There’s great power in data, provided it’s collected, analyzed and utilized to its maximum extent. It can be the key to business success and perhaps even solve some of the society’s greatest problems. That’s the idea behind CLOUDSUFI, a Silicon Valley, Calif.-based company that aims to “eliminate the gap between human intuition and data-backed decisions” and “make enterprise data dance.”
“Fundamentally, it means finding different unique and innovative ways to make the data monetize for you,” says Founder and CEO Irfan Khan who compares data to oxygen – vital for any enterprise. His goal is to connect the dots between the gut instinct, structured and unstructured data and increase the odds of making the right choices.
For a CLOUDSUFI customer, that could involve a team of experts analyzing a company’s data flow from the source to storage to use. They then suggest the best way to organize and utilize the information in the interest of increasing profits, savings and decreasing risk through CLOUDSUFI’s products and services, including the company’s SufiBrain AI/ML platform.
Khan says many companies struggle with data because they don’t invest in setting up the infrastructure early on and don’t have the strategy to handle the information they collect. They miss out on opportunities to create new business units, products or solve more customers’ problems.
“That thought process has to come from the CEO’s mindset and that is where the company is struggling because sometimes the board is not excited about it. Sometimes, the CEO is not excited about it,” Khan says.
Monetization is a game changer for any organization for CLOUDSUFI, which has multiple levels of services in retail, cybersecurity, hi-tech, manufacturing and financial services, but health and life sciences have emerged as the focus.
Not surprising, considering CLOUDSUFI founders (Khan started the company with Zeba Vakil, who is now the COO and CFO, have been after more than running a financially healthy company from the start. “We are more focused on what’s the biggest impact we can provide to the human race,” says the deeply passionate Khan.
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The global pandemic presented an opportunity by shedding extra light on the already imperfect U.S. healthcare system that was suddenly struggling with supply shortages. It prompted Khan, who has a supply chain background, and his team to take a closer look.
“The problem was not so much with manufacturing and the lack of proper supply chain. It was just slow and unresponsive. The reason was, they didn’t have the data speaking. Now, solving those problems is nothing else but monetization of data.”
The solution isn’t easy or fast, especially when it comes to the sheer number, scale and complexity of the issues within the U.S. healthcare system, but CLOUDSUFI is looking into options for improvement.
“There are so many problems, there is so much canvas to paint from, that we will be busy for the next five years.” Irfan Khan, CEO, CLOUDSUFI.
In the meantime, they are bringing attention to physician fatigue and filling in the gap in doctor-patient interactions to increase the odds of proper diagnosis. During a typical doctor’s visit, Khan says the doctor refers to a report created by a nurse, information provided by a patient and his or her own medical experience to come up with a diagnosis. What’s missing is the unstructured data – additional information about the patient’s lifestyle and habits– that could lead to a different diagnosis or even a cure.
“Those are areas we’ll be focusing on right now. It’s a pretty exciting time for us to make sure that we are able to reduce the gap between data and intuitions,” Khan says, admitting that accessing the information is more limited when it comes to the healthcare system.
CLOUDSUFI has tripled its growth in the last two years and is on track to meet its fiscal goals and hire more employees in the next year. Then it’s all about scaling for the next two years before looking into acquisitions five years from now.
At this point, however, CLOUDSUFI doesn’t engage in collecting data, it simply uses information provided by clients, taking extra precautions to work with compliance and strategy officers in the name of privacy and security.
“That is extremely important for us,” Khan says. “Once we have defined boundaries, we go for it.”
Another passion project for CLOUDSUFI and a way to give back to society is reintroduction of a specific segment of the population to the workforce. Through the Sufi Foundation, the company is giving professionals in their 70s to 90s the opportunity to return to work as employees or contractors. The benefit? Years of knowledge and experience for the company and mental health and mental stimulation for the seniors whom Khan prefers to call the “new, wiser kids on the block.” He’s now looking for the right person to lead the foundation. “I think it’s going to be a success in terms of saving so many lives and minds and not losing the wisdom.”
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