Data management specialist Connexica is hoping to deep dive into artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to help it offer enhanced services to its growing customer base.
The Stafford company will look at ways of expanding the capabilities of its business analytics platform and bring new solutions to the market via a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with Staffordshire University.
Funded by UKRI through Innovate UK, KPTs aim to help businesses improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills – Connexica's KPT involves access to expert knowledge and a recently-qualified graduate.
The company – whose clients include the NHS, Premier League football clubs and a range of UK banks and building societies – wants to enhance its existing CXAIR technology platform, and make it more accessible and easier to use.
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Associate dean for employer partnerships and enterprise, Marek Hornak, said: "Artificial intelligence is expected to underpin almost all future technology, in particular for enhanced automation and decision making, and we are well equipped with research and academic expertise in machine learning, computational intelligence and data analytics to help Connexica to further develop and fine-tune its systems.
"We're delighted that our bid for a KTP with Connexica has been given the green light. Our university has a proud record of helping to deliver more than 100 KTPs which have had tangible benefits for the businesses involved including improved profits, new job creation and access to new markets."
Founded in 2006, Connexica is a software company that helps organisations manage their data more effectively so that they can produce the information they need to run their businesses in a way that’s more efficient, accurate, repeatable and reliable. It also enables them to deliver more value from their data by creating analyses which provides insights about their organisation, their operations, their customers and their markets.
The company's CXAIR data management and analytics platform is deployed in over 150 organisations in 13 countries around the world.
Alex Hurley, solutions director at Connexica, said: "This is a really important project for the business and will be key to the delivery of our roadmap for the next five years.
"The introduction of the planned AI and machine learning capabilities, backed by the latest advances in data science, will enable us to keep our platform at the cutting edge and ultimately deliver better results to a wider range of clients.
"Alongside our bigger clients, we provide services to a large number of SMEs who understand the benefits of business analytics and the need for accessible and actionable data but don't have significant budgets to invest.
"This project will enable us to open up the technology to parts of the market for which it has previously been out of reach."
He added: "The KTP complements the foundational work we've previously done in collaboration with the university and will enable us to complete it as we’ll have a graduate on our books for at least the next two years.
"Using the new capabilities that we’ll be adding to the platform, we'll be able to work with customers from each of the market sectors that we serve to develop a range of specific solutions that address common challenges.
"The solutions will then be available to others in the same marketplace."
