Nstein: One of the Fastest Growing Companies in Canada
June 4, 2008
I last took a close look at Nstein in early 2006. A long-time acquaintance had been involved with the company. The firm drifted of my radar. Earlier this year, I pinged the company to get an update. Communications were interesting. I wrote about Nstein’s user group meeting here. Today Nstein blipped my radar as one of the 100 fastest-growing companies in Canada.
I try to keep one eye peeled on Canadian engineers. The University of Waterloo spawned OpenText and Research in Motion. The University of Toronto and several other schools have generated top-notch engineers for decades. But I admit that overlooked Nstein as one of the top financial performers in Canada.
According to the information I received from the company today (June 3, 2008):
[Nstein] has made the PROFIT 100 list of Canada’s fastest-growing companies in 2007. With 1,244% growth in revenues over the past five years, Nstein made a remarkable entry into the list – ranking 51st in Canada and 6th in Québec.
he new positioning of the company suggests that the firm is shifting away from its roots in text processing. The Web site is different from the one I recall from 2006. Gone is the quickly Nstein logo. That bit of whimsey has been replaced with a more serious design. With a new president, new positioning, some acquired technology, Nstein is growing.
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The “old” logo on the left reminds me of Einstein’s haircut. The new logo on the right reminds me of the hard edged graphics favored by business-oriented firms.The tagline tells exactly what the company does. I no longer associate the firm with a core competency in text mining, which may be an incorrect notion.
I had pigeon-holed the company as a player in the text processing market. Not so. Today’s Nstein is “a leader in digital publishing solutions for newspapers, magazines, and online content providers.” This description reminded me to Fast Search & Transfer’s newspaper and publishing business. As you may know, Fast Search offered a content processing solution built on the company’s Enterprise Search Platform.
Nstein’s approach is to offer a multilingual solution that edges into Web content management, digital asset management, text mining, and image management. If you want to know more about Nstein’s products and services, navigate to the Nstein Web site here.
Stephen Arnold, June 4, 2008
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A person sent me a link to this discussion about the Microsoft-Fast tie up. The parallel with Nstein’s shift to publishing and Fast Search’s path are interesting. Check the story here: http://outsideinnovation.blogs.com/pseybold/2008/01/why-microsoft-i.html
The analysis of the Microsoft-Fast deal does not match mine. That’s interesting because the assertions about Fast were predicated on financial data and marketing information that subsequent events may call into question.
Stephen Arnold, June 4, 2008