Arrivu, AuditMyBooks, Viscid Technologies, and Soneter
Community Guest Blog post by Katie Sewell
TAG would like to introduce you to a few of our Business Launch semi-finalists. The GRA/TAG Business Launch 2011 invited entries in the area of internet technologies. This included software and hardware companies that are developing products, online services, or backened technologies which extend the reach, flexibility and ease of the internet.Arrivu
Cloud computing is substantially changing the IT landscape, because of its affordable computing resources instantly available to anyone. Clouds suddenly provide an easy access to any kind of IT resources. Anyway all this indicates that this modern delivery model, i.e., cloud based services is a reality, and new innovation are happening in the cloud. The cloud has evolved and has matured to a point that even smaller companies are now coming up with cloud platforms. This is mostly because infrastructure providers who are available for few dollars per day.
In this article I want to talk about Database as a Service (DbaaS). Cloud database service is not just a concept anymore, for example, Amazon RDS, Cloudant, MongoHQ, and Redis To Go provide fully-managed MySQL Community Edition, CouchDB, MongoDB, and Redis database services, respectively. If you had noticed DbaaS offering trend is mostly on NoSQL database systems rather than a traditional RDBMS.
With the success of Internet based companies like Google and Amazon it is becoming obvious that existing unwieldy RDBMSs are not capable to handle complex traffic sites. As a consequence today’s enterprise-grade RDBMSs have evolved into systems attempting to solve everything for all types of applications, thus also become less manageable. In fact such situations forced most relational database vendors to focus development efforts on improving the ease and efficiency of routine system administration of on-premise databases: management-free cloud database offerings. However, administration is not the only problem as today’s relational database servers (designed in the 1970s) are not intended to run in virtualized data centers that scale horizontally across tens or hundreds of small machines in reaction to varying application workloads. So the bigger internet players were forced to reinvent the database. These companies not only invented newer ways to persist and handle large data they also open sourced these technologies. NoSQL moment was thus literally formed. New technologies available today like MapReduce, Key-value store, Tuple store, Tabular, Ordered key-value store, Multivalue databases etc. are few examples. Essentially a new trend is beginning to evolve were there is a marriage between the NoSQL moment and cloud technology. That’s exactly why we see a lot of cloud based database services and solutions being launched.
Some examples are:
database.com (API based RDBMS technology for the cloud)
Arrivu (API based Knowledge Base technology for the cloud))
AWS (API based RDBMS and NoSQL technology for the cloud)
Google App Engine (MapReduce software framework for the cloud)
Windows Azure Platform (Microsoft cloud platform)
While most have database service as one of their enabling technology, there are companies offering exclusive cloud based database like database.com, Arrivu and AWS. Since the cost involved with the infrastructure setup is minimal, newer players are taking advantage and coming up with true next generation technologies. For example Arrivu is a startup, which utilizes the concept of Knowledge Base. It’s basically a new kind of database that uses plain English instead of traditional SQL. These new kinds of database are enabling newer ways to develop web applications.
The Cloud is maturing one layer at a time. We can look at it as three layers: the infrastructure layer, data persistence layer and application construction layer. The infrastructure layer can be declared as well matured and as we now have API based cloud infrastructures that can scale automatically. The application creation layer is currently everywhere and totally lacks any kind of focus, standard or innovation. We at Arrivu Technologies are leading the way of innovation in the application constructions layer. Arrivu lets a user build web applications using plain English. We use Artificial Intelligence to achieve this.
About the Author:
The Author is a technology evangelist currently focusing on cloud technologies. He is the visionary and Architect of Arrivu (www.arrivu.com) and Knowledge Base. He has also created RulesEngine and ProcessEngine (a tool that combines EAI, BPM & CEP) in the past.
AuditMyBooks
AuditMyBooks is changing the way accounting professionals help small businesses protect themselves from accounting errors and fraud. Our current product, Analyzer, uses anti-virus like technology to automatically scan accounting transactions to identify errors and fraud.
Our 1st generation technology was launched as SaaS (Software as a Service) on the Intuit App Center in 2010 and quickly became one of the most popular apps. Work on our 2nd generation technology is being supported by a National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research Grant.
Accounting professionals are already using Analyzer to grow their practices with new services for small business clients. These services are typically based one or more of the following scenarios:
1) Tax Client Check-Up: Accountants double check for mistakes that may impact tax reporting. They use Analyzer before the annual tax engagement to minimize time wasted working with faulty data and to identify new clean-up engagements.
2) Pre-Engagement Analysis: Accountants scan transactions as part of their bid process for new clients. This improves the accuracy of their quotes by detecting problem areas early. In a sense, they use Analyzer to find out what they’re getting into before it’s too late.
3) Error and Fraud Detection: Accountants monitor their clients’ transactions for suspicious activity. When used regularly (e.g., quarterly or monthly), Analyzer provides a new source of recurring revenue while protecting their small business clients from serious threats.
