To bring data-driven decisioning to the front lines of business, INCISENT is combining expert systems, statistical modeling and rules-based workflow into innovative web-accessible solutions.
The value of INCISENT solutions is proven on the frontline every day.
In the process, we're enabling businesses that might have seemed unlikely candidates for the complexities of expert systems to harness its power: Our first solution is boosting profits for the pre-owned operations of automotive retailers by 30–60%. Now's the moment when artificial intelligence goes the "last mile" from its origins in the ivory towers of academia to pavement-level enterprises and the industrial/commercial heartland of the economy!
Artificial intelligence from collaboration with Northwestern University's AI DevLab. A cornerstone of INCISENT's technology solutions is expert systems technology developed in partnership with artificial intelligence engineers from DevLab, the center for technology commercialization at Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. The collaboration focused on finding ways to quickly analyze massive amounts of data with the utmost sophistication—and deliver the results as insights and answers expressed in everyday language.
A new take on agile development processes that's very efficient for software products. INCISENT has created its own hybrid version of several Extreme Programming methods. These methods, which have generally been used for developing, through an internal or consultative engagement, software intended for a single customer, don't quite fit the requirements of software product development. We've adapted them to accommodate the uncertainties, for example, of many customers with a range of needs that cannot be completely known. Similarly, we use a mix of collaborative software testing tools—Fit, Watir and Selenium among them. We've combined and adapted these methods in ways that now enables us to test software functions at a deeper level of granularity than is normally done, but which we believe is essential for reliable software products.
Service-oriented architecture for speed and leverage as we cross industries. INCISENT products are based on a service-oriented architecture. Loosely coupled components with standard interfaces are highly interoperable and can be called as services by other components and applications. With the ability to reuse and recombine these service components—and the confidence that comes from rigorous, granular testing of each component—INCISENT can rapidly develop new solutions for other industries and business problems.
Open source tools without dogma. We build our products using J2EE tools, .net tools or a combination. We use what works, what's best and what's first, and we don't allow our pace of development to lag because of adherence to one doctrine or another. As participants in the Open Source community, we gain speed because we can take advantage of the advances made by lots of other programmers around the world—and we make it a point to contribute back to the community anything we create of general value.
Products that perform on the action-oriented front line. The analytics in our products don't operate in a vacuum—their value is proven on the front lines each day. For that reason, we pay intense attention to the interplay between expert system insights and execution-level interfaces. Users sometimes initially mistake our solution for the pre-owned vehicle industry, for example, for an ordinary inventory management system. But it sure doesn't act like one—all of a sudden, their everyday tool is packed with powerful, eye-opening insights! Slipping that kind of expert system intelligence into the everyday is the artful science of what we do.