Finex, the business research database subsidiary of Thomson Financial, has changed its name to idEXEC and moved its delivery channel to the Internet. The shift will enable real-time delivery of business contact data and is expected to open up new markets of users.
idEXEC, New York, tracks 400,000 decision makers at 65,000 public, private, government and nonprofit companies with annual revenues of more than $30 million. idEXEC identifies each contact by business title and one of 40 possible job functions and is thus able to differentiate between employees with the title vice president, for instance. It's also linked to company news and financial information from the Thomson Investor Network.
The database is compiled from customized survey letters sent quarterly, telephone research and the monitoring of news services. Approximately 4,000 changes are made to the database each week, according to marketing director Mikki Fardella. Contact information includes direct dial phone and fax numbers, and the firm is beginning to collect executive e-mail addresses.
Data was previously updated quarterly on disk or CD-ROM. The advent of Internet delivery makes data updates available in real time. Quick access to data was the primary reason server applications firm Bluestone Software, Mount Laurel, NJ, chose idEXEC.
“My motivation is time to market,” said Bluestone product manager Chris Benedetto. “I don't have the time to wait for a shipment to make it to me. I am in a strategic selling situation and need contacts right away.”
Using idEXEC to fill in the title and position holes in data purchased from a separate vendor, Bluestone generated a complete, competitive positioning and selling kit and a mailing list in two weeks. Benedetto was impressed with the database's ability to query in a multitude of ways, including company name.
“That's very powerful,” he said.
The browser-enabled database lets organizations share contact information across their sales and marketing forces by entering a password and can serve as an alternative to purchasing additional contact management software, said idEXEC president Peter Malamas.
“It's seamless, that's what makes it real attractive,” said David Small, director of conference marketing for Forbes Magazine, New York, who uses the database to supplement inhouse lists.
Forbes targets conference attendees by job title and function, such as CEO, chief financial officer or chief information officer. Small, who previously used the disk version of the database, likens the timeliness of browser-enabled data to the Web version of Forbes versus its twice monthly print version.
Each user in a company is given a unique password. The database is accessible on the browsers' Internet Explorer 4.0 or Netscape 4.3 or higher. Unlimited access is $75,000 a year, or a company can browse on a pay-per-view basis for a $6,000 annual minimum. How the client chooses to segment data will also affect pricing.
