A Successful Company in Deploying Business Analytics Solutions

A One Stop Shop for all Data Analysis

40

THE10 BEST

NALYTICS FIRMS IN 2017

Helping Businesses for Tactical Strategic Management with Analytics

A

nalytics has gradually earned recognition and momentum, owing largely, to visionaries who understood the importance of this field and worked towards shaping it into what it is today. Numerous vendors, research companies and even trade publications have cited an emerging trend to put the business in control of its data. The knowledge, experience and expertise of the people add value to an organization taking it to newer heights. Rising through the challenges, motivating fellow mates and expanding working opportunities for many more professionals, the firms are instrumental in all walks of a successful journey of an organization.

Analytics industry too is driven by some of the uncommon brains, because of whom we see this industry the way it is today.

The firms have proved themselves in the field of data analytics, being at the forefront of the analytics industry and leading the domain towards success with effectiveness, confidence and commitment. Herein Insights Success magazine takes the opportunity to list out experienced professionals to analyze your information effectively in the issue of “The 10 Best Analytics Firms in 2017”.

As our cover story we have, B&B Analytics, a strategic advisor leveraging technology and analytics to deliver cutting-edge risk and research capabilities to the investment management industry and serving globally. B&B Analytics enables clients to optimally position portfolios of financial and real assets to risk realities and distinctive investment goals.

Apart from our Cover Story, we have Inteliment Technologies as Company of the Month, which is a recognized and leading Analytics firm, helping some of the most forward-thinking enterprises worldwide to derive maximum business impact through its disruptive Data Driven Analytical Solutions & Services.

Also, we have highlighted one of the most impressive research infrastructure, Chrome Data Analytics & Media, who is a leader in primary research and data industry and is conceptualized by a team of industry professionals who hold an impressive research &D infrastructure, M76 Analytics, an Analytics Driven Business Solutions Company that specializes in both Business and Data Consulting, nFactorial Analytical Sciences, a bespoke HR Analytics company with a SaaS product, ProGen Business Solutions, a data analytics company that helps customers to unlock the potential in their data assets through scientific application of analytics & statistical techniques, TechnoData Analytics, a one-stop-shop for all the data analysis and reporting needs, Global Analytics India, a leading fintech company which uses world class analytics, to provide a range of compelling financial services products, Fintellix, a leading Compliance, Risk & Analytics Products and Solutions provider for the Global Financial Services Industry and EVALUESERVE, a global professional services provider offering research, analytics, and data management services.

Do not miss out the CXO's on “AI's Caliber Can be Differed” by Santosh Thota, Founder & CEO, FeltSo and “Knee Deep in Data” by Saurabh Moody, Founder & CEO of RealBox Analytics.

So, do flip the pages of our magazine to uncover the insights of prominent Analytics Firms!

THE10 BEST

NALYTICS FIRMS IN 2017

I

n an era of the knowledge-based economy, providing the right information to the decision makers at the right time is critical for their business success. Analytics refers to a broad use of various quantitative techniques supported by the query and reporting mechanism to assist decision makers in making more informed decisions within a closed-loop framework seeking continuous process improvement through monitoring and learning. It equips decision makers with a clear understanding of past outcomes, and uncovers the potential impact of current decisions under various future scenarios.

B&B Analytics is a strategic advisor par excellence when it comes to providing analytics, research and financial technology to family offices,

financial advisors and alternative investment managers globally.

Innovative Value Proposition Founded in 2012, B&B Analytics has equipped its clients with a complete and proven operating model enabling them to deliver enhanced transparency, safety and sustainable performance.

As most of the wealth advisors are focused on analyzing and managing only the bankable assets of their clients, B&B enables its clients to incorporate both bankable and nonbankable investments at every stage of the investment process which makes them unique.

A focus restricted to bankable assets is counterintuitive for two reasons –

firstly, most investors have significant investments in non-bankable assets like real estate and private business, and; secondly, the objectives and goals of investors are typically related to their entire net worth (i.e. Total ‘Wealth’) and not just to their bankable net worth.

Moreover, all insights delivered by B&B are within a risk driven framework, which allows clients to evaluate all decisions in the context of risks taken. This improves portfolio stability and enables greater performance control.

A Bespoke and Holistic Offering B&B Analytics has had the unique experience of serving as a strategic advisor to successful institutions and

families, who have drawn upon its knowledge and capabilities to develop long-term strategies for their businesses and investments. This has shaped the company’s opinions on relationships.

house expertise and a vast global network of partners. Alongside this, through cutting-edge technology and analytics, the company provides a comprehensive view of the risk and value drivers of ‘total wealth’.

B&B firmly believes that, “Every client has a unique situation, which demands a unique solution. We adopt a traditional approach to serving our clients which is deeply rooted in gaining a thorough understanding of their objectives, preferences, affinities and constraints.”

B&B says, “Just like an architect draws the plan of a house, we help design the wealth structure through a rigorous interview process, aligned to the unique situation and needs of our clients. This also forms the basis of a bespoke asset allocation and investment strategy aligned with their goals and risk taking ability. We help discover and mitigate risks through systematic risk overlays keeping in mind all applicable constraints.”

The offerings of B&B allow investment advisors to fully focus on their core function – delivering the right advice to their clients. B&B delivers them peace of mind by confidently shouldering the responsibility of providing them with analytically backed answers and complex research driven solutions.

Through their advisory services, B&B delivers tailored guidance to clients on their specific needs. Careful judgment is applied to recommend the best solutions, shaped by decades of in-

“Finally, we draw upon our deep industry knowledge and experience of our associates and assist clients with the strategic governance of their companies and real estate. We leverage our global network to facilitate strategic transactions across geographies.”

As technology is vital in the financial market, B&B Analytics works hard to offer clients cutting edge solutions

which meet their individual needs. For their end clients, the company offers a sophisticated web based platform for efficient portfolio management. Internally, they utilize cutting edge statistical tools and software packages like R, Python for research and analytics.

Focus on Design and Delivery B&B can deliver its capabilities via a standalone tech platform, by becoming a virtual extension of a client’s inhouse team, or by acting as a strategic partner to optimize operations.

Delivery can be customized as an optimal mix of technology and services to cater to each client. Clients ultimately control how they want to engage.

B&B has a design focus. They spend most of their time thinking, debating

and improving their analytics platform and services to enhance client experience. Capabilities such as research, risk analytics and investment intelligence, which are core to their value proposition, are developed and maintained in-house. Other capabilities are sourced externally from best-in-class providers and integrated into their platform. This approach has allowed the company to rapidly enhance the breadth and depth of their offering, allowing them to position as a turnkey solution for its clients.

A Complementary Trio The core team of B&B Analytics consists of Founding Partners, Guido Buehler and Philipp Baretta based in Zug, Switzerland and Rohan Misra, CEO based in India. Rohan looks after the Asia and Middle East regions. Guido is an expert in corporate finance, risk and information technology; while Philipp is an expert in capital markets and investment delivery. Rohan is an investment and risk expert specialized in multi-asset class research and analytics. The core team members held senior positions at UBS and Credit Suisse respectively, where they built and managed large global teams in a collective banking career spanning 75+ years.

Thought on Current Trends Client expectations are changing and this demands a change in the way they are served. B&B seeks to understand the whole picture, including the impact of investment decisions on their real assets.

According to B&B, Big Data and Machine Learning are paving the way for predictive analytics on securities and markets. Large and varied data sets that blend historical and real time data are being used to develop improved trading algorithms that recognize trends and patterns in prices. This is also finding a widespread application in risk management such as credit modeling and underwriting. Future application to watch out for in the coming year would be fraud analytics and cyber security.

“Business Intelligence is also gaining traction as lot of risk discovery and attribution is being increasingly done with the help of visualization tools. Regulatory technology firms are offering innovative automation of compliance tasks as regulatory burden is increasing across jurisdictions. Blockchain, although in its very initial stages, has generated unprecedented interest as an efficient method to manage large scale transactions in the future”, asserts Rohan.

Successfully Dealing with Competition As far as investment and risk management thinking goes, B & B

has always been a first mover. Their offering combines total wealth within a risk driven approach which is a differentiated and powerful combination.

