NSI - DD Summary
November 12th/99
Net Shepherd's latest updates lead me to believe that this company is gearing up for their push to NASDAQ. As a result, I anticipate that as there may be quite a few new investors coming over to this thread to take a look to see what this company's story is all about.
Over the past number of months, I have been compiling a list of the more relevant posts on this thread. I believe that after reading through this information, an investor will have a much better understand who this company is, what their markets are, who their competitors are, and what successes and / or set backs they have experienced to date.
I have pulled just over fifty of the posts from the list of over 530 which are now on the thread. These specific posts are the ones which I believe are well worth the read.
This list starts off with a lightly edited re-print of NSI's "Road Map" news release. I feel that this document puts the Links that follow into their proper perspective.
I hope this summary helps everyone better understand the compelling story unfolding before us. It is a story which begs to be told.
Crazy Canuk
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THE NET SHEPHERD ROADMAP
Net Shepherd's (ASE:WEB) Roadmap:
1. Charts the way forward for the commercial application and marketing of Net Shepherd's unique Internet Community and proprietary technology.
2. Sets out milestones of activity by which progress can be judged.
THE KEY POINTS
Members of Net Shepherd's Internet Community are a Virtual Workforce, that can be deployed on commercially viable applications in a number of fields, including Business Intelligence, Market Research, Customer Relations and Knowledge Management.
Net Shepherd will either launch new companies offering these services and take them to IPOs, or license applications of their technology to other companies.
To enable this, Net Shepherd will set up a new US operation in Silicon Valley, which can license its technology platform into new businesses and which can also set up an acquisition company which can develop new business applications of the Net Shepherd Community and take them to IPOs.
As a part of this, Net Shepherd will set up an on-line Business Information company.
In the Customer Relations and Knowledge Management areas, further developments of the Answers.com model will be forthcoming in the next couple of months. The nature of these developments was outlined in their 14 June Announcement on - The Commercialization of the Answers.com website.
Net Shepherd is also setting up an Internet Strategy Architecture consulting and software service that can combine virtual communities, legacy computing systems and I-business together into a cohesive, profitable Internet business process for its customers.
They still intend to obtain a NASDAQ listing for Net Shepherd.
President and CEO Don Sandford said:
- There's been a lot of talk about the concept of communities on the Internet. Several organizations claim to have large communities, many of which are simply mailing lists. Net Shepherd's Community is unique in that it:
- Undertakes economically viable work by deploying its virtual workforce, both across the Internet and -potentially - within corporate Intranets.
- Has in place quality management processes and tools that ensure the work is of a highly professional standard.
- Provides an engaging Community Experience, which builds a real community, expanding the number of people with unique expertise and their ability to undertake economically viable activities.
- We have discovered that Net Shepherd?s Internet Community is highly productive and that it can operate at much lower cost and faster speeds than traditional methods of working.
- This utterly transforms the economics of the collection and assessment of on-line and off-line information, which is an increasingly valuable resource in this Information Age:
1. In the field of Business Intelligence, our work with Dun & Bradstreet has proved that it is possible to collect highly accurate information on companies at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods. We can now reveal that the productivity and low cost base of the Community is such that in an initial pilot, 200,000 pieces of information were collected from corporate websites in only three days. This was achieved at a tenth of the cost and in a tenth of the time of using traditional methods. The result also had a quality level equal or better than information collected by traditional methods.
2. The collection of opinions from statistically representative samples of the Community enables high quality Market Research information questions to be collected in minutes rather than days or weeks: this equates to a fraction of the time and a fraction of the cost of the traditional methods of research. Equally importantly, the rapidity of both the Community's response and the analysis of that response mean that follow-on questions can be asked almost instantly and a ?real-time? conversation can be developed with a sample of a company?s market. This transforms the nature of market research, making it possible for companies to use techniques which simply couldn't be done before.
In an era of intensifying competition and shortening product lifecycles, this low cost, easily customizable, high quality and fast technology gives a very significant competitive advantage to companies, which can now conduct strategic market research in real time across the Net.
3. With the growth of e-commerce, companies' Customer Relations across the Internet are becoming increasingly important. Within companies and supply chains, the competitive advantages that flow from good Knowledge Management mean that the effective use of Intranets and Extranets to capture and share expertise is also becoming more important.
In both these areas, Community members can answer questions that have been asked across the Net. In addition to the quality measures used in other applications, new Domain Expert identification software will ensure that questions are steered to the most appropriate, trained members of the Community.
Organizations offering such answers facility across the Net have traditionally relied on search engines. These often give unsatisfactory, context-free results. The use of the Community gives a Human-Assisted Search, which uses the power of computers, but takes account of context and therefore gives a more relevant answer of higher quality.
The existence of the Net Shepherd Internet Community gives us a platform, from which we can launch lighthouse companies: Net Shepherd's services of Net-enabled Market Research, Business Intelligence, and the answers facilities for Customer Relations and Knowledge Management. These lighthouse concepts can be applied to almost every commercial sector in existence.
In some cases, we will launch new companies, offering these lighthouse services and create value for Net Shepherd's shareholders by taking them to Initial Public Offerings. In other cases, we will create revenue by licensing particular applications of these ideas to other companies.
In the coming weeks, you can therefore expect to see announcements from Net Shepherd covering the following:
The establishment of a new US operation in Silicon Valley, which can license our technology platform into businesses and which can set up an acquisition company which can develop lighthouse companies, applying the Net Shepherd platform and taking them to IPOs.
