Several small companies are examined to see how they are mining the Internet for business intelligence.
More and more small companies are mining the Internet for business intelligence. What they're gathering in the way of data and customer feedback often sets them ahead of the pack
For years one of the most popular diversions on the Internet has been the on-line scavenger hunt. Usually played by members of E-mail newsgroups, it's a digital variation on the traditional party game, with contestants vying to see who can sleuth out the most data on a given topic across the vast reaches of cyberspace. In one such competition a couple of years ago, participants were simply given the name of a volunteer subject and challenged to track down as much personal information as they could find, using only Internet sources. The eventual winners turned up nearly 150 pieces of data on their quarry, including his upcoming wedding date and the fact that he worked for the CIA.
Now, consider for a moment the business applications of this kind of game. You're trying to get a young company off the ground, and you want to promote closer relations with your target customers. You're thinking about introducing a new product, and you want to get a feel for the market. You're looking to break into a hot industry, and you want to get the lowdown on the dominant players. Wouldn't it be an advantage to be able to gather intelligence as those crackerjack scavenger hunters did?
The answer for more and more companies is yes. Which is precisely why the Internet's fun and games are becoming the stuff of serious business. The cutting edge, if you will, is turning into a competitive edge, as up-and-coming small businesses increasingly use on-line resources to get a leg up on market research and customer relations. While many larger companies continue to think of the Internet as a sprawling playground for the young and the wired, enterprising smaller companies are quietly proving that it's also the new frontier for gathering business intelligence. For those companies that take the time to explore the expanding on-line universe of newsgroups, mailing lists, and Web sites, the Internet can open up untold worlds of information and opportunity.
Before you can find what's out there, of course, you have to learn how to get around. Give up surfing, in other words, and take up navigating. With more than 15,000 newsgroups now up and running on Usenet (the umbrella term for an entire spectrum of Internet "addresses" where users post messages via E-mail) and new sites on the Web being launched every day, that may seem like a tall order. Fortunately you don't have to be a hacker anymore to travel the Net with confidence. Armed with the latest generation of search software and shareware, and drawing on a few standard browsing techniques, anyone willing to put in the hours can be prospecting for information on-line that will make an impact on the bottom line. Here's a look at how several companies are seeing their on-line time pay off handsomely in three critical arenas of business intelligence.
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Customer Relations
It was just another day on the job for Invitrogen Corp. research scientist David Higgins. With a bit of time on his hands, the biologist had finished reading about the sex life of yeast in the bionet.molebio.yeast newsgroup when he happened on a message in a newsgroup on reagents. A user was trashing one of Invitrogen's products, a DNA cloning vector (a circular bit of DNA used in research). Higgins quickly fired off a response, identifying himself as an Invitrogen employee and offering tips on how to better use the product.
Higgins's message was a gut reaction, one techie offering to help another. He didn't know he was taking a natural first step for companies that want to establish an on-line presence: interacting with customers on-line. Out of the Internet's thousands of newsgroups and proliferating mailing lists, a good many are devoted to discussions of specific industries, products, or services. With customers, suppliers, and competitors mixing it up on-line, there are plenty of opportunities for controlling damage, providing service and support, and collecting feedback.
Now Invitrogen cruises the Internet as a regular part of its customer-service routine. The $12-million, San Diego-based manufacturer of gene expression kits and reagents has assigned technical-services representative Christopher Hoover to scan relevant Usenet groups for messages about the company and its products. Every day Hoover reads at least a dozen newsgroups that focus on molecular-biology research. The rest of the time he answers technical-help questions from baffled customers, many of them from overseas, who contact Invitrogen by E-mail. "We're addressing customers one to one, in real time," says Higgins.
Higgins says the Internet's unbounded flow of ideas and opinions has intensified Invitrogen's commitment to customer service. Anyone who doesn't use the Internet, he says, "will be left in the dust." He notes that word travels fast in cyberspace, making it all the more important for companies to get their own words out there. "Before we didn't care if someone in North Dakota had a problem," says Higgins. "Who were they going to tell? The Internet has changed that."
Streamlined customer service is one clear-cut benefit of on-line access; expanded customer service is another. At Balentine & Co., a midsize investment firm based in Atlanta, the ability to comb the Internet for hard data and quick feedback allows consultants like Gary Martin to bolster their investment advice with up-to-the-moment detail. These days you'll find Balentine's consultants routinely trolling Web sites, mailing lists, and newsgroups to help customers who are contemplating investments in particular markets or floating ideas for specific product innovations. "Now we're an agent of information for our clients," Martin declares.
As the consultant remembers it, Balentine's discovery that the Internet can be a dynamic business resource was something of a shot in the dark. It was Martin who first hit pay dirt, following a lunchtime chat with a client who was thinking of developing a design for a plastic wheelchair but wasn't sure how to gauge market interest. Martin offered to browse the Net for the client, to see if he could turn up any leads.
