Background, development and vision – the history of Caduceus
In this interview, Thomas Bauer, CEO of Xaidat, talks about the idea, the development and the vision of the specially designed, multifunctional software solution Caduceus. He also reveals what makes Caduceus so special!
Let’s first answer a question we often get: Where does the name Caduceus come from?
Thomas: Caduceus is the name of the staff of Hermes, the messenger of the gods, who delivers information. I think that this name fits our product very well because of the functionality of the software solution.
What were the individual development steps up to today’s product?
Thomas: The first version was a kind of business process tracing tool that could be used to track business processes across different systems and IT boundaries. After that, we invented our metrics and KPI system, which is able to aggregate information and data in real time. These are visualised on our web-based dashboard solution.
It was important for us that Caduceus not only replaces reporting by presenting data, but that the system constantly runs in the background and automatically recognises the stored metrics as well as target values and process limits. If these targets are no longer met or if limits are exceeded, the real-time capability of Caduceus should promptly notify its user. Additionally the system is also able to make forecasts.
Another milestone in the development was the backchannel. This extension enables Caduceus to communicate directly with the connected systems and countermeasures can be taken automatically. For example, log files are automatically ‘fetched’ and sent to support or machines are automatically switched off.
If you look at the market, you could say there are already a few players here. What is the big difference?
Thomas: Over the past 20 years, we have provided services in software development and informatics and have carried out hundreds of software projects. As we work independently of the industry, we were involved with a wide variety of companies and teams. This allowed us to get to know different IT and software landscapes. We noticed that the people in charge found it difficult to answer the question whether the company was doing well and whether the individual processes were working.
The traditional way of answering this question is through reporting. The problem with this is that only outdated data from past periods is available.
We wanted to address this issue with our real-time monitoring system Caduceus. Whenever something happens in a company, Caduceus sends a warning signal in real time. The recipient of this signal can react immediately. Company goals that are threatened in their implementation by current work are automatically checked whenever a change occurs. Therefore, the employee in charge can take on the problem immediately.
So the big difference is the real-time capability?
Thomas: That’s right! Caduceus is more than just sitting in front of a dashboard and observing changing data. The real-time capability is mainly shown by the fact that our platform automatically works in the background, compares data and immediately notifies in case of deviations. What is more, through the feature backchannel we can automatically initiate countermeasures.
We are often compared with business intelligence providers. You’ve actually already answered the question before, but can you briefly go into more detail about the difference?
Thomas: When someone uses Caduceus they no longer have to read reports which contain outdated information. Caduceus replaces increasingly complex reporting systems. The benefit of Caduceus is the reassurance that a system constantly monitors processes within a company and notifies whoever is responsible for the monitored process should a problem arise.
Furthermore, BI systems only answer the question “what happened”. With Caduceus, however, we can also see into the future and automate processes or countermeasures. Aside from that, the actual real-time capability of Business Intelligence products is rarely if ever given.
In summary, could you say that Caduceus helps to reduce the flood of data to the essential information?
Thomas: Yes, the vision of Caduceus is to model all business-relevant processes in the company and to store the key figures, their target values and limits, so that company monitoring takes place completely automatically, without those responsible having to constantly look at and check systems/reports.