These new services based on Analyzer provide the following benefits for small businesses:
1) Financial: Being profitable and cash flow positive is important regardless of company size. Errors and fraud can be especially harmful for small companies where internal controls are often disregarded. Experts estimate that more than 60% of accounting errors result from simple bookkeeping mistakes, and Research by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners shows that more than 30% of all fraud occurs in small companies where the median loss is $150,000. Despite the severity, very little has been done to help small businesses proactively address these problems. Analyzer helps small businesses detect errors and fraud. The sooner problems are identified, the sooner they can be solved.
2) Productivity: Time is money, especially in resource constrained small businesses. Even if manual reviews are conducted, they are error prone, inefficient and only consider a sample of the transactions. Rather than sampling transactions, existing AuditMyBooks customers have confirmed that Analyzer can review 100% of a company’s accounting transactions in only a few minutes. Manual reviews of the same data would take hours.
3) Compliance: Fraud and even simple mistakes can lead to compliance problems . A recent Wall St. Journal article chronicles the plight of a small manufacturing company, E.F. Couvrette Co. The impact from a fraud at this company led to a 50%+ decrease in revenue, lost customers and unemployed workers. Because the fraud was perpetrated by diverting payroll taxes, E.F. Couvrette Co. faced fines from non-compliance and has had difficulty securing financing. AuditMyBooks Analyzer helps small businesses like the E.F. Couvrette Co. identify irregularities in the accounting data that can impact tax reporting and other compliance requirements.
AuditMyBooks is led by a team with extensive experience in financial auditing, accounting systems and information security. They saw a market need for a cost effective and easy-to-use solution that helps businesses identify suspect financial transactions to proactively reduce business risk. Drawing from techniques successfully used to detect information security threats such as viruses and spyware, AuditMyBooks helps businesses protect their resources and ensure their financial data is reliable for decision-making and reporting. Based in Atlanta, AuditMyBooks has earned awards from Intuit, the National Science Foundation, the Technology Association of Georgia and The Sleeter Group.
Viscid Technologies
Viscid Technologies (ViscidTech) is an Atlanta based technology company founded in 2010 by Georgia Tech alums. ViscidTech is focused exclusively on commercializing a patent-pending pressure sensitive touch technology called ViscidTouchTM. ViscidTouch interfaces can be added to virtually any electronic device to give the device a rich sense of touch – mimicking the same sense of touch that humans experience.
ViscidTouch works by measuring the change in pressure in a grid of fluid cells as they are compressed during a touch event. The ViscidTouch interface then sends information about the location and pressure of the touch event on to the host electronic device for processing.
ViscidTouch interfaces can be used in simple applications like a pressure sensitive fast-forward button on a DVR remote control, and in very advanced applications like a pressure sensitive, multi-touch 3D touchscreen on a tablet or smartphone.
ViscidTouch has a number of benefits over competing touch technology and traditional electronic interfaces, including:
• Pressure Sensitive and Tactile: ViscidTouch senses pressure and provides tactile feedback in a single package. ViscidTouch allows users to instantaneously vary the amount and location of pressure for finer control of devices – a feature not available in competing technology
• Multi-touch: ViscidTouch enables low cost, low power multi-touch touchscreens with that can sense a virtually unlimited number of touches
• Low Cost: ViscidTouch interfaces replace more expensive touch solutions
• Low Power: ViscidTouch uses less power than competing touch solutions
• Design Flexibility: ViscidTouch interfaces can be formed into complex 3D shapes like a plush toy or a vehicle console.
• Dynamic: ViscidTouch can sense a hard blow or the soft touch
• Continuous: ViscidTouch senses a wide range of input rather than on/off or incremental input
• Safe: ViscidTouch provides a cushion that protects both users and devices
• Robust: ViscidTouch forms an airtight physical barrier around electronics. ViscidTouch works in harsh conditions and environments with high electromagnetic interference, such as near LCD screens
• Reliable: ViscidTouch contains no moving parts, virtually eliminating the risk of mechanical wear or failure. ViscidTouch works where other technologies don’t: through gloves or when using non-conductive styluses
ViscidTech licenses our ViscidTouch intellectual property to other electronics manufacturers. We also provide design, integration, and manufacturing services, and market our own products that use ViscidTouch interfaces.
viscidtouch Meets Emerging Technological Demands
There is a growing demand for inexpensive, low power, pressure sensitive touch solutions and multi-touch touchscreens within the $3B touch solution market. ViscidTouch is the perfect technology for such applications. ViscidTouch works by measuring pressure gradients formed within a physical object – a gel pad, gel layer, or air gap – rather than sensing changes in electrical fields within a grid of capacitors. Our technology works where others can’t – it senses non-conductive styluses or objects, works through gloves, works in harsh and high EMI environments, and uses minimal power.
In touchscreen applications, our sensor nodes can be placed on a wider grid than capacitive touch nodes while yielding the same input resolution, reducing sensor node count by a factor of 5. During sensor node scanning of a ViscidTouch solution, a processor simply reads the signal voltage of each sensor node – a single operation – rather than the processor intensive node scans of capacitive touch solutions which can reach 400 or more operations per node.
