40 employees
Montreal, Quebec–based Human Equation is a digital marketing firm that creates innovative tools to help customers compete at a higher level through the use of technology.
Professional Services
Canada
English
Human Equation develops digital marketing solutions based on innovative technologies.
The firm used the Bing Search API to provide sophisticated search capabilities for Echo Alpha, its cyber investigation platform that helps customers solve business issues by leveraging the vast quantities of data that are available online. By using the Bing Search API, the firm has created an affordable way to bring its customers a competitive advantage.
Technology can be a competitive differentiator for companies who use it well. Human Equation, a Canadian “techno-marketing” firm, helps its customers develop strategies, platforms, and processes to establish a cohesive digital marketing presence for them.
In 2011, Human Equation decided to tackle a common challenge among its customers: how to use the vast quantities of online data to solve business problems, whether the issues are in sales, operations, recruitment, or another business area. Human Equation found a unique solution by using a methodology gleaned from criminological investigations, where trace evidence is studied to infer the likely cause of an event. “We wanted to use all the trace evidence on the Internet to investigate and determine the specific set of people, companies, and groups that a customer needed to identify to address its particular business issue,” explains Andréa Doyon, Founder of Human Equation. “For example, if a customer wanted to know which companies would make good sales prospects, we would carry out strategic searches to discover telltale facts, such as which companies were hiring, which appeared on lists of tradeshows, and other signs of growth and stability.”
Customers could do those types of searches manually, of course, but that would be time-consuming, and results might change by the time they finished the search. Human Equation sought to automate the process, making targeted results available quickly and at a low cost. To do so, the firm needed both a search engine and a computing solution that could handle the specificity and scale necessary to meet its needs. “We also wanted control over our search methods, which required a sophisticated engine that was geared toward business use,” says Doyon.
Human Equation established a proprietary methodology—called “Digital DNA”—for conducting its searches, which involved detecting a range of evidence and using it to compile partial or full matches toward of specific individuals and organizations. After experimenting with Amazon technologies and Google API, the firm switched to the Bing Search API to enhance Echo Alpha, its new cyber investigation platform. The Bing Search API helps developers embed the Digital DNA methodology and provide results to the Echo Alpha platform. The company also opted to move to Windows Azure, the Microsoft cloud services development, hosting, and management environment. “We started out using the Amazon cloud service, but scalability was a challenge,” says Doyon. “Once we began working with the Microsoft technologies, we realized that, by combining open data, the Bing Search API, and Windows Azure, we could conduct complex cyber investigations using real-time data at a comparatively low cost by today’s standard.”
We combined Bing Search API with Windows Azure to harness available data in real time and provide targeted critical decision information to our customers.
– Andréa Doyon
Founder, Human Equation.
The firm started using the Bing Search API from the Windows Azure Marketplace and immediately integrated it into Echo Alpha. Human Equation opted to use Windows Azure worker roles to scale its platform and carry out millions of searches for certain facts or “markers” that give the firm clear, accurate footprints. “We are also very excited by the flexibility of the Bing Search API terms of use,” says Doyon. “They provide us flexibility in the way in which we receive data from the API and how we consume it. We were amazed at the Bing team’s enthusiastic support of our business.”
Human Equation estimates that, for the 15 million cyber investigations that it conducted in 2011, approximately 75 percent of the data it used to compile results was contributed by the Bing Search API. “By using the Bing Search API, we can narrow our investigations at the outset and find the best websites to use to concentrate our searches on what matters most to our customers,” says Doyon.
For example, when Tourisme Montréal launched an initiative to reach out to the local academic, research, and scientific communities, it asked Human Equation for help. It wanted to refine its method of identifying and reaching out to potential local “influencers” to champion the project, so Human Equation worked to define the digital DNA of such an individual. Echo Alpha tracked down markers in specific sectors and delivered qualified leads for Tourisme Montréal, saving thousands of hours over traditional methods. “Echo Alpha has been instrumental to the success of our new approach in bringing more international events to our city,” says Lynda Cadieux, Director at Tourisme Montréal. “We achieved our goals without expanding our research team.”
Human Equation is changing the way that its customers do business. “By taking advantage of the Bing Search API, we can affordably harvest all the intelligence that the web has to offer, in real time, from a corporate point of view,” says Doyon. “Without it, we simply would not be able to provide this level of service to our customers. In fact, conducting investigations using Microsoft technologies took significantly less time and cost less than with Amazon.” Benefits include:
Microsoft Case Study: Human Equation