NEW ORLEANS — Business information solutions provider OneSource Information Services Inc. announced today the availability of two new modules for its Business Browser product with added data from parent firm infoUSA.
The announcement came here at the Direct Marketing Association's 87th Annual Conference & Exhibition.
Omaha, NE-based infoUSA acquired OneSource in June for $101 million, or $8.85 per share in cash. It was integrated into the firm's Donnelley Group, which includes Donnelley Marketing, Walter Karl, Edith Roman, Yesmail and Triplex.
“The view that infoUSA took with the OneSource acquisition was a larger view of the sales process that every company goes through with their own clients, and that process starts off with targeting,” said Ed Hutchinson, director of strategic communications at OneSource Information Services, Concord, MA. “They wanted to take a larger view and say that there is a whole sales process that OneSource is extremely good at addressing with information and tools that we want to be able to go to our clients and talk about as well.”
There are also synergies with the data that infoUSA and OneSource have, he said. Those synergies came into play during the creation of the new modules for OneSource's Business Browser product. Business Browser is a Web-based subscription service for sales representatives at certain types of firms who need detailed information on possible prospects.
“The target user for Business Browser is a sales rep at a large financial services company, a commercial bank, a law firm or somebody in the sales role at an accounting firm or a high-tech firm,” Hutchinson said. “These types of salespeople are trying to find the right clients to go after, to learn more about the clients they have and keep up to date on who those target companies compete with.”
The new modules were created to add value to the existing service. Business Browser contains data on 715,000 companies in the United States and 4 million executives.
The Executive Insights module was designed to provide deeper information on key contacts at companies, including biographical information regarding executives' careers such as where they have worked, what boards they are on and where they went to school.
Of the roughly 400,000 names in Executive Insights, about 200,000 come from infoUSA's idEXEC database, said Brad Haigis, vice president of products at OneSource. Additional executive data in this module come from company Web sites and press releases.
“We are going after Web sites for a lot of this data,” he said. “We know there are people out there mining Web sites and they'll throw tens of millions of names at you, but that is a little risky. We're focusing on fewer names and higher quality.”
OneSource also does some telephone verification of its data.
The other new module is Company Insights, focusing on data compiled from financial statements and analysis reports as well as the Web. It includes detailed strategic data on about 8,000 U.S. firms as well as richer company information on about 60,000 firms.
“This module gives the user the key initiatives a company has been working on and how the company is faring in the marketplace and against key competitors,” Haigis said. Such data can help sales reps sound informed when they make a call, which increases the likelihood that the person will listen to them.
Companies in Business Browser generally are worth $3 million or more and have at least 100 employees. However, the rules are bent based on circumstances, such as for tech firms.
Business Browser subscription cost is based on the number of users and data needs in regions. The modules represent an added cost of 10 percent to 15 percent of the subscription price. Business Browser offers different geographical versions such as United States and Canada, United Kingdom, Europe, Asia Pacific and global.
OneSource also offers AppLink Software Development Kit as a way for users who don't want to use the data through a browser to set up to use the system by embedding it in an application they already have in their enterprise.