Reducing sensor node count and the number of processor operations for each node reduces processor requirements, in turn reducing solution cost, power consumption, and scan time for faster interaction with a touchscreen device.
Business Model
ViscidTech revenue streams include product, licensing, and service revenue. Initially, we will rely primarily on revenue from our own products sold through our subsidiaries like RageGage, which produces innovative game controllers using ViscidTouch. As demand for our technology grows from manufacturers within the electronics industry, we will shift to a higher margin license/service oriented business model.
Competition
ViscidTech competes with a number of touch technology vendors including Microchip, Atmel, 3M Touch Systems and TekScan. Our ViscidTouch technology competes on both technical differentiation and cost:
• Technical Differentiation: ViscidTouch measures pressure and provides integrated tactile feedback, is impervious to electromagnetic interference, and senses any object in contact with the touch surface. In touchscreen applications, ViscidTouch enables larger touchscreen surface areas by solving key physical limitations of capacitive touchscreens.
• Cost: ViscidTouch is simple and less expensive to design and implement than similar touch technologies.
Corporate Strategy
To shorten our technology licensing sales cycle, ViscidTech has entered the market by packaging our technology into a simple, engaging product within the toy and video market - RageGage. This market entry strategy will generate immediate interest in our technology from consumers, manufacturers, and the technology press, lower our technology marketing and sales costs, provide a great proof-of-concept for our technology, and create a substantive product revenue stream in 2011. Beginning in 2011, we will:
• Q1 2011: Introduce ViscidTouch by packaging the solution into simple consumer electronics products
• Q2 2011: Begin licensing ViscidTouch within low-barrier/high margin technology markets
• Q2-Q4 2011: Use early product and licensing revenue to fund additional research and development
• 2012: Partner with established manufacturers to create a catalog of off-the-shelf ViscidTouch components
• 2015: Partner or merge with a leading touch solution provider to expand our addressable market
Founders
Ian Campbell, Cofounder/CEO
Ian is an accomplished product designer and electronics engineer. Ian developed the ViscidTouch technology, managed the IP protection process, and designed RageGage, the first commercial product to use the technology. Ian serves as the primary advocate for ViscidTouch and works with licensees and partners to commercialize ViscidTech IP in every electronics industry vertical. Ian holds an MBA and MS in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech.
Laura Klein Campbell, Cofounder
Laura is a management consultant specializing in market analysis and economic viability of emerging technology. Laura identified key market opportunities for the ViscidTech IP, analyzed market trends and competing technology, and helped develop the ViscidTech and RageGage business plans. Laura holds an MBA and MS in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Georgia Tech.
Soneter
Business Description: Soneter is extending the smart grid to gas and water networks. We are a “greentech” company that enables consumers to monitor consumption and modify behavior to conserve our natural resources. We give people the ability to save money on their utility bills while going green. We empower our customers to monitor consumption in real-time and compare their usage with others while reducing their carbon and water footprints.
We also help commercial property owners improve property valuations by reducing operating costs by lowering utility expenses. Our metering technology and services allow customers to check usage wirelessly without having to wait 30 days or more for the utility or third party bills to inform them of usage. The always-on system alerts customers through a method of their choice, including smart phones, email or other wireless devices.
Problem/Solution: Utility rate increases and conservation legislation has created the need for submetering of multifamily housing. The majority of apartments were constructed prior to the practice of installing individual water or gas submeters. Current technology is too complicated costly to install. Submeters create a win/win for residents and owners. Residents only pay for what they use and owners eliminate costs and risks associated with wasteful usage and leaks. Soneter’s non-invasive meters allow property owners to easily submeter apartments without the complication and expense of cutting pipes to submeter existing properties.
Products/Services: Soneter’s patent-pending non-invasive metering devices simply clamp around existing pipes. No more pipe cutting. We provide owners and residents real-time reporting on usage via property dashboards and smart phone applications. Our meters are capable of freeze and leak detection that eliminate costly repairs due to water leaks and mold remediation. We also lower insurance premiums for residents and property owners who use our products and services.
Technologies/Special Know-how: Our meters simply clamp around existing pipes versus costly inline installation process for competitor meters. Our technology enables the use of low-cost components to accurately measure usage. Algorithmic technique reduces the sampling rate eliminating expensive components. Devices can be plug-in or battery powered.
Markets: 20 million apartments are not submetered. Many states have passed legislation requiring multi-tenant buildings to submeter to allow each tenant’s utility use to be measured. Market potential for existing units in United States is $2.86B in combined meter sales and service fees. New apartment construction market potential per year is $29M. European and Asia/Pacific markets expected to be comparable.
Management:
Jeff Leaders – Co-founder
VP of AMLI Residential Properties Trust - Trammell Crow Residential - 15 years of multifamily experience.
Jeff Dugger – Co-founder
GTronix, a Silicon Valley semi-conductor company acquired by National Semiconductor in 2010. PhD in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.
