Humanyze, founded as Sociometric Solutions in 2010 in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, is a people analytics software provider. Humanyze was founded by

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

doctoral students Ben Waber, Daniel Olguin, Taemie Kim, Tuomas Jaanu, and MIT Professor

Alex Pentland Alex Paul "Sandy" Pentland (born 1951) is an American computer scientist, HAI Fellow at Stanford, Toshiba Professor at MIT, and serial entrepreneur. Education Pentland received his bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and obtaine ...

. Humanyze's

people analytics Analytics is the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. It is used for the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data, which also falls under and directly relates to the umbrella term, data sci ...

platform is based on research from the

MIT Media Lab The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fi ...

and utilizes

Organizational Network Analysis Organizational network analysis (ONA) is a method for studying communication and socio-technical networks within a formal organization. This technique creates statistical and graphical models of the people, tasks, groups, knowledge and resources of ...

to measure corporate communication data, identifying patterns in how companies operate.

Company History

Waber, Olguin, Kim, and Jaanu met while pursuing their Ph.D's at the

in Professor “Sandy” Pentland’s Human Dynamics group. Sociometric Solutions Inc. was incorporated on October 26, 2010, as a research and consulting firm. In 2015, the company rebranded itself as "Humanyze" and transitioned to a software company. They launched their people analytics software, the Humanyze Platform, at the end of 2016. During their time at the MIT Media Lab, Humanyze’s founders developed a sociometric badge, a high-tech I.D. card. This badge used sensors to measure the frequency and duration of face-to-face interactions. It didn't record content, web activity, or personal activities, and it didn't have GPS. The Sociometric Badge has since been discontinued for commercial use, as the Humanyze Platform evolved to primarily work with digital collaboration data and corporate-owned building entry card systems. In October 2021, the company officially received

patents A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

for its system and method for transforming communication

metadata Metadata (or metainformation) is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data itself, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including: * Descriptive ...

and

sensor A sensor is often defined as a device that receives and responds to a signal or stimulus. The stimulus is the quantity, property, or condition that is sensed and converted into electrical signal. In the broadest definition, a sensor is a devi ...

data into an objective measure of an organization's communication distribution.

Products

Humanyze's people analytics platform measures corporate communication data to uncover patterns in workplace interactions. The platform is used for analyzing workplace data and making data-driven decisions related to organizational health, workplace strategy, and business process optimization. It is a web-based dashboard. A variety of data sources can be plugged into the Humanyze Platform including Microsoft Office Exchange, Google Suite, Skype, Microsoft Teams, HR information system outputs, and building access card logs.

Research

During their time at the MIT Media Lab, Humanyze’s founders focused on measuring communication patterns by analyzing the frequency and duration of communication instead of communication content. This approach was found to be more effective in understanding workplace interactions. The founders have published research articles related to their work at Humanyze. One finding from the firm's research was that simple physical changes, such as having larger tables in a cafeteria, facilitated more interaction and collaboration among colleagues than smaller tables. Another finding emphasized the importance of group breaks and office spaces which facilitate such breaks as having an important effect on employee morale and efficacy.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Humanyze Software companies of the United States Technology companies based in the Boston area 2010 establishments in Massachusetts Software companies established in 2010 American companies established in 2010