Information Solutions Increase Productivity and Bottom Line

Information Solutions Increase Productivity and Bottom Line

Table of Contents Information Solutions Increase Productivity and Bottom Line... 2 The high costs of searching the Internet for information... 2 Time is money... 3 Corporate intranets increase productivity... 3 Solutions enable better business decisions, faster... 4 Putting information in context... 5 So what are they searching for?... 6 Technology built on business-user needs.... 7 Developing applications of the future.... 9 YellowBrix Information Solutions... 9 About YellowBrix... 11 Sources referenced... 11

4 hours per week are wasted searching the internet for critical business information. Information Solutions Increase Productivity and Bottom Line Despite the vast amount of readily available information on the free internet, employees are spending an inordinate and unproductive amount of time searching the internet for answers to everyday business challenges; time that could be better spent making smarter, faster business decisions. According to Outsell s Information Industry Outlook 2006, the time users spend searching but not necessarily finding business information on the internet has risen by three hours per week over the past four years; that s an aggregate productivity drain on U.S. employees of more than 5.4 billion hours wasted in 2005. The high costs of searching the Internet for information. The Outsell report points out users are now spending 8-11 hours per week on information searching tasks and are spending more time looking for information rather than analyzing information. According to the Society of Competitive Intelligence, the average senior analyst salary is about $70,000 per year. If this analyst spends 11 hours per week searching for information, that s an investment of roughly $500 per week, $2000 per month, or $24,000 per year, not including overhead and lost opportunity costs. So what do these additional hours end up costing a company overall? Over $5,000 per year per employee in lost wages Over $250,000 in productivity costs lost each year by a middle-market organization employing over 50 workers Over $5 million in productivity costs lost each year by an enterprise organization employing over 1000 workers Needless to say, organizations are becoming frustrated with highly paid workers who are wasting time searching for information instead of analyzing information. With this in mind, organizations are turning to alternatives instead of the internet to access critical business information. From portal applications designed to organize and disseminate information enterprise-wide, to information solutions targeted for the more specific business intelligence needs of middle-market companies, many software providers such as YellowBrix, are providing intelligent data mining and analysis solutions coupled with a single feed of comprehensive business information to help eliminate this productivity drain. 2005 YellowBrix, Inc. Page 2

2 out of 3 users are frustrated searching the internet and now turning to corporate intranets as their preferred alternative to finding critical business information. Time is money. While investing in external information solutions has been considered by some as a somewhat-intangible benefit, particularly given all the free data available on the internet, the ability to enable employees to find the right information at the right time, as noted above, is measurable. If it s commonly understood that company profits will increase when employees are more productive; those three hours can be quite a savings for a company in the course of a year. What can t be easily measured by companies are the cost-savings to the corporation linked to the time needed for employees to make real-time decisions that impact the organization s bottom line. Receiving precise, accurate and timely information offers quantifiable benefits for businesses such as enabling personnel to: Discover both emerging opportunities and threats while the company can still affect their outcome; Carefully monitor other companies -- prospects, partners, and competitors -- that could most impact the organization; Monitor corporate trends including share price, performance and governance issues to guard reputation in a timely fashion; Identify early warning trading signals to be able to react with market speed; Identify new product opportunities to meet market or customer needs; and Stay abreast of the dynamic changes in a given industry to ensure a competitive edge. Getting the right information at the right time is imperative to a business success. And while no one can argue the depth and comprehensiveness the internet offers, it has not been organized with the business user in mind, which is why the current dissatisfaction is on the rise. In fact, the Delphi Group conducted a study indicating that 2 out of 3 professionals surveyed are dissatisfied with their search experience. So if random keyword searching across the web isn t working, what is? Corporate intranets increase productivity. The Outsell report indicates users are getting over their infatuation with the web and are now turning to corporate intranets as a preferred alternative for work-related information. The evolution of the internet portals like Yahoo and Google encouraged companies such as IBM, Oracle, Sun, and TIBCO to develop 2005 YellowBrix, Inc. Page 3

