Careers at Opera Solutions

Mission

Opera Solutions’ mission is to turn raw data into business results not otherwise possible, at scale.

Founding story

In the early 2000s entrepreneur Arnab Gupta realized that the explosion of available information precipitated by the Internet represented a huge opportunity for value creation. He believed that a combination of machine-based methods and human judgment could be used to derive highly useful insights from big data. He felt this was particularly the case in the financial services industry.

In 2004 he launched Opera Solutions with the purpose of providing such a service. A consulting firm, it offered cloud-based solutions for specific business problems as well as predictive analytics. This information could be used for purposes such as warning of threats to clients’ brand health and stopping revenue leakage. Opera’s core product was a hosted system called the Vektor platform.

The company referred to insights obtained using the platform as “signals”; its name was later changed from Vektor to Signal Hub. The promise of the firm enabled it to raise significant funding, beginning with $84 million in a private equity round in 2011. By 2012 it was valued at approximately $500 million. Opera Solutions now generates insights for enterprises of all industries.

Benefits at Opera Solutions

Business model of Opera Solutions

Customer Segments

Opera Solutions has a mass market business model, with no significant differentiation between customer segments. The company targets its offerings at organizations of all industries and sizes.

That said, it has deep domain expertise in the following industries: Capital Markets, Consumer Banking, Healthcare, Insurance, Media & Entertainment, Private Equity, Retail, Telecommunications, and Travel & Hospitality.

Value Proposition

Opera Solutions offers three primary value propositions: innovation, performance, and brand/status.

The company enables innovation through its solutions. Its Signal Hub platform automatically creates insights called “signals”, which can be reused, shared, and applied to a wide variety of use cases. Machine learning technologies keep the signals accurate, eliminating redundancies and the need to return to raw data for each use case. This in turn leads to a major improvement in productivity. In a nutshell, Opera Solutions’ platform helps businesses deliver data science at scale.

The company demonstrates strong performance through tangible results. Specific positive outcomes for customers include the following:

  • Ping An Direct used Opera Solutions’ platform to reduce business implementation time by 85% and improve the success rate of life insurance sales by a factor of four
  • A global cruise line used Opera Solutions’ platform to increase booking rates by 56% via e-mail and by 97% via direct mail campaigns, achieving a $200 million annual impact
  • A top-five telecommunications firm used Opera Solutions’ platform to decrease churn by 1%, improve marketing campaign efficacy by 20%, and generate millions of dollars in profits
  • A major retailer used Opera Solutions’ platform to increase its revenues by $200 million within 12 months and improve its profit margins by $20 million within the same time period
  • A global airline used Opera Solutions’ platform to boost profit margins by 75%, improve load factors across certain routes by 2%, and reduce customer churn by 3%

The company has established a strong brand due to its success. It operates eight offices worldwide and currently has over 1.5 trillion signals in action. Its prominent customers include Neiman Marcus, United Airlines, Novo Nordisk, Sabre, CVS Pharmacy, and Norwegian Cruise Line. Lastly, it has won a number of honors, including the following:

  • Recognition as a “Cool Vendor in Analytics” by Gartner Research in 2013
  • Recognition as a Top 100 Big Data Social Media Influencer by Big Data Republic
  • Recognition for its Government Services solution as a 2013 Laureate by IDG’s Computerworld Honors Program
  • Recognition as a finalist for Big Data Vendor of the Year for 2012 by ESG Global
  • First place ranking in the 2015 KDD Cup

Channels

Opera Solutions’ main channel is its direct sales team. The company promotes its offerings through its website, social media pages, and participation in webinars and conferences.

Customer Relationships

Opera Solutions’ customer relationship is primarily of a self-service, automated nature. Customers utilize its solutions through the main platform while having limited interaction with employees.

The company’s website features a “Knowledge Base” section that includes useful resources such as white papers, articles, product sheets, case studies, newsletters, brochures, infographics, and videos. That said, there is a personal assistance component in the form of phone and e-mail support.

Key Activities

Opera Solutions’ business model entails maintaining and updating its platform and designing and developing its solutions for its clients.

Key Partners

Opera Solutions’ key partners are providers of leading technology platforms, with whom it works to help clients optimize their usage of its own platform. Specific partners are Acxiom, Change Healthcare, Cloudera, Hortonworks, MapR Technologies, and Wipro Technologies.

Key Resources

Opera Solutions’ main resource is its proprietary software platform.

It depends on human resources in the form of the engineers that design and develop its solutions, the sales employees that promote them, and the customer service personnel that provide support.  Lastly, as a startup it has relied heavily on funding from investors, raising $122.2 million from six investors as of September 2016.

Cost Structure

Opera Solutions has a cost-driven structure, aiming to minimize expenses through significant automation. Its biggest cost driver is likely sales/marketing expenses, a fixed cost.

Other major drivers are in the areas of customer support/operations and administration, also fixed costs.

Revenue Streams

Opera Solutions has one revenue stream: revenues it generates from fees charged to customers for subscriptions to its platform.

Our team

Arnab Gupta,
Founder, Executive Chairman, and CEO

info: Arnab earned an MBA at Harvard Business School. He previously served as a partner at McKinsey & Company and A.T. Kearney, and founded and sold a number of companies, including Zeborg and Mitchell Madison Group.

Laks Srinivasan,
Co-Chief Operating Officer

info: Laks earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering at NIT, India and an MBA at Wharton. He previously served as Senior Director of Innovation Management at Fair Isaac and as the Chief Executive Officer of ExpenseAdvisor.

Yuansong Liao,
Co-Chief Operating Officer

info: Yuansong earned a B.Eng. in Computer Science/Engineering at Huazhong University and a Master of Philosophy in Computer Speech/Language Processing at University of Cambridge. She previously served as VP of Analytics at BasePoint Analytics.

Sridhar Ramasubbu,
Chief Financial Officer

info: Sridhar earned a Master‘s degree in Management Studies at BITS, Pilani. He previously served as CFO International and Head of International Operations at Wipro Technologies and as CFO of one of the business units in the DCM Group.