Relationship Data On My Mind
Jinfo Blog

19th November 2009

By Nancy Davis Kho

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This month I have the honor of being chosen as a first-round judge for the Software & Information Industry Association's Codie awards, for the category of Best Online Business Information Service. I'd blocked off time this week to do some guided demos and to try out the passwords I received for all seven products in the category…it's a good chance to wear the hat of the VIP reviewers and think as they do about what each product does better than others in their category, and where they could stand to innovate. But before I waded in with the Codies, I had a chance to read the draft of our upcoming January review, written by Penny Crossland, of three products that help users make sense of relationship data: Boardex, Leadership Networks, and Directors Database. We've been told by readers that they're under fire to help sales teams find ways to close deals without incurring additional costs, and that use of relationship data is a key way of accomplishing that goal. With Penny's fine research fresh in the my mind, I started down my list of demos and found a heartening proliferation of people data, in all four of the products that touched on company information. The way the data was presented differed, as did the level of focus on it - for some of the products in this Codie category, people information is a complement to deep company data, and for others it’s the product's raison d'être. In some cases there were links to public data on people (via LinkedIn or ZoomInfo), and presentation ranged from static lists to more easily navigable relationship trees. What I found encouraging was that no one seems to take that social graph information for granted anymore. Some vendors are further down the road with presentation than others, but all seem to be getting the message that the personal relationships are what moves business forward, and are trying to present ( or partner for) relationship data in their products. If you're not already asking for integrated relationship data from your vendors, you might consider it - with the innovation around social networks in the marketplace, there's never been a more auspicious time for them to do it.

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