MultiTaction: Collaboration Tools for Better Business Decisions

Pete Malcolm, CEO

Founded in 2007, MultiTaction with its advanced visualization and data analysis solutions has streamlined the collaboration space and is pushing the limits. From multi-touch displays, presentation software, and a horde of quality user interactive applications in tandem with the core solutions, the company has managed to eliminate some of the complexities that have traditionally been at the heart of collaboration technologies. Pete Malcolm, CEO of MultiTaction, in this interview, provides us with unique insights into the collaboration technology space, the loopholes in traditional offerings, and why MultiTaction holds promise to “take collaboration beyond conventionalism and present a new era” altogether.

What is the Value that MultiTaction brings to clients?

The collaboration technology space is on the verge of a disruption. As more organizations demand seamless remote collaboration technologies that are competent enough to replicate a physical meeting, MultiTaction shows the path to a more advanced solution -“a new collaboration era”. Focused more on complete, customer-centric visual collaboration solutions than standalone add-on features and functionalities, the firm provides an ideal collaboration experience for customers and delivers much more than what these organizations expect from traditional providers.

The Toronto Raptors and IBM Watson team use MultiTaction solutions to analyze player data for talent decisions

On Solutions to the Common Challenges in Remote Collaboration.

Large tech corporations and educational establishments are the two prime markets that MultiTaction addresses. Conventional solutions, usually many-to-one types, are over-ridden with communication latencies, defying the very core criterion for ideal remote collaboration—streamlined connectivity. To add, the challenges are magnified due to network performance and data security issues. Partnering with its customers and having scrutinized the needs of the industry, MultiTaction takes a completely different approach to deliver ground-breaking visual collaboration solutions. While most companies seem to have submitted themselves to the fact that collaboration technologies are bound to have at least some delay, the firm’s solutions have no perceptible latency at all. Moreover, the solutions provide any-to-any participation empowering MultiTaction’s clients to participate in a collaborative environment such as video conferencing at any time, from anywhere with any device.

On the approach to re-define the User Experience.

Streamlining end user experience remains at the kernel of any solution’s design and development process and MultiTaction ensures that its solutions are highly intuitive to use and could be learned easily.

We enable our customers to visualize large amounts of data, socialize ideas, educate clients and work collaboratively in real-time across global locations

A part of that competency of the firm’s offerings stems from the advanced technologies integrated into the solutions’ core. For instance, for most touch-based visual display solutions, the operator has to select the mode of touch—finger, eraser, or pen— and change it manually whenever needed. However, MultiTaction’s solutions can automatically detect when an operator tries to point at the screen with a pen or a finger and changes its modes accordingly. This greatly enhances the communication experience between an operator using a variety of different tools and the audience. In essence, it’s the approach based on thorough inspection of customer needs and feedbacks that really drives MultiTaction to build more user-intuitive solutions. This allows the company to continually adapt itself to the current market trends, adopt novel technologies, and ultimately design better interfaces to provide higher quality user experiences during remote collaboration.

Successful Partnerships with Global Corporations.

MultiTaction has gained wide recognition as a leading, innovative provider in the collaboration technology space. This is reflected in its partnerships with global corporations such as IBM and Flex. In the case with IBM, MultiTaction had an extensive collaboration with IBM’s famed Watson team. The team was then involved in a project to process and analyze sports data from its partnership with the Toronto Raptors. The Watson team aimed to visualize the information in a way to design virtual teams or players from data based on several teams like the Toronto Raptors; and therein was the main challenge. MultiTaction’s novel solution assisted the Watson group to have uniform visualization over the massive amounts of data collected and hence streamlined the whole process.

In the instance with Flex, the renowned global manufacturing company found it difficult to collectively manage its 14 back office systems. MultiTaction installed a gigantic, custom-made interactive videowall at the company’s headquarters, the iWall. Flex uses the iWall to display the operations of all the back-office systems together in real-time. Flex could also link all their in-house applications and take charge of all associated processes such as supply chain management, profit management, from the iWall. Moreover, the client could seamlessly zoom into any segment of the giant display that represented a certain back-office operation and could have a complete view of the entire workplace without any loss of resolution. Thus, the system acted as the one-stop solution for global management of the firm and its all operations through a high quality remote, visual collaboration process.

Flex uses MultiTaction’s solutions to manage global operations with visual collaboration tools for a global workforce.

In addition, MultiTaction’s partnership with the University of Nebraska highlights the value the firm brings to the educational sector. The company’s unique multi-touch video displays and collaboration software enabled the organization to provide a real-time, remote learning experience to satellite campuses across the state; effectively offering students in Scottsbluff the exact classroom experience as the students in Omaha, 450 miles away.

Tell us more about the Roadmap for MultiTaction.

Designing better, cost-effective hardware and software solutions based on newer technologies outlines MultiTaction’s immediate roadmap. For instance, conventional touch solutions are two dimensional, mapping the X-Y coordinates of a person’s touch on the screen to generate a response. However, MultiTaction is developing a three dimensional solution—map a touch or even an object from multiple directions and detect higher resolutions. This can make audio, video presentations, such as through power-point, more unique, engaging, and informative. In future, MultiTaction aims to integrate more intuitive user applications into its solutions and offer customers with much more interactive and immersive collaboration experiences.