Founder’s Corner: What’s in a Name?

What’s in a name?

Over 400 years ago, William Shakespeare posed this question in his romantic tragedy, “Romeo and Juliet.”  He followed up that question with the proclamation that a rose, by any other name, would still, in fact, smell the exact same. I’m paraphrasing, of course.  “But Adam,” you might be asking yourself, “what does this have to do with NCS?”

Our name is the issue at hand. As we have grown, expanded and evolved as a company Nationwide Compliance Specialists just doesn’t really “fit” us anymore. As we grew, I caught myself more and more shortening it to just “NCS,” finding our full name to be a bit much (and let’s be honest, NCS is way easier to fit on letterhead!). So, much like Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (3M), we have decided to shorten our name.

When we first sat down to name our baby business, we picked a very descriptive moniker. Honestly, we looked at our footprint (Nationwide) what we were doing (Compliance), and the fact we are really good at it (Specialists) then slapped an “Inc.” on the end to make us sound fancy (and for tax purposes) and off we went. I know we aren’t the only ones that used this methodology – looking at you International Business Machines (IBM).

So, without further ado, let me introduce you to our new name. Officially, as of July 1^st, we are now NCS Analytics, Inc., but more commonly, just NCS. We wanted to pay homage to our past but also add a nod to the future. So, we are still the company that proved that data is the key to understanding and handling high-risk industries. It is still our patented analytics at the core of our platform, and we are still proving that the “status quo” just isn’t enough anymore. As for our future, this year has shown a desperate need for our platform in many other areas. Our most recent work has included cigarette smuggling and bootlegging and will soon include opioids and sales suppression. We will also soon be expanding past “Nationwide” into “Worldwide” but “Worldwide Compliance Specialists” just seems a bit braggadocios.