Using Web Data to Drive Revenue and Reduce Costs

Using Web Data to Drive Revenue
and Reduce Costs
Presenters: Keith Cooper, CEO, Connotate
Christian Giarretta, VP of Sales Engineering, Connotate
Moderator: Gina Cerami, VP of Marketing, Connotate
Date: March 12, 2013

Presenters
2
Keith Cooper
Chief Executive Officer
Chris Giarretta
VP of Sales Engineering

Today’s Discussion
• Why Web Data?
• Drive revenue
• Reduce costs and streamline processes
• Automation Options
• Scoping Your Project
• Five steps to success
• Evaluating Providers
• Five questions to ask
• Q&A
3

The Web Provides the Largest Source of Data Ever
Assembled…
4
News sites
Government sites
Job boards
Financial sites Corporate sites
eCommerce sites
Regulatory sites Retail sites
Social forums
Healthcare sites
State and local court sites

…and the Data Continues to Grow and Change
at Unprecedented Rates
• 1.2 zettabytes of new digital content created in 2011* (zettabyte = 1B terrabytes)
• The Internet will double in size every 5.32 years **
5
* IDC’s The Digital Universe
** PhysOrg.com

6
In Order to Use All of That Information…You
Need to Find It, Filter It and Format It…

7
…Then You Can Turn Web Data into Profits
Sample Use Cases:
Competitive intelligence
News aggregation
Background check
Price optimization
Investment research
Online ad usage reports
Market research
Regulatory updates
Sales intelligence
Business risk assessment
Data directories
Aggregate construction bids
Supply chain monitoring
Brand monitoring
Voice of the Customer
Social media monitoring

8
Using Web Data to Drive Revenue

Deliver High-Value Directories: HG Data
• Challenge/Opportunity
• Build the largest, most accurate database of B2B tech customer intelligence
• Combine public and private content in unique ways to reveal new insights
• Solution: Use automation to cost-effectively extract
business intelligence from millions of Web documents
• 10,000+ agents built to date
• Highly granular database of 1M + profiles of enterprise technology users
• Business Benefit
• Successful go-to-market: disruptive technology replaces manual process
• Extracting new value in business area long hobbled by stale sources
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IDEX
QualcommAlcatel-Lucent
AT&T Swisscom
Verizon
Vodafone
Bell Canada
Casio Computer
Research In Motion
BandRich
Inc.
Kyocera
Fujitsu
Panasonic
Hitachi
Asahi
Glass
Canon Inc.
Lion Corporation
Supplier to Customer Value Added
Reseller
Fishbowl Solutions
Cintra Software
Tata Consultancy
Law Firm of William Koy LLP
Distributor
Nalco
Avnet Technology
Solutions
Imation
Strategic Alliance
Reveals Customer Relationships Between
Business Entities: HG Data

Gain Transparency Mid-Quarter to Better
Predict Company Performance: Financial Firm
• Gain daily/weekly/monthly visibility into inventory/sales of companies and
market segments where data is made public only on a quarterly basis
• Solution: Continually monitor available inventory and other
data posted on websites in those markets
• Use automation to capture precise indicators on an ongoing basis
• Analyze trends and make predictions
• Transparency supports more accurate predictions of financial results to
support smarter investment decisions
11

Gain Transparency Mid-Quarter: Web Page
12
Camera sales:
• Check camera prices
daily
• Full-sweep of camera
inventory weekly
• Map trends, spot
anomalies
• Compare one or two
targeted suppliers to
overall segment averages

Web Page is Transformed into Usable Data
13

Enhance Risk Assessment:
Business Information Provider
• Deliver updates/alerts on changes in assigned risk status of counterparties to
a financial transaction instead of just producing a static report
• Solution: Use automation to monitor websites for updates
• Monitors sites for changes that affect a business entity’s assigned risk status
– mergers, acquisitions, bankruptcies, de-listings, regulatory changes,
sanctions
• Business Benefit:
• First-to-market with a risk assessment service offering continual monitoring
• Fresh Web data is integrated into customer (financial institution) workflow –
enhancing customer “stickiness”
• Automated Web data extraction solution delivered a 6-month payback
14

16

Price Optimization: Sigma-Aldrich
• Optimize product positioning in B2B market where buying decisions can be
motivated by a few dollars or cents
• Competitors’ prices are changing constantly
• Solution: Replace manual spot checking of prices with
precise automated Web data extraction
• Continually extracts sizing/pricing on more than 150,000 products
• Acquired usable data for historical trend analysis
• Optimizes prices to improve profit margins
• Reduced manpower devoted to data collection by 50%
17

Price Optimization Pays Off
18
Increase revenue
2%- 4%
$8.75M - $16B for Fortune 500 Company
2012 Study:
Companies that
successfully
implement price
optimization will
realize 2 to 4%
improvement in
total revenue

