Centrifuge Video Worth a Look
September 18, 2012
Centrifuge Systems has a metaphorical-type video explaining its system and method, lengthily titled: “Uncover the Mysteries in Big Data and Fraud Data Analysis with Centrifuge Systems.” The overview runs 1.24 minutes and is worth a look. If you like that one, check out more instructive videos at the company’s resource page. These folks are good at explaining things.
Centrifuge recently released version 2.7 of its analysis software. About their technology, the site explains:
“Centrifuge Visual Network Analytics gives you the power and flexibility to connect, visualize and collaborate without complex data integration, costly services or a data science degree. Using advanced link analysis, you can ‘bring your own data’ from any source, filter and combine as desired, and quickly make connections between people, behavior and events.
“Centrifuge Interactive Visualizations move beyond simple visual dashboards to give you the ability to interpret data within the context of your business. With patent-pending Collaborative Discovery, you can share findings and collaborate with others for deeper insights and faster problem-solving.”
Centrifuge is proud to have garnered a place in the 2012 FinTech Innovation Lab Program, and to have been placed on the 2012 Always On Global 250 Private Company Top Ones to Watch list. The company is Headquartered in McLean, VA.
Cynthia Murrell, September 18, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
IntelTrax Top Stories: September 7 to September 13
September 17, 2012
This week the IntelTrax advanced intelligence blog published articles on current trends related to big data, fraud detection, and analytics solutions that will help both of the previously stated problems.
“Real Time Analytics Makes an Impact” discusses how companies have spent the last couple of years making it so that their analytics solutions have zero lag time.
The article states:
“Operational Intelligence, basically, is real-time analytics over operational and social data. Operational intelligence, or OI as we like to call it, provides three important capabilities. First is real-time visibility over a wide variety of data. Second is real-time insight using real-time continuous analytics, and third is what we call right-time action, which means being able to take action in time to make a measurable difference in the business. We decided to focus on Operational Intelligence because it addresses some very important business problems that we felt were not well served by traditional software products today. These problems include service assurance in telco, social analytics for dynamic selling and brand management, real-time supply chain management, smart grid management in electrical utilities, and dynamic pricing in retail. These are just some of the examples.”
One way that analytics solutions have positively impacted a variety of industries is through the detection of fraud. “Fraud Analytics Deliver on Fine Art Forgeries” explains a new niche in fraud analytics that helps prevent substantial losses from individuals and museums.
The article informs:
“Just as with credit card fraud detection, the data sets created by digital authentication are quite large. Similarly, the modeling tools are extremely sophisticated, looking for patterns that would be unlikely from the painter just as a given purchase would be unlikely for a credit card holder. Zeroing in on the fraud can save an enterprise millions of dollars. Digital authentication is not real-time — it took two days to identify the fake Van Gogh. But in the world of art, that’s more than fast enough.”
When discussing advancements made in the industry, the information is often more well received when it comes from experts in the field. “Analytic News is Best From the Experts” showcases on experts opinion on the topic:
“Werner Vogels, a data guru as chief technology officer for Amazon Web Services, has been touting his interpretation of big data for almost two years. For him, managing a behemoth like Amazon, it’s not exactly what big data is, but what can be done with it.
“Big data is the collection and analysis of large amounts of data to create a competitive advantage,” he told a conference earlier this year.
“I am an infrastructure guy and for me big data is when your data sets become so large that you have to start innovating how to collect, store, organise, analyse and share it.”
Since technology is continuing to progress at rapid rates it is important the companies seek out a data analytics provider that evolves with the times. Digital Reasoning’s solutions, not only will protect your business from fraud, but its automated understanding for Big Data allows companies to find the necessary information they need to stay ahead of the competition.
Jasmine Ashton, September 17, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
For the Budding Analytics Community: A Cookbook
September 16, 2012
The Probability and Statistics Cookbook is available from matthias.vallentin.net. Now you may need to do some brushing up before holding a pre game tailgate party. For examples, if you aren’t familiar with discrete distributions, you many need some of those math refreshers. For the top math chefs out there, the book is a deal.
