fbpx

Deep Data Dive

Jim Swift’s Cortera helps customers make the right business decisions

By ARNIE ROSENBERG | Photography by Larry Wood

As a kid, Jim Swift and his friends played a game as they walked to and from school each day. Watching how many trucks were coming and going from the manufacturing plants, and what kinds of trucks they were, they tried to guess how each business was doing.

Some things haven’t changed.

As CEO of Cortera, Swift still is aggregating information, analyzing it and developing business intelligence for customers with more data and depth than your everyday Dun & Bradstreet report.

“If I know what companies buy and how it’s changing over time, it’s a real useful fact to help understand what they do and if they’re growing and whether they’re reputable,” he says. “If you’ve got five times more trucks leaving your docks in the afternoon than you did a year ago, you’re probably selling more stuff.”

Swift, 51, admits to an obsession with crunching numbers. A self-described sports geek growing up, he was absorbed in player statistics, baseball cards and box scores—“before data was digitized,” he says. He came to South Florida in 1999 to join Seisint, a startup aimed at providing better information to companies.

At the time, that was easier said than done. Technology still was way too slow and way too expensive, Swift remembers. But the tech-savvy company found solutions to those stumbling blocks.

“I saw the need from early in my career,” Swift says. “In the early ’90s, it was clear what was possible with consumer analytics if you had the right data, and I saw the massive need for information about companies. It’s a matter of supply and demand. If I’m demanding more, faster intelligence about stuff, I’m going to build faster computers to solve that.”

Seisint did that so well that the venture-backed startup was acquired in 2004 by LexisNexis for $775 million. Yet, even as COO of LexisNexis Risk Management, Swift came back to his obsession. While corporate records show corporate filings and UCC filings, Swift realized a key piece was missing. Combining existing data with a credit bureau would add that all-important insight into what companies buy.

“Regardless of what your SIC [Standard Industrial Classification] code might be, I want to know what’s important to you based on where you spend your money and how you treat your suppliers.” He’s committed to “understanding what goes on inside companies based on what comes and goes and what they buy.”

Today, the Boca Raton-based company has grown to more than 100 employees and several thousand customers, in industries from distribution to manufacturing to services. It’s expanding into the banking and insurance segments, where clients use Cortera intelligence to help answer the question, “What’s the risk of this business?”

Moreover, some 50 million people a year visit Cortera websites, where they get free business profiles, demographic and other data, “just to help people find things and build awareness,” he says.

Still, the centerpiece of Cortera’s operation is its Deep Dive Report. At 20 pages or more, it reports a company’s risk behavior scorecard, comprising its Cortera payment rating, payment risk segment, industry benchmark and spending growth index; its credit risk and payment behavior; breakdowns on what’s spent on materials and operations; and information ranging from the details of its truck fleet to tax liens and judgments.

“It makes sense intuitively,” Swift says. “I now have banks and others using the data we’ve pulled together to get a statistical lift in their ability to do things like predict loan defaults.”

Swift isn’t one to let the world, and especially technology, pass him by. Staying on the cutting edge, he believes, means more market interaction with customers, more people in Cortera’s network and more data.

“‘Analytics’ is a word a lot of people throw around,” he says. “What it means for me is taking data and making sense of it for a specific business purpose, and saving people as much time in the process as possible.

“I already have more data than people know what to do with, and they can’t consume the raw data. It would be paralyzing.” In the end, he says, “it’s figuring out how I can take this data and help people make a more effective decision.”

You May Also Like
Tower Club Fort Lauderdale Hosts 50th Anniversary Gala

The fundraiser benefits Kids in Distress and the Invited Employee Care Foundation.

Read More
Tower Club
96-Year-Old Boca Helping Hands Volunteer Brings Happiness to Many

The nonprofit organization provides food, medical support and financial assistance to empower local individuals and families.

Read More
Art Polacheck
Upcoming JA Career Exploration Fair Seeks Vendors to Exhibit

It will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Friday.

Read More
JA Career
Other Posts
Neighbors 4 Neighbors Hosts Endless Summer Splash Event

The nonprofit organization is located in Doral.

Read More
Neighbors 4 Neighbors
Transworld M&A Brokers Sale of PCMA to Intelvio

Peter Berg (pictured), Managing Director, and Leanne Erwin (pictured). Vice President, advised on the transaction.

Read More
Transworld M&A
NAMI Broward County Hosts “NAMIWalks” Event at Nova Southeastern University

The annual fundraising event on Oct. 5 promotes mental health and wellness.

Read More
NamiWalks
Broward MPO’s “Let’s Talk Transportation” Podcast Series

The MPO shapes transportation policy and allocates federal funding to vital projects.

Read More
Broward MPO

Drew Limsky

Drew Limsky

Editor-in-Chief

BIOGRAPHY

Drew Limsky joined Lifestyle Media Group in August 2020 as Editor-in-Chief of South Florida Business & Wealth. His first issue of SFBW, October 2020, heralded a reimagined structure, with new content categories and a slew of fresh visual themes. “As sort of a cross between Forbes and Robb Report, with a dash of GQ and Vogue,” Limsky says, “SFBW reflects South Florida’s increasingly sophisticated and dynamic business and cultural landscape.”

Limsky, an avid traveler, swimmer and film buff who holds a law degree and Ph.D. from New York University, likes to say, “I’m a doctor, but I can’t operate—except on your brand.” He wrote his dissertation on the nonfiction work of Joan Didion. Prior to that, Limsky received his B.A. in English, summa cum laude, from Emory University and earned his M.A. in literature at American University in connection with a Masters Scholar Award fellowship.

Limsky came to SFBW at the apex of a storied career in journalism and publishing that includes six previous lead editorial roles, including for some of the world’s best-known brands. He served as global editor-in-chief of Lexus magazine, founding editor-in-chief of custom lifestyle magazines for Cadillac and Holland America Line, and was the founding editor-in-chief of Modern Luxury Interiors South Florida. He also was the executive editor for B2B magazines for Acura and Honda Financial Services, and he served as travel editor for Conde Nast. Magazines under Limsky’s editorship have garnered more than 75 industry awards.

He has also written for many of the country’s top newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Boston Globe, USA Today, Worth, Robb Report, Afar, Time Out New York, National Geographic Traveler, Men’s Journal, Ritz-Carlton, Elite Traveler, Florida Design, Metropolis and Architectural Digest Mexico. His other clients have included Four Seasons, Acqualina Resort & Residences, Yahoo!, American Airlines, Wynn, Douglas Elliman and Corcoran. As an adjunct assistant professor, Limsky has taught journalism, film and creative writing at the City University of New York, Pace University, American University and other colleges.