"We wanted to develop a fully integrated and featured platform which has all the tools and capabilities," he explains. "Our vision is for the Qrious platform to consolidate all the bit-parts used for working with data and bring them together in one place.
"There are others doing elements of what we do. The likes of Amazon provide a platform with tools, storage and computing power, but you still have to assemble things into something that is useful and fit for purpose. No one has the tightly coupled grouping of capabilities in one package we are bringing to market.
"Whether we export the capabilities within Qrious is up for discussion, but our key focus in on New Zealand and NZ Inc. We want to help domestic businesses unlock value and create valuable intellectual property."
The service will unlock the potential of data and improve the accessibility to a broader range of users by using a Software-as-a-Service model. Businesses will pay a monthly fee to access the Qrious system, with all their individual information, insights and tools stored online in the cloud.
The Software-as-a-Service model removes many of the impediments previously so restrictive to many businesses. Assembling the processing power and systems that underpin a proprietary data system starts in the millions of dollars -- an impossible prospect for many businesses.
"At the moment most businesses in New Zealand are deriving very little, if any value from their data because of those capital barriers in place," says Facciano. "The total cost of ownership of our offering is about 50 per cent of a traditional business intelligence implementation. That's a big part of what we're trying to achieve -- improving the accessibility, then working with businesses to derive new and further value.
"The other major part is macro-level implementations, working with the Government and public sector to address issues in transport, health, even the rural economy. A lot of those larger, more sector-oriented public cases can be addressed at the same time, but run in a very different cadence."
Qrious is working with the public sector to open access to a wider pool of data and unlock the value for both public and private sector applications. Statistics New Zealand maintains an open dialogue with Qrious, while Government continues to formulate its position on creating open and accessible data infrastructure. Says Facciano, "They've got interesting data that is useful to other people, whereas today's method for delivering that data as a product is quite rudimentary. That's a key concept, effectively establishing a data marketplace for people to trade and drive revenue out of their data."
With the current constraints on our data infrastructure, particularly the shortage of people trained to work with data, collaboration is an essential part of driving value and innovation. "Qrious is being set up with the idea that by centralising data and surrounding it with the computing power and analytical tools required to work with it, the community of analytics specialists, data scientists and enthusiasts will be able to work together to produce more value from that data," says Facciano.
"Collaboration -- especially in a market like this where talent is extremely in short supply -- is absolutely the best way to extract the maximum value.
"Qrious will provide the environment conducive to collaboration and offer the opportunity to work on multiple projects at the same time."
More than connected
The internet has fast become the essential infrastructure of the 21st century. But getting connected is only one element of establishing high quality data infrastructure. The hardware to store and process the data and the software to analyse and draw value from it are equally important components in the broader data landscape.
