OneSource Introduces Business Intelligence
Modules for the Microsoft Office System
10/21/2003
CONCORD, Mass., October 21, 2003--
OneSource Information Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: ONES), a leading provider of business information solutions, today announced that it is supporting the Microsoft Office System launch through the introduction of the Catalyst SM/ Account Intelligence Module for Microsoft Office Word 2003, the Catalyst / Financial Analysis Module for Microsoft Office Excel 2003, and support for the Research Task Pane within the Microsoft Office System. These solutions have been designed to deliver comprehensive business insight from the OneSource®
Enhanced Information WarehouseTM
repository, including company profiles, industry reports, executive details, news and financial information, directly into Microsoft Office System programs. With these solutions, Microsoft Office System users in sales, marketing, finance and business analyst roles will benefit from more efficient and effective business processes.
The two new modules are part of the new OneSource Catalyst product family. Catalyst modules are designed to reduce the overall amount of time users spend searching for critical data about customers and prospects, and to help users make effective use of that data to target, qualify, sell to and service their customers.
“We have long been committed to helping our customers advance their competitive position and strengthen their customer relationships,” said Dan Schimmel, CEO of OneSource. “Using productivity tools, like the Microsoft Office System, that our customers use on a daily basis is a vital part of extending that commitment.”
Over the past two years, OneSource has made investments to support information-delivery standards such as XML and XBRL. The Catalyst modules that work with the Microsoft Office System take advantage of Microsoft’s support for these standards in the Office 2003 Editions, and deliver on Microsoft’s goal of enabling users to easily access, integrate and utilize information from various sources.
The Catalyst / Account Intelligence Module for Word is designed to help drive the sales process by reducing the time and effort often spent on the critical yet error-prone tasks associated with account planning and call preparation, while providing users with insights that help them to develop richer relationships and open new opportunities. It will allow salespeople to automatically populate their Microsoft Word-based account plans with OneSource business information, such as company profiles, executive names and titles, corporate family information, and news. Users of the Account Intelligence Module for Word can specify the OneSource data fields, their location and formatting, as they do for any piece of information in Microsoft Office Word 2003.
“Fundamental to HP’s consultative selling approach is a detailed knowledge of our customers’ businesses, the industries they participate in, and the role that they play in those industries. We’ve worked with OneSource to provide that high-value business information to our sales force for some time now,” said Jim Fulkerson, manager of marketing field communications at HP. “The new Catalyst modules will be vital to improving the preparedness of our field organization even further, because they leverage the Microsoft Office productivity tools that we use to prepare key documents such as account plans and opportunity management plans.”
“Key to ensuring the success of the sales force is to provide accurate, detailed information on prospects, allowing them to address the customer’s pain. Yet uncovering this data can be an incredibly time consuming, inefficient and costly process,” said Lynne Powers, director of corporate marketing at Concord Communications, a user of OneSource products. “OneSource has revolutionized this process by linking together relevant, timely information through their Catalyst modules. This empowers sales reps to focus on providing strategic business solutions, while alleviating the time consuming efforts associated with searching for basic information about their customers and prospects.”
The Catalyst / Financial Analyst Module for Excel enables users to spend more time on data analysis, rather than data gathering, which expedites risk and pricing decisions and enables quicker response times to new business opportunities. It allows researchers and analysts to populate Microsoft Office Excel 2003 spreadsheets with OneSource business information, such as detailed financial filings, comparable company data, and industry norms. This external business information can automatically populate pre-defined Excel spreadsheets or can be brought into the spreadsheet on demand by a user.
In addition, OneSource is supporting the Research Task Pane in the Microsoft Office System. Any user of the Microsoft Office System will be able to quickly and easily incorporate information from OneSource into work processes enabled by the Microsoft Office System – saving time and effort required to track down key information. For example, a user of Microsoft Office Word 2003 could select a company name provided by OneSource, browse through recent articles, and insert a news story from that company directly into a Word document without leaving the Word document.
“With the launch of the Microsoft Office System, our goal is to provide users with better visibility into business information that will enable them to be more effective and strategic in their daily roles and responsibilities,” said Gytis Barzdukas , director Office Product Management at Microsoft Corp. “The new Catalyst modules from OneSource support this effort by enabling users to benefit from immediate access to critical business information via Word 2003 or Excel 2003. This results in more streamlined processes that lead to better decision-making, resource allocation and focus on customer needs.”
Pricing and Availability
The OneSource Catalyst / Account Intelligence Module for Word and the OneSource Catalyst / Financial Analyst Module for Excel will be available in Q4 2003. Pricing is based on a per-seat annual subscription basis, with volume discounts. Research Task Pane access will be included in the modules, and will also be included in OneSource’s AppLinkSM
Pro Software Development Kit (SDK) in Q4 2003.
About OneSource Information Services, Inc.
OneSource, a recognized leader in business information solutions, delivers unparalleled company, executive, and industry intelligence that make business professionals more effective and productive in completing their critical daily tasks. OneSource products and services support a company''s vital business processes including serving their customers, finding and leveraging new opportunities, and managing suppliers and partners.
OneSource combines and organizes content from over 2,500 information sources supplied by more than 30 world-class content providers, creating an unequalled information resource encompassing corporate families, industries, executives, financials, news, analyst reports, and trade and business press articles. Using its Global Business TaxonomyTM
system, OneSource links this in-depth information on over 1.7 million companies worldwide resulting in the most extensive company-linked repository of business information in the world.
Users of OneSource products work faster, smarter, and more productively, whether leveraging OneSource business information through the Web-based OneSource Business BrowserSM
product line or through enterprise applications or portals integrated seamlessly via the OneSource AppLink SDK. To help customers link the OneSource Enhanced Information Warehouse repository into their preferred enterprise applications, OneSource provides consulting and integration services.
OneSource is headquartered in Concord , MA, with offices located in North America, Europe, and the Pacific Rim Product information is available at www.onesource.com. Customers include Bank One, Chubb, Citigroup, Cisco, Hewlett Packard , Deloitte & Touche, i2 Technologies, Orange, Royal & SunAlliance, and SAS Institute.
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OneSource, Business Browser, Global Business Taxonomy, Catalyst, AppLink, Enhanced Information Warehouse and/or other OneSource product and service names referenced herein are either trademarks or service marks or registered trademarks or service marks of OneSource Information Services, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. All other product, service and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.
Safe Harbor Statement
This news release contains certain forward-looking statements that are based on the current beliefs and expectations of OneSource’s management, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, OneSource’s management. Such statements include, but are not limited to, those regarding the functionality and effectiveness of OneSource products and services, including, but not limited to the Catalyst modules; the pricing and availability of the Catalyst modules; OneSource’s competitive position; and the extensionof OneSource’s commitment to helping its customers advance their competitive positions and strengthen their customer relationships. Because such statements involve risks and uncertainties, actual actions and strategies and the timing and expected results thereof may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, and OneSource’s future results, performance, or achievements could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, any such forward-looking statements. Such risks include, but are not limited to, complementing the OneSource product line with new products and services, which may divert management and technical attention and financial resources; OneSource’s reliance on generating revenues from its Web-based product line; political, economic, and business fluctuations in domestic and international markets; a third party initiating a takeover attempt of OneSource notwithstanding the Board’s adoption of a shareholder rights plan; and competition in the business information products and services industry. In addition to the factors noted above, other risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and factors that could affect OneSource’s financial results are described in OneSource’s recent filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2002.
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