 Computerworld is New Zealand's only specialised information systems fortnightly.
Subscribe now for $97.50 (24 issues) and save more than 37% off the cover price!
 Get the latest news from Computerworld delivered via email.
Sign up now
 Subscribe to Computerworld's
RSS newsfeed here and get news stories as they break.
Two New Zealand data and financial analytics companies are partnering to develop new predictive technologies targeting clients in New Zealand and offshore.
Credit bureau Veda Advantage has announced the deal with Christchurch-based predictive data company VortexDNA.
Precise details of the first products are yet to be disclosed but will focus on the needs of finance related companies and organisations.
"The recent credit crisis has highlighted ways companies can improve their operations in terms of credit checks, risk management, fraud, bankruptcy and other factors. Our new products will facilitate these improvements," Veda Advantage's managing director, John Roberts, says.
VortexDNA's technologies include an algorithm, based on the mathematics of complex systems, which allocates a seven-digit number to consumers or users to produce a new form of user segmentation, called genomic segmentation, Nick Gerritsen, the company's commercialisation expert, told Computerworld last year.
According to founders Raf Manji and Branton Kenton-Dau, VortexDNA pursued development after they they discovered that the same math principles found in natural systems also applied to human systems. They set out to find a “genome of human intention” that could help predict the characteristics and choices people make in their lives.
Manji and Kenton-Dau created a survey that asked people about their purpose, values and focus in their lives. From there, they developed seven key characteristics, each of which represents one characteristic of the mathematics of complex systems, with scores ranging from one to five for each attribute, says Gerritsen.
These attributes are, for example, system coherence, system optimisation and system boundaries. The algorithm basically measures the relationship between two parts or objects in a system, Gerritsen said.
People with a similar seven-digit number — a similar genome — are more likely to have similar behaviour, he said.
This method could be relevant to the advertising industry, search engines and market research, and also to the insurance industry, credit risk, fraud investigations and people matching, he said.
VortexDNA clients now include three of the top 10 auto insurers in the United States as well as telecommunications companies in Australia and China, the company says.
The jointly developed products are expected to be available in April-June 2010. Once launched in New Zealand, similar products will be offered to Veda Advantage clients in Singapore, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and other Asian and Middle East markets.
|
