Data and Analytics Innovation: Lessons Learned in Norway
Blog: The Tibco Blog
The first to reach the South Pole by land and the first to cross the Northwest Passage by sea, Norwegian Roald Amundsen ranks as one of the world’s greatest explorers. His successes demonstrate how an innovative, well-led, and technology-enabled team can achieve incredible results.
Traveling to Norway three times in the past year, I have seen this pioneering spirit and the transformative business outcomes it produces personally during my meetings with Norway’s largest energy company, biggest government agency, largest electronics retailer, and a world-market leader in marine coatings. All commonly use TIBCO® Data Virtualization to deliver the data they need to compete on the world stage through better customer experiences, accelerated innovation, and optimized business processes.
Also common to their successes is TIBCO partner, Precise Prediction, who provides specialized system integration services for the majority of TIBCO’s data and analytics customers in the Norwegian market.
As such Precise Prediction has a unique window into data and analytics-driven business transformation and technology adoption across Norway today. Theirs is an interesting story, applicable well beyond just Norway. So I’ve asked my friend Per Baumann, Precise Prediction’s Director of Sales and New Business to share his insights.
Here is a photo of Per and me in Oslo last summer:
Per, like his countryman, Amundsen, embodies Norway’s pioneering spirit. I think you will find his point of view both interesting and universal.
What is Precise Prediction?
“Precise Prediction is a system integrator founded in 2006 as Statsoft Norway. We started as a software reseller for Statistica, Inc. specializing in machine-learning and risk management solutions for the finance and banking sector. Our market and skills have expanded significantly over the past 13 years.”
How has Precise Prediction evolved with today’s changing data and analytics landscape?
“We have always stayed on the leading edge of data and analytics technology. It is how we are wired. Our founders, whose data management infrastructure and machine learning skills go back to the early nineties, infused the explorer spirit into our culture from the start.
One of our biggest changes came in 2017, when TIBCO acquired Statistica (now TIBCO® Data Science) and Cisco Data Virtualization (now TIBCO Data Virtualization). We applauded these acquisitions as we saw that our Norwegian customers needed more holistic solutions and broader capabilities as data and analytics were becoming increasingly critical to their success. So we expanded our TIBCO solution coverage across their broader Augment Intelligence portfolio, developing expertise in TIBCO Data Virtualization, TIBCO Spotfire®, and more. And at the same time, we rebranded to our holding company’s name, Precise Prediction.
Today Precise Prediction is a full-service TIBCO data and analytics system integration partner, helping Norwegian enterprises assess their business challenges, clarify requirements, determine software and services solutions, successfully implement these solutions, and deliver first-line technical support services (in our native Norwegian no less).”
Data and Analytics Adoption in Norway: What’s Driving the Market?
“Norway is an amazing country. With just 5.5 million people, our market may seem small. Yet we have one of the highest per capita incomes globally. Innovative use of data and analytics technology is one of the keys to our success.
Norwegians understand that data is their biggest barrier to analytics success. As such, we are seeing huge Norwegian demand for TIBCO Data Virtualization as a way to provide complete, consistent, secure access to data for all manners of AI/ML, analytics, and visualization use cases. Consider one of our customers, Elkjop Nordic, who used TIBCO Data Virtualization to address this challenge. With “VEDAL,” their Virtual Enterprise Data Access Layer, they can now serve GDPR-compliant data on demand to dozens of data scientists, hundreds of business analysts, and thousands of end users. More data. Easier to find and use. Elkjop now gains better insights faster, leading to better business outcomes sooner. Theirs is one of many such success stories across our joint Precise Prediction and TIBCO customers.”
Why is Precise Prediction well-positioned to meet growing Norwegian data and analytics needs?
“I think there are three things that distinguish Precise Prediction in our market.
The first is our approach. I originally come from the hospitality industry, where success is all about providing a fantastic customer experience at every step of the guest’s journey. Precise Prediction has the same customer-centric ethos. We always start by understanding our customer’s aspirations. Where they want to travel to, so to speak. Then we collaborate with them to convert their goals into tangible, technology-driven solutions. We help in every step of their journey from brainstorming, to requirements definition, to proof-of-concept, to initial adoption, to scale-out. And we provide them with the white-glove treatment from start to finish.
TIBCO’s data and analytics portfolio is also a distinguishing factor, especially in the Norwegian market where organizations seek the right balance between new innovation and proven solutions. TIBCO’s data and analytics technology portfolio has mastered this balancing act.
Third, Norwegians especially value solutions that have been successfully implemented by other leading Norwegian organizations. Our joint TIBCO successes at Norway’s largest and most innovative firms demonstrate the impact of our joint solution, giving our Norwegian customers confidence that they too will succeed.”
What’s next as you continue to adapt with the Norwegian data and analytics market?
“We do love having something new to explore and then bring to the Norwegian market. That’s why we have been busy building our TIBCO EBX
software and TIBCO ComputeDB capabilities. These new TIBCO data management offerings provide that perfect mix of ‘innovation plus proven’ so right for our market.”
Closing Thoughts
I want to personally thank you, Per, for sharing your insights in my blog. Your innovative, well-led, and technology-enabled team’s successes are a great example across the globe. Skol to you and all your Norwegian colleagues.
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