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» Segmentation and Market Analysis

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Segmentation and Market Analysis

1. Vital Promotion Steps

2. List of Market Sectors

2.1. Any Middle- and Large Scale Companies Regardless of Activity

2.2. The Mass Media

2.3. Consulting Firms

2.4. Patent Offices

2.5. Law Firms

2.6. Customer Support Services

2.7. Various Informational Services and Call Centers

2.8. Information Systems Producers

2.9. Other

3. Tenders on Developing Information Systems

4. Summary

1. Vital Promotion Steps

At present most of the potential customers simply have no clue that there is a tool for searching similar documents. The problems facing a corporate user can be solved nice and easy. And the name of the game is the SoftInform technologies.

It is important, first of all, to inform the corporate user on SoftInform solution, its originality and strengths as compared to competitors, and second of all, to provide turn-key projects (examples) that would demonstrate the ease with which any challenge of corporate full text search and structuring information is solved by means of our technology.

Out of experience we have assumed that the most efficient and convenient way to demonstrate the SoftInform potential is to make a presentation of the product in the promotion area. This raises a good response in the local mass media and makes a good impression on the invited corporate client. The SoftInform Company has made two presentations (in Saint-Petersburg and in Moscow). We are extremely satisfied with the results and are willing to provide our assistance in planning similar events in any other region.

2. List of Market Sectors

2.1. Any Middle- and Large Scale Companies Regardless of Activity

Solution to Problems

If a company operates at least 20-30 computers, it is already our potential customer. All of the information provided here refers to the other market sectors as well.

As a rule, any company handles with

- files on the customer's local disk

- common files on the server

- corporate database (Oracle, MS SQL, etc.)

- some sort of a system (CRM, documents circulation, etc.)

For any large enterprise one of the most important problems of "information circulation" is consolidation of information and its subsequent search. In addition, the same text data are often duplicated in various information systems. As a result, large companies early or later try to bring it all together replacing multiple systems with one search engine. This is highly expensive and hardly ever efficient. The high cost is mostly due not only to the expenses on deploying the system, but huge efforts on staff retraining.

An information retrieval system based on our technologies is painlessly installed over the already existing systems. The abilities listed in chapter "Searching in the Corporate Network" (section "Major Problems of Corporate Search Solved by the Technology") will create the environment for efficient information processing as well as tracking.

Potential market volume – the number of companies operating over 20 computers

Marketing Strategy

- Analysis of the number of enterprises utilizing bulky information systems or expensive software (such as Oracle, systems of corporate documents circulation, etc.).

- Embedding into the existing systems (for example, at present our full text search system has already been built into Hummingbird Enterprise) for further promotion to customers willing to have a solution based on these particular systems. Many customers ordering an information system specify the basis for its implementation. As has already been mentioned above, our technologies are built over virtually any system once an integration module for the specific system has been scripted.

2.2. The Mass Media

The mass media comprise newspapers, television, radio, online resources.

Solution to Problems

- Organizing their own textual archive and the ability to search documents with a similar content when preparing the material to be published.

- Monitoring information in the Internet for required topics. We are already working on specific solutions for some major online mass media. You will find more details in chapter "SearchInform in the Internet" (section "Topical search").

Marketing Strategy

Since we are currently developing systems for some major online periodicals, they can further be used as the basis for deploying in the vertical market of online mass media.

To work with major offline mass media, we will need contacts with some large-scale publishing house (at the level of just getting their attention).

Further on, at the level of major regional press we can develop several projects so as to enlist their support for obtaining orders from larger customers.

2.3. Consulting Firms

Solution to Problems

Consulting firms include, but are not limited to firms dealing with gathering and analyzing information.

Besides the internal problems of searching information for this type of firms, embedding a "topical search" service is of vital importance. The service is described in chapter "SearchInform in the Internet".

Integrating information from the Internet or new information on a specific topic with the content of the local network will raise the quality of tracking the latest tendencies to a new level.

For patent companies searching patents with a similar content is crucial. As a rule, such companies already possess an enormous amount of downloaded patents in their local network.

Marketing Strategy

The pool of large consulting companies is fairly obvious. So is the pool of large patent bureaus, etc.

2.4. Patent Offices

First of all, we could offer automation of the Eurasian Patent Office. After that the search technologies could be considered for deployment at resources such as uspto.gov.

