Company Name: Acumence
Executive Name: David Brochu
Title: Vice President
Product/Services: Business intelligence solutions
Company Size: $1 to $3 million
Web Site: http://www.acumence.com

ITA: In about 10 words, what pain does the Acumence solve?
David Brochu: Acumence enables manufacturers to avoid downtime, performance, quality and efficiency losses.

ITA: What motivated you to join Acumence?
DB: I have more than 20 years of experience with selling IT solutions to manufacturing companies.

Acumence is the first company to develop a sophisticated business intelligence platform specifically designed to handle the real-time, high-volume and high-performance needs of manufacturers today. I joined Acumence to be a part of the exciting and intelligent team and to bring a new high-value solution to the manufacturing industry.

ITA: How does the Acumence differentiate from its competitors?
DB: With our high-value solution, customers achieve breakthrough performance improvements.

Our elegant technology implementation avoids clumsy and complex IT projects. Fast setup and configuration help to achieve quick time to value. With our low cost of ownership, multi-site implementations can be managed, configured, updated and supported by minimal staff from a central location.

ITA: How does the Acumence make money?
DB: Software license fees, annual maintenance and support and training and services.

ITA: How has your sector evolved over the last five years?
DB: In the past, manufacturing software was deployed as a point solution. This created many silos of information. Today, networks and computing power have made it feasible to manage real-time data across the enterprise.

While business intelligence solutions have been applied to ERP and transactional systems in the past, Acumence has made it possible to apply the same techniques to real-time data in the factory. Real-time business intelligence for manufacturers is a new niche that has been called “enterprise manufacturing intelligence” by AMR Research.

ITA: How is Acumence funded?
DB: Acumence is privately held with no outside investment. While external funding is not being sought at this time, it is considered as an option for fueling future growth.

ITA: What are the biggest challenges you face as an Illinois-based information technology company?
DB: None. Being in the manufacturing sector, an Illinois base is ideal. We have a great source of people and customers.

ITA: What are your thoughts in general related to the Illinois information technology community?
DB: Over the past 20 years, the Illinois IT community has become recognized as a respected source of new technology, start-up companies and people. The universities in the state are an outstanding source of the best programmers and developers. Some of the best management in the world lives in Illinois.

ITA: How much of your workforce is based in Illinois?
DB: About 80 percent.

ITA: What is the significance of the name Acumence?
DB: Acumence is a play on the words “acumen,” “intelligence,” “excellence” and “essence”. It means keenness, quick judgment, insight and intelligence. We are the essence of acumen.