There are few channel companies with big data and analytics capabilities and fewer still that specialize in it. This makes RAPA Consulting a bit of a unicorn.
RAPA is homegrown. The Ottawa-based company has less than 10 people, and offers IT analytics services including asset management and cost transparency.
This summer, the company launched a new solution, named RAPA Insight, which combines its expertise into one managed service that allows larger businesses to gain visibility into its own operations. If those operations were complex or mismanaged, this can yield efficiences and savings.
In total there are 20 silos of information that RAPA can look at. These include software, hardware or other assets, financials, HR, contract management, incident reports and more. But it’s the company’s vision that ties them all together.
“Before we take any data at all, there’s a consultation step where we discuss an organization’s strategic goals, 3 year plans, processes and systems, and we go through that consultative gathering of information,” Susan Odle, managing partner and chief operating officer at RAPA told CDN. “Most will say, I need to improve how to manage incidents, how do I deliver software and hardware assets, etc.”
She noted that often organizations start with three to six silos but can scale up or down as they go.
Once goals and systems have been established, RAPA Insight is able to ingest raw data over the cloud, generally through CSV files and begin automated data discovery and structure mapping. The software is able to detect attributes among the data to pick out what is important, and starts with the essentials that need to be well managed before ramping up.
The solution can gather information from a variety of vendor solutions found in enterprises, and data can also be tied between silos.
The company then produces monthly insight reports and delivers them with a senior consultant who discusses the trends found. The pricing, Odle said, generally depends on the size of an organization. There is weekly guaranteed senior consultant time built into the pricing.
When asked whether big data is catching on, Odle argued that that is not what her company does.
“Where big data is consuming sources of information to spot random patterns, we know what we’re looking for,” she said. “We focus on IT service management, we’re not trying to be a generic analysis tool. The thing we see as missing is how each of these areas are connected from a business management perspective.”