Panopticon Software

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Panopticon Software
Type Private
Founded Stockholm, Sweden (1999)
Founder Willem De Geer
Headquarters Stockholm, Sweden
No. of locations 3
Area served North America, Europe
Industry Computer software
Products Panopticon Explorer, Panopticon Enterprise, Panopticon Developer
Website Panopticon.com

Panopticon Software is a multi-national Visual business intelligence company head quartered in Stockholm, Sweden, with additional offices in London and New York, and a re-seller agreements for other markets such a Japan. The company's name is derived from the Greek: 'pan' for all, 'optic' for sight.

Panopticon Software is a one of the handful of players in the Visual business intelligence sector along with Qliktech, Tableau and Spotfire.[1] Its Swedish origins are shared with GapMinder, Qliktech and Spotfire, making Sweden a centre for Information Visualization.

It has historically specialised in selling Treemapping visualisation software and development tools to clients within the financial industry.[2][3] and is a regular exibitor at financial industry events such as SIFMA, and SIA.[4][5][6]

Contents

[edit] History

The company was originally founded in 1999 as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Emerging Markets brokerage named Brunswick Direct before being spun off in 2002.[7] It later was acquired by the UK based Hamsard Group (Hamsard is now known as Cantono Plc), and became a subsidiary of the Group. [8] In March 2007 its competitor Spotfire undertook negotiations with Hamsard Group, to take full owership of Panopticon.[9] This potential deal failed to complete,[10] Spotfire pulling out of negotiations, and itself subsequently being purchased by Tibco.[11] In May 2007 the company was sold back to its founders as part of a management buyout.[12]

In October 2007 the company appointed Brian O'Keafe as Product Director. Brian had previously held position of Director of Financial Analytics at Spotfire.[13] In December 2007 the company elected a new board, including Carl Palmstierna, a former partner with Goldman Sachs and John Wattin, previously Chairman of MySQL AB.[14]

[edit] Pre-attentive processing

The visualizations that Panopticon offers within its VBI products attempt to optimise the individual's pre-attentive processing capacity in order for them to comprehend large multi-element datasets in less than 250 milliseconds.[15] Pre-Attentive Processing is an area of human cognitive psychology which refers to the ability of the low-level human visual system to rapidly identify certain basic visual properties. Examples of visual features that can be detected in this way include hue, intensity, orientation, size, and motion.[16]

[edit] Technology overview

Panopticons technology relies on in-memory OLAP cubes which are displayed through a series of vizualizations including treemaps. This allows the user to load data, select variables and hierchical structures, and navigate through the resultant visualization, filtering, zooming and drilling (sometimes called slicing and dicing), to identify outlyers, correlations and trends.

Its streaming OLAP implementation, takes an in-memory OLAP cube and allows data to be streamed through it, which ally its products to industry verticals that require live streaming data, such as financial Market data, and Utility grid monitoring. This is unlike the majority of existing OLAP implementations where cubes are rebuild periodically for new batches of data.[17][18]

This support for streaming data with its products has allowed financial institutions such as JPMorgan Chase,[19] Citigroup,[20] Bear Stearns,[21] and Fortis (finance)[22] to implement the Panopticon Products within their real-time trading and risk applications. Euromoney has stated that it provides the trader community with a way of quickly digesting information.[23]

[edit] Product overview

Panopticon has three platform independent product lines. Its desktop, enterprise server, and SDKs in both Java language and .NET Framework.

  • Panopticon Explorer .Net, with streaming connectivity to Microsoft Excel, Bloomberg Terminal,[24] Reuters and MQ,[25] and with static connectivity to relational databases such as Oracle and external OLAP cubes.
  • Panopticon Enterprise .Net & Java integrated with Lightstreamer[26] for streaming connectivity, and relational databases for static connectivity.
  • Panopticon Developer .Net and Java.

A number of different visualizations of data are provided including:

  • Treemap
  • Stack Graph, effectively showing treemaps across time.[27]
  • Bar Series. A trellis of bar charts.[28]
  • Horizons. Time Series.[29]

[edit] Awards

Its technology when adopted by financial institutions has led to recognition from financial industry periodicals such as:

  • The Banker (Bear Stearns, Citi)[30]
  • Euromoney (JP Morgan Chase, UBS).[31]

[edit] Joint ventures and strategic alliances

Its technology is embedded in several firms' product offerings including: Reuters,[32][33] Deltek, an Enterprise Project Management Solution Provider,[34] Advent Software, a Financial Solution Provider,[35] Kynetix, A solutions provider to Asset Managers and Hedge Funds,[36] TBricks, a Algorithmic trading Solutions Provider[37] and Polystar a Telecoms Solutions Provider.[38] Its products are also resold in Japan through Lightstone.[39][40]

