We recently sat down with the head of innovation of one of the world’s largest banks discussing his bank’s approach to big data. Numbers drive a bank.
Reviewing their big data strategy he symbolically points in the direction of their data center to say that they have “landfills of unused unstructured data.” They consist, he explained, of research, market reports, client inquiries, articles, comments both from internal and external sources. And they are growing fast.
The missing link is context
Similar case at another financial institution: A search on their internal database for ‘inflation’ returns more than 250’000 results. Too many results to be useful.
“We know this information would be extremely valuable for analysis,” says the head of the market analyst team. He explains what his analysts are after: A solution, which maps their inflation research inflation data. The result provides context to the data. To quote Derrek Harris of GigaOm: “Big Data needs context in order to be really useful; it’s context that turns disparate data points into a story.”
What is context?
Each of us immediately has a picture in our minds when hearing the word “Caterpillar”. However, without context, Caterpillar is a band, 2 companies, an insect and more than 120m results. Which of the multiple meanings of Caterpillar was the one you had in mind? Too many results to get to the relevant information quickly.
The proper definition of ‘context’ is a bit clumsy: “The circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed”, yet express well how to solve the ‘Caterpillar’ case. Add context to the initial query and you can filter down to the relevant quickly.
Others tell you ‘what’ – Squirro tells you ‘why’
This is exactly what Squirro does. Squirro reads out signals to construct a concept of the context you are in, before you actually retrieve information. This ‘profile’ – we call it digital fingerprint – is used to deliver unstructured data simply and in real time to the user in context of their own personal interests and priorities, learning and refining that precision as user interactions increase.
A great way to see the power of the concept is the integration of Squirro into Qlikview, a Business Intelligence solution. By combining the structured and the unstructured worlds, each insight uncovered in QlikView’s business discovery is used by Squirro to provide the ‘why’ behind the data.
Context Intelligence is vital
Context Intelligence solutions can crack the information retrieval problems outlined above, by streaming that unstructured data to the user in the right place at the right time. And in the process allow for better, more effective decision-making. Gartner in a research note back in 2010 identified context-aware computing as an emerging, game-changing opportunity for enterprises.
We agree. And we are only at the start of the journey.
Zurich May 28th, 2013
Today Squirro, the leading provider of Context Intelligence software, has announced general availability of its Context Intelligence solution for Business Intelligence (BI) suites. This disruptive integrated combination of Squirro and BI platforms delivers real-time and accurate context intelligence to any point of insight uncovered through a BI system.
For example a leading international investment bank integrates Squirro to provide a real-time stream of news and insights to the numeric data analysis provided by the QlikView BI suite. Squirro helps a number of Fortune 500 companies to unearth insights from silos of unstructured data in areas such as insurance claims, application management, social media monitoring, supply chain tracking.
Squirro also announced that the company secured additional funding from a consortium of new investors lead by Formula VC, a transatlantic venture fund investing mostly in B2B solutions in information technology and communication sectors.
Andrey Kessel, Managing Partner of Formula VC, said:
“Corporations have been gathering landfills of digital data, which they find increasingly difficult to make sense of. Squirro’s Digital Fingerprint Technology enables these corporations to put this data into context with unprecedented simplicity and significantly improve their decision-making ability. We are thrilled to be an active part of Squirro’s on-going rise to success and are honored to join such a strong syndicate of business angels.”
Dorian Selz, CEO of Squirro, added:
“We are very excited to welcome Formula VC on board. Mr. Kessel’s vast experience and strong foothold in both startup and investment communities, supported by a very strong network and level of understanding of our industry that Formula VC brings, will greatly contribute to furthering Squirro’s leadership of the new and exciting category of context intelligence software. We have already seen our new shareholder make a significant positive impact on the company.”
Squirro is the category leader in Context Intelligence. Squirro correlates unstructured data from any digital source to structured data of already existing enterprise systems. The precision and relevance of the information delivered by Squirro is achieved through the patent pending Digital Fingerprint Technology. Squirro works with inputs, which already exist within BI and CRM platforms and analyses and learns to prioritize the information based on user interactions.
Sachin Mitra, UK institutional market coverage at Evercore Private Fund Group said of Squirro’s:
“Squirro has added a layer of real-time integration, ultimately adding value to our research and follow-up capabilities.”
The funding will be used to support Squirro’s growth through the development of its global partner network and further develop the adaptability of its Context Intelligence solution to multiple Business Intelligence platforms.
For further press information please contact:
Cesare Allavena
Marketing Director
Tel: +41 44 586 98 98
cesare@squirro.com
Great article in BigDataForFinance by our partner Granger Smith Consulting.
Simon Smith, Chief Executive, writes:
“When it comes to big data, being able to bring together structured and unstructured data is a vital process to understanding what that information actually means and the effect it is having on a share price.”