Stephen E Arnold, September 16, 2012
Sponsored by Augmentext
Brain vs Brawn in Data Analysis
September 16, 2012
Is bigger necessarily better when it comes to data? Klaviyo’s Ed Hallen doesn’t think so, as he reveals in his post, “Big Data vs Intelligent Data (and What Startups Can Do with It).” He believes the recent focus on big data may be missing a big point. Intelligent data, defined as reducing huge quantities of data to just the relevant bits, is much more important than being able to analyze every scrap of data that comes your way.
Hallen enumerates what he considers intelligent data:
- Data that is clear and unambiguous – i.e. the data values can be defined and measured in a repeatable fashion.
- Data that is concise – i.e. the data represents the smallest number of data points that would lead to the same action. If you need 90% certainty to take action, it’s the amount of data that will safely give you that.
- Data that is directly linked to action – i.e. based on different values of that data, different decisions will be made and implemented.
Hallen suggests a few applications that actively help companies use data intelligently: Unbounce or Myna for A/B testing, Hubspot for marketing analytics, and, naturally, his own Klaviyo for user management and marketing. He advises startups, especially, to carefully consider what they need from their data and what they will do with that information. Good advice for any business.
Cynthia Murrell, September 16, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Centrifuge Rolls Out Big Data with Visual Analytics
September 16, 2012
Centrifuge has released its latest version, we learn from “Centrifuge Delivers Scalable Big Data Analytics with Visual Network Analytics Version 2.7.” Centrifuge focuses on corporate fraud, security, and risk. The upgraded platform brings more speed to intelligence and pattern discovery for large amounts of data. The press release states that Centrifuge is the first big data analytics solution to allow customers to bring in their own data, eliminating the often expensive data transformation step.
Centrifuge CEO Renee Lorton explained her company’s niche :
“Corporate Information security is a big data analytics challenge that cannot be addressed with traditional data mining, BI, or legacy analytics approaches. The sheer volume and complexity requires a powerful investigative discovery approach that is easy enough for a non-data scientist to use. Machine data, for example, is one of the fastest growing segments of big data, generated by websites, applications, servers, networks, mobile devices and other sources. Now, discovering patterns in Big Data is both easy and cost effective with Centrifuge’s powerful interactive data visualization.”
The write up points out a new ease-of-use feature and flexible relationship matching. Also, the Relationship Path Discovery function serves up all possible connections, but points out the shortest ones. The new version also includes an extensible data framework that broadens users’ access to a wealth of data set types.
Headquartered in McLean, VA, Centrifuge embraces the considerable challenges behind corporate security data analysis. It is proud to have garnered a place in the 2012 FinTech Innovation Lab Program, and to have been placed on the 2012 Always On Global 250 Private Company Top Ones to Watch list. Their trademarked slogan is “See Clearly Now.”
Cynthia Murrell, September 16, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Health Information Exchanges Making Progress
September 15, 2012
It looks like the healthcare field may finally be entering the twenty-first century. Agilex informs us that “Maine’s HealthInfoNet Supports CDC Program to Demonstrate the Preventive Care Value of Health Information Exchanges.” We believe the Health Info Exchange (HIE) idea is a good analytics sector, and look forward to following its growth.
The CDC program referred to in the title is long-windedly called “Demonstrating the Preventive Care Value of Health Information Exchanges”, and is being led by Agilex. In 2009, Maine was one of the first states to launch an HIE, a system that is maintained by HealthInfoNet. Since they have had time to work out any kinks, and because almost 80 percent of Maine residents have at least one record in the system, that state is the first to participate in the program.
The press release states:
“HealthInfoNet is using an open-source application called popHealth to de-identify, aggregate and securely transmit clinical quality measures to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC). Sponsored by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), popHealth was developed to automate reporting of meaningful use measures from a provider’s electronic health record system while ensuring de-identification of the transmitted data. The application was selected for this program due to its ability to create population-level data that has been de-identified at both the patient and provider level. This population-level data can be used to inform statewide public health and heart disease prevention strategies.”