When it comes to technology, “Disruption has been accelerating and is only going to intensify over time. Not being able to embrace the latest technology will be a significant disadvantage for any market player. We are fast followers in this regard, always analyzing the market’s response to new ideas and quick to adopt when we sense an opportunity.

“Finally, our delivery model, which combines man with machine, enables us to efficiently refine our offering on a continuous basis. We focus not only on delivering the tools to solve a problem, but also participate in addressing specific problems, client by client. By blending services with technology, we stay abreast of a wide range of client specific applications and evolving client needs. This positions us well to deal with competition.”

Trailing Success The wealth and investment management landscape is witnessing a rapid change. Investors want a digital experience, performance transparency and a larger universe of non-investments. B&B has the people, the technology and the offering to meet these challenges.

B&B's success is driven by their focus on client impact. They always strive to deliver against the metrics that matter to the clients while maintaining an independent perspective. This has helped them build lasting relationships based on confidence and trust. They deliver customized solutions, always seeking the right solutions tailored to specific client needs. Another important aspect is their emphasis on continuous innovation which is driven by a culture of critical yet collaborative thinking, encouraging ideas through meticulous research and practical validity.

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THE10 BEST

NALYTICS FIRMS IN 2017

Company Name

Management

Brief

B&B Analytics bbanalytics.biz

Rohan Misra Partner & CEO

B&B Analytics is a strategic advisor leveraging technology and analytics to deliver cutting-edge risk and research capabilities to the investment management industry, serving family offices, financial advisors, and alternative investment managers globally.

Chrome Data Analytics & Media chromedm.com

Pankaj Krishna Founder & CEO

Chrome DM is a leader in primary research and data industry and is conceptualized by a team of industry professionals who hold an impressive research &D infrastructure.

EVALUESERVE evalueserve.com

Aman Kohli Manager Marketing

EVALUESERVE is a global professional services provider offering research, analytics, and data management services.

Fintellix fintellix.com

Vivek Subramanyam CEO

Fintellix is a leading Compliance, Risk & Analytics Products and Solutions provider for the Global Financial Services Industry.

Global Analytics India Pvt. Ltd. global-analytics.com

Ashok Rajan Vice President

Global Analytics India is a leading fintech company which uses world class analytics, software, UX and a deep understanding of the customers to provide a range of compelling financial services products.

Inteliment Technologies inteliment.com

Prashant Pansare Managing Director

Inteliment Technologies is a recognized Analytics leader, helps some of the most forward-thinking enterprises worldwide derive maximum business impact through its disruptive Data Driven Analytical Solutions & Services.

M76 Analytics m76analytics.com

Jai Mrug Founder

M76 Analytics is an Analytics Driven Business Solutions Company that specializes in both Business and Data Consulting.

nFactorial Analytical Sciences nfactorialanalytics.com

Arun Krishnan Founder & CEO

nFactorial Analytical Sciences is a bespoke HR Analytics company with a SaaS product that would enable data-driven decision making for managers.

ProGen Business Solutions progenbusiness.com

Rahul Sharma Founder & CEO

ProGen Business Solutions is a Data Analytics company that helps customers to unlock the potential in their data assets through scientific application of analytics & statistical techniques.

TechnoData Analytics technodata.in

Vijay Gupta Director & Principal Consultant

TechnoData Analytics is a one-stop-shop for all the data analysis and reporting needs. It helps to realize the potential benefits of data within and outside the organizations with their strong Domain, Data and Technology experience.

In Conversation

D

awn of new technologies and methods comprising a big data infrastructure and its applications has strongly influenced todays business enterprises.

Every coming day, enthusiastic professionals who bring their creativity, intelligence, tenacity, and knowledge carry out, new projects and initiatives successfully, to the increasingly promising area of data science and its related disciplines.

Enormous success and growing interest in big data and analytics has caused an extreme imbalance between supply and demand for skilled professionals in workplaces. In todays scenario, many organizations are prone to missing opportunities and competitive edge, only because their corporate executives do not hold the necessary vision and skills to understand the power of methods and technologies, such as machine learning algorithms applied to a vast and diverse amount of data that would greatly improve business performance.

Exigency to build a Strong Analytics Corporate Culture In spite of various recent programs by universities, colleges, and other institutions to provide education on data science

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from functional and technical perspectives, many organizations are still struggling to hire professionals who meet the essential set of requirements that would lead to a superior and effective performance on data analysis tasks.

The lack of professionals who meet, partially or completely, the functional prerequisites adds additional challenges for corporate executives and project managers.

Companies looking for data analysts and data scientists, gets disappointed because of the lack of maturity in the use of big data applications and data science. Oft-times, substandard performance of newly hired professionals is a big trouble for the organizations.

To avoid common mistakes and pitfalls in analytics initiatives, companies, during their early stages of the implementation of enterprise or departmental solutions, should try to get the benefits of consulting, support, and training from experienced analytics business service providers, while building their own expertise and corporate culture in this area.

Highly skilled data science consultants can be profitable in this regard. They will not just help to define the right profile of the data analyst role, but also to recognize people who are already part of the company’s workforce and may move to new positions to better contribute to the deployment of analytical solutions. Additionally, skilled and experienced professionals may also be handy in identifying key areas,

September 2017 |

where big data applications would have more significance, immediate, and positive impact to the enterprise.

Things go wrong when many companies expect that they can get all knowledge and skills assigned to a data scientist role from one single candidate. But the reality is that, as the demands and the nature of big data applications become highly sundry, the requirements for such high-skilled workers to effectively perform these functions may also vary significantly.

Here is how you can frame the Role of Data Scientist There are two main characteristics of data scientist, that is to connect two extremes- data sources and business areas. The first is called a data science application spectrum, the most important technical knowledge is the ability to deploy, manage, extract, and integrate information from several heterogeneous data sources in a way that they could be enriched, modeled, queried, and visualized by users seeking answers to relevant questions in their decision making processes.

The second is that, there are professionals who directly support corporate or local business executives to get insights from data sets formerly prepared and readily available to them, usually exploring visualization and

|September 2017

simulation tools. Data scientist should have an in-depth knowledge of a specific business domain, the role they play within the organization, and how they can help in delivering good results for the enterprise or one particular group or department.

Furthermore, data scientist is also responsible for defining and customizing mathematical and statistical models designed to solve specific business problems and improve the overall performance of business processes throughout the company. Though it looks difficult, but just because of the new discovery tools and software applications, even business analysts have been able to use sophisticated machine learning algorithms in data mining processes that would not have been possible without extensive computer programming and statistical modeling skills just a few years ago.

Organizations should look after the usage and implementation of analytical solutions. There is a more rational approach, that is be to build a team of analytics professionals based on a strong academic background and solid work experience in all data science aspects, which involve areas such as data management, mining, and visualization, as well as application development and deployment. All

technical background should be complemented with the domain knowledge necessary to build models, because this combination would be an important part of the collective skills gathered in the team building process.

Look forward for best organization structure There is another trail too, for C-level executives in a big data environment. It is a common issue with many organizations to find the best organization structure to deliver the promised results and insights of analytics. The most common issues like, there should be a centralized or decentralized approach for managing and carrying out analytics projects, there should be a single technology platform or solution provider or bestof-breed solution for each type of problem or business area, and the implementation of a business intelligence competency center (BICC) led by a Chief Data Officer (CDO) or having the analytics team reporting directly to the CIO or CFO. There is only one solution on it, and that is to hire the right talent on board which is essential to carrying out any business initiative, especially those which involve high levels of innovation on both technology and business processes. Hiring and retaining the best people is certainly a crucial step in helping organizations overcome further challenges and get the best out of their investment in analytics.

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n today’s rapidly growing and evolving age of digital platforms, social media, mobility, analytics and cloud technologies, collaboration between external and internal stakeholders in organizations is increasing. This has provided customers with an uninterrupted access to the information on the go, thereby helping them make more abreast decisions. A crucial shift towards using advanced technologies, which allow businesses to search, analyze & share diverse data, is evident in the industry today. In this era of rapidly growing age of technologies, Inteliment Technologies is leading and is at the pinnacle of analytics industry. Inteliment has been named as the ‘Analytics Solution Innovation Partner of the Year 2017’ by SAP India.

