Fractal:Intelligence’s visual analysis is driven by the company’s patented circles within circles technique (dubbed Fractal Maps) that is modeled on fractals – geometric shapes that can be sliced into smaller parts, each of which look the same no matter how closely you look at them. Fractals are thought to possess infinite levels detail that are generated by a repeating pattern, typically as a recursive or iterative process.
Fractal:Intelligence represents the desktop analysis component of Fractal Edge’s enterprise suite. The suite also has a server-component for delivering Fractal Maps via a web browser and a set of data adapters for connectivity. Fractal Edge also offers developers an XML-specification tool and a full SDK.
The most significant aspect of Fractal:Intelligence 2.0 is its vastly improved data connectivity. The previous version only worked with Microsoft Excel data. Fractal Edge has now added adapters for CSV, OLE DB, OLAP and XML data sources.
Version 2.0 also incorporates new Fractal Map algorithmic components, and a revamped 3-D look and feel. Users can now combine colors with 3-D shapes to access and analyze two dimensions of data – such as profit coded as a color and exposure coded into a shape – at the same time, explained Gervase Clifton-Bligh, founder and vice president of product strategy and development at London-based Fractal Edge.
Clifton-Bligh said that the company had also put a great deal of effort into modularizing the system’s components and interfaces for quick and flexible configurations. In version 2.0 a lot of functionality previously included in an API has now been put into a queryable XML Web services layer, he said.
Clifton-Bligh said fractal-based visualizations are particularly useful wherever there’s a data digestion problem, helping users to sift and navigate through large complex data sets and quickly uncover patterns, outliers and anomalies. Our technology squeezes more information on the screen allowing users to view several thousand items in one eyeful, literally, he said.
There’s an exponential increase in detail as you drop down into smaller levels. Other visualization tools are shortsighted and simply don’t go to that level of depth.
Founded in 1998, Fractal Edge employs around 10 staff at its London and New York offices. The company has garnered around 30 odd customers in Europe and the US.
Even though the company likes to call Fractal:Intelligence a horizontal application, it is largely being used in the financial services sector, specifically by risk and asset managers and trading floor managers. The company boasts its technology is already deployed in half of the top ten investment banks. Reference customers include Citgroup, Credit Agricole and Standard and Poor’s.
Right now the Fracta Edge’s software runs exclusively on Windows client-server platforms. Clifton-Bligh however says the company is working on a Linux version which is expected sometime in the first quarter next year. The company also plans to launch a real-time edition of Fractal:Intelligence next month that will come with special adapters for real-time financial news feeds like Bloomberg.
