BizSpark Startup of the Day - Omega Optimisation

The BizSpark startup of the day is Omega Optimisation, based in Canada. Below you will find an interview with Alexandre Le Bouthillier, Co-founder of Omega Optimisation. All the best to them and congratulations for being the startup of the day!

Website: www.omegaoptimisation.com

Tell us who you are and your role in the company:

I co-founded the company with my classmate Louis-Martin Rousseau when we were making a specific consulting product in scheduling for large organizations during the course of our graduate studies. At Omega, I manage finance, research & development grants and European business development. As the president of the company, our partner Jean-François Gagné manages the sales, the marketing and the Product vision.

What did you do before creating your company?

I completed a doctoral and post-doctoral degree in operation research and parallel computing to find innovative ways to solve large and complex combinatorial problems (like employee scheduling optimization). I also provide IT consulting in server and storage virtualization for Canadian Space Agency, City of Lausanne, City of Geneva and High Performance Computing consulting for various Universities and Research Hospital.

How do you feel being the most promising ‘Startup of the Day’ per Microsoft BizSpark?

When our product was launched almost two years ago, we knew we were touching an important aspect of the service business and of employees’ lives. We are now present in more than 10 industries. Being recognized by Microsoft for making mathematic rules accessible to everyone is an honor. At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is making the dream come true.

What is your company’s mission?

Through research and innovation, our mission is to democratize the use of decision support systems integrating operations research and data mining to help resource planning and staffing. We thrive to Improve employees' quality of life while maximizing organizational benefits.

In 140 characters or less, tell us what your company does:

At Omega Optimization, we use a state of the art mathematical engine with a next level user experience smart client to allow each and every customer to model their own business objectives and rules. They get optimized results by having “the right employee at the right time at the right place.”

Our optimized workforce solution is unique. It’s about cost and revenue optimization which can translate in better quality of service, increasing the workforce when it generates revenue, taking into account employee preferences and having equitable and social distribution of the workload.

How did you get the idea for your company?

Through research and while looking for a way we could use our science (operation research) for the greater benefit of many.

Tell us about your funding history. Are you currently looking for funding? If so, how much?

We were self-funded until this year where we took an investment to improve our product offering and marketing, we are looking for a series B in early 2012.

How many employees do you have? How many developers?

20 developers and the management team.

Are you hiring?If yes, what are you hiring for and where?

Yes, this month we are hiring a product owner, a build master and sales representatives in the Montreal area and telesales in France.

Which platform are you building on?Why?

WPF for the visual studio environment and rich user experience.

Where do you see opportunities today in the Software/Internet area?

Even our largest customers are starting to use our platform in SaaS mode, the cloud is there and it’s certainly not blocking the sun.

What do you think about the BizSpark Program?

Best partner program ever but there is a catch. You get the Microsoft development platform for free and after trying it for a while you really discover its full potential and will never go back to another platform. Microsoft is smart; they know that partner success means their success.

Do you have any advice for young Software entrepreneurs?

Create value first and then money. Don’t try the other way around, it will fail. Creating value takes time and money patience. Priority should be on your people, the people that use the technology and the people that make it. Try to create a product that uses the viral expansion loop concept where you find the true value of your product by onboarding others. Collaborate with the internet community; they are all behind your screen looking to click on something. Make sure you can be found and that your product shows its value easily.

Who’s your role model?

Bill Gates for promising to give at least half of his fortune to philanthropic causes over the course of time. Not only did he already give over $28 billion to charity but he had a profound influence in the IT industry. I hope that I will have the opportunity to meet him one day.

What’s the ONE THING you would like readers to take away from this interview?

By solving a problem that is common to most employees and corporations, we have found a way to help others with their quality of life while optimizing business profits and creating an employee business network.