As a rule, finding documents with a similar content is crucial for patent search. With the help of the search similar technology the job that would normally take several weeks for one person to complete will be tackled within a matter of several hours.

2.5. Law Firms

Any law firm relies not only on legislation databases, but also on thousands of internal documents and an enormous amount of other subject-related information and their own sample forms.

The ability to find the required document fast saves a lot of time, which is an expensive commodity for firms of this type. Systems designed specifically for the needs of law firms are utilized in the West, but they are highly expensive, and they do not provide the ability to search documents with a similar content or the tools that allow avoiding duplication of information in the system.

2.6. Customer Support Services

Solution to Problems

Regardless of the company's field of expertise, if it services a large number of customers and runs its own information database (in particular, answers and questions) difficult to structure, you won't do without the SoftInform technologies. And it makes absolutely no difference which service the company provides: support of customers, mass production programs, complex equipment and so on.

A system based on our technology will dramatically reduce the time of support service: the similar search feature will find the answer to any question within a fraction of a second.

Marketing Strategy

The target group includes virtually all companies providing any type of technical support, including factories producing complex equipment, companies developing software and just companies oriented at mass market, for example, cellular network operators such as MTS, Beeline, etc. The target groups are extensive, and the time saved on providing support is an obvious advantage for the customer. No other technology besides search similar will do.

2.7. Various Informational Services and Call Centers

A vivid example is the YurCallCenter project developed by SoftInform. The technology has been tested and is quite successfully used in a project on providing legal services by telephone, "Alfa Lawyes", where the speed of searching text information is of vital importance. Using the SoftInform Search Technology in this area has cut down the duration of phone conversations with customers (most of which are spent on searching the required legal information in the database) from 12-15 minutes to a record of 3-4 minutes.

The operation of call centers is based on two principles: the customer pays for the call itself or for each minute of the conversation. In any case our technology will raise this type of service to a whole new level. The pattern is simple: the customer asks a question, and the operator finds several documents related to the question by means of the search similar technology in the database (the longer the company has been in operation, the larger the database of questions and answers, the better for the customer). The search results will contain only the documents pin-pointed at the particular moment, and nothing redundant (as is often the case with phrasal search). Thus, the time spent on the conversation with the customer will be reduced substantially. This is certainly advantageous for those who pay for the conversation, and in case of cost per minute the speed of the service will definitely win customers over and guarantee an influx of new callers.

This technology is the key to efficient and, what is more important, cheap solution of any issues in customer service (not necessarily in the legislation area). Any type of informational service can be set up.

2.8. Information Systems Producers

Solution to Problems

Information system producers that integrate our search engine will be able to deliver several releases of their product to the end user: a "common" one and an advanced one with our search server features.

Marketing Strategy

Currently we have a combined solution with Hummingbird. In the future we plan to establish similar collaboration with other producers such as Documentum, SAP, aiming to cover Russia in the first place. In addition, we are planning to cooperate with home software developers, including regional representatives. For example, they can offer their customers embedding our search technology at an additional cost.

2.9. Other

It is next to impossible to list all market sectors and tendencies in view of the highly extensive pool of our potential customers. Experience proves that potential solutions at first glance have nothing in common with search technologies (for example, YurCallCenter). However, deploying our technologies will substantially increase the quality of the project than if it were implemented with the already existing search technologies.

3. Tenders on Developing Information Systems

The tenders may be both central and regional. In light of the unique nature of our proposal (solving 4 problems of a corporate client, as described in chapter "Searching in the Corporate Network" we have a plausible chance to secure some major orders with the help of our partners.

4. Summary

Although we have described just a limited number of implemented projects and just a few market sectors, there is solid ground for stating that the search similar technology can be applied in virtually any area and for companies with just about any type of activity. The amount of textual information in the whole world and in the business sector in particular keeps expanding; therefore, the unique products delivered by the SoftInform Company will always be in great demand by any middle or large scale company.

However, SoftInform has something to offer to small companies as well. That is why we have developed the "box version" of SearchInform, a solution costing about $5000 for 20 work places. Undoubtedly, this solution is not as efficient as custom development of a turn-key system, but will suffice for those with a limited budget. As the business prospers, the company will need a more powerful tool for managing and searching information. And we will be right there to offer our solutions based on unique technologies tailored to specific needs. The solution is just your decision away.