19
Using Web Data to Reduce Costs

Automated Records Check Improves Speed
and Accuracy: Tandem Select
• Criminal records are highly structured; accuracy and reliability is key for
people making hiring decisions
• Deliver guaranteed turnaround time on accurate checks without adding staff
• Solution: Replace manual processes to extract records
directly from court websites on demand
• Average background check time reduced from hours/days to minutes
• Much better quality - far fewer errors – guaranteed turnaround time
• In 12 months, order fulfillment increased 62% while operating expenses
decreased $150,000
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Automated Records Check (FetchCheck):
Tandem Select
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Standard customer order
at Tandem site
Tandem’s application calls
Connotate/FetchCheck
with a Web services
request
Agent extracts, transforms
and normalizes data
Information is returned to
calling application
Process takes between 6
and 20 seconds to
complete

Improve Revenue Collection Processes with
Accurate Reporting: Interactive Advertising
• Billing reconciliation was taking weeks/months (14 people overseeing daily
data collection, 5 days/week)
• Usage data posted on multiple password-protected Web sites (portals)
• Solution: Automated Web data collection accesses portals
for highly-accurate reporting and billing
• Reported data is 100% error-free; data is collected 365 days/year
• Quality data supports timely, accurate billing (reconciliation in days)
• Aggregated views enable ad placement optimization increasing customer ad
revenue 30 – 300%
22

23
1. Navigates the portal 2. Precisely captures statistics
3. Turns data
into Excel

Turning Web Data into Profits: Text
25

Turning Web Data into Profits: Files
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A Closer Look at Different Approaches
27
Approach Considerations
Manual offshore No economies of scale; human error compromises quality.
Crowdsourcing
A viable approach for complex tasks like product matching
of apparel for one-shot projects; may be less reliable for
ongoing monitoring and long-term projects.
In-house or low-cost
Web scrapers
Not resilient; scrapers break when Web page HTML
changes, expensive programmers must fix scripts,
increasing total cost of ownership (TCO)
Robust automation
installed on-premise
High degree of control; better resiliency to change – reduced
TCO however, project complexity and future needs may
indicated hosted solution is better
Robust solution hosted
by vendor
Highest resiliency; no maintenance burden – reduced TCO;
24/7 follow-the-sun support; infinitely scalable and no capital
expenditures for hardware or IT resources.

Manual versus Automated Approaches
28
Your Data Needs To Automate or Not?
High-volume data monitoring  Automate
Variety of sources  Automate
Frequent updates and/or monitoring  Automate
Need for data post-processing  Automate
Small amount of data required just a few
times a year from very simple sites
A manual approach may be
adequate
One-time feed of very specific data Purchase data from 3rd party
Product matching applications where unique
identifiers are not available
May want to consider
crowdsourcing

Polling Question: Web Data Collection
Are you currently collecting data from the Web?
Yes – we are doing this using an automated process
Yes – we are collecting Web data using a manual process
Yes – we are using BOTH manual and automated approaches
No – we are not collecting Web data

30
Scope Your Project: 5 Steps

Scoping Your Project: 5 Steps to Success
1. Clarify what you want to do with the
data
2. Look at what’s happening manually
today – find out how users are
accessing the Web – these are targets
for automation
3. Identify the sources you need
4. Narrow your scope….you may not
need “everything”
5. Anticipate future requirements
31

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Evaluating Providers: 5 Questions to Ask

Evaluating Providers: 5 Questions to Ask
• Can it scale up easily and quickly?
Look for a proven ability to handle high-volume, high-frequency applications without
draining your IT resources
• Is it resilient ?
Can it withstand website formatting changes – or will it “break,” requiring code fixes?
• How does it detect / deliver updates?
You’ll save time and money with change detection with highlighting – the ability to detect
and deliver “just the changes”
• Does it support my operational workflows?
Built-in job scheduling, resource shared access and other features can increase
efficiencies and coordinate workflow
• What are the deployment options?
Flexible options for on-premise and hosted solutions should adapt to your needs
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Polling Question: The Value of Automated
Web Data Collection
Do you believe automating Web data monitoring and
extraction could add value to your business?
Yes – we are doing this now
Yes – we are planning a project in the near future
No – not at this time
I need more information before deciding

Here’s What Success Looks Like…
Create new and
enhanced
products and
services faster
Predict company
and market
performance
faster, better: gain
transparency into
non-transparent
markets
Monitor
competitor
prices to
optimize product
positioning
Automate
reporting for
timely, accurate
revenue
collection
35
… Connotate’s experts are ready to take you there

Q & A
Connotate will email a link to this presentation as well as a
copy of the slides to you within 2 business days.
If you have an immediate need and would like us to contact
you about a forthcoming project, please check the appropriate
box in the last polling question or call (+1) 732-296-8844.
For more information, you may also visit www.connotate.com
or www.connotate.co.uk.
36

Thank You
If you have an immediate need and would like us to contact
you about a forthcoming project, please check the appropriate
box in the last polling question or call (+1) 732-296-8844.
For more information, visit
www.connotate.com or www.connotate.co.uk
37

Using Web Data to Drive Revenue and Reduce Costs

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