The Journey of Inteliment Inteliment is a leading provider of Advanced Analytic solutions that helps enterprises in unlocking the power of the enterprise data coming from diverse sources using BI & Analytics, and allows them to make data-driven business decisions based on strong insights.

Founded in 2004 by first generation entrepreneurs, Inteliment is an innovative company that effectively syndicates the ‘Data Science & Art’ into a Multi-Disciplinary Analytics to deliver Insight, Integrity & Impact. Inteliment has been on the path of synchronized value co-creation and innovations for some of the most powerful and impact-making companies in the world.

The company has a strong focus on providing innovative customer-centric solutions and application services in areas of Data Science, IoT, Industry 4.0, Bigdata, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Smart City areas.

With its core competency in BI technology, Inteliment offers strategic industry analytics solutions & services to its global Fortune 500 clients through an analytical perspective of their

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data and by partnering with leading global technology vendors. Inteliment’s engagement approach involves working collaboratively with clients to develop critical business-parameters-driven and strategic BI solutions, meeting real-world and practical business needs. The company is harnessing this market by providing niche BI solutions and services. It helps the companies to improve their data-driven strategies and decision-making efficiency through innovation, advanced technologies and partnerships.

Inteliment is strongly focused on the Indian market and selected overseas markets in APAC & US regions.

The Inspiring Entrepreneur behind Inteliment Prashant Pansare, Founder and Managing Director of Inteliment is a well-respected name in the field of BI, Analytics and Data Science industry. Prashant deserted his corporate career to do something more, something innovative and started Inteliment as a bootstrap company in 2004.

Prashant has a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering (B.E) and a Master's Degree in MBA. He is recognized as the ‘CEO of a Fast-Growing Company’ by Deloitte, and was also invited to the Global Analytics Advisory Council by SAP Labs, USA. Being actively engaged with Research Groups and Practitioners who delve into Disruptive Technologies and the unique value they bring to the Industry, it is no surprise that Prashant is one of the most beloved and favorite names in the list of speakers at reputed institutions and industry forums alike. Prashant also dedicates his time in grooming budding entrepreneurs at various association platforms. He is truly an inspiring personality.

Prashant is on National SME Council of NASSCOM, and is a past Chairman of the Indo-American Chambers of Commerce, a Charter member of TiE Pune, former VP of Software Exporters Association of Pune (SEAP), Former President of Rotary Club, and is on the National Knowledge Committee of CII.

September 2017 |

Under the leadership of Prashant, Inteliment has won many awards and accolades. Determined to c o n t r i b u t e b a c k t o t h e s o c i e t y, h e h a s institutionalized ‘Social Leadership Awards’ in Inteliment to encourage volunteers for their exceptional work and to support program initiatives towards the betterment of society. Inteliment has adopted a few under-privileged young girls for their education till post-graduation. He has also sponsored an NGO run by visually-challenged youth in setting up an IT Training Centre.

Sustaining Relationship with Clients Inteliment works along with their customers and coinnovates while working as an extended arm of internal technology and BI teams. The company has also been fortunate to grab opportunities to work with innovationoriented companies who are open to Inteliment’s ideas arising out of a solid and long experience and executing them to achieve towering business goals. Being a niche company in the areas of BI and Analytics, it helps to bring in unique and innovative perspectives and solutions to solve the business problems of the clients.

Inteliment is built around a unique culture of people inclusiveness. Inteliment’s associates are a part of the happenings and events at Inteliment and are actively involved in a way that they can share their ideas and beliefs openly and thus participate in their way in the growth of the

|September 2017

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Media, Blogs, Surveys, Emails, Texts, and Documents. This unstructured data has a tremendous potential to derive customer insights. Inteliment provides unique solutions to help organizations to quickly identify themes, trends and patterns without any need to read the documents and to explore the relationship between the content of documents or numerical variables.

company. Also, talent acquisition at Inteliment emphasizes on integrity, ethics and core values of a person along with their domain capability as Inteliment management believes that the differentiating factor helps associates to stand out with fortitude.

Understanding what happened in the past can provide significant insights to improve the future.

With Predictive Analytics, one can anticipate emerging trends, take preemptive actions to minimize risk, and make better decisions with much greater confidence. Inteliment’s predictive analytics offering is empowered by the experience they have in building solutions on open source as well as on proprietary platforms from the leading partners.

Attributing Values and Factors

Scrutinizing Trends in Analytics Organizations have shifted from simple statistical analysis to more advanced analytics. Whatever the subject, scale, and stage of business, Analytics has the power to help organizations stay ahead of competition using actionable insights.

In Advanced Analytics, Inteliment adopts the approach of Big to Smart Data as just having a lot of data is no longer enough or even necessary. The company understands this and helps enterprises in their data initiatives and helps them in sourcing and processing the right data which can offer actionable insights.

Every business is becoming digital, and it is the need of the business. Any digital business relies heavily on data and therefore, Inteliment believes that it is high time, where every enterprise needs to become a data-driven enterprise straightaway. Visual analytics helps represent data accurately and at a glance. The Visual Analytics of Inteliment are not only skilled in the art of design, but are also capable of analyzing data, its story, and its intended demographics to create the best solution. The company helps the customers to see data better that reveals the patterns within it, enabling everyone to become researchers and analysts.

Cognitive Intelligence brings together computer science, cognitive and perceptual sciences, interactive designs, user & interface design, and social sciences. Turning unstructured text into meaningful insights brings in great actionable acumen. Data is everywhere – CRM Feedbacks, Social

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According to Gartner, Worldwide Business Intelligence and Analytics Market is expected to touch $18.3 Billion this year.

There is enough of the pie for all. Each company has their unique value proposition and offering. The constant innovations and research approaches has helped Inteliment in staying ahead of the arch. Inteliment co-exists with their peers as the company is a niche Analytics Company aligning the offerings continuously based on the market trends and customer expectations.

The company believes in performing Business from Ideas to Action and thus taking Data to Value. Inteliment also believes that the Knowledge and Experience together cultivates creativity which in turn can help businesses disrupt their business models and achieve business goals.

Tackling Adversity with Erudition With a focus on Analytics and Big data, Inteliment’s emerging focus is on Industry 4.0, AI, IoT and Smart City initiatives. We live in a connected world. People to places, places to networks, networks to people, people to things and things to networks, and it goes on. If used effectively, data thus generates huge potential to better our lives. At Inteliment, the initiative is always to stay close with what is happening around and how can the company make sense of it all with the experience they have and by arranging the data systematically in order to become a digitally responsible and digitally aware society.

September 2017 |

Business Spotlight

F

or a successful BI project, organizations need to select the best analytics tool which will be the best fit for the organization. But this is one of the most critical thing to do. Now, this process will include gathering and prioritizing BI requirements, as well as determining use cases and tool categories and styles.

There are some important features and functions to be emphasized on while selecting best BI analytical tools. There are some must-have features to be taken in consideration.

Criteria to use BI analytics tool selection When we are totally new to the overall market, industry analyst product reviews, is a very lucrative option available out there. While it comes to selecting a BI tool for organization, it should be selected on the basis of the budget and can be implemented given its resources and skills.

Just to simplify it, you should be

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looking for the features like, if the product doesn’t have a particular feature, it should be eliminated from further consideration. Many BI analytics tools have a list of features that your company may never use, so what is the use in buying it.

But only having all the features you need cannot be the perfect criteria. For example, if you buy a product, and it has custom coding or you need to purchase add-on products with it or it is a specific edition of a product just like an enterprise versus a basic edition, it will only add up in time and expense.

The must-have BI features BI tool should have access to various databases and file types such as comma-separated values file, text, Excel and XML are basic staples of all BI products. It should enable the contents in a tabular report or visualization to be filtered by data values. Its client user interface for the BI consumer-role should be Webbased. When the BI style enables

multiple visualizations, inclusive of tabular reports, to be displayed on a single screen, the software should allow for these visualizations to be either independent of each other or interconnected.

This tool should provide bar, line, pie, area and radar chart types, as well as the ability to mix and match various combinations. All BI products should have both user and user role-based security, designating who can create, modify, publish, use and administer the BI applications. It should also be able to import and export data with Microsoft Office products, especially Microsoft Excel. IT must allow for print visualizations and tabular reports to be exported to PDF or other graphics. Tabular reports need to be exportable to text files at a minimum and, preferably, to spreadsheets.

