Imagine a program that uses math to make your decisions. It’s here in South MS
Those who struggle to make decisions and then second guess their choices can turn to a company in South Mississippi to provide the right answers.
It isn’t artificial intelligence, spreadsheets or trial and error.
Optimal Answers uses math and computer software to look at infinite possibilities and find the best solution for the most complex problems and most enticing opportunities.
This decision optimization software also saves money, says Brient Mayfield, CEO and founder.
“Typical savings using Optimal are 5%-10% of whatever the financial value is that’s optimized — often more,” he said, and the savings typically exceed the cost of the service.
“So one of the great aspects of our technology is there’s no ambiguity about the savings, and therefore the payback,” he said.
Those who are skeptical of the process can sign up to get a free, two-week trial to see the results and savings they might achieve.
Real life success for business
Optimal is a powerful tool for businesses and governments dealing with fleets of trucks and dozens or hundreds of employees. Optimal Answers finds the most efficient and cost-effective option to buy supplies, set prices, manage inventory and schedule employees.
The company is headquartered in Gulfport and works on projects well beyond Mississippi.
A study is under way for a caterer in Wisconsin. Each week the caterer gets information from multiple food distributors on prices for products they could purchase, Mayfield said.
Consideration is given to the quotes for the different foods, in different size package and different cost per units, he said. Sometimes the products have different names, so it’s even more complicated.
“With Optimal, this is just a standard procurement problem,” he said. The program takes all that information and selects the mix of items to purchase from each distributor.
“So the business ends up getting all of the materials it needs at the lowest cost and in the package sizes that it wants,” he said. “We actually solved that problem in a matter of seconds,” he said.
The company also can help a restaurant design the menu for the most efficient mix of dishes and help with workforce scheduling, he said.
Transportation is a major focus, said George Lammons, director of media communications. Determining the optimal route to save time, distance and money can be a game changer, he said.
Making personal life easier
Optimal Answers also can make people’s home lives more efficient, for example, by streamlining weekly grocery shopping or Christmas shopping lists.
The company developed a prototype product for grocery shopping, working with supermarkets and food manufacturers.
A shopper can put in their meal plan for the people in the family.
“An adolescent is going to have a different diet than an older person. An athlete is going to have a different diet than others,” Mayfield said. The program can put together nutrition requirements, preferences for brands, foods in season and on sale and develop an efficient shopping list, he said.
Christmas shopping is just another variation of procurement problems, he said. The company has an application very similar to what’s being used at the Wisconsin catering business for buying food.
“There’s a set of rules, but with Christmas shopping, you have preferences,” Mayfield said. The program considers cost, ideas for each person and what be the best kinds of gifts for each person and turns out a shopping list of what and where to buy.
Expanding Coast opportunities
“Mississippi does not have a major software company headquarters in it, and one of the things we would like to do is change that,” Mayfield said.
“Software has generated tremendous wealth and driven robust economic development in the headquarters communities for the last 25 years, and Mississippi somewhat missed out on that,” he said.
Optimal Answers is addressing the issue by giving select Mississippi businesses and government entities free software for various applications like product mix, inventory management, procurement and pricing, he said.
They are talking to casinos, he said, to hospitals about food service issues and medical supplies, and to school districts about bus routing.
In Mississippi, 85% of the school districts aren’t using software for efficient bus routing, said Linda Larkin, who directs social media and hiring for Optimal Answers.
“We’re pretty confident we can save all these school districts a lot of money,” she said, starting with the buses, then purchasing and other issues.
Several different technology disciplines are required for Optimal Answers programs, Mayfield said, and that’s why the company has been able to make advancements that other companies haven’t done.
Where artificial intelligence is reducing jobs, Optimal Answers is hiring, Mayfield said. They have 20 employees and have plans to add more staff and customers.
“We have people from Maryland to Virginia to Tennessee — as well as here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast — creating applications and building the databases for customers,” he said.
