“This is a piece of the puzzle needed for AI that we didn’t have,” said Terry Richardson, chief revenue officer of Blue Mantis. “You can’t succeed with AI if you don’t have a good command of your data. SME brings much-needed and desired capability in data analysis and business insights.

Blue Mantis has stepped up its AI solutions sales offensive with the acquisition of SME Solutions Group, a boutique business intelligence (BI) and AI data preparation provider with a formidable BI as a Service offering.

Terms of acquisition of 14-year-old Tampa, Fla.-based consulting and services firm that has won large enterprise contracts against AI and business intelligence systems integration giants and to specialist industry integrators, have not been disclosed.

“This is a piece of the puzzle needed for AI that we didn’t have,” said Terry Richardson, chief revenue officer of Blue Mantis (pictured), who will oversee the new data analytics practice emerging of the acquisition of SME Solutions Group. “You can’t succeed with AI if you don’t have a good command of your data. SMEs bring much-needed and desired capacity in data analysis and business insights. AI starts with data.

The acquisition provides Blue Mantis, headquartered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with a talented team of data experts – sometimes referred to by SMB clients as a BI Swat Team – with deep expertise in organizing data for the AI ​​transformation journey.

“For many years, SME has been doing projects called data enablement, business insights or data analytics, but today it’s called AI,” Richardson said. “They bring the experience, skills and capabilities in AI that we want to offer our current and potential customers. »

The agreement comes just two months after Blue Mantis was acquired in a majority stake deal by new private equity owner Recognize as part of a “high-growth” build that will be fueled in part by acquisitions.

Richardson said he sees the acquisition as an inflection point that will lay the “foundation” for Blue Mantis’ AI solutions business going forward. “You’re going to see Blue Mantis continue to focus on helping customers with all aspects of their data needs,” he said.

In fact, he said, Blue Mantis – with annual revenue of $250 million and a three-year compound annual growth rate of 26.5% – has already begun to build out its sales team to sell the capabilities of the SME Solutions Group in order to have “relevant opportunities”. » and “impactful” conversations on AI with its 1,200 clients.

Blue Mantis’ mid-market customers are already allocating budget for 2025 to integrate AI solutions into their business, Richardson said.

“These mid-market customers are wondering how to participate in this (AI) industry shift and are looking to leverage AI to increase their budget for 2025,” he said. “We believe this will be a real significant growth engine for the industry, the overall market and for Blue Mantis.”

SME – which stands for Subject Matter Expert – was founded by SME President and CEO Chris Moyer, a former power plant operator and energy business analysis expert, committed to bringing industry-focused attention to the subject matter expert market. business intelligence solutions. Ninety percent of the company’s technology talent has industrial expertise. Additionally, SME owns the American trademark for this acronym SME.

“Our people have business acumen and technology expertise,” said Moyer, who will serve as vice president of the new Blue Mantis data analytics practice. “When you put those two together, that’s why we win.” We have people who have worked in the industry and who understand what the technology means to their customers and are able to implement it.

SME Solutions Group’s key vendor relationships – which Blue Mantis intends to develop – include data analytics and Power BI partner Microsoft; Qlik, data and AI integration partner, AI power analytics provider ThoughtSpot; AI data cloud provider Snowflake and GenAI pipeline platform provider Matillion.

SME was named Emerging Partner of the Year by Thoughtspot North America in 2019 and a Qlik North America Partner Culture Award winner in 2015.

Moyer said his team of 27 full-time employees and 10 contractors is set up to help significantly expand the reach of Blue Mantis’ AI and business intelligence. “We call it AI readiness,” he said. “Everyone knows he wants to do it and is trying to figure it out. We come in and look at where they are from a data perspective… We’ve been doing AI for 13 years.

Moyer said he and his team refer to AI as “augmented intelligence” because it is critical for clients to support AI with experienced employees with strong customer relationships. “It’s not just about AI,” he said. “I would never recommend that a company focus solely on AI. It must be increased. The risk is to think that AI is the solution to everything. That’s another data point. But you may not think that this will be a perfect solution for every organization. There’s a lot of bad data and bad information out there and you just need to make sure you’re curating it correctly.

SME Solutions Group’s flagship offering is Business Intelligence as a Service (BIAS) with a recurring revenue model that appeals to customers wondering how to extract actionable business insights from their data.

“The BIAS approach is for organizations that know they need to obtain business insights, but don’t know how to do it. So we step in and help them develop a roadmap and a plan,” Moyer said. “Then we stay put and make sure they’re able to operate effectively…I firmly believe this is going to become as mainstream as any SaaS model.”

AI is already being used by businesses to proactively identify and remediate equipment failures in the energy sector and for security purposes through sensors and Internet of Things capabilities that limit the field personnel in potentially dangerous environments, Moyer said.

Moyer said he had been approached regularly by a number of potential buyers over the past five years, but it was the “culture” fit at Blue Mantis that convinced him to do the deal.

“My goal was to make sure my team had a culture that exactly matched SME growth,” he said. “We are very philanthropic. Blue Mantis and (CEO) Josh (Dinneen) and the team have the same community approach. I wanted to make sure my team was in a good position.

Moyer said the BI Swat team’s approach has made SMEs a critical extension of customers. “When there is an immediate need – a problem that requires a solution – we are a phone call away,” he said. “The team and I are very proud of it. We are trusted advisors and partners to our clients.

SME business clients include a number of large energy, utility and financial services companies who have continued to rely on SMEs for one project or service after another.

“Getting in there is one thing, getting in there and staying there is another,” he said. “We’ve been able to do a good job and have repeat customers who refer us to other customers. We have grown through referrals over the years.

The core of SMB’s business is strong relationships with customers who trust them, Moyer said. “It depends on who organizations want to work with and trust,” he said.

SMBs emphasize a data preparation approach before accepting a client, Moyer said. “We go in there and do a full assessment,” he said. “We will interview members of the teams. We will look at the data they already have. Is there a lot of duplicate data? Is the historical data correct? If you don’t do it first, you’re just setting yourself up for failure.

Ultimately, the data preparation approach comes down to “data integrity and trust,” Moyer said. “If you don’t have that underlying foundation, AI really doesn’t mean anything. The backbone of our business is quality assurance (QA), quality control (QC), data integrity and trust. If the data isn’t clean, crisp, and secure, it won’t work. »

Moyer said he and his team are committed to staying put and moving the company forward by working hand-in-hand with Blue Mantis. “We are full of energy and excited about the future,” he said.

As for the sales potential of SMBs under Blue Mantis, Moyer said that if SMBs could penetrate 40 to 50 percent of Blue Mantis’ 1,200 customers, the combination would have a “massive” impact. “A lot of customers need it and a lot of (Blue Mantis) sellers have said they’ve been asked for this and haven’t been able to deliver,” he said. “We now have an engine and a catalyst to make this happen.”

Richardson, for his part, said he couldn’t be more “excited” about the future of AI with SME Solutions Group.

“The foundation of all successful AI projects is data and everything that comes with it – how to secure it and how to protect it – which is one of our strengths,” he said. “This is the next wave of IT spending. We are only in the early stages. We are excited to integrate the SME employees into the Blue Mantis family. We will join hands and work together to bring innovative solutions to customers.