Self-service BI uses cases There are various features that are specific to self-service BI use cases. It provides more data management functionality for the business person

September 2017 |

features like visualization or advanced visualization is available in some.

Some BI tools have collaboration and social interaction option available in them. Some BI tools also have storyboarding and Microsoft Office real-time integration in them.

creating an analytical application than for an information consumer who is relying on pre-built BI applications with pre-built integrated data.

The BI analytic tools must allow the user to select the data used in analysis and present it as a pivot table-style interface where dimension attributes are placed in rows and columns, measures are selected and filters are applied. Not just that, but it should also allow users to blend data from various data sources.

It should also let the user to create and save measures or calculations for use in analysis. One can also create dimensional hierarchies, such as by geography or product, to group and summarize data, by using it. It should also allow the user to save the data filters, selections and drill-down paths used in an analysis so they can be reused.

All in all, nice-to-have features Different BI tools have different features. This difference is the reason of its selection. That is why BI tools have a feature to let the user save and share his or her analysis with other BI consumers. There are context based

|September 2017

Some more important factors to be contemplated Data Consumption and Compatibility Business intelligence is all about visualizing, understanding, and acting on data, which you already posses. The very first step should be, while gaining perspective on your business operations is finding that data.

Applications, databases, inboxes, and spreadsheets are to be considered for the same. So, the BI tool you are having should be able to consume this data and give you relevant insights.

Find out if there are any out-of-the-box connections to your applications and databases you can take advantage of?

Integrations between your existing tools is the best option you have, which should be built using APIs or import/export processes. Your tool should be one which will better incorporate into your existing current ecosystem.

Database and Data Warehousing The most important component of BI compatibility is a tool’s compatibility with the existing hardware. A BI tool should consistently read and query your databases. It is the most important factor for the enterprises with big data and data warehousing infrastructure, because the user wants to have full access of the organization’s data.

User Adoption The user wants to have the insights with the help of BI tool, and with an easy and pleasing process. That is why

the usefulness of any BI tool depends on, how easily they help your users to interrogate their data and draw the conclusions that help them perform their jobs better. So, just look out for a tool that on the first, performs the necessary analyses, but also can be easily set up, trained on, and executed.

Performance and Scalability All BI tools are created for different purposes. To perform its task, a BI tool's ability is affected by the volume of data you will be querying and the number of queries that will eventually be running. Now, some of the BI tools will perform better while running these queries and also it can handle the amount of data you’re storing before purchasing. So, while choosing a tool, if your data volume is growing quickly, choose a tool that can scale accordingly.

Cloud & On-Premise Cloud BI can boost collaboration and mobility, which will make the users able to build dashboards together and easily share insights across organizations. On the other hand, Onpremise BI systems can give better performance, and the added security of residing behind corporate firewalls.

These tools should be able to differentiate between viewing BI applications on a Web browser on a mobile device versus a mobile BI application. It should also have Inmemory analytics, Offline updates, Performance monitoring and BI platform administration.

For a successful organization, sorting out an ideal BI tool is the most important thing, because the success of an organization depends on the best BI tools it is having.

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THE10 BEST

NALYTICS FIRMS IN 2017

Chrome DM: Pankaj Krishna Founder & CEO

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ata and analytics have spread their long-reaching tentacles across businesses of all sectors, making businesses intelligent, efficient and better at decision-making. With granular data being abundant, the need for technology integration has become inevitable.

Chrome Data Analytics and Media, aka Chrome DM, is one such company which has established dominance in the primary research and data industry within India.

Conceptualized by a team of industry professionals, Chrome DM holds an impressive research infrastructure comprising 32,000-panel homes across 3,300 towns and 2,15,000 villages in pan India.

Establishing itself as an Industry Leader Chrome DM owns a range of proprietary broadcasting products, as well as its data analytics services. These tools aim to fill in the gap between broadcasters and viewers by giving them viewership and channels insights across different regions in India.

Since its inception in 2008, Chrome has established itself as an industry leader in strategic consultancy and 3rd party audit services for distribution in broadcasting. With over 400 clients, most of the Indian broadcasting industry relies on Chrome DM’s TV related consultancy services to optimize their distribution. Its flagship product, Chrome Track 2-0, conveys a channel’s Opportunity to See (OTS)

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Delivering Data Driven Results across Verticals on a pan-India, Individual head-end basis, among other offerings.

Rising Above the Challenges and Competition Prior to their proliferating rise up the ladder of success, Chrome DM had to face various challenges, such as:Ÿ Accumulating granular data from remote areas of North East, LC1, Rural India and various others. Ÿ Advancing with the continually evolving television industry – from the analog auditing days to the ongoing digitalization phase. Ÿ Upgrading from being a distribution auditing to television strategy consultants and then becoming India’s largest primary research and data analytics company. Ÿ Another challenge for Chrome DM was integrating technology with a huge infrastructure.

The company overcame these challenges and now holds dominance within this ever-growing industry. Chrome DM stands out among its contemporaries by delivering firsthand quality data for brands, advertisers, and broadcasters.

With their immaculate strength in infrastructure across the country and a highly-qualified team of researchers behind its back, Chrome DM strives to be the industry leader in providing primary data driven results across different verticals.

September 2017 |

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We Strive To Be The Industry Leaders In Providing Primary Data Driven Results Across Verticals

The Leader who translated his Passion into Paycheck Belief triggers passion and Pankaj Krishna, Founder and CEO of Chrome DM, derived his passion for analytics through his belief that data and analytics are making the world an intelligent place. With over 17 years of extensive industry experience, Pankaj has imparted his knowledge and expertise to lead Chrome DM to where it stands today.

trends that Chrome DM looks ahead on:Ÿ Predictive Analytics – It is an extension of data mining, wherein it refers to the extraction of significant information from the existing data store. This is done to predict future probabilities with an acceptable level of reliability, including a few alternative scenarios and assessing the possibility of risks.

After pursuing O Levels from the University of London and Executive Programme from Harvard Business School, Pankaj began his corporate journey by working for some of the leading media channels in the country, such as National Geographic, UTV Entertainment and India Today. It is also worth mentioning that Pankaj has been a frequent and eloquent speaker at various international industry forums and has had several publications in reputed journals .

Tackling the Industry Changes Chrome DM believes that there will be a considerable shortage in Data Analytics staff in the near future and will expand from analysts, researchers to data scientists in the world of analytics and management. To tackle with the same, Chrome DM conducts regular internal training along with intensive recruitment process to develop competent personnel.

Currently, there are two essential

Real-Time – With consumer behavior and purchase patterns of customers evolving from time to time, real-time analytics has gone on to become the need of the hour.

This, in turn, helps businesses to cognize the purchase behavior, profile and even customer churn.

With big data pooling in, Chrome DM realizes that it is highly imperative for analytical companies to digitalize as well as centralize their data. Their recent market launch named Chrome Connect – a centralized online repository of channel distribution of information – is a 24/7 digital support system that offers live updates on distribution tracking to broadcasters.

The tool helps to enhance the overall distribution monitoring, analytics, and strategy with its latest technology and innovation. Some of its cutting-edge benefits include real-time updates, faster data processing, and customized reports, which brings-in large scale transparency in distribution monitoring

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system across the country. In addition to its latest developments, the company’s new tool ‘Chrome Ratings+’ is a 360 degrees solution for broadcasters that enable them to maximize time spent per viewer & reach, and thus overall channel share.

These tools ensure better decisionmaking and planning to broadcasters.

The Future is Technology Chrome DM firmly believes that the future is in technology. Having invested in creating a strong in-house R&D team over the years, the company has been actively patenting technologies to create effective solutions for clients. Right from automated data collection to creating online repositories, Chrome DM believes in 100% technology integration in all their products and services. The primary research and data company is constantly in the works on making data available for their clients at their fingertips in realtime. Chrome DM uses data and research integrated with technology; these technologies provide their clients with disaggregated information, thereby enabling them to make informed and intelligent business decisions.

