Software & Technology by MarketScale

In 2018, Forrester reported that up to 73 percent of the data collected today by companies goes unused. Why? Usually, it's because it's just too much to sift through and make sense of. 

On today’s Software & Technology Podcast, Tyler Kern interviews Gorka Zarauz, Chief Operations Officers at Geown Data Solutions.

Geown is trying to collect quality data for companies rather than a massive quantity of data, and it does so through robots, drones, and other unmanned vehicles. The company looks at collected data and makes important decisions for people in the construction, agriculture, and mining industries, among others.

A construction company may fly a drone to find out how big a pile of rubble or material is, where highways are located, or to see any potential infrastructure problems, and that data must be analyzed as quickly as possible. For agricultural use, Geown may be flying over a vineyard to check on the status of this season’s grape crops. The company might also use drones to check damages after a natural catastrophe.

Because of the variety in clients, Zarauz said, “there are no two systems which are equal so we have to be customized for each one, which is good and bad. We can be very accurate and precise on the exact system and need for the client. There are no two needs which are the same, different needs for all of the clients. We need to adapt because the need for agricultural is not the same for construction.”

To succeed and deliver quality data to varied clients, Zarauz has helped build a team of dedicated and solutions-driven professionals at Geown Data Solutions. Of his 10-12 person staff, half of his team has at least one Ph.D., while many have two or more, and the other half has at least one Master’s degree, if not two.

“They are extremely smart and they come up with very creative solutions that I would never think of, so the beauty of being small is that you can prototype new things and be a solution provider for our clients,” Zarauz said.

On today’s MarketScale Software & Technology podcast, we're joined by Calvin Chen, product manager for Premio, Inc., a computing technologies design company, and Laxman Rajagopalan, head of marketing at DWFritz Automation, a 45-year old company that specializes in industrial metrology measurements for precision automation functions.

Where do these two radically different companies find common ground? Like many tech partnerships, it comes down to empowering an end vision, and in this case, that vision is very literally empowered.

DWFritz started in the lumber industry but is now known for non-contact inspection and non-contact measurements. The company runs on high quality imaging solutions to accurately read and decipher those measurements, and to do that needs highly focused and capable processing power. Enter a unique and powerful GPU provided by Premio.

“We use cameras and laser systems to measure critical dimensions of parts and those images need to be processed rapidly and need a high amount of computing power because Premio’s GPU allows us to instantly process these high contrast and complex images very rapidly. That allows us to measure the key critical dimensions that our customers require,” Rajagopalan said. “Without our computing power, we cannot do what we are doing now very well.”

On the podcast, Chen and Rajagopalan explain how Premio’s processor is standing out amongst the competition, being small enough to be convenient for the customer but pack a substantial punch when it comes to processing power.

The digitization of industry has changed pretty much every business, and the banking world is no exception.

“There’s a lot of change in the digital age,” says Kris Bartel, Chief Business Development Officer at Zivelo.

He points out that while there are still 90,000 physical branches in the United States, that roughly 50 percent of people or more do some form of digital banking.

What about the feasibility of making that number 100 percent? There are a lot of aspects in people’s financial day, from transferring funds to depositing checks, is it even possible to see 100 percent digitalization? Bartel believes so.

It is still likely for people to go into a branch and have that face-to-face interaction, “so we’re trying to take the digital model and introduce new technologies, but while also still making it possible to interact with the folks at those branches,” Bartel added.

People want to feel comfortable and get all of their questions answered when they’re dealing with high amounts of money, so “our solutions are geared towards more complex mortgages and financial investments, that the customer has a very positive experience and that even though they’re having a digital transaction it’s not one that’s disconnected from a human being,” says Bartel.

It is possible that the public might even be able to have a one-on-one conversation with someone within a physical space and a secure room, with secure equipment, with an expert thousands of miles away, or use kiosks or other forms of technology to enhance in-person banking experiences, while still making things more efficient from the bank’s point of view.

Cloud computing is changing the way that people are looking at their own business needs and how they can scale their businesses, making them more efficient and more profitable. But what are the demands and challenges that come along with this cloud computing climate, and how can we address those changing demands, especially in terms of data management?

Pinnacle Business Systems Solutions Architect Matt Powers sees the market from a data management perspective, as well as how the cloud has opened up a new world of possibilities for business solutions.

This includes lowering capital and operational costs, reducing hardware refreshes, and, possibly most importantly, peace of mind for upper-level managers and IT consultants alike, especially in terms of backing up data.

“Backups and backup and recovery is critical to their business but kind of an afterthought as they’re solving the production, trying to figure out how to get a higher return on their investment and backup is not usually the forefront of that,” Powers said. “Cloud is an easy way to evolve the strategies that they’ve had for years, backup tape, or disk to disk, to an easier approach.”

Powers also discusses how to walk each client through identifying their needs. After all, some clients do not even realize the vast possibilities that are open to them, how to scale their business up or down, and how to leverage existing infrastructure to make the transition to the cloud nothing but smooth sailing.

The films and music that debut at SXSW every year may be what people remember, but alongside that star power stands innovation that changes the world. There will be no red carpet or paparazzi for the developers of these new products, but surely people around the world will feel their impact for years to come.

On part II of the MarketScale SXSW Podcast Series, hear how both a 3D printing company and a foreign airline service are making the most out of existing materials and why a team of scientists is trying to capture images of something previously unseen by cameras.

