Inxight Software

About Inxight Software

Inxight Software, Inc. operated as a specialist in software for information discovery, focusing on text analytics, natural language processing, and data visualization. The company was established in 1997 as a spin-off from the renowned Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), inheriting a rich legacy of research and over 70 patents. The core technology was initially developed by Ramana Rao at PARC, who created a graphical user interface designed to simplify the organization and navigation of large data sets.

The company's business model revolved around providing enterprise software solutions to a diverse client base that included government agencies, large corporations, and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Its client roster featured prominent names like Microsoft, Yahoo, Oracle, SAP, SAS, and various U.S. government bodies, including the Department of Defense. Inxight generated revenue through software licensing and partnerships, enabling customers to analyze and derive insights from vast amounts of unstructured text data, such as emails, reports, and web content, across more than 30 languages.

Inxight's product suite offered robust capabilities for information discovery. Key products included text analysis tools like LinguistX for linguistic processing, ThingFinder for entity and event extraction, and Categorizer for automated document classification. In the realm of data visualization, the company offered StarTree for hierarchical data navigation, TableLens for identifying trends in large datasets, and TimeWall for visualizing events on a timeline. These tools were designed to be embedded into other platforms, and Inxight forged significant partnerships with companies like Google, IBM, and Business Objects to extend their search and business intelligence capabilities.

The company's trajectory was marked by strategic growth, including the acquisition of WhizBang! Labs' technology assets in 2002 to enhance its fact-extraction capabilities. This culminated in its acquisition by Business Objects in July 2007, as the latter sought to integrate Inxight's advanced text analytics into its business intelligence offerings. Subsequently, Business Objects was acquired by SAP AG in 2008, and Inxight's technology was integrated into various SAP platforms, such as SAP HANA and SAP Data Services.