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THE10 BEST

NALYTICS FIRMS IN 2017

M76 Analytics: Jai Mrug Founder & CEO

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usiness Strategies driven by Data Insights have become the number one priorities for the CXO level Management. Together, they promise to transform the way companies do businesses, delivering the kind of performance gains when organizations redesign their core processes. As Data-Driven strategies take hold, it will become an increasingly important point of competitive differentiation. M76 Analytics is an Analytics Driven Business Solutions Company that specializes in both Business and Data Consulting.

The Outline of M76 M76 Analytics is a Business Decision Science company formed by IIT- Bombay Alumni. Their products provide a framework that applies statistical learning as well as machine learning to real world situations and helps in taking business decisions.

M76 Analytics was the consultant to Times Now for election analysis in the UP elections 2017. It has successfully orchestrated several business value driving algorithms on a platform that can be used by business to conďŹ gure solutions, and results in direct business actionables.

Businesses can recreate and redesign their strategy through an intuitive interface, through which they can navigate just about the way they navigate their day to day business.

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Providing Absolute Analytics Driven Business Solutions Vantage on Current Trends in Analytics Every business needs Predictive and Diagnostic Data Analytics to survive in today’s market. Unfortunately, a large part of this is currently catered by a host of BI and Analytic tools that provide only data looking in the past, often data that is also not at the right aggregation levels, data which may not confer to a larger business KPI, and data that could be with limited analytic value.

M76 contends that eventually all the Analytic vendors, who currently enjoy a market leading status, are based upon generating information looking into the past, with limited business value added to it. M76 sees a hype curve ending with most players and trying to mobilize a set of visualization tools along with parading them as analytics.

The real players in analytics however are niche players who master speciďŹ c numerical techniques leading to business solutions, where customers see value for money in investing for a Data Driven Solution. The non-availability of these business agnostic data tools has created a huge chasm between business data and its usability.

The Fortunate Architect of M76 Analytics Jai Mrug, Founder & CEO of M76 Analytics is a pioneering Psephologist who envisions the usability of data beyond Slice, Dice and Visualization. He has completed his graduation in Mechanical Engineering (B.Tech) from IIT

September 2017 |

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We offer the business to generate a real time simulation for different business logics and goals, helping them develop the sort of excel of business

Bombay. He opted for Operational Research for his graduation thesis. He completed his Post Graduation (Masters of Management) from the School of Management, IIT Bombay in the year 2001 with specialization in Operations and Market Research. He pioneered all the initial election properties at Times Now, such as the Spectrum, Firewall, and Clusters. He has been working in the field of Data analytics for the past two decades.

Jai Mrug is credited with pioneering analytic research in the space of rake linking for Indian Railways, which was carried out at IIT Bombay in 1996. It was later incorporated into the practices of Indian Railways. He has also championed the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) initiative at IGATE Patni. The Objective of the initiative was to use RFID for IoT based Analytics. He has worked on Analytic Solutions, Supply Chain Implementations, and Functional Solutions that require number crunching. He has worked for developing Business Decision Support Systems that can produce optimal solutions for business out of data.

A Strong Competitor in the field of Analytics Data analytics as seen in the current realm has always been about slicing and dicing data using some Industry standard Data Models. Business has never actually been able to get relevant

|September 2017

and business necessary insights into their data, which could directly relate to their business strategy. To model analytic processing along the lines of business thought, and provide direct business actionable to the users of business is the mission of M76 Analytics.

Following are the key differentiators of M76 Analytics’ Product Platform: • Users don’t need to know how to use technical tools; they just need to know the Line of Business that they would like to investigate.

• Ease of configuration of Algorithms, which can be suitably linked to generate necessary outcomes of different Business Scenarios.

• It offers business a real time simulation for different business logic and goals, that makes the product a complete alter ego, of the CXO level Management, helping them develop the sort of excel of business.

often caused them to work hard on their technology again and again.

There has been resistance from businesses that have already invested crores of Rupees on tools that are mere computing platforms or visualization platforms with no substantial value added to the business. The huge chasm between research data analytics and industry applications which already exists needs to be bridged.

M76 believes, “We are already at the verge of 4th Industrial Revolution.

Businesses and even people are using data like never before. Should we harness the power of Data Analytics, India for the first time has the potential to lead the world into an Industrial Revolution.”

M76 looks into a world that runs in an agile fashion where visionary business minds are not caught in redundant data mining but in true decision making.

• It provides a Business Solution tool, rather than a Business Intelligence tool.

Advancing Success and Future Mindset M76 believes that, this is a testimony to the fact that they are indeed an innovative solution. They have had to deal with the multiplicity of technology platforms, and that has

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Can Analytics Change the Way Companies Collaborate and Consume Technology?

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an we honestly say that our professional day starts with a morning clearly with intentions as to what we should be doing, how we should be working, whom we should be working with and when should we get things done by? There is an option for all of us that is Analytics. Now, can Analytics combined with smartlyenabled collaboration tools make a difference in how we choose to spend our time?

Top teams and organizations make decisions every day on how best to achieve their goals, but do we have all of the information required to make the right decisions at the right moment? Will Big data, predictive modeling with connected devices that provide real-time insight be the next new trend to change the way we work?

But to while it comes to save time, I honestly do not think we have mastered the art of collaboration because we still seem to be working harder and not smarter. It seems as

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though the technology we use works us, more than we work the technology. Why is it that we still find ourselves completing work task the same way we did back in history?

In our personal lives, we definitely have new levels of multitasking and time runs by, but in business have we really gained the most with our utmost precious valued commodity called time?

We exist in a time where information is accessible at the tap of a button. With the rise of new gadgets, apps on our iPhone and portable devices comes the influx of new “techies.” But, why then we are still stuck with unproductive tasks which no more than a waste of time? In today’s world, we have Instant Messaging at our workstations and even video endpoints to connect us with anyone in the world. Still, we find people spend 50% of their time in the wasteful, ineffec-tual and uninspiring meetings, ruining their fifteen to twenty hours a week. With all the advancements in technology, can’t this ill-favored corporate pastime be executed better?

Technology Collaboration and Consumption The goal has always been to collaborate better. Access to basic information across multiple data sources coupled just in time could enable us to have insights on who we should invite to the meeting, selection of collaboration tools that yield the fastest results and meeting spaces that will generate the best outcome and highest output of participation from key team members during collaboration.

For this new level of collaboration to be the most effective should the information come before you book the meeting or afterwards. At UC Interlink, we think about everyday how to enable IT services engine to yield recommendations with the right outcome, when you’re ready to consume it and way before it turns into another wasteful meeting.

With the right data sources and business intelligence, the options are prescriptive and predictive, and limitless.

Imagine improving your time to market for a new product launch, having absolute focus and team alignment, via tracking behaviors of the team, while getting recommended efficiencies to keep the team working at its best.

With this platform of intelligence, the Business Leaders can target key performance metrics that enable them to devise strategies, because if you are in such a place, then results matter, gaining time matters and the behaviors of the workforce matter. Regardless of the industry or application, incorporating the use of data and analytics provides the

September 2017 |

Let’s examine how this concept can be used to optimize IT service delivery.

By tracking and mapping work patterns, preferences, daily activities, past beha-viors, technology usages, connected devices and networked systems; we can recommend the right tool based on the role of the worker, key performance goals, and business outcomes or even based on defined user experience strategy. This is what I call the Internet of Things (IoT) personified.

Stephanie Carhee President organization the ability to move from a defensive to an offensive posture.

Currently, we are working on algorithms that can think and recognize patterns, predictions and choices based on the collective knowledge.

Amazon’s Model The list of technology giants that have figured out how to solve the problem of what is best to consume when you need it is a short list with one name at the top of it; Amazon.

Amazon, attributes 40% of its revenue to recommendations the e-commerce giant makes to its customers, based on their search histories and previous purchases. For example, last week when I wanted to add lighting to my walk-in closet, I searched Amazon, not only did my Amazon search, locate the best reviewed product, it also recommended the right size Amazon batteries. This is a simple idea, but has limitless potential that can be applied to how users can consume valued IT resources within the enterprise.

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Companies have to think about how they want to spend their time and investments in software applications.

