Platfora and DST Win Big at Big Data Kansas City Festival

SAN MATEO, CA and KANSAS CITY, MO--(Marketwired - Dec 16, 2013) - Platfora, whose mission is to empower customers to transform their businesses into fact-based enterprises, today announced the firm was a winner at the 2013 Big Data Kansas City Festival hackathon event.

Platfora worked with DST, a leading provider of solutions to the financial services, asset management, brokerage, retirement, and healthcare markets, to analyze Kansas City's public data to solve current crime rate challenges facing the community.

Using Platfora, the DST team performed an overlay of crime rates by reported time-of-day by zip code. DST postulated that the city could provide better safety and police services where and when it matters most and be prepared for the type of crime most often committed at that time or location. As part of the event, the team had only three hours to apply brand new data to an entirely new technology.

"We chose Platfora over other Big Data Analytics software solutions due to its ease of use and ability to analyze big data from multiple touchpoints," said Kyle Mallot, Vice President of DST's Global Insight Group. "In short order, our team found incredible facts and insights into crime scenes we think the city can use to combat the crime rate."

"One of the keys to improving crime rates is interrogating the data until it surrenders the facts," said Lara Shackelford, Vice President of Marketing at Platfora. "We were thrilled to work alongside DST to help Kansas City improve safety and lower crime rates."

Kansas City joined 33 cities across the globe to launch the first-ever event of its kind. A highlight of the festival was the hackathon, where competing teams were given datasets by the city, including data from 311 calls, crime, vacant lots/buildings, and damaged buildings as well as their choice of Big Data Analytics software to harness the data for the event.

Kansas City mayor Sly James plans to present the findings to the city council and discuss ways they can utilize and implement these insights, helping Kansas City make changes in the near term.

To celebrate its victory at the Big Data Kansas City Festival, DST had a donation made in its name to Sally Ride Science, a foundation that provides tools for students with a passion for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields and careers.

About Platfora
Platfora's mission is to empower customers to transform their businesses into fact-based enterprises. Platfora Big Data Analytics masks the complexity of Hadoop, making it easy for customers to understand all the facts in their business across events, actions, behaviors and time. Platfora is funded by Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, and In-Q-Tel. For more details, visit www.platfora.com or follow @platfora and #FactBased on Twitter.

About DST
DST Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of information processing and software services and products to companies around the world. The largest provider of third-party shareholder recordkeeping services to the mutual fund industry, DST through its global enterprise also delivers strategically unified business, communications, and process management solutions to the asset management, brokerage, retirement, insurance, and healthcare markets. Headquartered in Kansas City, MO., DST is a publicly-traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. For more information, visit www.dstsystems.com.