Locus Solutions
Proponents of IBM’s Analytics and Cognitive Solutions Stack

As cognitive technologies continue to be the buzzword in the enterprise sphere, many companies still struggle to identify the value proposition that the technology might bring about to their business. Be it, gaining an edge on the market competition or enhancing productivity in the workflow, CIOs are on the lookout for plausible “starting points” to leverage cognitive technologies. This is where California-based, Locus Solutions comes in as facilitators for enterprises to tap into the power of IBM’s robust cognitive computing and analytics offerings. “We are focused on trying to understand what our clients are trying to accomplish, and help them understand what exactly it means to leverage AI and related jargons, such as machine learning and cognitive computing in their workflow,” says Jeetu Lakhotia, the founder and CEO of Locus Solutions.

The company focuses on two aspects of the IBM solutions stack, the analytics and the cognitive technologies. For the former, in addition to the traditional reporting, dashboarding, and datawarehousing capabilities, Locus Solutions also specializes in advanced analytics which is primarily around predictive notions, used for demand forecasting in the retail sector, for instance. The company also caters to several financial entities in their planning and budgeting processes. For all its solutions pertaining to analytics, Locus helps its clients leverage the power of the IBM Data Science Experience offering.

On the cognitive technology side of things, the company has their expertise on the ever-popular IBM Watson brand. Locus’ two-pronged specialization includes having their clients make sense of their structured and unstructured data such that they are able to gain a 360-degree view of their customers; and advanced capabilities such as sentiment and tone analysis, natural language processing, and image recognition among others.

Furthermore, Locus has also built momentum on IBM’s relatively newer initiatives that are designed for implementing industry-specific models atop Watson technology such as, prebuilt frameworks to understand legal contract agreements or the ability to decipher medical records.

Locus Solutions customers who view internal and external data as an under-utilized asset are considering the business value of the cognitive computing power of Watson

For a client in the retail sector who was constantly subject to out-of-stock predicaments in most of their branches, Locus integrated a system that brought together data from different sources including POS. This provided the client with visibility into their processes all the way from procurement to warehouse and the storefront. For effective demand forecasting, Locus leveraged Watson capabilities for sentiment analysis and integrated third-party data sources such as weather and foot traffic. Methods to analyze social media trends were also incorporated into the systems. As a result, the client’s sales rose by more than six percent while the cost of implementation “paid for itself” in three months. What started off as a pilot project in a few of the client’s stores has today expanded to more than 50.

Locus Solutions plans to sharpen its expertise further to help their clients along their cognitive computing journey. “We will be working more closely in generating industry models on top of Watson; it may also mean expanding into geographies and industry verticals where it makes more sense,” concludes Lakhotia.

Locus Solutions has thus firmly positioned itself as an ideal partner for companies that pertain to verticals including retail, communication services, and financial services. The company strives to be an end-to-end problem solver starting all the way from identifying the business problem, delivering the solution, and extending support options. Be it knowledge transfer and mentoring, or classic managed services, or a hybrid of both, Locus Solutions has a flexible and economical service model for its clients.