Saffron Technology

Saffron Technology, Inc., a technology company headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, develops cognitive computing systems that use incremental learning to understand and unify by entity (person, place or thing) the connections between an entity and other “things” in data, along with the context of their connections and their raw frequency counts. This approach provides a semantic and statistical representation of knowledge. Saffron learns from all sources of data including structured and unstructured data to support knowledge-based decision making. Its patented technology[1] captures the connections between data points at the entity level and stores these connections in an associative memory. Similarity algorithms and predictive analytics are then combined with the associative index to identify patterns in the data. Saffron’s Natural Intelligence platform is utilized by Global 1000 companies across industries including manufacturing, energy, defense and healthcare, to help decision-makers manage risks, identify opportunities and anticipate future outcomes, thus reducing cost and increasing productivity. Competitors include IBM Watson and Grok.

History

Saffron was founded in 1999 by Dr Manuel Aparicio, a recognized pioneer in the field of Associative Memories, and Mr. James Fleming, a software engineer and leader in intelligent agent development.[2]

In 2000, former National Security Advisor Admiral (Dr.) John Poindexter joined the board with a focus of applying Associative Memory technology in the fields of National Security and Intelligence.[3]

In the first years, the company did most of its work with the U.S. Department of Defense, including in Iraq, analyzing and predicting where IED’s would be located so insurgent bombers could be proactively targeted.[4]

In 2010, the analyst firm Gartner identified Saffron as a "Cool Vendor" in Information Infrastructure for Enterprise Information Management [5]

In 2011, Forrester Research highlighted Saffron Technology as the leader of associative indexing in "The Dawning of a New Age in BI DBMS".[6]

On March 3, 2014 Saffron Technology raised a round of Series B funding.[7]

In October 2015, Intel bought Saffron Technology for an undisclosed price.[8]

Executives

Gayle Sheppard, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; former executive at PeopleSoft, Pleasanton, CA. and J.D. Edwards and Company, Denver, CO.

Ian Hersey, Chief Product Officer; former executive at Attensity, Palo Alto, CA, SAP BusinessObjects, Palo Alto, CA, Inxight Software, Palo Alto, CA, Inso Corp, Boston, MA, Logos Corp, Mt. Arlington, NJ and IBM, Bethesda, MD. Advisor to Timeline Labs and Livefyre.

Manuel Aparicio, Ph.D., Chief Memory Maker and Evangelist, former Chief Scientist at IBM Knowledge Management and Intelligent Agent Center, Raleigh, NC.

James Fleming, Chief Software Engineer, former software developer at IBM Knowledge Management and Intelligent Agent Center, Raleigh, NC.

Chad Smith, Chief Information Officer and Head of Development; former executive at Acxiom, Little Rock, AK and 3 Birds Marketing, Chapel Hill, NC.

Walt Gall, Ph.D., VP, Health Care; formerly with Metabolon leading strategic R&D and BD Technologies at the Research Triangle Park, NC.

Mark Herrick, SVP, Sales; formerly with Accenture's North American Retail practice, San Francisco, CA.

Associative memory base technology

Associative memory bases identify entities that are defined as people, places and things. The technology mimics human memory by recalling associations between those people, places and things, and specifically the context and frequency of association. As each entity in a set of data has its own memory about all the other entities it is associated with, the engine can learn the way humans do.[3] The technology has proved to be highly scalable and efficient in cases of extremely large datasets. Saffron exploits a proprietary loss less compression routine that is capable of creating extremely compact models. The Saffron implementation is able to operate on compressed datasets thereby enabling dramatic reduction in storage and CPU hardware, thus enabling the application of associative memory technology in a distributed environment.

Associative memory and similarity analytics

Saffron unifies and connect millions of data points from disparate sources, structured and unstructured, and stores their billions of connections in an associative memory. Users interact with the memory base on a user-friendly interface with both read and write functionality, allowing organizations to index and integrate their data without writing code. The underlying four-dimensional entity store includes advanced analytic functions based on algorithmic information theories such as the Kolmogorov complexity. These analytic functions incorporate classification, predictive analytics and pattern recognition as well as trending and converging patterns in the data. Patterns are presented on a seamless visual interface to the user, enabling organizations to easily identify actionable insights and adapt their strategy to minimize cost and maximize efficiency.

Platform components

National security

During the Iraqi insurgency Saffron was used by coalition forces in Iraq to help identify entities that were defined as people, places and things involved in insurgent networks. The tool mimicked human memory by recalling associations between those people, places and things. Unlike other tools Saffron focused on context and frequency of association. Each word representing an entity in a set of data had its own memory about all the other words it had been used in association with. In this way the tool could learn the way humans did.[3]

Saffron was contracted by DARPA to work on Project Genoa.[9]

Industry

Saffron's Natural Intelligence platform is utilized by Global 1000 companies across industries including manufacturing, energy, defense and healthcare, to help decision-makers manage risks, identify opportunities and anticipate future outcomes, thus reducing cost and increasing productivity.

A Global 100 manufacturing company uses Saffron Technology in a number of operational areas to leverage past engineering decisions and business experiences, such as component and part order optimization, failure root-cause analysis, and predictive maintenance.[10]

References

  1. ↑ "Event-Based Anticipation Systems, Methods & Computer Program Products for Associative Memories US 20090083207 A1". Google Patent Search. Retrieved 26 March 2009.
  2. ↑ "Company Overview of Saffron Technology, Inc.". Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Retrieved 4 May 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 Harris, Shane (2010). The Watchers: The Rise of the Surveillance State. London: Penguin Group. p. 281. ISBN 1-101-19532-0.
  4. ↑ deBruyn, Jason. "Making a Computer 'Think'". Triangle Business Journal. Retrieved 4 May 2012.
  5. ↑ "Cool Vendors 2010". Gartner. Retrieved 4 May 2012. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  6. ↑ "The Dawning of a New Age in BI DBMS". Forrester. Retrieved 2 June 2011. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  7. ↑ "Saffron Technology Raises $7 million in Series B funding". |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  8. ↑ "Intel buys Saffron AI because it can't afford to miss the next big thing in tech again". Fortune. 26 October 2015. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  9. ↑ Mayle, Adam; Alex, Knott (2003). "Total Business Awareness: The Corporate Contracting Behind John Poindexter's Total Information Awareness Program". Center for Public Integrity.
  10. ↑ Evelson, Boris (3 June 2011). "It's The Dawning of the Age of BI DBMS". Forrester.
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