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InsideBigData interviews BoldIQ CEO

InsideBigData Interview: Roei Ganzarski, President and CEO of BoldIQ by Daniel Gutierrez

 

I recently caught up with Roei Ganzarski, President and CEO of BoldIQ, to talk about the “smart cities” revolution taking place that’s powered by IoT technology. Roei is responsible for the overall growth and business of the company as well as day-to-day operations, engineering and development. Prior to joining BoldIQ, he was with the Boeing family of companies for thirteen years in continuously increasing roles of responsibility. His last role at Boeing was Chief Customer Officer for Boeing’s Flight Services division where he led all worldwide customer and market facing organizations and was responsible for revenue growth and customer service. His other experiences prior to Boeing include private investment banking, corporate finance, advertising, and the military. He is a graduate of Wharton’s Advanced Management Program, earned an MBA from the University of Washington, and a BA in Economics from The University of Haifa. Roei sits on the advisory boards of Zealyst and the Washington Technology Industry Association board; and is chairman of the global business advisory board at the University of Washington Foster School of Business.

insideBIGDATA: What is the biggest obstacle smart cities must overcome before becoming widespread by the projected year 2025?

Roei Ganzarski: Two obstacles:

  1. Interconnectivity between the various “smart” elements. Having smart cars operate separately from the smart grid, separately from smart homes, and separately from smart buildings may not add any smartness to the city. In fact, it could create more chaos and havoc. It is imperative that the various elements are intertwined.
  2. Competitive nature of firms and even government entities. The true smart city will be run in an efficient manner utilizing resources to the best of the city’s needs (i.e. its residents). To do this, companies will have to work together and so will government entities. Take transportation for example: if multiple companies each compete to be the ‘main’ means of “efficient transport” then you have by definition, over capacity in the city thus not efficient or smart. Moreover, if the city department of transport is not willing to relook at their transport ‘kingdom’ for the betterment of the city, that too drives inefficiency – not smart.

insideBIGDATA: What city will emerge as the first truly ‘smart’ city?

Roei Ganzarski: Singapore is an obvious leader. The government there controls everything and is not afraid to impose short term pain on companies or government units in return for long term gains like becoming a smart city. They have a high likelihood of “proving the point” of the value of having a smart city.

insideBIGDATA: How is the on-demand economy spurring this movement?

Roei Ganzarski: The On-Demand economy is driving the need for operations (be they for profit businesses or government organizations) to become demand driven. On-demand means a consumer or customer can get what they want, at the time and place they want it, and only have to ask for it when they are ready to ask and not before. While this is the customer facing aspect, the operator aspect (the organization that needs to provide the service or product) must be demand-driven in order to serve the on-demand need in an efficient manner that enables scale, growth, and self-sustainment. Being demand-driven means having the ability to utilize your resources at the highest level possible and do so in real time in a dynamic and ever changing environment. Note that this assumes organizations have finite resources to do their work. This must be viewed differently from the so-called ‘sharing economy’ where an operation will use someone else’s resources because they are so inefficient, they have spare time or capacity on their resources. The sharing-economy in fact thrives on the inefficiency of the current environment. The smart city will not have any sharing economy as part of it because the only resources being used will be done so efficiently to meet demand. There will be no ‘spare’ resources that are used to share.

insideBIGDATA: We see cities becoming smarter/more connected with on-demand transportation, food, shipping, etc. Which industries and services do you expect to see revolutionized next?

Roei Ganzarski: Healthcare!

insideBIGDATA: With 2025 just under a decade away, what are your predictions for the advancement of IoT/on-demand/smart cities in 2017?

Roei Ganzarski: The next few years will have a lot of IoT ‘things’ being created as individual products. A driverless car; a drone; a smart washing machine; a smart bbq; etc. However not enough work will be done on the integration of these in the next few years (since it is less ‘sexy’ and creates less news) and thus the adoption of these will be slower than what people anticipate.

Click to read the full interview online

Software Can Help Flight Schedulers with Complex Decision-Making

Software Can Help Flight Schedulers with Complex Decision-Making

Ensuring that flight schedules are optimized to customer needs, internal resources and operational and legal requirements, is one of the most challenging aspects of running any aviation operation – and that’s before factoring in dynamic, real-time disruptions or the desire for sustained profitability.

“The complexities and real-time dynamic nature of on-demand aviation operations are significant, and much more than many other industries we have seen,” said Roei Ganzarski, president and CEO of BoldIQ, which makes real-time schedule-optimization and disruption-recovery software. He will be presenting on this topic during a free, Jeppesen-sponsored webinar on Dec. 14.

