Month: January 2019

InsideView Insights for Microsoft Dynamics

InsideView Insights combines company intelligence, news, and connections in its Overview tab.
InsideView Insights combines company intelligence, news, and connections in its Overview tab.

Microsoft announced that InsideView Insights, it’s OEM integration for Microsoft Dynamics, will no longer be available as a free service.  Current users will continue to receive the integrated sales solution through August 15th at no charge. Customers may continue to use Insights, without disruption, simply by signing a license agreement directly with InsideView.  To expedite the contracting process, InsideView is offering early bird pricing as low as $16 per user per month through the end of March.  Licensors would then begin paying for the service after the August deadline.  New user bundles are initially available for $399 per month for up to ten seats.  After March 31, the new user bundle price rises to $499 per month for up to ten seats.

c“Our goal is to make it easy to switch,” said VP of Global Alliances, Heidi Tucker.  “All they [customers] have to do is make a decision, there’s no need to reinstall the software.”

Insights is a fully featured sales intelligence service delivered as a native application within Dynamics 365.  It is equivalent to InsideView for Sales and available on AppSource.  Key features include

  • Build-a-list Account and Contact prospecting
  • Integrated viewing of Account, Contact, and Lead records
  • “Stare and compare” record updates and “add contact” to CRM
  • Account profiles with family tree hierarchies, competitors, SEC filings, and income statements
  • Industry profiles
  • Alerting and watchlists (daily opportunity alerts)
  • Mobile support
  • Connections (six degrees tool)

InsideView VP of Product and Solution Marketing Joe Andrews described the six-year Microsoft relationship as a “long, fruitful OEM partnership” which resulted in more than 2,000 joint customers and more than 100,000 users.

“We are actively transitioning customers to a direct relationship and making sure they have no disruption for their sellers,” said InsideView CMO Tracy Eiler.  “The product experience is the same; this is a licensing change where now they will contract directly with InsideView. We’re set up to help them with on-boarding new users and continuing to make current users successful.”

Once customers transition to an InsideView license, they will be assigned a Customer Success Manager and have improved access to training programs.  A direct license also improves InsideView’s ability to cross-sell its DaaS and Marketing Services including Apex (ICP/TAM), Refresh (Automated Data Hygiene), Enrich (Real-Time Match & Append), and Target (Prospecting).

According to InsideView, continuing to license Insights is seamless, with customers simply needing to sign a contract directly with InsideView  “InsideView Insights looks and acts like the Insights you’re familiar with and comes with InsideView’s excellent customer support,” wrote the firm in an FAQ.  “When you switch to a direct license, you will not notice any change and all your data, watchlists, and previous preferences will remain the same.“

While OEM deals provide a set of new customers and income, they often leave the OEM partner disintermediated.  The platform maintains the relationship with the end users and it is more difficult to conduct user research, provide training, support users, or improve the workflow and user experience.

With Insights no longer holding a preferred position within Dynamics, customers must choose whether to license Insights or transition to competitive offerings from LinkedIn (a Microsoft subsidiary), Dun & Bradstreet, Zoominfo, DiscoverOrg, or other partners.

InsideView described LinkedIn Sales Navigator as a complementary service.  Sales Navigator is part of the Relationship Sales bundle for Microsoft Dynamics.  InsideView listed the following reasons to license Insights alongside Relationship Sales:

  • Deeper account research and has broader account coverage
  • Find and research executives who are not on LinkedIn
  • Access a broader connections network that includes LinkedIn, email contacts, partners, alumni, work colleagues, and other social networks all in one place
  • Find direct email addresses
  • Add company and contact data to Dynamics 365
  • Update your CRM accounts and contacts for higher data quality
  • Keeps users in CRM to boost usage
  • Minimizes extra training – fully integrated into Dynamics with an intuitive user experience

InsideView did not provide a reason for the end of the OEM deal, but it is likely due to Microsoft looking to expand the number of partner solutions it offers including its own LinkedIn SNAP integration.  When the OEM deal was originally signed, Dynamics CRM had a smaller market share and fewer partners.  Since then, Microsoft has been the second fastest growing CRM behind Salesforce and has added most of the key sales intelligence and B2B DaaS vendors as partners.

Artesian Risk and Compliance Hub

Artesian will be launching its Risk and Compliance Hub, which supports front-line KYC checks, in 2019.
Artesian will be launching its Risk and Compliance Hub, which supports front-line KYC checks, in 2019.