The productivity drain created by internet searching coupled with successful go-to corporate portals should serve as an alert for organizations to take a closer look at how their employees are finding timely, critical business information. opportunities to mimic their services and develop portal software for the enterprise market. These information portal applications enable enterprises the ability to provide a simple desktop view of a wide variety of data using both internal and external information and news sources, organizing access to groupware databases, document repositories and data warehouses. The corporate intranet has become a way for companies to get a handle on managing their vast amount of data. It would seem users are gravitating to the intranet model as the place to go for their business information needs. The productivity drain created by internet searching coupled with successful goto corporate portals should serve as an alert for organizations to take a closer look at how their employees are finding timely, critical business information and examine how they are optimizing their information platforms. The Delphi Group reports that there are significant challenges with enterprise-wide search applications and identifies the key issues enterprise organizations are grappling with as: The need to deliver on the permanently higher expectations of search quality among business professionals; How to better provision users with the information they need in a more productive and efficient manner. As enterprise organizations and software providers struggle with providing the ultimate enterprise search solution, they are partnering with companies like YellowBrix to analyze, disseminate and deliver intelligent external information through their applications and, ultimately, to the employee s desktop. Solutions enable better business decisions, faster. Forward-thinking organizations have recognized the need to create informationrich portals specific to their business interests; choosing to invest in solutions that eliminate wasted search time and enable employees to make time-sensitive business decisions. These organizations are relying on solutions from technology providers and content aggregators to increase accuracy, speed and delivery of mission critical information for their business; information that can mitigate business risks, uncover new opportunities and increase their bottom line. Employing these information solutions benefit organizations by giving them single-point, real-time access to a comprehensive global database of news, industry trades plus company, financial and business information. Many of these solutions are further enhanced with sophisticated data mining technologies which automatically filter information into topics, dynamically linking to related data specific to the organization s business environment. Intelligent information solutions offer the following real-time benefits for organizations: 2005 YellowBrix, Inc. Page 4

The free web abounds with information, but the ability to get to that information with pinpoint accuracy using keyword searching falls short. Increased productivity. These solutions eliminate the need to search for data from one website to another, from one search to another -- by providing one single filtered source of content that is analyzed contextually and organized topically specific to an organization s needs. Increased effectiveness. These solutions offer an enhanced taxonomy that increases the accuracy of search results, making the users more efficient by helping them to retrieve all relevant information on a topic or company and allowing them to quickly scan the content to assess its importance to the organizations they serve. Lower information delivery costs. These solutions offer cost-effective alternatives making it easy for searchers to find all relevant information quickly in one single easy-tointegrate format, providing a substantial savings of time and money for users and their organizations with results of greater accuracy. Putting information in context. The free web abounds with information, but the ability to get to that information with pinpoint accuracy using keyword searching falls short of being successful or even useful given the amount of pages returned, as evidenced by the frustration of search users. Sophisticated data mining solutions, such as the one YellowBrix provides, offers a more intelligent solution to analyzing and delivering data. A quick examination of search verses contextual analysis may help reveal why organizations are opting for the latter: Keyword searching. A keyword search will not always produce relevant results, since many words have multiple and unrelated meanings, i.e. space. To augment the classification process, Boolean logic is using and, or statements to refine the search. But because the keywords need to be hand selected and the appropriate rules built, the process is limiting and time consuming and often provides extraneous information that is not applicable. Contextual analysis. Topic categories are developed using advanced statistical pattern recognition to produce significantly more relevant search results by contextually mapping words in an information space, that enables 2005 YellowBrix, Inc. Page 5

Competitive intelligence professionals are looking for information that creates new opportunities, mitigates business risks, and informs their business of the industry landscape. more precise identification of content and relational data. This is done based upon word frequency, word co-occurrence, and other natural language processing statistics that help YellowBrix determine the content of the article. Categories are defined within this information space and documents assigned within that space based on relevance. The value of this technique is that it addresses the full context (or meaning) of the document or article not just a single keyword and all the words within the document are evaluated in relation to the space enabling the most important information to be delivered first. Another frustrating problem with internet searching is that it does not ensure access to complete data. Users may come across headlines they deem important to their business but only be frustrated when the link takes them to expired content or content that did not meet expectations or a pay-for subscription service. In choosing a solution provider, like YellowBrix, not only is the data mined, analyzed and classified automatically but organizations have access to all the data, all the time, including searchable archives. In fact, while we witness many companies are embracing RSS as a content aggregator, it still falls short, as does the web, for analyzing and storing full text and dynamic classification of information. So what are they searching for? The difficulty with search lies with the inordinate and growing volume of data available on the web but it remains a vast resource for us all. Search is no longer a last option fallback for business users, notes the Delphi Group, it has become a first choice short cut with high expectations for speed, accuracy and precision. While search is here to stay, what s critically important is to understand what the external information needs are of the business users. Competitive intelligence professionals are looking for information that creates new opportunities, mitigates business risks and informs their business of the industry landscape. According to the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, the activities supported by this information need are: 76.2% Developing marketing strategies 74.5% Anticipating change/market monitoring 68.9% Competitor capabilities, products, services and pricing 67.4% Decision support for business opportunities 67.2% Identifying new business opportunities 66.7% Market monitoring and market plan development 2005 YellowBrix, Inc. Page 6

