Niche Analytics Companies

Transcription

1 Niche Analytics Companies An insider view What projects do niche companies work on? A typical day in the life of a data scientist. Insights from the founders and much more An exclusive report by Jigsaw Academy

2 A note from the CEO, Jigsaw Academy It is with great pleasure and excitement that we at Jigsaw academy present our report on niche analytics companies in India. There are many enterprising and successful companies out there who are making great strides in the analytics arena. Their work is inspiring and we at Jigsaw, are proud to be associated with a number of these start-ups who are doing cutting-edge work for businesses around the globe. Often the smaller companies are doing more path-breaking work and offer better career opportunities for those looking to start off in analytics. However analytics aspirants often struggle to find out about smaller companies. This report is an attempt to make people aware of the type of work niche analytics companies do and the kind of interesting career options they offer. We thank the founders and staff of Gramener and Marketelligent for their time and support in helping us compile this report. Purpose of this report With data analytics booming world over, India too has become a major player in the analytics industry. Niche analytics companies are mushrooming in India and are fast attracting some of the best analytics talent there is. With a view to getting a closer look at just how some of these successful companies function we wanted to go in depth and personal with them, hoping that by reading about the exciting and challenging work environment they offer, many of you will be inspired to gain some analytic skills and become a part of the analytics boom. What are Niche Analytic Companies? This category comprises of companies (mostly small and mid-size) that focus on providing analytics expertise to businesses around the world. Growth opportunities are abundant in such companies. According to a report by Jigsaw academy, niche analytics companies offer salaries that average at 4.5 lakhs at entry level and go up to 16 lakhs for director level (10+ years of experience). They provide a varied and challenging work environment, with the quality of work done in most of the niche analytics companies being of a very high standard. Introduction Niche Analytics Companies A report by Jigsaw Academy pg01

3 Companies in focus Gramener / Marketelligent

4 A Data Visualizations & Analytics Company Gramener transforms data into concise dashboards, so that business problem & solutions are visually obvious. They find insights quickly, based on cognitive research, and their visualization guide actionable decisions. Gramener founded in 2010 is one of those highly successful niche analytics companies in India that is taking data analytics to a whole new level. Simply put, they take large data sets, analyze them using non traditional analytics and visualize it in real time. Their primary focus of work lies in Data Visualization, Data Analytics, Text Analytics and Predictive Analytics. Gramener in a nutshell Founded 2010 Founders J Ramachandran Naveen Gattu Anand S Examples of projects Large Telecome Operator Visualization for Sales, Marketing & Customer Service Suguna Foods Production Planning Analytics, Operational Efficiencies, Sales & Marketing Fortune 10 Customer Clinical Trail Analytics and Visualization Primary Focus of Work Data Visualization, Data Analytics, Text Analytics, Predictive Analytics No. of Employees 70+ Clients 25+ customers across 8 vertical Among them: Airtel, Axis Bank, TVS, P&G, Suguna Foods TVS & Sons Service Analytics and Visualization Major bank in India Branch Performance Analysis Offices in Hyderabad (HQ), Bangalore (R&D) Comibitore (OPs) Gramener Niche Analytics Companies A report by Jigsaw Academy pg03

5 About the founders Gramener was founded by industry veterans J Ramachandran, Naveen Gattu and Anand S who are alumni from IIT, NIT and IIM, some of the top institutions in the country. They are all leaders with a business management track record in high-tech Fortune 50 pedigree companies like IBM, Boston Consulting, Delloitte and Accenture. Guided by innate professional ethics they are mentors and role models for all aspiring data scientists. J Ramachandran, CEO & Co-Founder Ram holds a Master's Degree in Technology from IIT Kanpur and is an industry veteran with over 20 years of Technology Services experience. At IBM Global Services USA, Ram led thought and implementations for Fortune 50 customers, in adoption and implementation of technology. Ram was also the CEO of a 200 Million Dollar IT Services Company. He now guides Gramener with the purpose of providing consistent and impacting contributions to the human fraternity through technology led ethical enterprises. Gramener Niche Analytics Companies A report by Jigsaw Academy pg04