Artesian Solutions CEO Andrew Yates published a year-in-review blog and a preview of their upcoming Artesian Risk and Compliance Hub (ARCH).  The new ARCH capabilities will extend their social selling platform into Know Your Client (KYC) reviews at UK banks. ARCH is in early testing.

ARCH leverages Artesian capabilities around interpreting structured and unstructured data ”to create useful flags and to drive appropriate actions.”  Artesian already is on the desktop of relationship managers (RMs) at most of the major UK banks.  “This puts us in a unique position to make insights regarding financial and KYC risks available to the front-line as a pre-screen, to ensure that corporate banking relationships begin with an appropriate understanding of risk.”

Arch supports an automated audit trail and storage of evidence.  Early tests found ARCH to be “100% accurate in reflecting policy in pre-screening.”  Arch also reduced the time spent in gathering risk assessment data by 90% and identified 14% more risk issues compared with manual processing.

By providing a pre-screen at the front-end of client discussions, RMs can focus on new clients that will pass muster during the onboarding review process.  This process makes both relationship managers and compliance professionals more effective.  RMs will no longer be spending time with prospective clients that won’t pass compliance review while compliance professionals can focus their attention on more complex reviews which require their skill and expertise.

“ARCH gives companies control of a sophisticated decision engine to enable data being accessed to have rules applied and flags created. It means that Relationship Managers can see a summarised view of what their central risk teams assessment of a potential client would be, before spending time and money engaging with them. The automation aspect of this is fundamental as it brings efficiency, consistency and control to the areas it transforms.

But more than that, it places compliance at the heart of the business – front of mind for every member of staff, informing every decision, instructing every interaction and shaping every relationship from pre-screens for new customer prospecting through to long-standing client development.”

Artesian CEO Andrew Yates

Yates cited McKinsey research which notes that the risk function at financial institutions is being transformed “with the detection, assessment, and mitigation of risk” being transferred to all employees by 2025.

Risk and Compliance tools are a greater focus amongst European sales intelligence firms due to the availability of private company registry data.  While US private companies provide only minimalist filings with Secretaries of State offices (with a few exceptions in insurance, banking, and nonprofits), UK company registration data includes directors, shareholders, and financials.  Other UK compliance data includes sanctions lists, Politically Exposed Persons (global government officials and relatives), disqualified directors, gazettes (shuttered business and those in receivership), and traditional credit reports.  Vendors such as Artesian, DueDil, and Bureau van Dijk have recently emphasized compliance and risk tool development over sales intelligence offerings.

Artesian reached 30,000 users in 2018 with their user base tracking over 800,000 companies.  According to Yates, Artesian customers “have received 12.5 million actionable insights, 2.5m unique computational matches each week, automated the equivalent of 2 trillion Google searches per week (13bn per hour), and have made 523,813 useful connections using Artesian data.”

Artesian staff provided over 350 training sessions, webinars, and workshops to more than 3,000 users in 2018.  Artesian Academy delivered an additional 1,200 multi-media tutorials, certification modules, role-based tips, and social media best practices overviews.

ISI Emerging Markets

EMIS Professional Dashboard
EMIS Professional Dashboard

EMIS, a research service for emerging markets, was sold by Euromonitor Institutional Investor to CITIC Capital and Chinese media company Caixin Global back in April. CITIC is an alternative investment management and advisory company.  Also included in the sale was CEIC data, a provider of global time series data.  The two businesses, jointly named ISI Emerging Markets, have been run in parallel and will continue to do so, but sales operations have been merged.  Sales continues to be organized regionally, and some product specialization will be retained.

ISI is headquartered in Hong Kong with offices in eighteen countries.  The firm has over 500 employees located in both emerging and developed countries.  The two firms reported an operating profit of £11.9 million ($15.1 million), as disclosed in the notes to Euromoney’s 2017 annual accounts.  The firms reported 2016 revenue of about $52.7 million and EBITDA of $14.5 million.  Based on 2016 turnover and the $180.5 million purchase price, the deal had a 3.4 multiple.

EMIS delivers news, research, analytical data, and peer comparisons for over 125 emerging markets.  The content is multi-lingual and serves researchers, industry analysts, corporate strategists, credit analysts, and business development professionals.  Customers are found in corporate and investment banking, consultancies, private equity, government, and academia.

EMIS displays news and research from 7,000 publications and 3.6 million emerging market company profiles, two million of which include financials.  Industry sources include BMI Research, Technavio, MarketLine, Mintel, and Euromonitor.  Sixteen languages are supported for content and UI along with cross-translations between the languages.

