Complex Invoice Assessment

By analyzing the invoices from Bell, Rogers and Telus HKA used AI techniques to isolate and gather all the billable activities from invoices many pages long with hundreds of items and activities billed. This allowed companies to negotiate better fees and accurately represent their costs across various centres.

In the mid-eighties The Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) oversaw the brokers and dealers of mutual fund investment products. In addition to helping form and govern the rules for their members, they also gathered the prices for each member’s funds daily. The net asset value per share of a mutual fund (NAVPS) was called in to IFIC by telephone, written on a sheet of paper and physically delivered to the wire services where it was published daily. Often errors were made; prices were misquoted, or mis-typed. HKA designed and operated a system to accurately record the prices. Reports were printed for the wire services and the data were retained for statistical and archival purposes. As the number of mutual funds grew, it would be untenable to have every individual mutual fund to report their NAVPS to every newspaper. Fundata Canada Inc. was formed in 1984, owned 50/50 by IFIC and HKA Data and continues to be Canada’s source for all the mutual finds prices, dividends and other investment fund dealer and broker data. In 2019 Fundata sold for a valuation of 110M.

Numeris (formerly BBM Bureau of Broadcast Measurement), owned by the television and radio stations in Canada, publishes television ratings, as does A C Neilson. HKA Data gathered all the television program name information and broadcast schedules which provided the basis for their reports.

The Industrial Supply Association (ISA) represents tool manufacturers and sellers in North America. The sellers rely on images and specifications to sell their goods. Large companies have sophisticated data systems to serve their resellers, but smaller manufacturers (90% of the ISA members) are challenged when it comes to getting images and accurate data compiled and distributed to their resellers. ISA and HKA set the data points of an industry wide database that relieves manufacturers of their need to publish and distribute their product data and images. HKA Data completed a 2200 product database and catalogue which led to standards in product details, weights and sizes in US and metric notation.

Commercial real estate brokers need detailed information to represent their customers and their properties effectively. They spent millions every year amassing information on every commercial building, as did their competitors. While the data itself was critical to their business, data acquisition and management was not their strength. HKA Data and The Building Owners and Management Association (BOMA) formed a new company. HKA collected all the data which was the basis for industry wide reports for both members and interested parties alike. Data acquisition costs were slashed and sales revenue offset the development and maintenance costs.

The Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) proclaimed in 2015 that all real estate brokers must retain copies of successful and unsuccessful purchase offers. HKA Data worked with a large broker to define a document imaging and data management system to help all brokers comply with this mandate. Recent money laundering concerns have led to renewed interest in these data as FINTRAC is now penalizing brokers for their failure to secure and deliver data per the RECO mandate. HKA’s proposed system receives copies of the offers to populate the database, there is no further work needed by the agents or the broker. By using unique identifiers for all parties the database is critical in identifying money laundering activities, incomplete data and lack of reporting compliance. In addition to the indexing and imaging of all offers to purchase which are the crux of the RECO mandate, the information held on all offers form a massive source for analysis of the industry.
Source: The Globe and Mail, March 28, 2021 “Brokerages run afoul of money-laundering rules”

Some industries have complex remuneration and human resource issues. Unionized industries are one example, but there are many other non-unionized industries that struggle with human resource scheduling, tiered compensation formulae and even expense account reconciliation. Many emergency services and other first responder personnel have to be on-call in the event of disaster. Fair scheduling and remuneration are challenges that can become very complex due to specialized skills, individual availability and in some cases revenue sharing among work teams. Anaesthetists in a major Toronto hospital were paid as a department, and the department head struggled with scheduling his team in a balanced manner. Some would not work Saturdays, some would not attend abortions, and most did not want to work consecutive holidays. HKA consulted with this hospital and others in Canada to establish generic rules that could be applied programmatically. The system that resulted helped the department heads capture, balance and report on the many individual requirements of their teams. Of note, some unions have embraced this software as a requirement that ensures that a balanced workload is adopted by management, and is specified in their collective agreements.

Also see: Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society

Volume 36, Number 6 (1989), 722-727, DOI:10.1007/BF03005430

In addition to being of value to the individual members, some industry associations control the digital rights of their members’ data and offer the data on a subscription basis. Copyright of the data is now widely understood and respected. Monetization of the data requires an understanding of the industry, the identification, control and standardization of the data generated by the industry, and the accurate collection and organization of these data. Cost is linked to data volatility, volume and distribution. Just as the mutual funds have individual price data that is published daily, the data itself is used by third parties to do their own analysis or resell in value-added publications. This model has not been lost on the sporting industry; virtually every sport’s statistics are gathered and distributed for a fee.

The contributing associations in this sport derive millions of dollars per year controlling the distribution of their vital data.
From EquiBase website:
“EquiBase Company LLC is a general partnership of subsidiaries of the TRA and The Jockey Club. The Company came into being in 1991 to provide North America's Thoroughbred racetracks with a uniform, industry-owned database of racing information and statistics. In 1998, EquiBase became the sole data collection agency and provider of racing data to the Daily Racing Form. Through its website, upgraded mobile platform and mobile applications, EquiBase offers free handicapping tips, free horse racing results, and free video replays of jockeys' rides to help horse racing fans enjoy the experience of watching races more".