QOMPLX: Reimagining the future of business

It has been almost 15 years since the British Mathematician Clive Humby declared that “data is the new oil.” In the intervening years, Humby’s formulation has only come to seem more prescient. Indeed, data today powers some of the largest and richest corporations on earth: Amazon.com, Google, Microsoft, Facebook and more.

But if data is the new oil, the marketplace for data is not anywhere close to the 21st century’s orderly oil industry, in which multi-billion dollar companies like Saudi Aramco or Shell can dial up or dial down production and output with a few keystrokes. No. When it comes to data, we’re still back in the days of the wildcat speculators of the late 19th century: drilling wells in rural Pennsylvania and Texas. Already in the third decade of the 21st century, we’re still contending with the information equivalent of “gushers” that spewed oil in fountains, hundreds of feet high before they could be capped. In short: data is the new oil, but managing data and harvesting it is still a very, very messy business for organisations.

This much is clear: with data, as with oil, managing and controlling your windfall is as important as discovering it. Also this: as technology becomes more advanced and integrated into daily life, companies today are having a harder and harder time doing that.  Inundated with a vast wealth of data, they have only limited ability to use it effectively.  This is where QOMPLX, a Virginia based startup, comes in. QOMPLX is a standout among companies with expertise in integrating, analysing and using data to better understand the risks that must inform critical business decisions.

“You think about the challenges we have with a complex, interconnected society; most organisations are struggling with the fact that tomorrow won't look like yesterday,” explained Jason Crabtree, Co-Founder and CEO, QOMPLX.  Organisations large and small are struggling with too many technology solutions that aren’t integrated,  Crabtree says. “You’ve got to bring it together to actually have a consistent picture.”

The company is being helped along by advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence that make it possible to integrate and understand large data sets, apply the information in new and different ways, and result in more truthful assessments to drive financial decisions.

The company’s core software, Q:OS comprises advanced algorithms, simulations, and machine learning tools that integrate disparate internal and external data sources faster and easier. QOMPLX markets and sells decision platforms based on Q:OS to tackle problems in cybersecurity, insurance, quantitative finance and government.

As with oil: the question of better managing data is not an “if'' question but a “when” and “how” question, QOMPLX believes. “Everybody has to do this,” said Crabtree. “This is at the heart of any digital transformation exercise. It is the capacity for you to preserve future freedom of action. It is the capacity for you to preserve optionality in your own business as you build and chart its path forward.”

To watch the video and read the article click here.