“Creating a schedule that meets demand, satisfies all legal and physical constraints, and at the same time utilizes resources in the most efficient way while meeting internal needs, is a difficult problem, even if all of the key variables remain static, which of course they don’t,” he added.

As any flight department team member knows, many variables hardly ever remain static, and this usually presents the biggest challenges when adjusting plans on a day-to-day basis. While schedulers and dispatchers are incredibly capable, they’re also human. Simplifying the problems, such as factoring out a variable or two, to make them easier to solve, means sacrificing effectiveness and efficiency.

This is where software can help, said Ganzarski. Advancements in technology and complex algorithms can provide schedulers and other decision-makers with solutions on how to practically optimize operations – both initially and during disruptions. By understanding more about how best to combine human expertise and science to create a practical, optimized operation, aircraft operators can maximize their resources and gain a competitive advantage.

For an in-depth look at the science behind complex problem-solving and how software can help flight departments maximize their decision-making process, join NBAA and Ganzarski for the webinar titled “Decision Making in Complex Dynamic Environments: Experienced Human vs. Sophisticated Software.”

Click to read on the NBAA site and register for the webinar

BoldIQ CEO explores the future of smartcities with IoTHub

How we need to prepare for smart cities

Key sectors and challenges identified by IT executive. By Peter Gutierrez

Smart city technologies hold many promises for its citizens, and for one IT executive, the areas of transportation and healthcare are likely to have the most impact.

“Real-time operational optimisation of driverless transport modes will enable a move to more of a true on-demand transportation system that includes everything from single cars to buses to trains that are linked based on real-time demand,” said Roei Ganzarski, CEO of asset optimisation startup BoldIQ.

“Right now, you have significant overcapacity – taxis, Ubers, Lyfts, buses, paratransit, and trains. Live data coming in from IoT and from users will combine with rapid dynamic software to allow a holistic solution that is better for the user and the city as a whole, enabling more transport with fewer resources.”

He told IoT Hub that smart healthcare will further enable pre-emptive and proactive treatment of patients.

“It could be monitoring for someone with known issues such as a smarter pacemaker, diabetes, allergies; someone in a high risk category, such as a family history of stroke or heart issues; and everyday use without any specific risk,” he explained.

“Think of data streaming in real-time from these various wearables and implants combined with optimisation software that can schedule resources in real-time based on the data.

“A wearable could send data to a central analysis machine that determines there is an imminent risk of stroke or heart attack, and an automated central dispatch could then schedule an immediate movement of a doctor or nurse with the relevant equipment to that person, therefore shortening – if not eliminating – the time from incident to treatment.”

The barriers to a smart city utopia

Ganzarski conceded that there needed to be a shift in citizen mentality if these sorts of innovations are to be successful.

“Consumers need to understand that if they want the level of service, speed and proactive support regarding their lives, there will be certain privacies they need to give up,” he said.

“To get pre-emptive medical attention, the person needs to be willing to wear the ‘thing’ and have the data transmitted to the central analysis hub.

“The ability to share resources will also have to be a central theme. As long as anyone with cars is allowed to create a transport company in order to make money, there will be overcapacity.”

He said that if left unchecked, certain markets will become oversaturated to the point where no-one makes any money, because each successive entrant believes that can “do it better”.

“Look at taxi companies and ride sharing companies – both are competing for the same consumer with too many cars on the road.”

Solve today’s problems first

Ganzarski said that existing inefficiencies in asset utilisation have to be addressed, as smart city technologies won’t solve these fundamental issues.

“On one hand, there are industries with overcapacity of resources, like transportation. This creates waste at the resource level, operation level, and in society, causing traffic congestion, pollution, and so on,” he said.

“This man-made condition is because the operators in play do not run their operations efficiently, thus creating an attractive reason for others to enter the market.

“On the other hand, there are industries with resource shortages like pilots in aviation or nurses in healthcare. If there were to run their operations efficiently, then perhaps there would be no shortage and everyone gets their services when and where they’re required.”

Ganzarski said that a city’s leadership needs to decide what they want as their future, and setup the organisation, structure and policies to support it.

“For example, if a city wants to have smart transportation, they can’t say that and then at the same time allow multiple taxi companies, ride sharing companies and others to all operate within their city limits,” he explained.

“Either take it seriously, make the tough decisions and lead, or don’t pretend that becoming a smart city is the target.”

Click the read the online article

GeekWire shares BoldIQ CEO’s 3 principles for managing everyday work and life

Working Geek: BoldIQ CEO Roei Ganzarski’s 3 principles for managing everyday work and life by MONICA NICKELSBURG

As a father, president and CEO of BoldIQ, and a member of the UW Global Business Advisory and WTIA boards, Roei Ganzarski’s time is in high demand.

