SupplyFrame Launches New Directory

Datasheet search engine SupplyFrame has launched a new manufacturer directory geared toward design engineers and electronic component purchasing professionals. The directory, accessible at http://www.supplyframe.com/, includes product and contact information for electronic component manufacturers, a list of authorized distributors and full part catalogs.

SupplyFrame is offering a free listing in the directory to all electronic component manufacturers to enable them to showcase their wares and increase their search engine rankings in the process. According to the company, SupplyFrame attracts more than two million design engineers to its site each month.

This new directory should be a nice addition to SupplyFrame's business. SupplyFrame is a datasheet search engine that is used by engineers to find technical information that supports product design decisions. The company provides electronic component information from authorized suppliers. The directory will just provide another resource for engineers to help them accomplish their goals and should help make SupplyFrame an even more vital source of information for them. It will be interesting to see if this is just the beginning of an entire suite of services SupplyFrame will offer the engineering community.

Labels: SupplyFrame

IHS Acquires Divestco

Just one day after announcing its acquisition of Documental Solutions LLC (a provider of market intelligence and analytics for the defense and aerospace industry), information provider IHS Inc. announced its purchase of Divestco USA Inc. for about $3 million in cash. Divestco serves the oil and gas industry with data and analytical tools.

Divestco's content includes drilling records, permits and rig activity, production data and public land survey (mapping) information. It is used by engineers, geo-scientists, financial analysts and service companies.

IHS plans to integrate Divestco's drilling records, rig activity and other oil and gas databases into its Energy division.

Just the fact that it's so much easier and less time-consuming to buy established quality databases than to build them is one main reason why this acquisition makes sense. Divestco's established products will have an immediate positive impact for IHS as they help further build the company's Energy unit. Customers of both companies will certainly benefit from the two joining forces, and perhaps the two will work together to create additional offerings for their shared customer base.

IHS Acquires Documental Solutions LLC

Information provider IHS Inc. last week announced that it has acquired Documental Solutions LLS, a provider of market intelligence and analysis tools for the defense and aerospace industry, for $24.5 million in cash.

Documental Solutions' customer base includes strategic planners, business developers and analysts that work in the defense and aerospace industry. The company's flagship product is DS Forecast, a visual, interactive and personalized market analysis tool that provides 10-year forecasts for 19 global defense and aerospace markets based on thousands of individual product-level forecasts for existing programs and future opportunities.

IHS plans to integrate Documental Solutions into its Jane's Information Group to create a robust defense offering for the IHS Security arm.

This deal makes perfect sense for IHS, which already offers a wealth of defense information through Jane's Information Group. The only way in which to make that information more valuable is to enhance it with market intelligence and analytics. But acquiring Documental Solutions, IHS is able to easily add such features.

Documental Solutions will certainly benefit from new ownership, which has the resources to further build out the company's solutions. Yet, customers will benefit the most with a complete service of content and analysis to solve their information needs.

Online Directory Brownbook.net Launches Mobile Platform

Brownbook.net, a free online directory that can be edited by anyone, has launched a new mobile platform. The new offering, accessible at http://m.brownbook.net/, already contains listings of 27 million businesses.

Among the features of the mobile platform are the ability for users to add or edit any business, write reviews, invite others to review any business in the world, save any of the 27 million business listings on a v.card directly to the address book on their mobile devices, and view maps of business locations.

Mobile content is becoming more and more prevalent these days. This new offering from Brownbook will enable even the smallest businesses to take full advantage of this trend and create listings that have the potential to reach a broader audience than they could with other mediums.

Perhaps years ago, a model that enables users to add and edit their own content wasn't very enticing to the listed businesses or the users viewing those listings. But the trust that Wikipedia has earned has certainly made this an acceptable, and viable, business model. People seem to enjoy having such control over content creation, and as a result, Brownbook's directory should grow at a very healthy pace.

R.L. Polk & Detroit Trading Launch New Service

R.L. Polk & Co. and Detroit Trading Company last week announce their creation of the Premier Lead Exchange, an automotive buyer/seller exchange that enables new vehicle lead buyers an opportunity to buy the best leads in a market area and pay a price based on the lead's likelihood to result in a new vehicle sale.

The Premier Lead Exchange combines the Detroit Trading Exchange with R.L. Polk & Co. predictive Internet lead scoring capabilities to rank order web-based sales leads from highest to lowest on a scale of 1 to 10. (The leads that score a "10" are five times more likely to close as leads scoring a "1."

According to a press release announcing the Exchange, the Detroit Trading Company created the Detroit Trading Exchange to promote the efficient trading of automotive leads at market-driven prices.

The timing is certainly right for this new tool as more and more consumers research their next vehicle on the web well before they set foot on the dealership lot. And, of course, leads are such a vital component of the sales process--regardless of the product; so to offer a tool that will yield the most viable leads will be a welcome addition to the automotive clients who already rely on R.L. Polk's content analysis. The Premier Lead Exchange will most definitely complement Polk's current slate of offerings and makes its lead scoring capabilities even more valuable.

Labels: detroit trading, premier lead exchange, r.l. polk