At most companies, data is scattered everywhere, like autumn leaves. Some of it gets swept up into piles — or databases — and some of it is just strewn haphazardly around. Finding a few essential pieces of data that could point to a major problem or opportunity is just about as easy as finding two leaves of exactly the same shape and hue.

When Ali Riaz talks about what his Newton software company Attivio does, it boils down to helping companies figure out what they already know, giving them access to information that may be spread across e-mails, Word documents, invoice databases, or logs of customer support calls.