It would seem that if all of this information was available in one single location, analyzed specific to the business user s interest and delivered in one feed that investing in such solutions would be a no-brainer for an organization, and it is. 64.8% Identifying new sources of advantage 58.4% Help sales win business 50.3% New product development 48.1% Anticipating competitor initiatives 43.6% Understanding customer demand 36.9% Identifying alliance partners 35.6% Anticipating technology changes 33.6% Investment prioritization 23.5% Prioritizing R&D spending 15.1% Anticipating changes in distribution It would seem that if all of this information was available in one single location, analyzed specific to the business user s interest and delivered in one feed that investing in such solutions would be a no-brainer for an organization, and it is. That s why leading organizations have turned to YellowBrix to power their information solutions. YellowBrix provides a significant amount of real business data and targeted information through following means: Breaking news and current awareness information Global news from respected newspapers Company profiles, information and press releases Market data and industry intelligence Industry analysis and trade journals Product and services information Government data and analysis Technology built on business-user needs. In the mid-1990s, YellowBrix was born through the need to build products for the Corporate Information Division of Infoseek, the leading search-engine company in the market. Infoseek began to focus on the business environment as well as consumer applications and spun off a new division, that later became a new company - YellowBrix. The new division s mission was to make content meaningful and more useful to the business user. YellowBrix developed and launched an online business intelligence service used by the leading news sites of the time, CNNfn, MSNBC and AOL. This product was constantly refined, based on user feedback, to meet their timely business 2005 YellowBrix, Inc. Page 7

YellowBrix mission: to make content meaningful and more useful to the business user. intelligence needs such as the need for classified, industry-specific content, the elimination of redundant data, the ability to preview article summaries in realtime and the dynamic linking of news, finance and company information to related business intelligence. In answering their own business challenge, YellowBrix created a complete infrastructure technology solution that many enterprise, government, NGO and middle market companies are leveraging today. The proprietary information architecture includes the following unique features: Normalization and aggregation. YellowBrix receives data from thousands of global news and information sources in a variety of formats and normalizes this data into one singleformat. The engine then filters up to 130,000 breaking news stories a day culled from the most reliable sources from hard-to-get premium sources -- such as BBC, the Financial Times, USA Today, Washington Post, and the LA Times as well as industry trades, news wires and periodicals in real-time. Intelligent classification. YellowBrix' automatically maps real-time information into thousands of relevant categories, providing our clients the unique advantage receiving the most critical information first based on the context of the article, not on a miscellaneous keyword string that may identify extraneous unrelated articles. YellowBrix organizes this data intelligently - based on clients' requirements - and seamlessly presents the most important information to their users. Deduplication. YellowBrix is the only content provider that identifies and removes duplicate and near-duplicate articles across all sources. Deduplication allows users to identify different versions of the same business documents, news coverage of press releases and information that has been repurposed for multiple applications. Deduplication enables users to view only the most current versions of stories and not waste time sifting through redundant information. Entity extraction. YellowBrix powerful entity extraction technology quickly identifies key components in an article or entities such as names of companies, products, people, and places, and dynamically matches like content so users are presented with similar information that may be of interest. YellowBrix proprietary Company MultiLinkTM service automatically identifies companies within news articles and links in real-time to 2005 YellowBrix, Inc. Page 8

