Profile: Seven In-House Innovators

Each month we profile a client related to our monthly theme.  This month we couldn’t decide from the pool of highly innovative companies that take residence in our spaces, so we’ve profiled 7 of them.  With these companies at the forefront of innovation, the future is in good hands. Endgame Economics Endgame Economics uses mathematics and economics to solve problems.  And by “mathematics and economics” we are talking first class honours in pure mathematics, as well as commerce degree with majors in economics and finance (Oliver Nunn) and a PhD in applied mathematics from the University of New South Wales including a thesis focussed on ergodic theory – a branch of mathematics that studies the way systems change over time (Dr Tom Watson). The latest addition to the Endgame team also has a PhD in Actuarial Science, with expertise in the modelling of longevity risk (Simon Fung). And by “solve problems” they mean using complex mathematical modelling to advise gas, electricity, mining, water, and transport sectors on big-picture issues like what a carbon tax will mean for electricity prices, how will home batteries affect electricity networks, helping governments formulate better policies, and predicting what will happen when two competitors merge.  Best of all, Endgame can communicate, delivering clear, concise reports that explain complex technical concepts in simple language.  Now, about my recent energy bill… Targit Modern Business Intelligence (BI) encompasses both traditional analytics and new innovation. Targit is on a mission to help companies perform better by enabling more and faster data-driven decisions throughout their entire organisations. As a leading global software company with over 20 year’s experience, Targit offers a cutting edge “Decision Suite” technology platform that offers a single-source and end-to-end BI and analytics solution.  Decision Suite is an enterprise-grade dashboard and reporting tool that meets the dual demands of business and IT by combining all data, all people, all business intelligence disciplines in one user interface. So raw power meets self-service analytics, allowing for agile decision-making in governed environments. And don’t just take their word for it.  The world’s largest independent survey of BI software users (BARC BI Survey 2016) rated Targit Decision Suite leader against 37 other business intelligence and data visualization products.  So, to make analytics easier, unify and make sense of all your data, find a scaleable solution, bring analytics to every department, and understand what you BI costs will be, you can hit the sweet spot with Targit. TimeXtender If Targit was the beautiful front-end dashboard for all company data, then TimeXtender, is the essential back of house infrastructure feeding in all that data. TimeXtender Discovery Hub® essentially joins the dots between all your enterprise systems and data sources on one hand and your dashboard and reporting tools (Targit, Power BI, Qlik, Tableau, Excel etc.) of choice on the other. Discovery Hub® leverages the power of automation and makes it easy to access, extract, transform, model and govern data. Instead of writing thousands of lines of ETL scripts, Discovery Hub® automates the tedious tasks involved in back-end ETL and front-end integration whilst keeping track of all your data and auto-generating documentation for regulatory compliance. 42% of business leaders need to make data-driven decisions within one day. With Discovery Hub^® from TimeXtender, you can get clarity sooner, make better decisions faster, and spend time more wisely. TimeXtender customers generally report time-savings of 75-85% compared to the traditional approach to creating and maintaining data warehouses and data discovery hubs on-premises and in the cloud. Simple! Q5 Q5 was founded in London in 2009 as companies around the world faced the fallout of the worst financial crisis in generations. It now has offices around the world and a team of innovative consultants to help global businesses respond more effectively to the challenges confronting them, and to deliver benefits that last beyond the four quarters of the financial year… into ‘Q5’.  With an impressive global client list (BBC, British Airways, Dow Jones, Shell, Top Shop, Credit Suisse), and a Sydney team that is working with News Corp Aus, Australian Sports Commission, Aesop, and QBE, this is innovation with impact. Q5 works across all sectors, providing their clients with a different perspective and an innovative approach to their perceived challenges.  So whether it is the threat of huge technological and environmental changes, the shifting loyalties of consumer groups, the rapidly emerging new markets, the rising operational costs and consumer expectations, and the changing structures of entire industry, Q5 using their expertise in strategy, design, processes, people, and innovation, to enable their clients to think big and unlock their full potential, streamline organisational structure to support future ambitions, add practical value to operations, unlock the potential of their human resources, and make lasting change. 3wks 3wks live and breath rapid, efficient, user-centric digital solutions that drive positive change… and their name reflects their commitment to making real organisational changes in under a month. 3wks delivers innovative digital solutions, be that a web or mobile app or technology product, however, this is no ordinary development house churning out code. 3wks are on a mission to change the way enterprises develop and use technology so innovation doesn’t need to be painful, complex, take too long and cost a fortune. They do this by applying their unique ‘Beyond Agile’ method to business challenges, which you can learn about in their recently-published book of the same name. The 3wks approach has been tried and tested in over 200 projects for organisations such as Ausgrid, Google, Monash University, Woolworths and NewsCorp) and is truly disrupting traditional systems thinking. So, whether it’s a MVP, creating a pilot, building an add-on to an enterprise platform or a standalone app – 3wks helps their clients move at a pace they never thought possible and avoid waste. Signal Signal was founded in 2010 by 3 Chicago-based brand executives who wanted to resolve the fragmented marketing landscape.  Their powers combined to developed a digital management solution for online publishers, marketers and companies to connect with their customers and audience at scale.  Considered a “cross-industry vertical solution provider”, Signal provides an open identity foundation for brands, data owners, and their marketing partners to immediately address customers in real time across any device and any marketing channel.  The outcome is closer connection between a brand and its customers. After highly successful Series A, B, C and D funding rounds, over 5000% year-over-year growth, and more than 100 team members across offices in North America, South America, Japan, England, Singapore and Australia, Signal is considered at the forefront of its industry.  As testament to this, Signal came in at #11 in the 2015 Deloitte Technology “Fast 500” rankings for fastest-growing technology, life sciences, energy tech and media companies in North America.  At this rate, we may just need to build another level on top of Reservoir street! PayDock Delivering “payment platform freedom”, PayDock has upended global online payments paradigms with their intelligent payments middleware.  With unprecedented customer demand for payment choice, the online merchant’s ability to manage payment services with multiple, global or incomplete payment services has left the merchant exposed and burning money trying to weave together a complex mix of payment services.  PayDock solves these and other payments problems by enhancing existing payment services (PayPal, Stripe, eWay etc), lifting customer experience and opening access to new providers. Flexible payment ecosystems are assembled in minutes while customers and payment sources can be easily managed regardless of services used. As a testament to its brilliant payment platform, PayDock has closed more than $3.5m of annual recurring revenue since launching in January 2017 and saved customers up to 83% of their previous costs. Serving brands such as Webjet, Airtasker, Sumo Salad, Australian Red Cross and GoFundraise.  And PayDock recently won the 2017 B2B Rocks Startup Competition and was a finalist in the Payments Innovator of the Year category at the Fintech Business Australia Awards in January.