6 About the founders Naveen Gattu, COO & Co-Founder Naveen is a seasoned executive with extensive experience in the Tech consulting and outsourcing arena. He has a Bachelors degree in electronics and telecommunication and has done leadership courses related to Strategic Account Management and Global Management of teams. He was with IBM, North America for a decade and held various strategic roles for Tier 2 Indian IT firms. He has been responsible for delivering a number of complex technology led business transformation programs for Financial Services. He brings this vast experience to Gramener, adding great value to Sales, Alliance Management, Program Management and Global Delivery. Anand S, Chief Data Scientist & Co-Founder Anand has advised and designed IT systems for organizations such as the Citigroup, Honda, ICICI, IBM, Oracle, RBS, SAP, Tesco, etc. He has an MBA from IIM Bangalore and a B.Tech from IIT Madras. He has worked at IBM, Lehman Brothers, The Boston Consulting Group and Infosys Consulting. Anand also blogs at s-anand.net ( a really cool site that will inform and educate you as much as it will make you smile). Gramener Niche Analytics Companies A report by Jigsaw Academy pg05

7 How it all began? All the founders of Gramener are first generation entrepreneurs who began their careers in IBM. They were very successful in their corporate jobs, but always had one thought at the back of their minds, Can't we work for ourselves and have FUN while at it. Deciding to do just this they got together in 2010 and laid the foundation for Gramener. Considering their consulting experience they decided to get into business analytics. They found that there were many people doing great analytics but there was no effective way yet of data consumption. They wanted to create a niche for themselves and hence decided that this is what they would do, make Data Consumption easy and joyful. Thus Gramener was born. Recent innovation in the company The Gramener Visualization Server is a revolutionary business intelligence product that transforms large-scale data into visualizations in real-time without human intervention. The end result helps enterprises effectively consume data through visualizations which help align mental models amongst all the stakeholders. The technology is based on a combination of design, statistics and programming. The visuals are based on cognitive research and presented in a visually appealing and actionable way. The analysis identifies hidden correlations and predicts trends for the future. The product can connect to heterogeneous data sources. The entire process of visualizations is automated, and requires no manual effort. The road ahead While improving their Visualization platform, Gramener is also focusing on building products which can perform analysis automatically and aid analysts to the extent that they can dedicate more time towards effective business analytics. Advice for future analysts Business Analytics is now functional driven. Hence the key to success is being able to measure the value you are adding to the business. This must be tangible and whether it is the analytic tools you use or the analytics insights you garner, they must all be driven in that direction. As an analyst you need to have a flare for programming. Also remember that today Data Science is a combination of Statistics, Technology & Design and is a team skill rather than an Individual skill. Gramener Niche Analytics Companies A report by Jigsaw Academy pg06

8 A note from Naveen Gattu How do we add value to our clients? Meaningful consumption of data, i.e the discovery, understanding, correlation and coherent business actions in enterprises has still not risen to a point where all parts of a business act cohesively, based on what the data reveals. Diverse understanding of the same data by various functions, BI projects which are still IT led, lack of skills in the end user community to seek out relevant data at the speed at which business demands, have all led enterprises to be sub-optimal in usage and application of data. The main reason for this is a lack of simple tools to represent data in a manner in which all stakeholders will understand coherently and consistently. Gramener creates visualizations which are not only simple, powerful, appropriate and relevant to data sets, but which are also meaningful to functions and businesses. The very fact that human cognizance is enabled through simple visualizations helps to have all stakeholders arrive at mental models that are similar and eliminates the complexity in consuming data that is most relevant to them. This aids in acting fast and in unison, led by a common understanding of the data by all. Gramener Niche Analytics Companies A report by Jigsaw Academy pg07

