Technologies

Data mining's value comes from the ability to easily obtain timely and accurate information for decision-making purposes. Accessing information from these reporting environments often range from ad hoc queries to multidimensional analysis. While these forms of data analysis are excellent at answering the question or questions posed by the user, they do not provide any other insight. Individuals and organizations are recognizing that additional value may lie within the vast amounts of data that they are storing. By applying data mining techniques, which are elements of statistics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, they are able to identify trends within the data that they did not know existed. These techniques can be used for fraud detection, human resources, inventory logistics, defect analysis, business, and competitor and supplier intelligence.

Iknow has deep expertise in all aspects of data mining projects from initial requirements gathering, to database and data management aspects, to model and inference considerations, to post-processing of found structure, to creation of reporting dashboards, visualization and online updating, to system customization and deployment. We have experience managing data mining projects of many different sizes, from a small company trying to understand its own processes, to a large enterprise collecting and analyzing data over an entire competitive ecosystem.

Data management and integration derives value from creating a central repository of information that can be searched and utilized by multiple people at once. Data is only useful when the data has been properly cleaned and normalized, the process of data integration must be combined with best practices in data quality management and database architecture. Data integration and management also takes value from the systems that are built on top of it. The larger the scope of data, the better information a system such as business intelligence has to work with, allowing for a greater breadth of analyses to be completed.

Iknow has deep expertise in all aspects of data integration and management from initial requirements gathering to design of database architecture, to data cleansing, to design of mediated schema, to system customization and deployment. Iknow has experience to integrate databases into other products such as business intelligence, customer intelligence, expert systems, and data mining. We have experience managing data management and integration projects of many different sizes, from creating and designing small databases, to integrating hundreds of databases with a web query that can search all databases at once.

Business value for customer, competitor, and supplier intelligence comes from the knowledge of how changes may affect the market, how the market may affect your company, and what other competitors are planning. Consumer intelligence can be used to make decisions on where to apply innovation resources or training resources for service companies. Supplier intelligence can be used to find inefficiencies in the supply chain.

Iknow has deep expertise in all aspects of customer, competitor, and supplier intelligence from initial requirements gathering, to integrating intelligence into business decision, to process design and customization. Competitive intelligence does not exist often as a stand-alone software product, but Iknow has the technology experience to gather and integrate intelligence using text analysis, web spiders, and document analysis. Iknow can handle intelligence projects of any size from analyzing current market state to the potential effects of new products industries.

Business value from visualization is achieved from more rapid interpretation of large data sets. The best implementations of visualization stimulate viewer engagement and attention. There are a number of different types of visualizations, including thematic cartography and statistical graphing. Thematic cartography was used at first for only mapmaking but continues to be used when location can be a determining factor in information, and can be used in heat mapping to see where the most important information is found. Statistical graphics include plots, pie charts, and are constantly innovated; the value comes from the testing of assumptions, model selection and regression model validation, estimator selection, relationship identification, factor effect determination, and outlier detection.

Iknow has deep expertise in all aspects of data visualization projects from initial requirements gathering, to designing outputs, to training on use of software, to system deployment and customization. Iknow has used data visualization in a number of different fields, including agile software development and marketing research. Iknow has experience in all sizes of data visualization projects, from dealing with the problems of big data, to designing maps of expertise networks.

Business value from classification projects is achieved from providing access to and allowing the reuse of existing knowledge assets. The ability to find, share, and reuse these knowledge assets quickly adds value by shortening critical process cycle times and reducing costs. These enhancements can yield faster, better and more cost effective business decision making. On consumer facing projects, taxonomies and metadata can enhance virtual storefronts by improving search functionality. For internet databases, a strong taxonomy and metadata platform is necessary to allow users to easily find the information that they want, thus creating a reason for a user to return.

Iknow has deep expertise managing all parts of a taxonomy and metadata project, from the initial requirements gathering, to collecting information for the controlled vocabulary, to adhering to metadata standards such as Dublin Core. Classification is important in almost any knowledge management project, but is central to projects that include enterprise search, enterprise content management, business intelligence, and digital asset management. Iknow has completed a number of projects in taxonomy of different size and scale, including developing a taxonomy and metadata system for a government website to enhance search functionality.

Product Landscape

The taxonomy, classification, and metadata management product landscape is complex and includes the following products. Iknow can help you evaluate and select the right software product to help you achieve your business objectives.