The way that people eat, shop, and travel has been affected by technological advancements in substantial ways. Education, too, has transformed into a more fluid, digital counterpart. Why, then, does technology education, the courses or tools that assist professionals in learning the ins and outs of the new technology they're using, often not take full advantage of technology itself?

Mike Zanotto, CEO of Skyline ATS, a company that provides advanced technology training, and a 2018 Cisco Distinguished and Excellence Instructor Award winner, believes education on the latest advancements is critical. Skyline, now on its 30th anniversary, has reinvented itself several times, but has stuck by their motto of providing professional services while still being able to keep up with the changing times.

“People consume education today differently than they did 10 or 15 years ago,” Zanotto said. While originally Skyline had to educate students by traveling to them and bringing a mass of equipment or shipping equipment to them, the company can now do everything remotely. “They want to take classes from their house and use their phone, and we’ve had to create different modalities that will be receptive to those types of learners, " Zanotto said.

It is Zanotto’s goal to perfect the remote experience, which not only includes a seamless login and functionality, but gives teachers the ability to translate their knowledge. In IT, someone can have CCIE accreditation or the highest certification and yet be unable to explain something fundamental to students. By finding instructors that have already lived the field as a customer and consultant, companies like Skyline aim to transform how businesses adapt to changing and varied technologies from companies like Cisco.

Technology is like fashion; it can be really cyclical. Today’s trends can be tomorrow’s faux pas, and some things are created for function, while others are just for show. With so many choices available, where do business owners turn to when purchasing the technology that's going to enhance or run the core of their business?

Today’s guest on the Software & Technology Podcast is Josh Lupresto, vice president of sales engineering for Telarus, a technology services distributor. Being the "brokers" in the B2B technology world, interacting with OEMs to provide products to sub-agent vendors, Telarus has the unique position of keeping their ear to the ground, knowing what technology is trending even before it happens in a time where cutting through the technological fluff is forever difficult.

Lupresto explains how some technologies have become expected staples, like MPLS, and others have shown unexpected usefulness. The evolution of SD-LAN is also creating a game-changing environment for the customer, because no longer do they have to log in to each of their devices to make a change; they can set easy routing rules and application priorities across multiple devices, countries, routers, etc.

At the end of the day, the operation is what pays the mortgage, and “we always run the risk of making the wrong tech recommendation or being scrutinized, especially with the new perspectives in the AI and IoT realm, so we’d better make sure that if we’re going to bring a product to the market, we better do a good job of vetting it before we put our rubber stamp on it," Lupresto said.

Listen to Lupresto break down the struggles of communicating what's useful and what's "vaporware," how Telarus acts like gate-keepers giving honest feedback to tech companies, and where are we right now with business-focused technological solutions and how it mirrors an era of growth or struggle we've already seen.

On today’s podcast, MarketScale host Tyler Kern sits down with Bruce Kaskey, COO and Co-founder of OrecX, a company that specializes in call recording technology in order to help businesses understand and make actionable decisions around customer conversations and how their employees deal with those clients.

OrecX has joined us on the podcast before, breaking down the benefits and varied applications for call recording technology from how it impacts the CEO to how it impacts the call center. This time around, Kaskey spoke about the importance of collecting data and making better, actionable decisions based on those findings. He details the technologies that allow data capture and how those have come a very long way since the reel-to-reel recording days in the late 1980s.

With today’s advanced digitization, businesses are able to record screens of all types; with software like OrecX's, companies can then easily search data based on a number of criteria in order to find calls that are under or over a certain minute mark, or at a particular time, and more easily find calls that may stand out with unique insight or need to be addressed if dealing with an underperforming employee.

Kaskey explains how OrecX’s clients range from financial markets to call centers and from startups to small businesses, and since there is an immense amount of metadata they need to analyze, each solution has to be handcrafted to meet the clients' objective.

Give this podcast a listen to hear how open source software for call recording is ultimately enabling businesses to be more flexible, providing each client even more options (like AI) and integration that are leading the industry forward.

Workers compensation is one of the insurance staples of the American workforce; a federally mandated insurance for every United States based company with employees, minus very few exceptions. Though crucial, it's also a major headache for business owners to get right.

In this Careers Podcast, we sat down with Eva Spexard, Recruiting & EMEA HR Manager for Microdrones, to explore one of the company's most exciting open positions: Experimental Engineer, a position that's as much a design job as it is a technical one. This engineer would be in charge of designing electronic circuits and prototyping those same systems, as well as putting their work to work, testing new aerial systems and sensors that are often first to market for the entire industry.

Microdrones, a company spanning six continents, touts itself as the world’s largest R&D force for commercial drones. Spexard, a native of Germany where the position is based, is known for her ability to work with people from all over the world. She jokes that her ultimate recruit is someone who has “literally more than two hands,” but her ideal candidate has experience with modeling and simulation, modification and troubleshooting of prototypes and experience in UAS technologies.

The most interesting part of the position, and what makes it so exciting, is what can't even be mentioned on the podcast. With such innovative drone technology, the shroud around it can be opaque to the rest of the market and outside world. But in this conversation, Spexard does clue us in on what it’s really like to be a engineer for Microdrones. It’s not usual day-to-day work; your technological ideas could actually come to life within years as a top notch technology. It’s a dream job for any engineer.