Southpaw Technology Inc., a Toronto-based Company, Orchestrates Enterprise Information and Processes in a Digitally Composed World

“Southpaw is unique in its ability to knit together disparate interdependent functions, bridge information silos, and deliver end-to-end transparency for all information throughout its entire lifecycle.”

Every organization has them—information silos and process “islands” that impede progress toward business objectives. For large enterprises especially, siloed data and workgroups are no longer sustainable as companies grow and content balloons to the petabytes-and-beyond range. Inscrutable processes and information flows are not only frustrating and cumbersome, they’re difficult to track, audit, and secure, which adds unnecessary business risk to business functions ranging from cybersecurity to product development and service delivery.

In light of the foregoing, we’re thrilled to present Southpaw Technology.

Southpaw Technology orchestrates enterprise information workflows into free-flowing processes that deliver quantifiable business improvements. Based on its open-source TACTIC workflow engine, Southpaw delivers end-to-end visibility and control over information as it is created, used, and changed throughout enterprise processes. For more than a decade, the company’s technology and service delivery expertise has optimized efficiency, reduced risk, and unleashed employee creativity for Fortune 500 and other leading companies. Southpaw was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario.

Southpaw Technology: Synopsis

Elements that Make Southpaw Stand Out

Southpaw began by delivering digital workflow and asset management solutions to film, entertainment, and media companies—whose primary assets were digital well before recent enterprise digital transformation initiatives. Creating, using, and retaining digital assets introduced an entirely new set of information management challenges for these companies, which Southpaw successfully solved.

The company developed its TACTIC web-based platform for tracking digital assets throughout complex workflows. Since then, Southpaw has integrated a powerful TACTIC workflow engine, production asset management, and media library capabilities into a powerful, flexible platform for enterprise workflows. Today, Southpaw has more than 14 years of proven deployments in household-name companies who trust the company to orchestrate large, complex workflows and deliver quantifiable business improvements.

Traditional workflow automation is largely based on automating manual steps and executing “if-then” functions. Southpaw orchestration solutions often include automated workflow but go substantially beyond. The Southpaw platform is the only platform with an end-to-end workflow engine that handles ferociously complex workflows involving millions of assets and multiple data types, data models, and terminologies. Deployments blend invisibly into clients’ existing environments without disruption or having to replace enterprise solutions. With robust APIs, Southpaw solutions knit together disparate interdependent functions, bridge information silos, and deliver end-to-end transparency for all information throughout its entire lifecycle—wherever it’s created, sent, stored, and used. Workflow and process output can be anything from stunning visual effects, feature films, and video games to advertising content, engineering models, consumer packaged goods designs, onboarding documents, regulatory audit trails, and other enterprise content.

Southpaw Technology: Products Overview

Southpaw solutions are built on the TACTIC platform for each client’s specific workflow challenge. Engagements include professional services and support.

TACTIC 4.5.v1 is available to download as free open-source software under the Eclipse Public License for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and Linux. It also can be accessed directly on GitHub. The commercial version is available as a fully supported license through Amazon Web Services.

With Python as its programming language, the Southpaw platform delivers tremendous flexibility.Python enables easy integration with other platforms, offers large support libraries, and is fast and lightweight. Southpaw customers always have access to their code.

The Southpaw TACTIC platform incorporates four primary components: Project, Media Library, Workflow, and Professional Services.

TACTIC Project

Task management: Know exactly what your team is doing. Automatically create tasks in the right order through workflows, and track them to completion.

Store files with projects: Files are stored with the project. Easily track which tasks contain what files.

Visual business process mapping / Reports and dashboards: Define workflows using the built-in workflow editor. Visually order tasks and insert automation, approvals, and conditional steps to accelerate work process.

Integrated workflow engine: Downstream tasks automatically are set to “pending” until dependent tasks are completed. Revisions are pushed back automatically.

Project Templates: Project templates can be quickly duplicated with all relative times adjusted to the start date of the new project.

TACTIC Media Library

Asset tracking: Manage uploaded files in the digital media library—a repository of finished assets. Two-stage validation ensures approved assets are visible to searches.

Download and conversion: Assets can be downloaded in batch. You can crop, resize, reformat images and watermarks visually before downloading.

Keywords: Keywords are automatically extracted from uploaded files. Track all searches and keywords used.

TACTIC Workflow

Work orders and deliverables: Break projects into work orders with multiple deliverables. Each deliverable defines its own workflow with tasks, processes and digital assets.

Business process mapping: Visually create workflows and connect tasks with automated processes, key approvals, and conditional requirements.

Integrated workflow engine: A powerful workflow management system that drives projects using workflows created in the visual workflow editor.

Asset tracking: Manage uploaded files in the media library. Work on assets using work orders and deliverables and publish completed assets back to the media library.

Data ingestion: Batch import assets and automatically extract important metadata. Incorporate information from internal creators and repositories and external services, such as fraud checks. All information in the workflow is recorded and tracked with the ability to demonstrate that all required compliance, approval, security, or other checks were performed.

Business intelligence tool: Improve corporate performance with business process management features like built-in reports and dashboards.

Southpaw Technology Professional Services

Each Southpaw customer solution is tailored specifically for the required workflow. Southpaw’s process expertise enables it to transform specific process steps and data streams into coordinated, automated workflows that deliver quantifiable improvements with full accountability. Southpaw also offers mentorship to its customers, providing generous knowledge and skills transfer. As a result, Southpaw has earned return engagements with the vast majority of its customers.

Southpaw Technology Clients

A diverse group of customers have trusted Southpaw solutions, including Adidas, Advantaq, Astral Media, Bell Helicopter, Blohm + Voss, Corus, General Dynamics, Legend3D, Lockheed Martin, Mayo Clinic, MPC Technicolor, Nissan, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Teague, Tegna, TransUnion, Turbine, Turner Broadcasting, Ubisoft, Viacom, and Warner Brothers.

David Lowe: A Formidable Leader

David Lowe is the Chief Executive Officer of Southpaw Technology Inc. where he has spearheaded the company’s vision and growth since 2011. He leads a highly experienced team of financial, process, programming, and service delivery experts. His 30 years of experience in building and managing teams, business development, strategy, operations, and technology launches is instrumental in Southpaw’s growth. In previous roles, David drove revenue growth to a $100M NASDAQ IPO for a startup media company and managed relationships with multinational companies such as Intel, Hilton, Deloitte, Coca Cola and Charles Schwab. Immediately prior to Southpaw, David served as Managing Director, Canada, for LinkMe Mobile—a U.S.-based company with mobile search applications and technologies. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto and the UCLA Anderson School of Management Executive Management Program.