9 How Gramener Hires? Hiring Process Online Test Interviews Requirements for Ideal Candidate Good Programming Skills, Flare for statistics and analysis, Team Player Sources Talents From Website & Employee referrals, Focus a lot on speaking at various events as that's a good source to find great talent, Jigsaw Academy 15+ Analytics talent hired by company in 2013 Salary Industry Standard salary range which varies with experience, skill level & aptitude 2014 Company plans for expansion as they are expanding into North America Gramener Niche Analytics Companies A report by Jigsaw Academy pg08

10 An Interview with Kathirmani Sukumar Data Scientist, Gramener Getting a story out of my analysis and presenting it using appropriate visuals, so that the customer will be able to consume their data, is what is exciting.

11 Tell us a little about yourself, your academic background? I was born and brought up in Chennai. My school life went in chasing the high scores which my sisters achieved in their schooling and that set a standard for me. With the decent score that I was able to achieve in my +2, I joined Rajalakshmi Engineering College, Chennai and pursued my electrical engineering. Looking at my interests, my college Professor Dr.C.Kamala Kannan motivated me to work on few research projects which later helped me a lot in my professional career. When I finished my bachelors I had two offers, one to join as a software engineer in a reputed IT company and another one to work under Dr. Arun K. Tangirala - Associate Professor at IIT Madras in a research project sponsored by Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC). Considering the exposure that I could get and the technologies that I could learn, I joined IIT Madras as project associate and worked there for three years. At IIT Madras I attended courses on 'time series analysis and statistics' which laid the foundation in analytics for me. My research outcome was published in NDT & E, an international journal. What got you interested in analytics? The article "For Today s Graduate, Just One Word: Statistics" from The New York Times ( / 2009 / 08 / 06 / technology / 06stats.html?_r=0 ) is what basically motivated me to pursue my career as a data scientist. This particular position demanded a blending of programming and statistical background, which very well matched with my skills. When did you join Gramener? During the end of my project at IIT Madras, Prof. Tangirala advised me to approach Anand (Founder and Chief Data Scientist at Gramener). Anand interviewed and tested me with a task and finally it was in May 2012 that I joined Gramener as an intern, and began my journey as a Data Scientist. What is your job profile? My job profile at Gramener includes transformation of big data to functional data and analysis of data. Analysis typically involves summarizing and classifying the data using techniques like Decision trees, Principal component analysis etc., The analysis is further automated to present meaningful visualizations. Part of the job profile also includes designing of new visualizations which adds a unique dimension to my profile. Gramener Niche Analytics Companies A report by Jigsaw Academy pg10

12 What is your potential career path? Where do you see yourself 5 years from now? After 5 years I see myself interacting with many CEOs predicting their company s future stock market or pointing out where they should concentrate next. Take us through a typical day in your life? Analyzing data: This is typically done during the initial stage of a project. Usually we get sample datasets from the customer and with the help of the concerned domain experts from the customer side; I understand the nature of the data. Then using tools like Python, Gramex (our own visualization product), Excel and R, I analyze the data and derive insights. Analysis usually will be a mix of descriptive statistics, classifications, causal analysis. Toughest part of the work is creating a visual which conveys the insights effectively. Interacting with the customer: After analysis and deriving insights, I am often seen at the customer premises, educating the customer about my analysis and usage of our visualizations. This has been the challenging part of my job, because generally the target audience is top level management and I have been successful in convincing them which is usually difficult. Automating: Interesting part in a day is when I spend time automating all my analysis and visuals using our product and deploy it in the client's machine. Being incharge of the journey of raw data to the end product is a fascinating experience Most exciting thing about your job? Getting a story out of my analysis and presenting it using appropriate visuals, so that the customer will be able to consume their data, is what is exciting and also a tough job to do. I am not a domain expert, but still I have to understand the business nature in a short period and think from the customer's perspective which is challenging and exciting at the same time. Working with a team lead by Anand and Ganes Kesari (VP Products and delivery) is most satisfying and a great learning experience. Gramener Niche Analytics Companies A report by Jigsaw Academy pg11

