Dictionary.com defines aggregation as "to gather into a mass, sum, or whole."

Most of us feel bombarded with too much information from too many sources. Are we able to absorb the significance of that information for use in determining our business success? Is too much time wasted on accumulating data and information that is then tweaked and massaged to be presented meaningfully instead of being analyzed and leveraged for competitive advantage? Instead of simplifying our access to information, technology has increased our access points to information, thereby confusing us further.

Many vendors are trying to alleviate this challenge. They take many different approaches and usually still only offer narrow solutions. Some call their systems portals, some call them middleware to management information systems, some focus on business intelligence tools (some oxymoron!) and some are even trying to create their own little niche with a fancy name.

The only way to embrace or even adopt our individual strategies to aggregating the information available to us is to spend time looking at the solutions offered by various kinds of vendors and hear their successes.

Recently I talked with Alison French, product manager with OneSource Information Systems (OneSource.com), about their Web-based product. Though their product, Business Browser, is on the periphery of this broader discussion, it provides a view into an approach into topical data aggregation.

What is Business Browser? Even the name of the company and product convey its goal to be a one stop place on the Web to find out everything meaningful about specific businesses and even broad industry information. The service is offered on a subscription basis and priced per concurrent users. The intended users are people who are in need of advanced information about other businesses. Some examples include auditors, sales people, executive recruiters, legal, banking and finance, insurance, and even high tech companies looking for partners or outsourced manufacturing. With the detailed data in the recesses of its databases, Business Browser facilitates lead generation, peer analysis, and competitor analysis.

The lessons learned. In talking with French, the following list of critical keys to successfully taming our info-glut became apparent:

• Defining the source of information and our control over it. We rely on two types of information. There is information that results from data we own and control. Some of us are on the way to compiling the accumulation of this information into something useful. The more difficult task is to tame information results from data, commentary, fact, and activity outside our organizations. Sure, we can subscribe to business publications and even content providers for our internal portals, but how do we leverage this amalgamated mixture into something useful?
• Amassing diverse external data streams. OneSource goes a long way to address this by integrating content that they own with other public and licensed data for a complete perspective into a business being researched. The translation of data residing in one content vendor's database to another's still requires a great amount of work. XBRL International, a not-for-profit consortium of over 170 companies and agencies worldwide working together to build the XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) standard, is working to overcome this barrier by standardizing data identifiers to allow for freer amassing of like data. XBRL will improve the flexibility of data aggregation once there is greater marketplace adoption of this standard.
• Presenting multiple publishing sources concisely. The depth of coverage in a single view is the linchpin of successful information aggregation. Whereas some vendors focus on news, and others focus on financials, and yet others make information about key people and decision makers available, Business Browser presents them all.
• Establishing timeliness and credibility of information. Information that is merely gossip or rumor is useless. Outdated corporate bravado or even honesty on a company's Website is deceiving. The information must not only be presented meaningfully, it must also be reliable and current. Confident decisions should be able to be made based on research performed.
• Reducing the time for research and increasing the time for action. In business, information is not an academic pursuit; information is the basis for making decisions and taking action or consciously not taking action. With finite time to gather data, the tools in data aggregation must be easy to use, flexible, and quick. If I am a salesperson looking for information about tomorrow's prospects, I must be better informed and well rested for those meetings. Therefore, despite the multitude of data sources and types of data underlying an aggregated solution, the interface and tools must be consistent and intuitive.

Digital aggregation of business fact, opinion, and rumor is our future. The journey to reach this future will be different for each of our businesses. Still, let's look beyond nomenclature and hype and into the substance of what it takes to add business value with aggregation.

CONTACT Chaim Yudkowsky, CPA, CITP, chief information officer at Textilease Corp., a uniform and first aid services company serving the Southeast, at (301) 937-4555 or cyudko wsky@ByteofSuccess.com