Lost in the hype but not overlooked by CIOs, professional services account for 44 percent of the Big Data market, which is expected to more than quadruple from $11.59 billion in 2012 to over $47 billion in 2017. A newly launched startup called Gray Matter is looking to carve out a slice of this segment with specialized analytics services for companies in the data-rich healthcare and financial industries.

The consultancy’s offerings include a fixed-price “Mind” assessment of a client’s business objectives and organizational structure. The eight-week evaluation aims to help enterprises develop a “roadmap for optimal data utilization” that “ensures alignment between business strategy and data architecture” and includes recommendations for realizing a quick return on investment.

Mind is complemented by additional services such data management, data monetization and advanced analytics for ongoing support.

The Chicago and San Jose-based Gray Matter is led by Sheila Talton, a 30-year industry veteran who served in senior leadership roles at Cisco, Electronic Data Systems (now a part of HP) and other major tech firms. She highlighted in a statement:

“We are in a data-driven era where having and understanding insight-rich information and how to use it can offer unprecedented competitive advantages. At the same time, many organizations are struggling with issues from how to improve operational efficiencies to building customer loyalty, while often lacking the in-house, holistic industry expertise necessary to integrate their business strategy with what they need from their data architecture.”

Earlier this month, Netskope came out of stealth mode with $21 million in funding to combat shadow IT. The startup offers a subscription-based analytics solution that enables admins to monitor and control the various cloud services used throughout their organizations.