13 Which kind of projects do you like working on most? I like to work on media projects where I can take up some public data and tell a story from it. I am also interested in projects where I can analyse the company's product performance from their customer reviews using text analytics. In the future I would like to use my knowledge in machine learning algorithms. Any advice for others interested in becoming data scientists? A strong foundation in mathematics and statistics is very essential. My advice would be to work under a mentor on real time projects before diving into the job. What are your predictions for analytics in India? The whole world knows that Indians are experts in Mathematics, which is a primary and important skill for any statistician. With 100% confidence I can say that India will become a hub for analytics. Gramener Niche Analytics Companies A report by Jigsaw Academy pg12

14 Analytics with Business Sense Marketelligent believes that the power of Analytics cannot be unlocked unless it is developed with a clear understanding of its business impact. They use analytics to provide analytical insights and intelligent marketing solutions that enable smarter decisions. Marketelligent founded in 2007 has made its mark in the analytics arena as a niche company that helps client's unlock the power of their information. They customize their services depending on the needs of their client's business, offering them a host of services from data integration and standardization to sophisticated analytic models for predictive modeling and forecasting. Examples of projects Marketelligent in a nutshell Founded 2007 Founders Roy Cherian Anunay Gupta Primary Focus of Work Helping businesses win by making the most of their information E Commerce Co. Optimally allocate its digital spends to maximize new subscriber sign-ups No. of Employees 75+ Alcobev Manufacturer Sales reporting and marketing insights Leading Publisher Helped deepen customer engagement via targeted cross-sell and up-sell Clients Across US, India, Middle East and South-east Asia including several Fortune 100 companies. Among them United Breweries, Dell, Times of Money Leading bank Help validate, maintain and update their delinquency scorecards Offices in India: Bangalore and New Delhi USA: New Jersey and New York Marketelligent Niche Analytics Companies A report by Jigsaw Academy pg13

15 About the founders Roy Cherian and Anunay Gupta are two respected and highly experienced professionals and innovators, who founded Marketelligent. Graduates of renowned institutions like IIT, IIM and NYU Stern these analytics enthusiasts have brought their combined experience in multinationals across continents and across industries to the analytics arena. Roy Cherian Roy has over 22 years of rich experience in marketing, advertising and media in organisations like Nestle, United Breweries, and FCB. He is known for his passion for innovation, some of which have been recognized globally at Nestle. His one point agenda at Marketelligent is to drive business sense into analytics. Roy holds an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and a BTech from College of Engineering, Trivandrum. Anunay Gupta Anunay has over 18 years of industry experience, with a significant portion focused on Analytics in Consumer Finance. He was a core member of the Risk Management team of American Express based in New York City, and headed the off-shore Advanced Analytical Solutions for the US Cards portfolio of Citigroup. He drives the technical rigour into all the analytics we do at Marketelligent. Anunay holds an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business, a BTech from IIT Delhi and a PhD from Penn State. Marketelligent Niche Analytics Companies A report by Jigsaw Academy pg14

