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Mu Sigma is a professional services firm co-located in Chicago, IL and Bangalore, India specializing in advanced analytics and decision sciences. The firm’s name is derived from the statistical terms “Mu (μ)” and “Sigma (σ)” which symbolize the ‘mean’ and the ‘standard deviation’ respectively of a probability distribution.

Mu Sigma employs over 1500 analytics professionals. In 2011, Mu Sigma was ranked #386 on the Inc. 500 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies. Mu Sigma is a private company whose investors include General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital and FTV Capital.

Mu Sigma is headquartered in Chicago, IL and its main delivery center is located in Bangalore, India. The company also has sales offices throughout the US and UK. The company is ISO 27001 certified.

History
Mu Sigma was founded by Dhiraj C Rajaram in 2004. A former strategy consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton and PricewaterhouseCoopers, Rajaram recognized a need in the market for high-quality, cost-effective analytics services. Moreover, he envisioned a business model in which clients would receive not just the results of the analysis, but the actual statistical models themselves, so that clients would learn how to apply them to other areas of their business. His goal was to help clients institutionalize analytics so that they could make more informed decisions.

In 2008, Mu Sigma raised its first institutional investment round of $30 million from FTVentures (now FTV Capital). In April 2011, the company raised an additional $25 million from Sequoia Capital. In December 2011, the company announced a $108 million round of financing from Sequoia and private equity investor General Atlantic – one of the largest investments yet in an analytics services company.

Services
Big Data is creating challenges for corporations, who have trouble harnessing very large datasets in order to make business decisions. Often simply finding the data scientists required to analyze the data is extremely challenging: McKinsey& Company, for example, predicts that, “By 2018, the United States alone could face a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 people with deep analytical skills as well as 1.5 million managers and analysts with the know-how to use the analysis of big data to make effective decisions.” Moreover, a study conducted by EMC found that only one-third of companies make effective use of data.

Mu Sigma helps by giving its clients access to hundreds of analysts and statisticians, and providing best practices for data analysis. The company serves primarily Fortune 500 companies including Microsoft and Dell. Mu Sigma helps companies solve high-impact business problems in the areas of marketing, supply chain and risk analytics. Examples include: Mu Sigma’s service-delivery model involves outsourcing the heavy analytics lifting to a team in Bangalore, while maintaining a US staff for client interaction and sales.
 * What price should we charge for our products in order to optimize sales and profit?
 * How can I determine which customers are most likely to accept our new credit card offer?
 * How can I increase cross-selling of complementary services?

The Big Data movement is accelerating the growth of analytics services companies, as firms attempt to keep up with and make sense of a rapidly increasing amount of data.

Markets
Mu Sigma clients span a variety of industries, including Financial Services, Insurance, Consumer Packaged Goods/Retail, Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare, Technology, Media & Telecom. The company claims to have more than 50 Fortune 500 clients.

Recognition
In December 2011, Mu Sigma’s Founder Dhiraj Rajaram was named to the Crain’s Chicago Business “40 Under 40” list of up-and-coming executives in the Chicago area.

In August 2011, Walmart Financial Services selected Mu Sigma as its Supplier of the Year.

In March 2011, Mu Sigma was rated by Datamonitor’sBlack Book of Outsourcing as the #1 KPO provider.

In 2011, Mu Sigma was ranked #386 on the Inc. 500 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies.