Content Matters

The Software & Information Industry Association has just posted the finalists for the content division CODiE Awards and Alacra Pulse has been named a finalist in three categories:

• Best Social Media Aggregation Service
• Best Online Business Information Service
• Best Online News Service

The CODiE award winners will be selected according to the votes of SIIA members and will be announced at a special Information Industry Summit dinner to be held January 26, 2010. Finalists were selected by a panel of judges who carefully reviewed each nominated product.

The past year has been an exciting one for Alacra, having launched the free version of Alacra Pulse in the spring, followed by the professional version released this fall. In addition to the customers who have integrated Alacra Pulse inside the enterprise, Fidelity has featured Street Pulse in its just-released Stock Research Center. We have also partnered with American Lawyer Media to bring Pulse to the legal market.

In addition to Street PUlse (analyst and key blogger comments about companies), the Pulse platform now includes Deal PUlse (intelligence on M&A deals and rumours), Weak Pulse (distressed company events) and the just-introduced Chief Pulse, which features comments by corporate CEO, CFO, President, Division heads and other leaders.

Our clients tell us that Alacra Pulse is helping them address two distinct needs:

1. Idea generation: give me a reason to call my client or prospect; and
2. Current awareness: keep me from looking dumb in front of a client by not knowing key information

According to our clients, the differentiators between Pulse and traditional news & information services are:

• Curation: identification of the key blogs and news sites for trusted information
• Events: rather than every mention of a company, highlighting those events with business impact (M&A, credit downgrades, restructuring) and links to commentary from key opinion leaders
• Tagging: improved precision over keyword-based searches
• Human oversight to ensure maximum quality

We're currently working on a series of enhancements which will be rolled out shortly after the New Year. In the meantime, to learn more about Alacra Pulse, please contact our sales team or drop me a note.