The setting up of a Community-Centric on-line Business Information company. The strategy is to utilize a Net enabled distributed workforce to collect web-based and other information of commercial value.
In the Customer Relations and Knowledge Management areas, further developments of the Answers.com model, as outlined in our 14 June Announcement on the Commercialization of the Answers.com website.
In our traditional work of assessing the suitability of website material, further news on our relationship with ClickChoice.com and the work that we are doing with Alta Vista.
These commercial applications of the Net Shepherd Community are not the only new revenue opportunities that we are pursuing. As use of the Internet increasingly enters the commercial mainstream around the world, there is a growing market of meeting companies? needs for an integrated approach to mitigating the threats and realizing the opportunities that the Internet brings. In many cases, this may involve the Net Shepherd Community. We are developing special tools to enable us to provide an Internet Strategy Architecture service that can combine virtual communities, legacy computing systems and I-commerce together into a cohesive, profitable business process for our customers. This will be launched within the next couple of months.
We execute to issue further announcements on these developments shortly, concluded Sandford. You will really be able to see the progress that we are making in the context of this Roadmap.
Background Notes:
Net Shepherd helps companies that want to transform the way they do business and create new opportunities using the Internet. It is a leading provider of virtual community solutions to provide the gathering of information and the management of work at the speed of the Internet. Net Shepherd's Internet Community Management System provides all the tools, processes and infrastructure required to build and manage proactive, productive virtual communities.
Net Shepherd can also help organizations to develop a complete strategy for the threats and opportunities that the Internet brings. Their Internet Strategy Architects can combine virtual communities, legacy computing systems and I-commerce together into a cohesive business process.
Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta and operating globally in cyberspace, Net Shepherd Inc. is traded on The Alberta Stock Exchange under the symbol WEB.
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Here is the collection of the more relevant posts I have culled from the Silicon Investor NSI discussion thread:
Article - Don't Overlook Infrastructure
Message 8134745
Marketing Agreement with Vanenburg Group
Message 9075857
Launch of Internet Community Management System (ICMS)
Message 9102115
Click Choice Revenue Agreement
Message 9122301
Summary - Bullet Points
Message 9343217
Q1 99 Results
Message 9533294
Sale of Answers.com
Message 9650188
Thoughts on idealab!
Message 9652735
Private Placement Announcement
Message 9666110
idealab! / Answers.com / NSI
Message 9750396
Further Thoughts
Message 9762305
NSI?s AGM Shareholder Presentation Slides
Message 9771203
Comments on NSI's Promise for 1999
Message 9793652
Clarifications from Phone Call to NSI
Message 9799227
Bill Fogg - Answers.com
Message 9800523
NSI & Dun & Bradstreet Pilot Project
Message 9960682
Brazilli Mall - Pilot Project Proposal
Message 9960816
Message 9964953
Message 9965902
Answers.com & NSI
Message 10086583
Additional Thoughts
Message 10088539
Answers.com Strategy
Message 10110579
Financing Status
Message 10125243
Message 10140757
Purchase Agreement For Answers.com
Message 10147658
Bullet Points on NSI
Message 10179143
NSI?s Business - An Overview (Link) & Purchase Price for Answers.com
Message 10239240
Calgary Herald Story on NSI
Message 10522287
Ask Jeeves and Answers.com comparison
Message 10565220
Promise to Shareholders
Message 10579373
Possible Big News
Message 10598297
Answers.com / Ask Jeeves and Business Week Article
Message 10626040
NSI?s Roadmap Document
Message 10853556
NSI Completes Answers.com Purchase
Message 10890650
WEBB License for XML
Message 10926544
Expanding Relationship with WEBB
Message 10927581
XML?s Role
Message 10927913
WEB & WEBB
Message 10948449
Notes from Investor?s Visit to NSI?s Head Office
Message 10981159
Message 10981696
Message 10981741
Message 10981818
Share Value Appreciation Projections
Message 10989037
Answers to Questions
Message 11004300
« year Results
Message 11086674
Bullet Point Summary of Results
Message 11116286
Highlights From the Investors? Forum
Message 11122781
Potential for NSI?s Community
Message 11132377
More Options
Message 11132970
Message 11135465
NSI & Customer Relationship Management Potential
Message 11141660
Investor?s Forum Link
Message 11143493
Homerun Quote - Garry Foster
Message 11276982
Orbital Announcement
Message 11291541
Timeline
Message 11298158
Pivotal
Message 11314152
Assessment of the D & B and NSI potential
Message 11333948
Message 11334737
Message 11335730
News Release Timeline
Message 11336001
NSI is targeting the $16.8 Billion (2003) CRM market
Message 11418558
Link to NSI's Question & Answers section of their Website
Message 11533114
U.S. Investors Are Growing Bullish on Canada Markets
Message 11633008
Appointment of Mike Morrison as Answers.com President
Message 11638405
Size of Call Center Business & Answers.com re-launch in late Nov. 99
Message 11639379
Complete Answers.com Management Team line up Message 11646392
Overview of following three part series
Message 11694933
Pivotal Customer Relationship Management (CRM) deal
Message 11696540
Article - Enterprise Relationship (ERP) focused Companies and their drive to provide Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Message 11695018
NSI's important connection to Baan (ERP vendor)
Message 11695215
Appointment of David Herman - CEO of new Business Intelligence Company
Message 11857491
Three Businesses (or more) for the Price of One?
Message 11873002
Net Shepherd Technology On Show At Baanworld Exposition
Message 11874559
Baan World related points of interest
Message 11886739 |