Purchasing collaboration software tools in isolation is not a silver bullet, but when combined with technology adoption expertise, user analytics and smartly-enabled devices and software, the possibilities are endless. At their core, big data solutions are designed to provide the right information, to the right person, at the right time.

The Road to Business Analytic Adoption Services My personal advice to companies is to stop wasting time and resources, stop making the same mistakes and actually challenge your technology partners to think differently about the outcomes you want. This can be achieved by creating and defining a Collaboration Strategy that will optimize how you do things and empower the best people to deliver their best work.

Here are some Collaboration Strategy best practices •Have intention behind every software tool, work station and conference room than can be enabled by your cloud and network capabilities •Understand how all of your dipartite software collaboration tools and

devices can be seamlessly connected to each other.

•Let the user experience drive your technology decisions and not the other way around.

•Understand the behaviors of every user within your workforce to identify what is working well and what can be improved to obtain a workforce transformation.

•Don’t set out on this journey using only instinct to answer tough questions; rather let the data drive your decisions coupled with experts that know your environment and how to interpret the data to achieve your key goals.

•Use the Internet of Things (IoT) as a strategy to tie unlikely data sources together to make better decision and improvements in the way you work.

•Devise a game plan based on your company’s trends, and vulnerabilities (not obvious by the naked eye) to enable your teams to work smarter and be better prepared than the competition.

•Hold your technology partners accountable to not selling you another technology service or product, rather “incentify” them to deliver an outcome that you can track and measure.

Collaboration at Its Best This kind of business insight will change the game, reduce loss of revenue and take technology investments in collaboration software tools to new levels of value. Let’s face it, our top assets are the people with whom we work.

In the end, technologies are designed to help you work better and get things done in time or we should say save your time and compete to win!

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THE10 BEST

NALYTICS FIRMS IN 2017

nFactorial: Dr. Arun Krishnan Founder & CEO

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n this Talent economy that we are currently in, employee experience becomes a key differentiator in attracting and retaining talent. In order to do this, companies must have systems in place to communicate with their employees on a continuous basis. nFactorial Analytical Sciences was formed in December 2014, as a bespoke HR Analytics company. The idea was to come up with a SaaS product that would enable data-driven decision making for managers.

The Scenario Organizations base their employee engagement decisions over the next year on just the data points gathered at the end of the year. This is as preposterous as expecting a sales or a marketing lead to make their business plans based on the previous year’s balance sheet, income statement and statement of cash flows. While we would certainly be pilloried, and rightly, so for suggesting the latter, companies don't find anything wrong with the former. nFactorial’s continuous employee feedback platform n!Gage enables managers to listen, understand and act on employee feedback in a proactive manner. nFactorial is beneficial as it is easy to use, mobile/desktop/email based platform, does away with survey fatigue since questions are sent one at a time, has randomized times for the popups, customizable questions and categories, multilingual support, real-time dashboards, real-time insights, deep

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The Top-notch Employee Experience Solutions Provider expertise in statistics and analytics including predictive analytics for attrition prediction, and integration with other HRMS systems as and when required.

Ongoing Trends in Analytics nFactorial is at the cusp of a revolution in analytics and moving into territory that even a mere 25 years ago was thought of in the realm of science fiction. The biggest change that’s happening is the explosion in the generation, collection and analysis of data from all spheres of life. nFactorial believes, “We are now more dependent on decisions we make in our day to day lives on analytical insights derived from data than we have ever been in the past. The Internet of things (IoT) will only hasten the pace at which change occurs. The proliferation of deep learning algorithms and distributed computing systems has socialized the access and use of machine learning approaches. Anyone can now come up with applications using machine learning algorithms to build predictive models.” This is also revolutionizing cognitive computing and the goal of eventually realizing Artificial Intelligence.

The Founder of nFactorial Dr. Arun Krishnan is the Founder and CEO of nFactorial Analytical Sciences. The company’s flagship platform n!Gage is a pioneer in the area of real-time, continuous employee feedback and analytics. Dr. Krishnan obtained his undergraduate degree from the Central Electro-Chemical

September 2017 |

Engineering Institute and a PhD in Chemical Engineering specializing in advanced control algorithms from the University of South Carolina, USA in 1998. After working for a year in a controls company in US, he joined Silicon Graphics in Singapore. He then moved into active research in high performance computing and bioinformatics with the Bioinformatics Institute in Singapore.

Dr. Krishnan was also an adjunct Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore in the Computer Engineering Department. In 2006, he moved to Japan as an Assistant Professor for Computational Biology at the Institute for Advanced Biosciences in Keio University.

In 2008, Dr. Krishnan returned to India to join Monsanto and set up their Computational Biology unit. He held various positions with Monsanto with his last position being the R&D IT India lead. In 2012 he joined ISB Hyderabad’s PGPMAX program and completed his MBA in 2013. After gaining so much of experience, Dr. Krishnan started nFactorial Analytical Sciences in December 2014. Dr. Krishnan is also a visiting faculty at IIM Ranchi where he teaches a course on HR analytics.

Benefits over Peers nFactorial uses deep expertise in statistics, computing, analytics and machine learning to build statistically valid models. n!Gage is built on a solid foundation of advanced statistics and analytics. Some of the predictive

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capabilities are listed below: Time series predictions - Predict the employee’s mood and engagement indices based on historical data.

Employee segmentation - Identify profiles of the most engaged and disengaged employees.

Sentiment Analysis - Identify sentiment scores from the textual feedback.

Advanced text analytics - Identify conversation themes from employee feedback.

Cognitive Analytics - Natural Language Query processing resulting in a SmartSearch feature that enables organizations to dig into the data the way they want.

Intervention Analysis - Identifying the impact of interventions.

Churn/Attrition Prediction - Use advanced Machine Learning / AI algorithms to identify churn probabilities. nFactorial’s Journey towards Success nFactorial has faced nearly all the challenges that young startups face along with challenges specific to B2B businesses. The company started off with an initial product that was even licensed out to large US-based IT Services Company. However, they realized that making it scalable would be tough and had to pivot mid-way to

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We enable organizations to enhance employee experience through understanding employee everyday moments of truth

their current product. nFactorial believes, “Attracting the right talent is a huge challenge especially for small startups given the limitations in compensation and benefits. When we started up the job market was good with the result that salaries were high.

Finding people who believe in one’s vision and willing to join the firm was tough.”

Finding early customers to do a Proofof-concept is the challenge faced by the company. For HR products, finding companies willing to try out a radically different solution is always tough.

B2B sales cycles are slow and especially for HR Technology products. It takes time to build a sales pipeline. The trick is in holding on till it is done. nFactorial has its own plans in place for all of these including integrating with personal wearable devices, using deep learning for cognitive computing and predictive insights through machine learning and artificial intelligence. nFactorial’s vision is “to be an end-toend employee experience solutions provider” and it starts with a 360 degree employee experience feedback including anonymous organizational feedback and continuous employee performance appraisals.

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THE10 BEST

NALYTICS FIRMS IN 2017

ProGen Business Solutions: Rahul Sharma Founder & CEO

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steady rise has been observed over the past few years in the importance of data analytics, in organizations as varied as consumer goods companies, financial firms and many more. At the steering wheel of analytics, the way these organizations perform is not necessarily the ever-elusive data scientists but often the data analysts who understand business and his or her department in addition to the data it uses to drive decisions.

ProGen Business Solutions is a Data Analytics company that helps customers to unlock the potential in their data assets through scientific application of analytics & statistical techniques.

ProGen’s Sterling Offerings ProGen’s next generation Data Analytics Solutions provides intelligent and actionable insights to business users in the form of Interactive Visualizations, Dashboards, Reports, & Analytics Models. ProGen has an expert and avid team of Data Analysts and Data Scientists who help customers successfully deploy Analytics solutions by leveraging on the company’s rich legacy of business & technology expertise. They have a customer base spreading over 6 countries cutting across Industry Verticals and Business Domains. Most of the customers are Fortune companies or leaders in their respective verticals. ‘pi’, the Next Generation Data Analytics Platform from ProGen helps users with their data discovery, advanced analytics and visualization needs. With a variety of new age

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A Successful Company in Deploying Business Analytics Solutions features that enables users to venture beyond conventional Descriptive Analytics, ‘pi’ helps users explore the realms of Diagnostic, Predictive, and Prescriptive Analytics thereby differentiating it from other traditional BI & Visualization tools. ‘pi’ has a state-of-the-art Machine Learning (ML) & Recommendations engine that provides users with actionable business insights for pro-active decision-making & also helps in configuring various predictive analytics scenarios. A scalable, secure, & multi-tenant metadata layer that can handle data sizes ranging from GBs to TBs helps ‘pi’ champion the philosophy of Self-Service Analytics and helps organizations run their Analytics systems with minimum maintenance overheads.

