OneSource Arms Companies

OneSource Information Services today relaunched its flagship product, Business Browser, including two add-on tools that provide company profiles and risk assessment indicators for more than 13 million small businesses. The enhanced version of Business Browser will come at no additional cost to customers beginning in July. The new version adds in-depth profiles on more than 160,000 private companies, an area in which research indicates information was not always readily available. According to Yvonne Cekel, president of OneSource, the company, which provides information as an online subscription service, is known for its strong focus on the enterprise, but organizations are looking to sell to SMBs. OneSource wants to provide the tools for them to do so. "This is hot, and this is the new battleground," says Chuck Richard, vice president and lead analyst of Outsell, referring to the SMB marketplace. The Small Company Spectrum is designed for companies that provide broad-based business services like telecommunication equipment, loans, payroll services, cash management, insurance, office products, and healthcare products. Credit Insights provides modeled credit ratings and recommended credit limits for up to 13 million companies in the United States and Canada. Credit scoring is based on industry volatility, company size, and how long the company has been in business. It is intended for sales representatives developing preferred prospecting lists so they can focus on the most promising candidates. Credit Insights and Small Company Spectrum will be offered separately, at $5,000 per year for five users, or $84 per user per month, beginning in August. The changes are made possible largely by OneSource's relationship with its new corporate parent, infoUSA, which compiles the company data. "OneSource is one of the examples you'd like to see where there's use of leverage, not just an acquisition," Richard says. He applauds the company's integration capabilities, which his research shows is \top of mind for businesses these days. "They've been one of the leaders in providing XML Web-based content into systems people use [like] Microsoft Office 2003, CRM [systems and] Excel. "People are dying for content to be delivered to them in the application they use," he says. "A link can be helpful, but people's thresholds are low for taking extra steps. It won't be as well-received as if it's imbedded in the sales tools." OneSource provides detailed company insights that direct marketing companies don't. "D&B, Equifax, and Harte-Hanks can provide lists, but they don't have the rich profiles," he says. "Give me something that attempts to prioritize or allows me to use the information you gave me to prioritize." OneSource provides Web-scrapping tools to extract summaries from unstructured content and allows companies to set up alerts when there is a change in a particular organization that might heat up the prospect for a sale. "Effectiveness is different from efficiency," Richard says. "The CRM tool allows you to do more with less time, but efficiency allows you to increase the close rate." Related articles: A Little Help From Your Friends A new crop of services firms helps solve data-related frustrations. Experian Delivers Small-B2B Marketing Intelligence SMBs Are Shopping For ERP and CRM Solutions