Companies have only limited resources for each goal, and need to reach their goals within cost and schedule constraints. With program and project management, companies gain much greater visibility on the status of projects allowing them to identify problems earlier. When problems are identified earlier, decisions can be made that change the process, end the project, or account for the problem. The identification can create more accurate and robust forecasts, and manage and optimize resources across the project portfolio.

Iknow has deep expertise in all aspects of project and program management, from initial requirements gathering, to understanding institutional decision making, to customizing software to allow for cost-cutting measures, to system deployment. Iknow’s experience in case and business process management helps with project and program management because each can be combined depending upon the needs of the project. Iknow has experience in analyzing and designing project management system of all sizes, from creating a system that can be customized for each project, to designing a process for each project to follow.

Modeling and simulation can add a great deal of value in any industry. At any time, there is a level of fluidity in the competitive environment, and the business that has the best understanding of what may happen is the one which will have a competitive edge. In internal environments, modeling and simulation can help to convince people of the necessity of change to improve processes and cut down on the time taken completing tasks. Modeling and simulation is an integral part of any risk management system and should be used to ensure that as many contingencies are considered as possible.

Iknow has deep expertise in all aspects of modeling and simulations from initial requirements gathering, to data gathering, to creating hypotheses, to conceptualizing the problem or activity, to selection and deployment of a modeling and simulation technology. This software can be implemented with business intelligence, business process management, and data visualization. Typical modeling and simulation projects include understanding changes in the competitive environment and in the internal environment.

Business value from expertise profiling is achieved from having immediate and direct access to available expertise. When employees are confronted with a new or difficult assignment, they spend much time hunting for information by sending numerous e-mails, making phone calls, searching their intranet, and using their own personal network to find a suitable expert. Even after all this effort, the employee often fails to find someone with the necessary expertise or solution. Without being able to leverage this expertise, the employee will then start from scratch, leading to longer cycle times for completing tasks and activities and duplicate and redundant work. Expertise profiles improve the quality and speed of execution by increasing cross-silo communication, reducing re-work, and shortening employee ramp-up. Access to internal and external experts through a searchable directory improves a company's performance through faster cycle times, increased efficiency, and better decision making.

Iknow has deep expertise in managing all aspects of expertise profiling systems from initial requirements gathering, to finding experts in an organization, to understanding the use of experts in an organization, to system customization and deployment. Iknow’s experience in enterprise search and community management allows us to find the hidden experts in an organization, and to help you to find them once we do. We have completed expertise profiling projects of all sizes, including designing systems that combine expertise profiling with document management to attach documents to their creators.

Expert systems and qualitative reasoning require a strong understanding of usage requirements to produce value. Much of the disadvantages people consider part of these systems deal with poor development methodology. Iknow corrects this problem by creating thorough design documentation, developing an expert-level knowledge base, and gathering all requirements necessary to build internal rules and logic. When these pieces are combined, the technology becomes much more reliable, responsive and useful. These processes improve speed and accuracy in decision making by increasing the breadth of knowledge available to managers and executives.

Iknow has deep expertise in all aspects of expert systems and qualitative reasoning projects, from initial requirements gathering, to development of logic rules, to gathering data from experts in the field, to software customization and deployment. For both of these systems, they function best when integrated into an environment where standardization is one of the most important aspects, such as mortgages. They also can be used in more advanced manners to build and design prototypes of software.

Iknow helps organizations to realize the value of their content, with deep expertise in all aspects of enterprise search systems. These include initial requirements gathering, design of standards for metadata, creation of facets and taxonomies, clustering and summarizing, the addition of text analysis for entity extraction and the handling of unstructured data, system deployment and customization. Iknow has experience with all sizes of enterprise search projects, from designing portals for large companies to the understanding of small companies’ need for security and speed.

Enterprise search provides rapid access to information. Investments in enterprise search increase employee productivity, by reducing the time they spend looking for information, and increase the quality and speed of business decision making. Iknow understands how best to integrate the system with other enterprise software such as business intelligence programs, to gather and distribute data, and taxonomy and metadata management systems, to filter content. Well-built enterprise search systems improve the speed and accuracy for finding the right data and content.

Product Landscape

The enterprise search product landscape is complex and includes the following products. Iknow can help you evaluate and select the right software product to help you achieve your business objectives.