The IT Nerd

DMTI Spatial and JBA Risk Management announced a partnership that will provide insurers and financial institutions with enhanced real-time risk information.

The partnership will enable JBA’s Flood Map of Canada to integrate into DMTI’s location economics platform, Location Hub. This information will support real-time flood risk analysis, portfolio accumulation risk analysis and the real-time visualization of the potential exposure to flood zones; key data of importance to those in risk management to allow them to better forecast exposure and mitigate risk.

Reflecting on the one year anniversary of Alberta’s 2013 super flood, Environment Canada recorded that over 100,000 people were affected, and the flood was Canada’s largest insured natural disaster totalling more than $1.74 billion in property damage.

A flood can cause catastrophic damage and Public Safety Canada has reported that floods are the most costly natural disasters in Canada in terms of property damage. Thus this partnership will be of great help to those who might be in harms way.

Here’s some news from DMTI Spatial. The company has announced that they’ve signed a reseller agreement with Environics Analytics that will provide clients with the most comprehensive location and demographic intelligence information about households anywhere in Canada allowing customers to better understand their consumers. This agreement enables both DMTI and Environics Analytics customers to use each other’s services and datasets to develop a competitive, complete and comprehensive profile record for business opportunities. Businesses will be able to submit a customer or prospect file and receive data such as age, income and spending preferences appended to each record, while also having each record cleaned and accurately mapped.

In case you’re wondering who Environics Analytics is, they’ve quickly grown to become the leading marketing services and data analytics companies in Canada. The Toronto-based firm has developed a lengthy client list by providing strategic, data-driven analytics based on proprietary data, custom modeling and purpose-built software. Thus this is a great match between the two.

I’ve written about DMTI Spatial in the past, So when this Tweet popped up in my Twitter client, it got my attention:

DMTI Spatial has been acquired by @NeoPostGroup and we couldn't be happier about it! http://t.co/jaHctj4uOi #cdntech

— DMTI Spatial (@DMTISpatial) October 17, 2013

In short, DMTI Spatial has been acquired by Europe-based mailroom solutions provider Neopost. This press release has all the details. But let me hit the highlights for you:

The acquisition will enable both companies to deliver exceptional product and software offerings to a global market. DMTI Spatial will join Neopost’s Data Quality business unit. Location based software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions developed by DMTI Spatial are readily adaptable to other countries and cultures and effectively complement Neopost’s portfolio of customer and address-focused solutions.

This is big as I’ve always thought that DMTI’s tech could be used in countries beyond Canada. This acquisition allows them to do just that. You can expect DMTI to be a player on the world stage when it comes to location based data. Bravo!

By: Phil Kaszuba, Vice President & General Manager, DMTI Spatial

With the Alberta flood, the Lac Megnatic explosion and recent tornado touchdowns, the summer of 2013 has been host to several devastating catastrophes that have displaced families across Canada.  When entire communities are dealing with the aftermath of a disaster through relocation, temporary lodging, loss of belongings, repairs — there is a serious toll on personal health and well being. Very often the financial burden associated with these unforeseen events make it that much harder for communities to rebound and recover.

Fortunately, human spirit and generosity often prevails. Volunteers turned the Calgary Stampede grounds from a lake to a world-class rodeo event in days, fuelled by the rally cry of “Come Hell or High Water”.

In addition, companies with the right combinations of expertise joined forces to make life easier for some of those who needed it most.  Just after the Alberta flood catastrophe, DMTI Spatial, a Location Economics solutions provider, reached out to their banking, credit union and insurance customers. By identifying and defining impacted areas that could be run against institutional data, this provided efficient means to quicker reactions to their customers in their time of need. The intention was to provide these companies with the means to quickly assist their own customers and assess the impact.

First Calgary Financial, a credit union servicing over 70,000 members and 500 employees, found DMTI’s proactive assistance invaluable.  By cross referencing DMTI’s data against their existing customer base, First Calgary Financial was able to extend financial relief assistance and advice to members affected by the flood by alleviating the pressure of making mortgage, car, personal loan, and interest payments for 30 days.

“With the help of DMTI, we were able to identify members living within the flood areas, identify the potential financial impact created by the flood and make quick and impactful member response decisions with complete understanding of the financial implications, ” stated by John Dundas, Senior Vice President, Strategy and Operations at First Calgary Financial.

It is remarkable and inspiring to see people come together to assist one another in times of crisis. It is integral for companies to have solid business continuity plans in place to ensure they can carry on operations in times where their services may be more needed than ever. Having a great data partner is good start!

If you haven’t heard of DMTI Spatial, you’ll need to pay attention to them. They’re Canadian, and they specialize in Location Economics solutions. What is that you ask? Their software helps businesses to maintain precise, current, accurate and correct address information. Having accurate address data will help businesses drive accurate decision making which in turn drives profits.

So, why am I writing this post? The company announced that First Calgary Financial is now using their solution:

First Calgary Financial will be using DMTI’s Location Hub software to clean, validate and geocode all customer and prospect addresses before they are loaded into its new data warehouse. They will also be using this SaaS offering to maintain rigorous data quality over time and further enrich their customer information with additional insight to better measure risk and uncover new opportunity.

Here’s how First Calgary Financial sees how this can help them:

“In building our new data warehouse, we wanted to ensure we had the highest quality information being inputted,” said John Dundas, First Calgary Financial’s Senior Vice President, Strategy and Operations. “The accuracy and services DMTI provides will standardize our master database and help us pursue a more focused approach to market First Calgary Financial’s products and services.”

I’d add DMTI Spatial to your Google Alerts or whatever you use to keep an eye on companies. I suspect this will be the first of many big announcements.