At BoldIQ, a Seattle software company that crunches real-time data to help organizations optimize business operations, Ganzarski focuses on five key areas. He works on defining BoldIQ’s long-term vision, business development, daily operations, scalability, and marketing.

How does Ganzarski define his role? “I create great headaches for my team,” he said.

Ganzarski practices “inbox-zero” religiously and makes family time a high priority. To keep it all in balance, he has developed three guiding principles.

He shared his tips with us for this installment of Working Geek, a regular GeekWire feature. Continue reading for his answers to our questionnaire.

Current Location: “Bellevue, WA. Right across the street from Crossroads Mall. Great food all around.”

Computer types: “Combination of desktop and laptops. We are windows based – all PCs. With our choice, we are supporting another local company, Microsoft. :)”

Mobile devices: “To each their own. I personally have a Samsung S7 Edge. Love it.”

Favorite apps, cloud services and software tools: “Glympse app (I use it every day to let my family know about my commute); Google News & Weather app (to keep up with the world); Starbucks app (to get my daily dose of caffeine); WhatsApp (Overall communications. There is nothing like it!); Paymo cloud service for time tracking on specific projects as needed; everything else is pretty standard.”

Describe your workspace. Why does it work for you? “L-shape desk with two monitors right on the corner (+ the laptop screen) and snug against two walls with windows. This provides me with great coverage of all my data on the three screens and opens up the floor space as opposed to having some sort of desk blocking the way and separating me from my team.”

Your best advice for managing everyday work and life? “I live my life and work with three guiding principles:

  • Always remember where you came from and where you are going
  • Only dead fish go with the flow
  • The light at the end of the tunnel could be a train

These three guidelines help me prepare, be proactive, and react to the various situations I find myself in, be it at home or work. And do it all with a passion!”

Your preferred social network? How do you use it for business/work? “My preferred social network is getting together with my friends for coffee or a great BBQ. And if I can’t see them in person I use WhatsApp to keep in touch. The rest (i.e. Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook) I use just for sharing work PR type things or posting that we are looking for new great team members to join.”

Current number of unanswered emails in your inbox? “At the end of each day = 0! I am very disciplined with my inbox. I use it as my to-do list. I either answer the mail, forward the mail if someone else needs to care for it, or I file it when done. Note that my initial answer may be an acknowledgment of the mail and I still have work to do on it, but it is at least initially answered. Discipline and my mobile phone are two things that help keep this intact. Also, a reason I like to come in early to the office to tend to the emails that came in the evening before and overnight.”

Number of appointments/meetings on your calendar this week? “15 and one of the days this week I am traveling to California for a customer meeting.”

How do you run meetings? “No phones or other distractions; one conversation at a time (no side conversations or whispering while someone is talking); everyone can voice their opinions openly with full transparency; everyone gets a voice but not everyone gets a vote.”

Everyday work uniform? “Full suit and tie…NOT. I have found that feeling comfortable allows me to do better work. Clothes, in fact, do not make the man. It is the person that makes clothes work. On any given day, you will find me in jeans, crocs canvas shoes (very comfortable) and a flannel shirt (or UW Husky hoodie).”

How do you make time for family? “I make time. Priority and discipline. It is easy if you decide to do it. It is your decision how to balance – make it, and live it. Don’t give yourself or others excuses. Your decision to miss a kid’s recital or game, your decision to take your kid to their sports practice, your decision to be home every evening for a family dinner. It is not right or wrong, but it is your decision. As the company leader, it is my role to enable my employees to maintain a healthy balance (which they have to be able to define for themselves) and I have to maintain one for myself and live it by example. Both during times of calm and during urgent hectic times.”

Best stress reliever? How do you unplug? “My kids. They make me laugh and they make me cry. But they always make everything else seem small and doable. Nothing like sitting around the dinner table with them and my wife and talking about their day.”

What are you listening to? “Right now…my employees talking about some feature they are working on…”

Daily reads? Favorite sites and newsletters? “I go through multiple elements of the Google News & Weather app. Easy and regularly updated. I also get various headline feeds from the industries we are in.”

Book on your nightstand (or e-reader)? “Sylvia Rafael: The Life and Death of a Mossad Spy

Night owl or early riser? What are your sleep patterns? “I am up at 6 a.m. Take my eldest daughter to her high school bus at 6:35 a.m. In the office by 7:20 a.m.”

Where do you get your best ideas? “Everyone and anyone who will share them. Customers, employees, friends, family. My ears are always open to good ideas that when applied to our company, our family, or my life, could be great.”

