Surge in demand for services and software at pharmacy benefits risk consulting firm drives Big Data technology hiring
MILWAUKEE, June 4, 2012 — TRICAST, Inc. announced today a continuation of its strong growth through the first half of 2012. And that growth signals the company's commitment to the continued development of the industry's best pharmacy benefits risk management analysis and risk modeling software.
"We've built up our software development staff pretty dramatically since January of 2011," says Greg Rucinski, TRICAST President and CEO. "We've been using our existing software architecture to very easily reprocess hundreds of millions of pharmacy claims records for quite some time. But now we want to start thinking in terms of billions of records, and that has led us to look at how we process data in an entirely different way."
To achieve the scalability that a push into "Big Data" demands, TRICAST looked to the giant of the industry and asked: "How are they doing it?" Google®, Facebook®, Yahoo®, and LinkedIn® all had the same answer: Apache™ Hadoop™.
"TRICAST is fortunate to have some of the most complex, yet thoroughly vetted business logic I've ever seen," says Ken Ullsperger, Director of Software Development. "The strength of our software is the knowledge that's embedded within it. Our challenge today is to take the incredible industry knowledge we have, and encapsulate it within a system that can scale with our rapidly expanding business.
"Converting our data processing from a SQL relational database/.NET framework processing tier framework to a Big Data solution like Hadoop has been, by far, the most interesting challenge of my career."
To make that happen, TRICAST is supplementing its development team with a combination of training, consultants, and the hiring of the best and brightest talent in southeastern Wisconsin.
"We decided early on that our strategy would be to attract high-quality talent with a background in the technology we're currently using, and sell them on the vision of where we're going," Ullsperger continues. "The response has been remarkable. When we're done training the staff we're assembling, we'll have created one of the first, if not the first, homegrown Hadoop development departments in Milwaukee. We're especially proud of that."
Ullsperger concludes, "It's an exciting time to be at TRICAST. Our developers have been given an unbelievable opportunity to work with cutting edge technology that you only normally get to work with in places like Silicon Valley. We have leadership that understands IT and sees the value in the transition we're making. There are few opportunities like this in the area, and I'm ecstatic to be a part of it."
About TRICAST
Founded in 1997, TRICAST, Inc. is a leading next-generation health information entity built specific to pharmacy benefits. We provide risk analysis and applications that support analysis and risk modeling for the healthcare industry. Our suite of software applications, expert audit and consulting services assist health plans in managing and forecasting pharmacy costs. Visit http://www.tricast.com to learn more.
Media Contact:
Kristin Karakis
TRICAST, Inc.
414.302.9733 ext. 245
Email
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