Swinging Trends in Analytics One of the most important trends in Analytics that ProGen observes today is the maturity of business users in their understanding of emerging technologies in Analytics space and their demand for automated actionable insights to be delivered by the Analytics system. Users want to venture beyond the boundaries of conventional reporting and Dashboarding and are looking forward to experiment with the new age technologies such as Machine Learning, Spark, Python, R etc. and understand how these technologies can add value in their daily & strategic decision making.

Organizations today are looking forward to work with vendors who provide highly responsive Data Analytics Solutions by combining the power of descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, & prescriptive analytics for enabling

September 2017 |

“Adaptive Intelligence Frameworks” that enables them to 'Increase

Revenue, Control Costs, Retain Customers, or Improve Operational Ef ciency’

pro-active decision-making capabilities.

The Passion behind ProGen Rahul Sharma, the Founder & CEO of ProGen, is an evangelist of BIG Data Tools & Technologies and loves to use new age analytics technologies for helping customers solve their business problems. He is a Mechanical Engineer and holds a MBA Degree from SPJIMR, Mumbai. He has deep domain expertise in the field of BIG Data Analytics, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Enterprise Data Warehouse, Enterprise Data Lake, & Business Intelligence. Rahul works closely with organizations helping them design their Enterprise-wide Data Analytics Strategy by leveraging on New Age technologies such as HDFS, Spark, Solr, YARN, Elasticsearch, Python etc. He carries a rich experience of 15+ years in the field of Analytics and has avid passion for Innovations, Product Development & Consulting. He is a visiting faculty at the leading B-Schools & Engineering Colleges in India and also conducts Training programs for Enterprises & Government organizations around BIG Data Analytics.

Distinctive Player in Analytics ProGen provides a unique mix of Products, Solutions & Services to the customers who are looking for a single agency to help them with their End-toEnd Data Analytics needs. ProGen’s Data Analytics Platform ‘pi’ raises the bar for conventional BI & Data Visualization players by embedding

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Machine Learning & Statistical Algorithms that helps users gain actionable insights on the click of a mouse which otherwise is not possible with standard querying, reporting , or visualization tools. Configuration of various Alerts, Notifications, and exception scenarios is something that excites users as it helps them take proactive decisions. This is achieved with the help of the Advanced Recommendation Engine in ‘pi’ that leverages various Machine Learning algorithms for the same.

Few challenges that are commonly faced by ProGen team in Analytics projects are related to data quality, availability of right data at the right time, clear documentation of business requirements for the Analytics project, confusing an Analytics project with a reporting or MIS Automation project & active involvement of Senior Management and project sponsor in the project meetings and monitoring of project progress. These challenges may appear to be trivial but have a significant impact on the successful deployment & timelines of an Analytics project. ProGen tries to keep their customers informed of the fact that “Analytics is a Journey and not a Destination. Your arrival at the destination in the world of Analytics is not permanent. The arrival is in fact the beginning of another journey, a new exploration, a new discovery.”

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We help Enterprises derive value from their Data Assets with our

commodity hardware and cheap storage techniques on the cloud would help organizations save millions of dollars on costly hardware and database costs that they currently incur in running & maintaining their BI & Analytics applications. With the new versions of Open source & BIG Data technology platforms such as Apache Spark, Hadoop Storage, YARN, R, Python etc. becoming more powerful & popular, complex analytics scenarios can be configured and executed on these systems at a fraction of the cost when compared with traditional BI/Analytics Applications.

ProGen’s future growth strategy is driven by 3 key values; Follow a value-add approach for solving the customer problems, Early adoption of new generation technologies in the Analytics offerings, and always treat customer as the most important person in the organization. With a proper execution of these key values, ProGen is confident to be at a leadership position in the Analytics space over next 2-3 years period.

Sanguine Future of ProGen The future of Analytics will be driven by innovations around BIG Data and Open source technologies. Leveraging

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AI (Artificial Intelligence)’s CALIBER CAN BE DIFFERED W

hat we currently have now is ANI (artificial narrow intelligence) that is Google search, chess algorithms, self-driving cars, spam filters, IBM’s Watson, Amazon’s Recommendations etc. In other words, the intelligence narrowly confined to be very good at a particular task but this is not anywhere near the AGI (artificial general intelligence) which means the humanlevel intellect, whereby the program will be able to consciously make decisions over wide range of topics, have the ability to analyze, reason, and most importantly learn.

This AI is nothing but plagiarizing the brain. At this point, once the AGI is reached, the time till it becomes ASI (Artificial Super-intelligence) might be very short since once the artificial intelligence engages in constant recursive learning, its rate of getting smarter will itself increase to the level far surpassing all of our ingenuity combined.

ASI is which when gets achieved, no one knows for sure what happens then but for sure no barricades for its intelligence. It will not have the aim to destroy us all but rather it just won’t care. And that is the threat, since once it sets a certain goal according to its instructions, humans might just become a nuisance, getting rid of which will improve the efficiency of ASI. And so destruction of our species might be like a side effect but definitely not the primary goal for it. But we are going to consume AI in future same as how we consume oxygen involuntarily.

To think for industries which can’t be affected by AI will leave you astonished. Working in Digital marketing, one can clearly see what the current trends in the world of technology are.

Entertainment: Entertainment through social media platforms in sharing blogs, videos, and photos has been enhanced in its relativity to each individual. AI is enabling entertainment in such a way that it is more interactive, personalized and engaging.

In any industry, recommendations to their customers is very basic thing for their better experience, same but now became very powerful.

In coming future, we will be going to see the Augmented

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Reality motion posters in the shopping malls and theatres where we can virtually take the photos with the celebrities, even talk to them, fight with them, dance with them just by scanning the barcode on those posters. They will literally come out of those posters; not literally but virtually.

Retail Industry: By 2020, 85 percent of customer interactions in retail will be managed by artificial intelligence, according to Gartner Research Company.

If online shopping (Ecommerce), needless to say the personalized products will be recommended according to your previous shopping.

If offline shopping, there are lots of implementations now,

by AI. Like, augmented reality, which helps you to scan the codes of the product that you are interested in, if home decor, you can cross check virtually, even the product is not present, you can still see how it might look in your house.

Similarly, the virtual trail mirrors in the shopping malls.

The whole catalogue over there helps you to know how those designer wears or fashion products and complimentary wears will fit for you, how good the look on you, how perfect they mix in you.

HR Tech: When there are plenty resumes going through to say who fits better for the position, since we know what we expect from those resumes, AI helps you when you get piqued in searching for that perfect candidate. By text analytics, NLP and keyword detection, you can get all the scholars’ resumes.

Customer Service: All the basic queries of the customers can be handled by the chatbots which are designed by AI. Not only that, chatbots can save lots of time and money for the enterprises by removing the wait time with customers’ calls and in training the employees.

September 2017 |

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Govt. for Low Resource Communities: It helps the govt. to know how much amount of the streets of the country has been urbanized over certain period using Google street maps, and thereby it can analyze what and what to be provided for the suburbanized villages according to their locations and the minimal needs they require like say a mini-bank, a gas store, better roads, schools and hospitals nearby.

recommendations which meet the clients’ habits of spending and saving in their investments.

And when we look at THE EFFECT OF AI ON SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING AND ANALYTICS, It will appear to explode into infinity, at least from the limited and linear perspective of contemporary humans. With AI’s help we might see the glimpse of biological immortality opening the doors to unfathomable possibilities in social media marketing.

Healthcare: Robotic surgeons, Robot doctors will arrive in no time if there are softwares that are capable enough to perfectly diagnose the diseases and to prescribe effective treatment.

