Here’s an article we found in America Today:
Arthur Igwana loves his kids, but he says his many work commitments make it difficult to spend as much time with them as he would like. So last Christmas, his wife’s gift to him was a yearlong contract with Perennial Systems Integration, a data mining company that services businesses such as Microsoft, General Motors, and Walmart to enhance their customer interactions. More and more, families like the Igwanas are using Perennial and similar companies to kick up the level of quality in the limited time that fathers and mothers get to spend with their children.
Mom and gift giver Muriel Igwana says that, in just a few months, Perennial has bolstered Arthur’s understanding of their children, and improved their family life overall. “From something as simple as Arthur not mixing up the kids’ names, to being able to comment meaningfully about a lacrosse game he was unable to attend, they’ve strengthened our family’s bonding immensely.”
The Igwana family lives in Greenwich, Connecticut, with Arthur commuting daily into Manhattan, where he works as a managing director at a private banking firm. Muriel’s philanthropic and social commitments keep her busy, as well, especially in the crucial evening hours when the kids are out of school. “Before Perennial and their formidable computing power, I didn’t fully appreciate just how broad our kids’ networks were, or how angry and unsatisfied they and their little friends were. Now I have all the information I need with just a couple of clicks.”
When Arthur and Muriel’s son Trevor tweets that Arthur is “all butt-hurt” over something Trevor said or did, the quants at Perennial dig deep, across years’ worth of Trevor’s postings, to determine just how serious, comparatively, the new remark is.
Perennial’s CEO Bix Dungerson says analysis is the key. “With the huge data sets we have at our command, once we’ve processed their salient information our deep-thinking analysts can gain a real understanding of a child’s level of resentment, anger, or happiness, and counsel parents how best to deal with these things. In the case of the Igwana family, when sons Trevor or Mike share that their dad is being ‘a complete asshole’ we can measure that against the times they’ve said he’s being ‘an asshole’ or ‘a total dick’ and really suss out the deeper differences.”
Each night at 11:30 pm and each day at 5 am, 10 am, and 4 pm, client parents receive a one-line summary of what their kids have posted on the internet. Spreadsheets, graphs, and other more in-depth materials are easily accessed if parents wish. “I can look at it for ten or fifteen seconds while I’m dealing with work things and get the whole picture,” says Arthur. Parents also receive monthly and quarterly trend reports. For a premium fee, Perennial will gain access to children’s phone records and track their texts.
Dungerson says that it’s that combination of the big picture and miniscule detail that Perennial delivers: “We can tell parents the story of their children’s lives.”
Across the country, in the wealthy San Francisco exurb Atherton, California, parents James and Penelope Dwartz have been contracting with Perennial for four years. They say they’ll “keep renewing the contract at least until the last one turns eighteen.”
Penelope says Perennial has been indispensable. “I think what James and I like best is that it removes all the subjectivity in dealing with our kids. He and I can sit down and really study what’s going on in their lives, and act accordingly. We don’t have to rely on conversations and one-off observations.”
She says that when their son Robert “became a target of cyber bullying after making an accurate and understandable comment” on what a girl from a different high school wore at a party, Perennial was instrumental in protecting the family. “The company showed us that basically it was a bunch of instigators not minding their own business. Without Perennial’s hard data, it might have taken weeks or even months to get the truth behind the rumors.”
Taking advantage of Perennial’s Premium Reputation Protection service, the Dwartzes were able to address the problem. “They set up a dummy account and got all the kids hating on that instead. Robert got to be part of the crowd again by joining in on the hatred. We didn’t have to worry about anything.”
Perennial’s Dungerson predicts private family use of his company’s services will only become more robust. Wall Street seems to agree. Bloomberg News reports that Perennial’s stock is trading at a 72-month high, and most major analysts rate it a “buy.”
Sidney Veritee, an analyst with market research firm Teen Market Logistics, says that Perennial’s success shouldn’t be a surprise. “Anything that helps parents without adding to all the demands already on them is going to be a huge hit. And it’s almost a limitless market, as parents control more than $1 trillion in purchasing power.
None of the client families’ children would speak to us for this article, with the exception of Trevor Igwana, who tweeted, “Go [blank] yourself.”
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