Mapping relationship data
Jinfo Blog

22nd October 2009

By Penny Crossland

Item

‘Relationship capital management‘ is becoming increasingly important to companies and professionals. Particularly when times are tough, companies and professionals realize that leveraging their network of connections is crucial for business development or for finding that next career move. So, it’s no wonder that business network site Linkedin announced recently that it had reached 50 million members (http://digbig.com/5bambn), with half of these based outside the US. Interestingly, India, which currently has 3 million Linkedin members, has the fastest growing usership. Now internet startup 7 Degrees (http://www.7-degrees.com) has launched an application called PeopleMaps (http://www.people-maps.com) which provides visual maps of professionals’ business connections. The system enables users to search for their contacts in Outlook, Facebook, Linkedin, Gmail, Yahoo as well as publicly available online sources and then establishes connection paths to individuals or companies. Basic registration is free, however a premium, paid edition ($49 per month) is aimed at sales professionals for lead generation. The service can be incorporated into any Salesforce CRM, and will analyse and rank sales prospects, making this a valuable prospecting and business development tool. In addition, users are able to establish their connection to people and companies already in the database – enabling sales people and direct marketers to ’turn a cold call into a warm introduction‘. The PeopleMaps site claims the connections tool is also useful for recruiters, fundraisers, venture capitalists and financial advisors. It will be interesting to follow how PeopleMaps fares compared to the well-established subscription-based database providers such as Capital IQ and Boardex.

« Blog