Analytics with Maple Syrup Flavour: Canadian Data & Analytics Companies. Part 1

We all know Silicon Valley is the mecca of technology and, of course, this applies too,for the business intelligence (BI) and analytics market, as it concentrates many of its vendors.

Still, it is not hard to realize that around the world we can find tech companies developing innovative technology and software in many areas of the data management space, both already consolidated companies and vibrant startups looking to disrupt the market.

While for many people it’s not a surprise the relevant role some Canadian companies have played in the evolution of the business intelligence (BI) and analytics market, for some, it is still unclear which companies in Canada are setting a mark for the evolution of local Canadian data management technology.

Just as brief sample, we can mention these honorable mentions of Canadian companies who played a key role in the evolution of BI, including:

• Former Ottawa-based software company Cognos, a fundamental player in the BI enterprise performance management software market acquired by IBM
• Dundas, a longtime runner in the market who remains as a relevant player and who sold part of its dashboard and reporting technology to become part of Microsoft’s large reporting and analytics arsenal
• Or more recently Datazen, an innovative mobile BI and data visualization developer acquired also by Microsoft

So without further due, here’s a list of some current players making waves in the BI and analytics market:

Core Analytx 
Solution(s): OnTime Analytx 

Based in Markham, Ontario. Core Analytx is the developer of OnTime Analytics, the company’s flagship product and main analytics offering.

With its solution being offered in three flavors: standard (SAAS based), enterprise (on-premises, as well as on private cloud) the company aims to encourage, guide and assist organizations with the implementation of analytics centric processes.

Core Analytx develops its proprietary technology with the principles of ease of use and self-service approach and, the provision of practical and efficient analytics products and services to serve organizations from  different industries and lines of business.

Major functions and features offered by OnTime Analytics include:

• Data ingestion from databases, flat files, mainframes and others
• Configurable web services for data connectivity
• Test data Management
• Basic and advanced analytics features
• Custom training features
• Data transformation capabilities
• Data visualization and publishing capabilities
• Importing data via a  data loader that connect to all standard databases (i.e. SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle etc.)
• “What if Scenario” capabilities
• Application customization via developer API
• Ad-hoc report creation
• Integration to key partners software including Salesforce.com and Oracle Cloud
• Customized security capabilities

OnTime Analytx’ Screencap (Courtesy of Core Analytx)

Coveo
Solution(s): Coveo Intelligent Search Platform

Coveo is a company with a great deal of experience when it comes to search, identify and provide contextual information to end users.

Based in Quebec City, its flagship Intelligent Search Platform offers uses number of data analysis and management capabilities bundled under Coveo AI™ proprietary technology. With this technology, Coveo can search, find and deliver predictive insights across different cloud and on-premises systems.

Already well known for being a provider of enterprise search solutions, the company has expanded its solution to offer much more, using its now cloud-based solution.

Some core functional elements offered within its platform include:

• Artificial Intelligence(AI)-powered search
• Relevant search results
• Advanced query suggestions and intelligent recommendations to website visitors and automatic relevance tune to recommend the best content
• Single-Sign On (SSO), for unified search that honors user and group permissions across all enterprise content sources
• Personal business content, like emails, can only be searched and seen by the individual user, and any designated super-users (e.g. compliance officers)
• Usage Analytics

Coveo includes partnerships with key software companies to allow its platform to integrate and work with data from Microsoft, Sitecore and Salesforce.com.

Coveo’s Screencap (Courtesy of Coveo)

DMTI Spatial
Solution(s): Location Hub Analytics

For over 20 years, DMTI Spatial has been providing industry leading location economics and Master Address Management (MAM) solutions to Global 2000 companies and government agencies, it is also the creator of CanMap mapping solutions and the award-winning Location Hub. DMTI Spatial is headquartered in Markham, Ontario.

Location Hub Analytics is a self-service data analytics engine that provides Canada’s robust, accurate and up-to-date location-based data.

Relevant functional features of Location Hub Analytics include:

• Automatically consolidates, cleanses, validates and geocodes your address database
• Each record is assigned a Unique Address Identifier (UAID™)
• Quickly processes and analyzes data, to objectively reveal meaningful patterns and trends to help better understand customers and prospects
• Allows you to visualize and interact with your results on a map for better data profiling
• Enriches data with Canadian demographics' information for further analysis and greater customer intelligence
• Helps generate new business prospect lists by infilling the addresses within a specific territory that are not in your current database

Location Hub Analytics (Courtesy of DMTI Spatial)

Dundas
Solution(s): Dundas BI

Dundas is an experienced company in the business intelligence scene. Headquartered in Toronto, the company offers, via its now flagship product Dundas BI a robust BI and analytics platform.

With its BI solution, Dundas aims to give users full control over their data so it can be quickly delivered in the most actionable way. Dundas BI platform enables organizations to work with data, prepare it  and transform it and subsequently enable its visual exploration within dashboards, reports and visual data analytics tools.

Also, worth to mention is Dundas’ success relies on its ability to build a solution with a wide amount of built-in functionality, and a rich set of open APIs.

Main functional features include:

• Customizable dashboards
• Communication and collaboration tools
• Slideshows
• Rich, interactive Scorecards
• Ad-hoc reporting
• Mobile features
• Predictive and advanced data analytics
• Embedded BI with seamless data integration
• Support for Windows authentication
• Multi-tenancy support

Dundas BI’s Screencap (Courtesy of Dundas)

Panorama Software
Solution: NECTO

Necto is Panorama Software’s full BI and analytics solution. The Toronto based company has offices in the US, UK and Israel, the company develops a business intelligence and analytics solution that offers automated analysis and recommendations which are easily disseminated throughout the organization.

With a fully customizable layout that can be modified to fit within many organization’s language and with easy point and click functionality, Panorama aims with Necto to take collaboration to the next level with the best business intelligence reporting tools that communicates real data.

Key features offered in Necto include:

• Centrally administered, fully web based system
• Fully functional dashboard design capabilities & simplified info-graphics
• Automated analysis & hidden insights
• Easy sharing of BI content
• High security & scalability
• Powered with KPI alerts
• Mashup data from multiple sources
• Simple & fast development

Necto’s’ Screencap (Courtesy of Panorama Software)

Semeon
Solution: Semeon Insights

With great deal of experience in the machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) R&D within its corridors and offices, Montreal based Semeon develops next generation cloud-based “AI Linguistic” text analytics platform solution Semeon Insights to service businesses interested in better understanding what is being said about their brand, company, products, staff, competitors, and more.

All Semeon’s solutions are developed using its series of patented Semantic Algorithms which can determine the sentiment, intent, and predictive behaviors of clients, buyers or customers.

Key features offered by Semeon Insights include:

• Sifts through public (Social Media, forums, blogs, review sites) as well as private data (CRM data, Customer Service data) to enhance customer-driven campaigns.
• Use of number of techniques to uncover key insights and influencers, these techniques include:
• Sentiment Analysis
• Concept Clouds
• Timeline Tracking
• Content Classification
• Sources/channels
• Influencer identification
• Data Visualization
• Geolocation
• Intent Analysis
• Leverage concepts and opinions that drive public perception to fuel content creation teams and boost ROI as well as glean insights from competitor’s digital campaigns. 

Semeon’s Screencap (Courtesy of Semeon)

Ahh! And There’s More

So, in the second part of this series I will include some other start-ups and projects that will caught your attention with their innovation and opportunity for both using them or build business with them.

In the meantime and considering I might be leaving some companies out, please feel free to let me know your comments or the name of new Canadian analytics solution we all should know about.

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