It sounds like popHealth is a valuable resource. Another important piece of the puzzle is the open source CONNECT platform, that allows HIE’s to share data externally, yet securely, via the Nationwide Health Information Network. See the article for more details.
Headquartered close to DC in Chantilly, Virginia, Agilex serves clients in federal, state, and local governments as well as corporations. They supply mission and technology consulting, software and solution development, and system integration services. In a nod to the company’s commitment to quality, their name combines “agility” with “expertise”. Agilex was founded in 2007.
Cynthia Murrell, September 15, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Chiliad and Its Big Rocks
September 14, 2012
Some memes are just annoying, and others are actually useful. The analytics pros at Chiliad have adopted the “Big Rocks” meme to productive effect, we learn in their blog post, “Big Rocks Rock Chiliad.”
In case you haven’t heard this particular analogy, it tells the tale of a professor who showed his (her?) students the advantage of putting the most important things first. He filled a jar with (comparatively) big rocks then asked students whether it was full. When they said yes, he poured in some pebbles, which of course filled in around the rocks. He did the same with sand, then water. The jar keeps accepting more and more, but only if you put the big stuff in first.
Blogger Craig Norris explains how his company has incorporated this lesson into their culture:
“At Chiliad, however, we use the nomenclature of Big Rocks to ensure that we are maintaining our focus on the important versus the urgent, and on our critical priorities versus the typical laundry list of things we all need to get done. Big Rocks are now an integral part of our every day culture and normative terminology. . . .
“I have found using the nomenclature of Big Rocks carries a very strong message in a short-hand form that facilitates communication and improves performance by making sure we do not get tangled up in lesser issues. When we ask, ‘what are your Big Rocks?’, everyone immediately knows what we want to dialog about without any long-winded explanations.”
I’m happy to see that at least one company is able to make use of the story to facilitate communication and maintain focus on the big picture. That in itself is a lesson for all of us—accept the wisdom of popular memes, even when they are no longer shiny and new. Thinking outside the box, anyone?
Chiliad produces analysis tools for many types of data across many types of sources. The company primarily serves the intelligence, defense, law enforcement, healthcare, and pharmaceutical fields. Founded in 1998, Chiliad is headquartered in Herndon, Virginia.
Cynthia Murrell, September 14, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
cXense: Context Understanding
September 13, 2012
I received a heads up from a reader about a company founded in 2010. The firm is cXense, which can be pronounced in several ways. My source called the company “sea sense”. The spelling of the company’s name is wisely tuned to the findability challenges which less distinctive company names fall victim; for example, Expert System and Sinequa, to cite two company names which can introduce ambiguity to a user’s query.
The firm is under the able management of John Lervik, who was one of the founders of Fast Search & Transfer. I have written extensively about Fast Search, so I won’t go back over well-trodden ground.
cXense delivers to its customers: more control, improved relevance, and more revenue. For companies struggling to generate more income from their online activities, cXense appears to be just what the doctor ordered.
cXense provides several services. These include cX::Ad, cX::Analytics, cX::Recs, and cX::Search. Each of these “promises” to online businesses real time information, complete audience analysis, and a search engine. The search engine is described as “the first contextual search engine.” The assertion about the first caught my attention. I recall that a number of other companies have developed search systems which could figure out the context of content; for example, the DR LINK developed in the late 1990s by a venture firm, consultants, and engineers from Syracuse University.
The cXense search system is described this way:
Imagine a search solution that quickly and easily allows you to implement a customized, state-of-the-art search feature with all the fancy matching and navigation features your visitors expect, but without the costs and hassles of having to invest in, deploy and operate a complex on-premises enterprise search engine. Now, stop imagining and take a look at cX::search: A simple-to-use search solution securely hosted in the cloud. Search on a website shouldn’t be static. It needs to be highly dynamic and continuously adaptable to work well. Searchable documents and their popularity change, but also what people search for and what they consider to be relevant changes over time. In addition, people searching your site move from place to place and often use different devices to interact with your web content. When you think about it, managing all this continuous change in content, content relevance, access locations, time and user devices really boils down to being able to properly understand and manage the context of any user interaction. Source: http://www.cxense.com/cXsearch.html
cXense is offering an alternative to hosted site search which is available from Blossom Software, Google, and a number of other companies.
