Cipher Systems, LLC
Creating Informed Decision Makers through Competitive Intelligence

Organizations around the world invest millions annually on clunky knowledge management solutions to manage the information and knowledge resources that will help them stay ahead of the pack. One of the key challenges in the knowledge management arena is centered on tools that are designed specifically for document management. “Customers are looking to invest in less expensive tools that can do much more than just collect information across the enterprise, but coalesce it into strategic insights for improved decision making,” begins Peter Grimm, Managing Director, Cipher.

Cipher’s semantic analysis and natural language processing technology differentiates their knowledge management solution by helping decision makers quickly search through the system to learn about a competitor or market trends within a few seconds. The company’s ‘Knowledge360®,’ is a web-based interface that is user-customizable so each team member can review and share information from a single tool. Once a document is entered into Knowledge360®, it is automatically read by an intelligent set of natural language processing algorithms, which identifies and tags meaningful entities and concepts contained therein. Knowledge360® deftly manages existing knowledge and augments it with external data and information to discover hidden patterns.

“Knowledge360® is about not only just serving as a repository for information but automating the organization of information,” delineates Grimm. Unlike SharePoint, which is designed as a repository, Knowledge360® allows its users to not only upload documents and aggregate news from over 350,000 sources globally, but also review competitor hiring and financial details. Cipher has partnered with a number of data providers to populate premium quality financial data of companies into the system. The Knowledge360® platform is built on a widgetized dashboard framework which allows users to individually customize the look, feel and the operation according to their own preferences. Users can keep tabs on their competitors easily and intuitively with the auto-tagging and custom dashboard features which are designed to highlight key information.

We offer our clients a one stop shop from a standpoint of competitive intelligence, market research and technology solutions

In addition to Knowledge360®, Cipher also offers consulting services that are tailored to improve CI processes, and a variety of research-based services such as due diligence on potential business partners. The information gathered from the consulting side of the business can be uploaded directly to a client’s Knowledge360® platform to form a more complete picture of their competitive environment. “We focus on specific data sets from an overview of big data analytics and offer our clients a one stop shop from a standpoint of competitive intelligence, market research and technology solutions,” adds Grimm.

In one example of a client engagement, a leading health insurance company’s competitive intelligence function was plagued with tremendous overhead costs associated with relying on their workforce to collect and organize information manually. Cipher’s goal with Knowledge360® was to automate the collection and organization of information for the client and curate better insights for improved decision making. The client achieved a reduction of 40-70 percent in manual labor costs which have been reinvested into insight generation.

According to Grimm, Cipher is poised to grow rapidly in the life sciences and healthcare sectors but the company’s competitive intelligence services are also widely applicable across many different industries. “Our team, comprised of experienced corporate strategists, classically-trained primary researchers, and highly-trained former government intelligence analysts, combines a breadth of perspectives that allows us to tackle our client’s most challenging strategic issues from all angles,” concludes Grimm.