16 How it all began? Essentially they saw the opportunity to help companies monetize their Technology investments. Over the past years, billions have been spent in putting together technical infrastructure to capture and store various types and forms of data. Roy and Anunay felt that the time was ripe to help businesses start leveraging these assets to improve business performance. Also, there was a strong desire to create something tangible from scratch that was of value to customers, associates and society at large..something that every entrepreneur desires of achieving. Though they could have done this in their corporate careers; the satisfaction of doing it on their own was what spurred them to start Marketelligent. Recent innovation in the company Marketelligent has built a few cool tools and products that have delighted both themselves and their clients. Some of them have been instrumental in helping open doors to new businesses also. One such tool has been Mosaic, an interactive online dashboard which facilitates strategic decisions through data visualization. It links statistics with graphics, making information accessible in ways a spread sheet never could. It is capable of supplying real-time insights to help business decisionmakers arrive quickly at complex decisions and optimizations. The road ahead Marketelligent envisions being in the analytics services area for many years to come. The opportunity is large and given that they are in the infancy of the data revolution, they are seeking to excel in this area. However, they also realize the importance of technology and see themselves building a capability around this in the near future. Advice for future analysts Analytics will continue to gain importance over the next 10 years or so; and though the industry is in its nascent stages Marketelligent forsees a great future ahead. Businesses will continue to invest in data assets and data discovery. Analysts should spend at least two years learning the fundamentals of analytics, be very hands-on and understand the business that they are working with. Marketelligent Niche Analytics Companies A report by Jigsaw Academy pg15

17 A note from Annunay Gupta What analytics means to us? We use analytics essentially to solve business problems. We work with clients across the globe and across functions and industries. From that perspective, we are truly a global firm. We help clients in 3 key areas strategic reporting and visualization, business analysis and predictive analytics. We are today essentially a services/consulting firm. However, we see opportunities in expanding into the technology area; especially given the power of big data and machine learning. We use analytics essentially to solve business problems. Marketelligent Niche Analytics Companies A report by Jigsaw Academy pg16

18 How Marketelligent Hires? Hiring Process Interviews Stringent hiring process; typically only 1 in 50 gets an offer Requirements for Ideal Candidate Good grasp of technical fundamentals, Relates to the business problem being solved from a technical perspective, Who can communicate clearly and cut through the haze. Sources Talents From Primarily through referrals from current and past associates, Direct applications. Campus placements, Agencies, Jigsaw Academy 30+ Analytics talent hired by company in 2013 Salary Industry Standard / Depends on person and the value they bring 2014 Company plans for expansion in 2014 Marketelligent Niche Analytics Companies A report by Jigsaw Academy pg17

19 An Interview with Eliza Matthen Data analyst, Marketelligent Analysis is very important for any business today and in the future we will see more companies demanding information in real time.

20 Tell us a little about yourself, your academic background? I did my schooling from The Lawrence School, Lovedale, OOTY. For 12th I took Science with Biology. I joined St.Xaviers, Mumbai for BSc. Mathematics being my favorite subject I took a combination of Mathematics, Statistics and Economics. I found statistics interesting and I finally did BSc Statistics with Computer Applications. After finishing my degree in 2012 I joined Marketelligent as an intern for 6 months after which I am continuing as a consultant. I also like playing badminton, listening to music and watching movies etc. What got you interested in analytics? An analytic company came to St.Xaviers for placement and spoke about their work which I found very exciting and I thought it is the right platform where I could put to good use my subject knowledge and skills. When did you join Marketelligent, and what is your job profile? I joined in June, I am a Business Analyst and I handle the data download, processing/cleaning, I analyze the data and come up with actionable insights. The data is then represented in a dashboard format. I also interact with clients. What is your potential career path? Where do you see yourself 5 years from now? I would like to gain few year s experience and then do my Masters in Business Analytics. I hope to make a career in this field and excel in what I do 5 years from now. Marketelligent Niche Analytics Companies A report by Jigsaw Academy pg19

21 Take us through a typical day in your life. On a normal day I come to office around 10am, I download the required data and process the data in the required format for which I use SAS or SQL. Then I create reports using Xcelsius or PowerPoint to make it visually appealing and also provide insights/summary on the reports. This normally ends around 6.30 pm. It all really depends on our client needs. Some days it might go on a little longer as we have calls with our US based clients. We also have team meeting on some days where each team gives updates about their projects. There are also training/knowledge transfer that happens simultaneously with our usual work. Most exciting thing about your job. I am exposed to a lot of modelling techniques, variety of analytical tools, and the most exciting thing is to be able to implement all that into my work. Which kind of projects do you like working on most? I like being part of projects that involve forecasting / predicting and also working on-site. Any advice for others interested in becoming data scientists? Having basic knowledge about SAS, SQL and Excel would help you a lot to catch up in the field. Do expect yourself to stretch more than the usual working hours as you might be working with overseas clients. What are your predictions for analytics in India? Analysis is very important in for any business today and in the future we will see more companies demanding information in real time. This will give them an edge and help in improving, monitoring and conducting their business, as well as identifying further opportunities. Marketelligent Niche Analytics Companies A report by Jigsaw Academy pg20

