After three very successful years of trading, the board of Atheon Software Products Ltd ("ASP") has agreed to merge with sister company Atheon Consulting Ltd in a management buyout from parent company Atheon Ltd. The result will be an enlarged business, known as Atheon Analytics Ltd, which will start trading from 1st July with a focus on delivering commercial value from business data through visual analytics.

Atheon Ltd established Atheon Consulting Limited in 2006 in response to the opportunity presented by emergent visual analytics technologies, specifically the newly-launched Visokio Omniscope. Atheon Consulting quickly established credibility for visual analytics in the retail and FMCG sectors, delivering rapid commercial insight for clients including Booker, Nestle and Procter & Gamble. Over the folllowing four years Atheon Consulting evolved a strong reputation for innovative, creative and commercially valuable techniques, analysis and insight into a range of retail and FMCG business challenges; range and space management, margin mix improvement, promotional efficacy, on-shelf visibility and own-label expansion the most noted.

Whilst Atheon Consulting focused on using visual analytics tools and techniques to tackle business challenges on behalf of customers, Atheon Ltd founded Atheon Software Products Ltd to provide tools and teach techniques to organisations which wanted to establish visual analytics capabilities internally. ASP developed the standard one-day Omniscope introductory training course, introduced the concept of serviced licences and scoured the market for new tools and technologies. By 2009 ASP had opened its Technology Centre in Luton, launched its managed visual analytics service - CompleteInsight - and established technology partnerships with datanomic (with dn:director) and QlikTech (with QlikView).

Increasingly, Atheon Consulting and ASP were delivering products and services to the same customers, with the likes of EMI, Sainsburys and The Body Shop deploying ASP-provided tools and managed services, whilst engaging Atheon Consulting to tackle further areas of commercial insight. The lines between the two sister companies were becoming blurred, the management teams intertwined and several customers expressed a preference for working with a combined entity.

The formation of Atheon Analytics creates a single business, with a clear focus on excellence in visual analytics - whether providing fully-managed insight via CompleteInsight, implementing software, delivering training or tackling complex commercial projects with speed and clarity.

Following on from last week's news story, this week we have a sneak peak of a live demo of Omniscope being put to good use in the sector. The demo comes from a company called Investors Intelligence, who have developed a subscription service for high-quality technical analysis of worldwide equities featuring sophisticated line, bar, candlestick, and point-and-figure charts.

Link to the demo: http://www.visokio.com/files/InvestorIntelligence.swf.

There are still positions at Atheon Software Products for talented, motivated Analyst Interns who are enthusiastic about  learning about business through fact-based analysis and insight.

To find out more about the role, click here.

It is not just retail and media companies who have been benefiting from the analytical power of Visokio Omniscope. Companies such as Morgan Stanley have been using Omniscope to to track property assets by location and to report on the status and distribution of assets within portfolios, while other financial names to deploy the tool include asset management firm Baillie Gifford and leading hedge fund GLG. Meanwhile the London Stock Exchange was the first to offer data downloads from their web site in Omniscope format. The LSE is now planning to launch its new StockScreener service, and perhaps other new data subscription services, using Omniscope-based hybrid desktop/web delivery.

 Atheon Software Products is looking to hire a Data Manager to join our expanding team.

The role will involve controlling Atheon's approach to data management on behalf of its clients, and requires a detailed understanding of data storage/retrieval techniques, together with a strong appreciation of the commercial value of well-organised, clean, complete business data.

The new Data Manager will have a significant amount of responsibility, and will need to be familiar with subjects including database design, data quality & governance, data cleansing & matching, data transformation & de-duplication - as well as working knowledge of commercially available technologies and products which address these areas. Experience of Microsoft SQL Server (including Analysis Services and Integration Services) will be a significant advantage. The Data Manager will report directly to the Managing Director.

For more details on this position, and to apply, click here.