AIRS, ZoomInfo Partner to Better Serve Recruiter Customers

AIRS, a recruitment training, technology and outsourcing provider, and business information provider ZoomInfo last week announced a partnership to deliver joint recruiter customers a solution to help them source candidates for employment opportunities.

Customers who already use AIRS SourcePoint recruiting platform will be able to seamlessly search and access ZoomInfo profiles of more than 40 million professionals and 4 million companies directly through SourcePoint. At the same time, ZoomInfo PowerSearch users will be able to access AIRS training, designed to improved their sourcing results.

The alliance will kick off with all SourcePoint customers receiving a temporary free trial of ZoomInfo Power Search. Joint SourcePoint and ZoomInfo customers can use the integrated system immediately for free.

This alliance makes perfect sense for both AIRS and ZoomInfo as they target the same customer base. Together, the two companies will be able to provide an even more powerful tool for their recruiter customers.

It also happens at a perfect time, when the war for talent is so strong, and there is increased pressure on (and opportunity for) recruiters to find the best candidates for their clients. Any tools that can help recruiters more quickly and effectively locate the top talent in the marketplace will most likely be welcomed by current and potential users.

From Wisdom of One to Wisdom of Crowds

If you're not already familiar with Gerson Lehrman Group, it's worth a look. Its financial success is impressive, and the underlying concept is simple but brilliant.

Gerson Lehrman describes itself succinctly as "the world's leading marketplace for expertise." Consultants and other subject matter experts provide details on their specialized knowledge to Gerson Lehrman, which markets this knowledge base at handsome rates to investors, financial analysts, private equity firms.

Of course, a Wall Street firm seeking to make a huge investment in a company or industry could go find a top consultant in that industry itself. Where Gerson Lehrman adds value is by making the search for that expert easier, plus simplifying the business relationship. Gerson Lehrman clients can arrange to talk to experts quickly, and even buy just one or two hour chunks of their time. In short, Gerson Lehrman sells expert "brain dumps" to people who want to get up to speed quickly in a particular area, or want to make sure they've left no stone unturned in their research. Gerson Lehrman has built a huge database of expert contacts, and facilitates paid knowledge exchanges between these experts and its clients.

Now, Gerson Lehrman is opening a new chapter in its evolution via a partnership with iGuard.org, a Web-based community where patients can share feedback about the medications they are taking.

At first glance, this appears to be a jarring departure. On second glance, the synergy is glaringly evident. In addition to providing access to expert knowledge, Gerson Lehrman is now providing access to a bropad base of experiential knowledge. This will allow pharmaceutical companies, healthcare investors, managed care companies, anyone with a stake in the pharmaceutical industry, can tap into a wealth of real-time field research on specific drugs. Are people taking XYZ drug suddenly reporting a widespread and unanticipated reaction to the drug? What's it worth to a hedge fund, for example, to get early knowledge that ABC Pharma may have a looming problem on its hands with its XYZ drug? That's just one possible application of this new partnership. And Gerson Lehrman is charting a smart evolutionary path by trying to be the leading organizer of all wisdom ... regardless of source.

Labels: gerson lehrman group, iguard, org

Comcast to Acquire Plaxo

Comcast Corp. this week announced plans to acquire contact management company Plaxo. As a result, Comcast will add social networking functionality and other services to its websites: Comcast.net, Fancast.com and Fandango.com. The company's cable subscribers will, at some point, be able to access the social networking features through their set-top boxes and other cable-related devices. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Plaxo enables users to stay connected by allowing them to automatically update their contact information through updates it sends to their friends' address books. Plaxo also runs Pulse, a social networking site.

According to news reports, Comcast has been focused on expanding the features of its Comcast.net site as part of an overall Internet expansion strategy.

This is a very interesting development, and it represents a merging of media types that could be a sign of things to come.

Comcast recognizes the strong and growing interest in social networking among consumers. And as social networking continues to engage people online, it's a smart move by Comcast to add such capabilities to its websites to draw people there. Of course, once people visit for the social networking aspects, the goal will be to keep them there to take advantage of Comcast's other online offerings.

Comcast, like most cable providers, have already been attempting to become all things to all people--as they have, in recent years, bundled television, phone and Internet services in one package for consumers. If it's successful, this Plaxo deal will further connect Comcast to customers seeking a "one-stop-shop" media services company.

ThomasNet Launches Purchasing Tools

ThomasNet has partnered with Source One Management Services LLC, a procurement service provider, to offer free purchasing tools for ThomasNet users. This new feature, ThomasNet's Purchasing Tools, will provide ThomasNet.com users with free access to request for information/proposal/quote (RFx) and reverse auction tools. This will enable buyers who don't have purchasing software to make their purchasing processes more efficiently. Source One CEO Steven Belli said in a company press release that user efficiency can be increased by 30 percent or more because of the tools.

According to ThomasNet, users can access the desktop tools for free and can incorporate them into their daily purchasing processes without training or the need to support software systems. Buyers who register on the MyThomas section of the ThomasNet site can access the tools.

How it works: Buyers use the tools to create and send requests for quotations and can then review and analyze sellers' information in a pre-set format. Other functionality includes single or multiple line item listings; the ability to upload unlimited attachments including specs, drawings, documents and presentations; multi-currency support; secure online storage of RFx events; and the ability to copy and re-run events in the future.

This announcement is going to make ThomasNet's advertising suppliers very happy. If it works as designed, it will make it even easier for ThomasNet users (buyers) to connect with them and make purchases. By simplifying the purchasing process, ThomasNet will make it a more appealing process as well, thus turning potentially hesitant buyers into actual buyers.

If anything, the improved functionality that these new tools represent will attract more users to the site overall.

Farlex Expands TheFreeDictionary.com Site With Multi-Lingual Offerings

Online reference publisher Farlex Inc. has added 13 new titles to its flagship website TheFreeDictionary.com. among those works are Mosby's Dictionary of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine, Collins Spanish Dictionary & Grammar and Collins German Dictionary & Grammar. The expansion marks the introduction of non-English language resources in addition to the site's previous offerings of English reference works.

The site also features an audio tool that allows users to learn proper pronunciation by speaking the words aloud. The tool previously offered only American English pronunciations, but now lets users hear either American English or U.K. English pronunciations.

In addition to the Britannica Concise Encyclopedia and English, French, Spanish, German and Italian dictionaries, TheFreeDictionary.com features legal, computing, medical, veterinary, financial and scientific dictionaries as well as the Columbia, Wikipedia and Hutchinson Encyclopedias.

As the Internet brings people from different countries and cultures together, having such a multi-cultural and multi-lingual collection of reference works in one place makes perfect sense. For Farlex and TheFreeDictionary.com, this seems to be the ideal area for which to expand. It's certainly a great way for the company to celebrate its fifth anniversary.

If visitors of TheFreeDictionary.com were not a culturally and geographically diverse group of users before, they will most likely be now. Also likely is the addition of even more reference works to the site. Farlex, which also operates TheFreeDictionary.com, is certainly building a rather impressive stable of offerings, and it's undoubtedly a work in progress. The Farlex folks are scheduled to speak at our InfoCommerce 2008 conference this November in Philadelphia. They will probably have a lot more to talk about then.