If you are looking for hosted solution which offers site search, recommendations, analytics, and customizable ad modules, cXense warrants a close look.
Stephen E Arnold, September 13, 2012
Sponsored by Augmentext
Honk Tackles Black Swans in Search and Content Processing
September 12, 2012
We have just completed the lead article in Honk for September 25, 2012. The essay takes a look at the lone black swan in the information retrieval sector and asks the question, “Can black swans in search and content processing be identified before the bird flies away?” The answer may surprise you. In the article are references to companies which looked like black swans but upon closer inspection were healthy, but ordinary swans. A dead robin is discussed as well. If you have not signed up for the Beyond Search opt-in newsletter, you can. It is free and issued each week. Here’s the link to get on the mailing list: http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/honk/.
Donald C Anderson, September 12, 2012
Sponsored by Augmentext
IBM and Its Predictive Analytics Push
September 12, 2012
I prefer to examine the plumbing of search and content processing systems. What is becoming increasingly obvious to me is that many of the “new” business intelligence and eDiscovery vendors are licensing technology and putting a different user interface on what is a collection of components.
Slap on visualization and some game-like controls and you have “big data analytics.” Swizzle around the decades-old technology from Oracle, and you still find the Oracle database system. Probe the Hadoop vendors, and you find fancy dancing away from the batch orientation of the NoSQL data management framework. Check out the indexing subsystems and you find third parties which a handful of customers who license their technology to a “wrapper company.”
The phrase “wrapper company” and the product approach of “wrapper bundles” is now described in some clever marketing lingo. The notion of federation, real time, and distributed data are woven into systems which predict, permit discovery, and allow users to find answers to questions the user did not know to ask.
Everything sounds so “beyond search.” I think many of the licensees and prospects react to the visualizations in the demos and the promise that a business professional can use these systems without knowing about the underlying data, programming, or statistical methods is what sells. Who wants to pay for a person to babysit a system and write custom reports? Chop that headcount because the modern systems are “smart.”
Next generation analytics systems are, like enterprise search, comprised of many moving parts. For most professionals, the “moving parts” are of little interest and even less frequently scrutinized. Users want answers or information without having to do much more than glance at a visual display. The ideal system says, “Hello, Dave, here’s what you need to know right now.”
The IBM Ad
I noted an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal, on September 10, 2012 on page A20. The advertiser was IBM. The full page ad featured the headline, “We Used to Schedule Repairs.” The idea is that smart software monitors complex systems and proactively find, repairs, and notifies before a system fails.
Sounds fantastic.
The ad asserts:
Fixing what will break next, first. Managing [the client’s] infrastructure proactively rather than reactively has helped the utility reduce its customer calls by 36 percent.”
The argument concludes:
Replacing intuition with analytics. No one knows your organization’s millions of moving parts better than you. But now with IBM predictive maintenance, you can spend less time and fewer resources repairing things either too early to too late, and more time focusing your attention on what happens next.”
The ad points me to this IBM page:
Snappy visualizations, the phrase “smarter analytics,” and a video round out the supplemental information.
Observations
Three observations:
- IBM has the resources to launch a major promotion of its predictive analytics capabilities. The footprint of IBM in this concept space may boost interest in analytics. However, smaller firms will have to be able to differentiate themselves and offer the type of benefits and customer references IBM employs.
- The approach of the copy in the ad is to make predictive analytics synonymous with smart management and cost effective systems. Many of the analytics companies struggle to articulate a clear value proposition like this.
- The notion of making a smarter information technology department fits into IBM’s broader message of a smarter planet, city, government, etc. Big ideas like this are certainly easier to grasp than the nitty gritty, weaknesses, and costs of computationally canned methods.
For smaller analytics vendors, it is game on.
Stephen E Arnold, September 12, 2012
Sponsored by Augmentext
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