>>Like you I wait, there is so much to the Net Shepherd story that I don't dare move .. this one I'll wait for!<<
Good afternoon Mike!
You might not have to wait very long. I thought you might be interested in a call I made to the company.
On Wednesday of this week, I called the Net Shepherd office and I had the opportunity to speak with Ric Charron. Mr. Charron is the CFO of this company. He was very forthcoming with his comments, and I was provided with answers to every question I posed to him. Here is a summary of some of what we discussed . . .
To explain some of what Net Shepherd does, I asked him to provide an example of a specific case that would illustrate why this company is well positioned for future growth. He discussed the Dunn & Bradstreet example with me. Net Shepherd conducted a test with Dunn & Bradstreet to measure speed, cost, and accuracy of the collection of information from distributed web sites. D&B wanted some specific information collected off of approx. 10,000 targeted sites. D&B had conducted their information search and it took them approx. 30 days to collect the information, at a cost of $2.50 per site.
Net Shepherd duplicated the same search process. They completed this collection of data in 3 days (vs.. 30 days for D&B), at an average cost of $.25 per site (vs.. $2.50 for D&B), and with an accuracy rate of 90%.
Now the significance of this is that any small, medium, or large firm who is interested in conducting any market research and/or competition modelling can now use Net Shepherd to perform this task for them. The information will be accurate, comprehensive, and very close to real time. I am also aware that Net Shepherd has conducted a similar project for Discover Card. These two large corporations recognize the value of what Net Shepherd can do for them. As a matter of record, one of the senior Dunn & Bradstreet executives was quoted as saying that they spend tens of millions of dollars collecting and distributing information. He believes that Net Shepherd can significantly cut their costs.
Anyone who understands business understands the power and value of competitive, or market information. I know that in the three large corporations that I have worked in, this was consistently the weak link in these corporation's information gathering process. Fundamental decisions on strategic initiatives, expansion, or pricing are all dependant on good, accurate, and timely information.
I now have a better understanding of why Net Shepherd feels that they have a product that will be in high demand.
My next post will discuss one of their new projects in Europe.
Crazy Canuk |