YellowBrix empowers enterprise organizations by delivering a comprehensive, single point of access to realtime news and business information. detailed company, stock, news and related business information, providing users a comprehensive view into the business intelligence they require. Summarization. YellowBrix is the only content provider to offer automatic executive summaries for every article provided, as well as summaries for proprietary content clients submit through YellowBrix publishing tool. YellowBrix summaries are not the first sentence of each paragraph or the first paragraph itself as most summaries on the market today are providing, but rather the sentences contextually analyzed and deemed most important. Executive summaries increase productivity by helping users quickly find the documents that address their needs, without having to read the full text of articles. Delivery. Whether you want an XML feed, JRS-168 service or a fully hosted business intelligence solution, YellowBrix information solutions were developed to be easily integrated within all major enterprise portals, content and document management systems, websites and custom applications. YellowBrix is prepared to get you up and running with content in no time. We can also provide your content via email or wireless services. With our easy-to-integrate solutions, you will spend less time, money and resources integrating into your platform. Developing applications of the future. The new application of the future will be knowledge driven tailored to business processes and it will take advantage of our rich metadata infrastructures to focus quickly on the context of user problems, the Delphi Group further noted in their analysis. YellowBrix has always been focused on the business user and will continue to innovate and enhance its information solutions to meet the ongoing niche information requirements of businesses and enterprise, expanding their search capabilities, their taxonomy and their content library based on the requirements of their growing client base and leading software partners in the industry. YellowBrix Information Solutions. YellowBrix empowers enterprise organizations by delivering a comprehensive, single point of access to real-time news and business information, thereby reducing the time your users spend seeking the relevant information they need. YellowBrix offers customizable news feeds that enable you to integrate filtered 2005 YellowBrix, Inc. Page 9

Getting the right information at the right time is imperative to a business success. XML content (or any other delivery method) from the most respected international news sources, trade journals, periodicals and more. Get up-to-date critical business information, including company data, stocks and financial charting, and make your website a complete intelligence solution. Access to thousands of global news and information sources. YellowBrix filters over 130,000 breaking news stories daily culled from thousands of the most reliable sources. Choose from hard-to-get premium sources such as BBC, the Financial Times, USA Today, Washington Post, and the LA Times. This content is then categorized by relevancy, not keyword into thousands of topic-based categories. In one single feed, we will dynamically deliver to you the categories most relevant to your business in real-time. Competitive intelligence solutions. YellowBrix dynamically links incoming news to valuable company, financial, and industry data, providing your entire workforce the ability to make meaningful decisions based on real-time information. Streamline the way your users analyze their competitive landscape with easy access to historical market data, interactive charting, financial statements, and company reports. Comprehensive, searchable archives. Search capability allows your users to conduct keyword searches across YellowBrix 30-day news archive of hundreds of thousands of stories. Provide your organization with access not just to today s breaking news, but a powerful research tool to search past articles. YellowBrix clipping service. YellowBrix provides you with a single point of access to aggregated online news content. This easy to use web-based tool allows you to easily manage your syndicated content and is ideal for key-word based categorization needs, creating clipping of certain news feeds and search results, and saving frequent searches. DecisionBrix publishing and online support tool DecisionBrix is a state-of-the art customer management and publishing tool enabling our clients to mange the data on their website, including re-ranking articles, adding photos and adding new content. Although YellowBrix offers 24/7 technical support and a dedicated account 2005 YellowBrix, Inc. Page 10

manager for every client, the tool allows clients to track support tickets and activate technology applications online. About YellowBrix YellowBrix is a pioneer in real-time information delivery and leading provider of targeted news and business intelligence services. YellowBrix provides a complete, single source solution of the best content, tools and services needed to empower your organization. The YellowBrix solution offers up to 130,000 breaking news stories a day culled from thousands of the most reliable sources and dynamically links incoming news to valuable company, financial, and industry data. YellowBrix' innovative technology solution then organizes this data intelligently - based on clients' requirements - and seamlessly presents the most important information to their users, enabling them to make informed business decisions and stay a step ahead of the competition. That's why leading companies, such as AFX Financial, American Chemical Association, Case Industries, Clear Channel, Lockheed Martin and Sprint, have turned to us to power their critical business information needs. For a free trial of our services or an information consultation, give us a call at 1-888-325-9366, email us at solutions@yellowbrix.com or visit our website, www.yellowbrix.com. YellowBrix is a privately held company headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. YellowBrix' major shareholders include Soros Private Equity, ABN AMRO and Tribune Media Services. Sources referenced: Outsell Report, I-Market Future Facts: Information Industry Outlook 2006. Society of Competitive Intelligence Competitive Intelligence Professional s Salary Survey Report, 2003-04. The Delphi Report, Insights for Technology Leaders, Enterprise Search is a Myth, Hadley Reynolds, 2005. Society of Competitive Intelligence CI Effectiveness in Support of Sales and Marketing a survey of the SCIP membership conducted by The Pine Ridge Group, Inc. and T.W Powell Company, 1998. The Delphi Report, Insights for Technology Leaders, New Focus on Application- Delivered Search, Hadley Reynolds, 2005. 2005 YellowBrix, Inc. Page 11