Read the full article on data and context here.
Hey I didn’t know that Squirro works on ol’Texas Instruments hardware. But hey, here’s the proof from Bill Cosby with “Squirro in a Box”.
Squirro for QlikView helps you reduce the time spent searching for information by 90%.
Squirro delivers the context you need from any unstructured data source in a continuously updated information stream. Squirro combines the structured and unstructured data worlds to provide the why behind the data. Your data-driven decision-making process is therefore better, faster and more effective.
This video shows how Squirro gets you to the information you need in no time. Squirro is perfect to understand trends, track competitors and monitor customers.
Nick Harrison of DoesWhat did an interview with Dorian and asked among other things how the 4 co-founders of Squirro met.
Granger Smith Consulting has joined forces with Squirro, a leading context intelligence product and search technology that enables users to get results based on exact interests, without the need to search for them at all. The partnership will see Granger Smith Consulting working with Squirro and QlikTech to provide a natural extension to the data discovery paradigm that has been so successfully created.
One of the most time consuming roles for an information worker is to search the for the information you need, whether that’s struggling with information overload or simply not finding the answer you are looking for. QlikView, the Business Discovery Platform helps identifying patterns in data. However data needs context in order to be really useful; it is context that turns disparate data points into a story. By scanning the open internet, news sites, blogs, social media and feeds and combining this with company internal sources, Squirro filters away the noise and contextualises that data into what you need to hear, directly within QlikView.
Speaking about the new partnership Simon Smith, CEO at Granger Smith Consulting said: “Being able to identify patterns in big data collection is all part of the Business Intelligence system, what a business will find is that the data itself is unable to explain why a change or a dip has occurred. What you need behind the data to truly understand its context and this is what Squirro provides.
“This partnership is great news for our existing clients already using QlikView, as we can now offer that much needed context behind their data. For example, if you notice an unusual variation in a chart, Squirro provides the necessary context to understand it.”
Dr. Dorian Selz, Co-Founder, CEO at Squirro added: “We are delighted to welcome Granger Smith Consulting as one of our partners. Its commitment to its customers to not only gathering their data but helping them contextualise it is one of the main reasons we are now working together.”
For further press information please contact:
Lisa Watts Cesare Allavena
PR Account Manager – Granger Smith Marketing Director - Squirro
lwatts@grangersmithconsulting.com / 07572122166 cesare@squirro.com / +41445869898
Last week we held a series of webcasts to present Squirro for CRM and Squirro for Business Intelligence (BI) in a demo format.
Squirro for CRM was presented through a Salesforce integration use case. Squirro seamlessly integrates in Salesforce to deliver real-time context intelligence for your leads, contacts and accounts. It dramatically reduces the time spent on research, thus freeing up time to focus on value-adding activities. The end result is a 15% increase in win rates and up to 15% increase in revenues.
Squirro for for Business Intelligence was presented through a couple of QlikView integrations for Financial Stock Analysis.
Squirro delivers unstructured data simply and in real time to the user in context of their own personal interests and priorities learning and refining that precision as user interactions increase.
Squirro goes beyond that powerful first level, by combining the structured and the unstructured worlds together in harmony. Each insight uncovered in QlikView’s Business Discovery experience is used by Squirro to provide the ‘why’ behind the data.
Ultimately this reduces searching time by 75%, significantly reducing cost and allows for better, more effective decision making where unique context and speed to action delivers better business all round.
You can watch the full webcast here under:
We would like to thank all participants.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn as we will announce up-coming webcasts shortly.
The disruptive integrated combination of Squirro in QlikView delivers real-time, accurate, context intelligence to any point of insight you uncover while doing business discovery in QlikView.
To showcase how Squirro delivers relevant context to any data point you discover while working with QlikView, watch the video below.
This example of financial stock analysis shows how by simply selecting a variation in a stock analysis graph at a specific time, Squirro delivers directly into the application the relevant intelligence you need for that period to understand why this fluctuation occurred.
Of course Squirro can deliver relevant context across all industries not just financial stock analysis.
If you want to know about about Squirro for QlikView you can register for today or tomorrow’s webcasts, which will be presented by our CEO, Dorian Selz and our Sales Director UK, Laurent Zambelli.
Register for the April 29th webcast at 3PM GMT.
Register for the April 30th webcast at 5PM GMT.
On April 25th, 29th and 30th our CEO Dorian Selz and our Head of Sales UK Laurent Zambelli will host a webcast on Squirro and context intelligence.
Context intelligence delivers the whole story behind your data.
Already working with a business intelligence suite like QlikView? Seamlessly integrated in it Squirro will:
If you use a CRM, Squirro will supply you with real-time news to support your sales effort by:
To register please click on the following link: http://info.squirro.com/webcast_registration
Squirro - Your Data in Context