IBM’s Watson, a supercomputer powered with AI, in some cases, has more accuracy rate than human doctors in diagnosing the diseases.

If you browse for some running shoes in Amazon, the first thing you see on your Facebook feed will be those recommendations of the Amazon asking you to try protein shake for good health. Everything is interlinked. Not only when you decide to shop, knowingly or unknowingly every single activity you do on your social networking sites lead to know your areas of interests, tastes, habits, hobbies, whom you like, what you like.

Transportation: AI is replacing the need for a driver, bringing up the selfdriving cars. Estimates suggest that the installation rate of AI-based systems in new vehicles will jump from 8% in 2015 to 109% in 2025. Moreover, according to Gartner’s prediction, by 2020, there will be 250 million cars connected to each other and to the infrastructure around them via Wi-Fi systems that will allow vehicles to communicate with each other and the roadways.

The effect of AI on social media marketing is UNIMAGINABLE. You can observe those sponsored advertisements in your feed appear very frequently and, just like anyone on your friends list do, here is where AI exactly shines likes a diamond, it auto-replies to all the comments and queries. Also, as been said before, they are in & as chatbots to play a vital part i.e., building up the bb bonding.

Just shoot your questions and make yourself ready to get awestruck. All your queries get wiped off by a wiper called AI.

Manufacturing: AI Engine, Eva: This industry is using AI from very beginning, robots for assembling and packaging the products which is a tedious task for humans. From those labored tasks to now some complicated assembling such as electric cars, even some portable homes; there is some huge exponential growth in the impact of AI in the manufacturing industry.

Finance: The Artificial Intelligence supplants human intelligence when coming to the predictive systems with rapidly increasing financial data, to market data to forecast stock trends and manage finances. “Robo-advisers” come up with automated advices and suggestions for financial clients by using various predictive algorithms for the

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At FeltSo we built a powerful AI Engine powered by cutting edge AI algorithms that can understand the natural language text. Eva, a Social media AI assistant from FeltSo, is built for media agents to automate their daily activities on all their social media channels starting from trending content creation, customer engagement etc. Handling the social media channels, doing that tedious work again and again is not the best way to waste your time. It can only be done by team work. But also with team work, the work can only be done when that is assigned to the right and eligible candidate. Human Intelligence will be summoned to demon by this Human-like Artificial Intelligence. So, there is no other eligible candidate like Eva.

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THE10 BEST

NALYTICS FIRMS IN 2017

TechnoData Analytics: Vijay Gupta Co-Founder & Director

I

n today’s fast-paced business world, it is imperative for executives to have the insights and data they need in order to take the right decision at the right time.

Business Analytics has moved far beyond than being just a buzzword. It is important for businesses to intelligently use the data within and outside their organizations in order to remain competitive and survive the numerous changes that affect the company’s performance. Realizing the potential benefits of data within and outside the organizations is critical for any company’s stability and growth. And the people at TechnoData know it very well.

Right Solution at the Right Price TechnoData Analytics was founded as a one-stop-shop for all the Data Analysis, Data Integration and Reporting needs.

The company helps clients to realize the potential benefits of data within and outside any organization with their strong Domain, Data and Technology experience.

At TechnoData, they understand the value of providing the meaningful data at the right time to make the business grow. They help in identifying the right solution and at the right price. “All you need to do is to sit back and focus on your business.”

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A One Stop Shop for all Data Analysis

TechnoData is focused on providing business solutions using right mix of Data warehousing and Business Intelligence tools. They have an enthusiastic and client focused team with a rich experience working with fortune 500 clients. The company also has a strong experience in Insurance, Telecom, Media and Education domain. It works with clients from various geographies such as US, UK and Australia.

Providing the Best Solutions TechnoData provides business solutions with speed, quality and reliability. They also offer different engagement models, such as Project-based, Resource-based (Staff Augmentation) and Partnership models. The best model can be worked out depending on the requirement and the phases of a project.

TechnoData thinks that, “The complexity of the data management bundle in big companies is staggering, and the need to reinforce and clarify it is becoming a priority. We will see an increasing number of organizations establishing a BI and Analytics Center of Excellence (CoE) to foster adoption of self-service analytics.

These centers will play a critical role in implementing a

September 2017 |

‘‘

‘‘

We help you realize the potential bene ts of data within and outside your organizations with our strong Domain, Data and Technology experience

data-driven culture and extract a maximum of benefit from a BI solution.”

become a mainstream as companies of all sizes and analytics skill levels get into the big data game.

momentum. Companies would become over-critical and cautious about Data Accuracy.”

The Leader of TechnoData

Exploring business analytics needs the right focus, right technology, right people, right culture and top management commitment.

Inquisitiveness, interpretation skills, a thorough understanding of tools and methods, ability to do in-depth research and quantitative skills are vital to excelling in the subject.

The Values and Factors of TechnoData

Vijay Gupta and Ankur Saxena are the Founder Directors of TechnoData Analytics. Together they have more than 25 years of industry experience and have worked on a plethora of complex Business Intelligence and Transformations projects.

TechnoData team has rich experience working on SAP Business Objects, SAP Data Services, Xclesius, Crystal Reports, Logi Analytics, Tableau, Power BI and Magic XPI ETL. Business Analytics as a Mainstream According to TechnoData, the future in the field of business analytics is ever expanding and endlessly helping it to

|September 2017

The objective of the company is to enable future business managers with the requisite skill-sets to succeed in any business, industry or function they choose to be in. Talking about future, TechnoData says, “Analytics will play an important role in data security.

Companies will voice their need of routinely monetizing their own data for financial gain. The relevance of ‘Open Source Solutions’will regain

TechnoData Analytics has recently become Alliance partner with Logi Analytics - #1 Embedded Analytics platform (https://www.logianalytics.com/partner /technodata-analytics/). Technodata's strong Domain, Data and Technology experience, along with Logi's ability to Create, deploy, and constantly improve analytic applications that engage users and drive revenue.

www.technodata.in

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September 2017 |

D

ata analytics is such an alien term for so many of us. As times are changing this term too is evolving at a staggering rate while we are still trying to follow what it means in the simplest of terms.

So let’s break it down to most basic explanation. Data analytics is the study of data that comprises of information sets that may vary from business to business, domain to domain. For e.g., hospitality has guests and their preference records that may be used to determine, how people like to stay in a certain demography or any airport that would have records of people and airlines that could help determine preferred destinations or airlines.

Similarly, there are vast records of data present in various fields. Most of this data has been generated over past few years and today’s digital means of procuring services and information is contributing to the explosive pace of growth in the data volume. In this scenario Data Science - the ability that enables one to extract actionable insights or knowledge from large and complex data sets - is essential.

One needs to understand that while there is a rich history of companies using data to their competitive advantage, the disproportionate beneficiaries of big data and data science have been internet technologies like social media, search, and ecommerce. While innovative data science applications can transform the future, the lack of it might just stall growth and even deprive people of a rapidly evolving world of internet.

If we think of governments as organizations, they generate more data than most large companies do today. This data was for a long time sorted manually and the action and impacts were studied and solutions were implemented way later than they should have. Automation of the industry lead way to data being generated and stored automatically with little manual help and the way data is dealt with has changed over the years, thereby increasing the demand for data scientists. There you would hear an often used term Business Intelligence which basically is technology assisted strategies used by enterprises for the data analysis of business information.

In a time like ours where businesses and consumer ratio has narrowed down drastically. Business intelligence is the key to unlock next opportunity. There is a gap of flow of information in real time when it comes to hospitality industry and profiling of customer becomes impossible, resulting in miss-targeted ads and late response to the on-going sales crisis. The hospitality market in India is going to grow to more than $ 78 billion by the end of 2018 and a technology to cope up with this doesn’t exist at the required level.

There is an opportunity here for everyone to figure out what are those few things that clicks to your consumers – this was earlier possible for online businesses but we are bringing it to offline world too, which is where it is required the most right now. Startups are at the right place to implement this at very early stage and growth hack into success. And, since not everyone has the expertise and resources and even volume of data to get independent analysts, startups are being able to assist these businesses more economically.

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LIFE IS

DIGITAL MOMENTS and we are on a mission to perfect them

www.comptel.com