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Oracle targets CFOs with Hyperion acquisition, <http://www.it-analysis.com/business/content.php?cid=9318> 
  2. ^ Treemaps for space-constrained visualization of hierarchies, <http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/treemap-history/> 
  3. ^ Survey of treemap techniques, <http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/~kerwin/treemap-survey.html> 
  4. ^ SIFMA's Technology Management Conference 2008, <http://events.sifma.org/conf_vendors/vendorLookup.aspx?CID=107&VENDORID=330> 
  5. ^ 2007 Technology Management Conference and Exhibit, <http://events.sifma.org/conferencevendors/vendorLookup.aspx?CID=07TMC&VENDORID=7056> 
  6. ^ Panopticon Enterprise .Net To be launched at SIA New York, <http://www.bobsguide.com/guide/news/2005/Jun/20/Panopticon_Enterprise_.Net_To_be_launched_at_SIA_New_York.html> 
  7. ^ About Panopticon, <http://www.panopticon.com/company/> 
  8. ^ AIM float to raise £3m for Hamsard, <http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2005/05/18/210041/aim-float-to-raise-3m-for-hamsard.htm> 
  9. ^ Cantono PLC (CTNO) - Proposed disposal, EGM notice, <http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=200703071415035170S> 
  10. ^ Cantono PLC (CTNO) - - Debt for Equity Conv and EGM, <http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=200704120801527352U> 
  11. ^ TIBCO and Spotfire, <http://www.tibco.com/company/spotfire/default.jsp> 
  12. ^ Final Results CANTONO PLC, <http://www.advfn.com/news_Final-Results_23551865.html> 
  13. ^ Brian O'Keefe Joins Panopticon as Director of Product Management, <http://www.bobsguide.com/guide/news/2007/Nov/13/Brian_O%27Keefe_Joins_Panopticon_as_Director_of_Product_Management.html> 
  14. ^ Panopticon Shareholders Elect New Board of Directors, <http://www.bobsguide.com/guide/news/2007/Dec/10/Panopticon_Shareholders_Elect_New_Board_of_Directors.html> 
  15. ^ Panopticon: The Power of Pre-Attentive Processing, <http://www.panopticon.com/visualizations/> 
  16. ^ Perception in Visualization, <http://www.csc.ncsu.edu/faculty/healey/PP/index.html> 
  17. ^ Be Your Own Rocket Scientist, <http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/jun2006/pi20060608_043514.htm> 
  18. ^ Magma Systems Blog, <http://magmasystems.blogspot.com/2007_12_01_archive.html> 
  19. ^ JPMorgan and Windows Customers Sway Visualization Vendor Toward .NET, <http://www.windowsfs.com/TheMag/tabid/54/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/2123/Default.aspx> 
  20. ^ Citi Mulls Wider Use of Imaging App, <http://db.riskwaters.com/public/showPage.html?validate=0&page=dwt_login&url=%2Fpublic%2FshowPage.html%3Fpage%3D428584> 
  21. ^ Bear Stearns implements tree mapping software from Panopticon, <http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=47390500-6EEE-4452-8F94-CCE07F5C561D> 
  22. ^ Analyze This, <http://www.watersonline.com/public/showPage.html?page=788666> 
  23. ^ Panopticon Closes Deal with Reuters, <http://www.euromoney.com/Article/1000597/Category/16/ChannelPage/8959/Panopticon-closes-deals-with-Reuters.html> 
  24. ^ Panopticon Information Visualization Software Now Supports Real-Time Streaming Data from Bloomberg, <http://www.bobsguide.com/guide/news/2007/Nov/6/Panopticon_Information_Visualization_Software_Now_Supports_Real-Time_Streaming_Data_from_Bloomberg.html> 
  25. ^ Panopticon Releases New Real Time Connection– Supports fast connections to streaming data from Sonic MQ and Reuters, <http://www.bobsguide.com/guide/news/2007/Jun/19/Panopticon_Releases_New_Real_Time_Connection%e2%80%93_Supports_fast_connections_to_streaming_data_from_Sonic_MQ_and_Reuters_%e2%80%93.html> 
  26. ^ Lightstreamer to ship with Panopticon Enterprise, <http://www.bobsguide.com/guide/news/2008/Feb/4/Lightstreamer_to_ship_with_Panopticon_Enterprise.html> 
  27. ^ See how components contribute to totals with Stack Graphs, <http://www.panopticon.com/visualizations/stack_graph.htm> 
  28. ^ Visualize and compare Trends with Bar Series., <http://www.panopticon.com/visualizations/barseries.htm> 
  29. ^ Visualize Multiple Datasets and Compare Trends with Horizon Graphs, <http://www.panopticon.com/visualizations/horizon.htm> 
  30. ^ Panopticon’s Visual Business Intelligence wins The Banker awards, <http://www.bobsguide.com/guide/news/2006/Jun/16/Panopticon%e2%80%99s_Visual_Business_Intelligence_wins_The_Banker_awards.html> 
  31. ^ Award Winning Implementations, <http://www.panopticon.com/company/awards.htm> 
  32. ^ Panopticon Signs Enterprise Wide Contract With Reuters, <http://www.pressemeldinger.no/read.asp?RecNo=7117> 
  33. ^ JPMorgan, Reuters Map Out Data Views, <http://www.windowsfs.com/TheMag/tabid/54/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1414/JPMorgan-Reuters-Map-Out-Data-Views.aspx> 
  34. ^ Deltek and Panopticon Forge Partnership, <http://www.deltek.com/company/pressroom/showfullstory.asp?show=348&YR=2006> 
  35. ^ Advent Software Signs OEM Agreement with Panopticon, <http://www.bobsguide.com/guide/news/2008/Jan/29/Advent_Software_Signs_OEM_Agreement_with_Panopticon.html> 
  36. ^ Kynetix signs reseller agreement with Panopticon, <http://www.bobsguide.com/guide/news/2004/Nov/3/Kynetix_signs_reseller_agreement_with_Panopticon.html> 
  37. ^ Tbricks Launches Next Dimension Automated Trading System, <http://www.a-teamgroup.com/article/tbricks-launches-next-dimension-automated-trading-system/> 
  38. ^ Polystar OSIX and Panopticon form strategic alliance focusing on the telecom market - Operators worldwide can now benefit from Panopticon’s visualisation tools, <http://www.polystar.com/Company/Newsroom/News-archive/3856/> 
  39. ^ Visual Business Intelligence heads for Japan, <http://www.bobsguide.com/guide/news/2006/Apr/19/Visual_Business_Intelligence_heads_for_Japan.html> 
  40. ^ Panopticon - Visual Business Intelligence, <http://www.lightstone.co.jp/products/panopticon/explorer/index.htm>