The products have regional strengths. CEIC began with a Chinese focus twenty-five years ago and is strongest in Asia.  EMIS began in Eastern Europe, but now generates half of its revenue in the Americas.  Asia now represents 25% of its revenue with India its fastest growing market.

Chief Product Officer Diego Obere said that “the majority of our employees are based in emerging markets, allowing us to establish an unrivalled level of expertise on these often opaque countries.” The firm’s “focus [is] on providing our clients with information on countries that are classed as emerging markets. Over 90% of our 5,000+ content sources are from emerging markets”.

The product roadmap includes an improved EMIS UX, upgraded industry pages, and investments in improved mobile and API access.

Channel-wise, EMIS partnered with EBSCO and ProQuest for university distribution.  The firm supports both subscription access and on-demand research purchases.

Redefining the D-U-N-S Number

Dun & Bradstreet is looking to modernize its D-U-N-S Numbering system to support digital businesses which may not have a phone number or physical location.  D-U-N-S Numbers, which are the de facto global company numbering system, were developed by Dun & Bradstreet in 1963 and have long captured business locations including headquarters, subsidiaries, and branches along with firmographics and corporate linkage.  Currently, there are over 300 million D-U-N-S numbered active and inactive global businesses.  But this model fails to capture the emerging nature of digital businesses and the gig economy.  The expanded definition will shift from location to “point of commerce.”

“You can be a digital business.  You can be a business that is a two-person startup right out of a coffee shop and you’re accepting PayPal as your form of payment.  That doesn’t require a physical address anymore.  You could be part of the gig economy.  You can be an Uber driver.  You can have an Airbnb property.  Those don’t necessarily fit under the mold of traditional businesses,” said Saleem Khan, Digital Leader of Data Innovation at Dun & Bradstreet.

“That idea of point of commerce subsumes everything.  It subsumes the digital location.  It includes things like the Internet of Things and the gig economy as well.


Saleem Khan, Dun & Bradstreet, Leader of Data Innovation

The rise of the Internet of Things also calls for a broader definition of businesses to assist with master data management and business linkage.

“There are 11.2 billion Internet connected devices out there, half of which are doing B2B commerce,” said Khan.  “It’s a ship coming into a port and being scanned automatically.  Wouldn’t it be nice to know which businesses are tied to that particular Internet connected device?  And so, with respect to the D-U-N-S Number, what we’re doing is moving away from business at a physical location in favor of business at a point of commerce.” An expanded definition also benefits government agencies and financial services companies which often require D-U-N-S Numbers for business verification (e.g. anti-money laundering, know your customer), sub-contracting, and credit and supplier risk analyses.

LeadSpace Partners with Bombora

LeadSpace is now including Bombora intent data in its Customer Data Platform.  Bombora’s company surge data helps identify which companies are in market for products and solutions based upon surges in topical interest above historical baselines in the topic.  “Customers can combine the resultant intent insights with Leadspace Predictive and Persona scores to accurately predict prospects’ readiness to buy in real time.”

LeadSpace customers can target outreach based upon topical interest, prioritize sales and marketing activities using intent data within predictive models, and personalize ad campaigns with messaging and content around surging topics.

LeadSpace customers employing an ABM strategy enjoy improved account list building and engagement due to the partnership.  They can also identify net-new prospects using look-a-like modelling and surge data.

“ABM succeeds when sales and marketing work closely toward the same goals.  The easiest way to find that success is for both departments to start with insights from a single data source. Intent data that shows which target accounts are actively in-market helps sales and marketing tailor their efforts to the best prospects, and avoid those that are not engaged in the buying cycle. Working with Leadspace ensures the easy orchestration of Bombora’s insights across these departments.”

Erik Matlick, CEO and co-founder of Bombora

Intent data also assists with sales-marketing alignment via harmonized messaging.  According to David Tam, Director of Marketing at OneLogin, “I’ve never worked anywhere before where we could run a fully-integrated and aligned marketing campaign and sales play, where the messaging matches. Our marketing emails are talking about the same things that our sales reps are talking about. That alone is enough to get brownie points with Sales!”

LeadSpace has offices in San Francisco, Denver, and Israel.  It called off a merger with Radius in August.

"How to Get Real Value from Intent with Leadspace," Leadspace Graphic
“How to Get Real Value from Intent with Leadspace”