22 About Jigsaw Academy Jigsaw academy is the brainchild of Gaurav Vohra and Sarita Digumarti who together have over 20 years of experience in the analytics industry. Realizing the great potential of analytics and the boom that is still in a nascent stage, they founded Jigsaw Academy with the aim of playing a crucial role in the identifying and nurturing of analytic talent in India and abroad. Jigsaw Academy provides training to professionals and students on the latest tools and techniques in the field of analytics. Their unique online platform provides the best learning experience through a combination of virtual classroom and labs. The trainers are industry experts who have applied analytics to solve a variety of business problems in diverse domains and who bring a wealth of practical experience into the classroom. Students can opt for live (virtual) classroom training or self-paced video based courses info@jigsawacademy.com , About Jigsaw Academy Niche Analytics Companies A report by Jigsaw Academy pg21

23 Niche Analytic Companies in India We have compiled the following list of niche analytics companies in India based on internet research and interviews with industry professionals. If we have missed any, please do let us know, so we can update the list in future. AbsolutData (consumer behaviour analytics) Activecubes (sales, marketing, supply chain, operations) Aegis Global (general focuses on broad areas) Affine Analytics (marketing analytics) Bridge i2i Analytics (behavioural modeling & resource planning) Capillary Technologies (retail analytics) Cross Tab Analyticshttp (survey analytics, data mining, big data) - Cytel (clinical & pharma Analytics) Data Monitor (general serves broad areas) Datamatics (financial, insurance) Decidyn(marketing, risk and fraud analytics) - DecisionCraft(revenue management) - Denuosource (big data management, advanced analytics) - Dexterity (CMI, CRM analytics) - Dunhumby (retail analytics) EVALUESERVE (financial, life sciences analytics) EXL Services (acquired Inductis) (general focuses on broad areas) Fractal Analytics (customer loyalty, operations) Gramener (visualization, data analysis) - Global Analytics (credit risk, financial, lending) - Hansa Cequity (data management, customer analytics - ICRA Technology Services (general serves broad areas) icreate (banking analytics) Indix (product intelligence) - Inductis (operations, risk, marketing analytics) - intouch analytics (customer, talent analytics) - Ipsos (marketing analytics) Kiesquare Analytics (marketing, customer, risk analytics) - Latentview Analytics (marketing, risk analytics) - Manhattan Systems (retail analytics) - Annexure - List of analytic companies in India Niche Analytics Companies A report by Jigsaw Academy pg22

24 Niche Analytic Companies in India Marketelligent (CPG, Finance, Telecom Analytics) Meritus (marketing, customer analytics) Modelytics (financial, lending, collections, recovery, retail banking) Mu-Sigma (BFSI, retail, healthcare) - Nabler (online retail analytics) NettPositive Analytics (marketing, credit risk analytics) Neural Techsoft (financial & risk analytics) Opera Solutions (general serves broad areas) SilverPush (advertising and mobile analytics) - SmartAnalyst (life science, healthcare analytics) - TNS Global (marketing analytics) - Transunion (financial, healthcare analytics) - Vehere Interactive (telecom, financial) White Capers (risk and fraud) - WNS Analytics (acquired Marketics) (marketing, consumer behaviour analytics) GMID Associates (finance, risk, marketing) - Market Equations (Finance, marketing) - Annexure - List of analytic companies in India Niche Analytics Companies A report by Jigsaw Academy pg23