Whose work style would you want to learn more about or emulate? “There is no one person I would want to emulate. I try to learn from each leader I meet, be they a leader at work, home, their community, etc. And I try to see what things work for them and what don’t and why. I then try to apply to my own style as I grow.”

Click to read on GeekWire

BoldIQ quoted in Fleetowner’s “Trump, trucking, and the outlook for 2017”

By: Sean Kilcarr in Trucks at Work

Lots of change may be on the menu for trucking in 2017 as economic trends and federal policy efforts could make further alterations to the U.S. freight market – everything from canceling regulations to the adoption of new strategies for meeting customer demands.

“When you move 70% of the nation’s domestic freight there are few issues out there that we are not a part of either directly or indirectly,” Chris Spear, president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations (ATA) trade group, explained in a recent phone interview with me. “Tax reform, trade, and infrastructure: we have a role to play in all of those issues.”

For starters, he noted that the 10-year $1 trillion infrastructure proposal put on the table by President-elect Trump could be a big positive for the industry in a number of ways.

“Infrastructure is our industry’s lifeblood: We need good infrastructure and getting such a package passed is key right out of the gate,” Spear said. “At least as proposed, that package will likely be tied to tax reform.”

Sandeep Kar, global vice president for mobility at Frost & Sullivan, added that few industries will face the impact — whether net positive or negative — of a Trump presidency as strongly as trucking, which is a leading indicator of economic activity and typically feels the effects of economic swings and fluctuations well before many other industries or sectors.

“While the effect of Trump administration’s legislative actions will be experienced primarily by the U.S. commercial vehicle industry, global market participants and markets will have much to note and consider,” he noted in a recent report.

Roei Ganzarski, a former Boeing executive and now CEO BoldIQ, which provides optimization software for asset scheduling, added another economic twist to trucking’s outlook where the economy is concerned: the rise of “demand-driven” freight transportation service.

“Consumers or customers want to get what they want, at the time and place they want it, and only want to ask for it [delivery service] when they are ready to ask and not before,” he explained to me recently. “Thus the transportation operator must be ‘demand-driven’ in order to serve such on-demand needs in an efficient manner that enables scale, growth, and profitability.”

That “on-demand economy” is also shortening planning cycles and significantly shortening decision making time frames. “This means the need for intelligent, data driven, and real-time decision making is critical,” especially in trucking, Ganzarski said.

He added that this “demand-driven” view assumes that trucking companies and other freight service providers have finite resources to do their work.

“This must be viewed differently from the so-called ‘sharing economy’ where an operation will use someone else’s resources because they are so inefficient, they have spare time or capacity on their resources,” Ganzarski pointed out.

That will lead to more consolidation and even elimination of some transport companies that cannot adapt fast enough to the change, he said.

Click here to read the full story on Fleetowner.com

BoldIQ featured in Seattle Times

Bellevue startup BoldIQ gets Boeing boost for business-aviation tool

 

A small startup scores big with a deal in which it developed a business-aviation system that Boeing’s Jeppesen division offers to its customers.

BoldIQ, a growing Bellevue software company, scored a big deal this winter when Boeing debuted a business-aviation system that uses the small company’s technology.

Boeing’s Jeppesen division launched a new operating system that helps business-airplane companies keep their planes fully staffed and running on time. The cloud-based system, known as Jeppesen Operator, puts flight scheduling, crew management, trip planning, pricing and many other tasks into one place.

“Today in the current state, without a solution like this, what operators have to do is acquire and maintain and use multiple systems that are disparate from each other,” said Mike DiDonato, director of industry services at Jeppesen.

With Jeppesen Operator, a business airline would use BoldIQ’s scheduling software to allow them to plan for flight crews and planes. But the biggest draw is yet to come.

BoldIQ specializes in optimizing scheduling using an automated system that recognizes priorities and makes sure everything runs smoothly. It automatically readjusts personnel and jobs if a pilot calls in sick or a flight is grounded or something else pops up.

It can reschedule hundreds of factors in minutes.

That optimization functionality is being added to Jeppesen Operator and is expected to launch in early 2018.

The Bellevue company has 21 employees and is hiring six more, partly bolstered by the Boeing deal. The contract gives it an extra layer of credibility, BoldIQ CEO Roei Ganzarski said.

“It also helps with market access,” he said. “What we’re able to tap into, we could never do that on our own.”

BoldIQ makes scheduling software for aviation and ground-transportation companies, and is developing technology for the health-care industry.

The Operator software, which launched in November, now has six business-aviation company customers, and may branch into commercial airlines to help with cargo planning and other unscheduled areas.

Click here to read the full story online