In the early days of the internet, major newspapers decided that circulation and advertising revenue was more important than content, this turned news into a free for all commodity. Consequently, this development caused difficulties for business intelligence industry specialists like Espicom, where I was Chairman.
Espicom were solely dependent on people paying for our specialised and independent news and analysed content, which was the foundation of the business.
This change of perception in the value of news content, brought on by the need for higher circulation figures, resulted in us having to find a means of adding further value to our content. At the time the solution appeared obvious; we had to seamlessly integrate news with our analyses.
However, this was easier said than done. Espicom had over 100 country, company and technological reports. Each report included 200-500 pages of factual information, compromising of an abundance of statistics, analyses, forecasts and commentary.
I remember discussing this “Nirvana” idea with people from The Economist Intelligence Unit, Euromoney, Reed Elsevier, and many other publications. We all faced the same problem – how can we increase the value of our news content?
The only obvious solution was to make a connection between the news, the market information and the forecasted details in the reports. However, we came across a significant problem. The market information and forecasts were based on information that was out of sync with ‘Todays News’ and ‘The Real World’.
At Espicom we quickly realised that our only other option was to see if we could continuously update the report information in line with ‘today’s’ events. Not as easy as you may think. All recognised market statistics were regurgitated through government or official institutions before being released; there was no solution to speeding up this 1 or 2 year process. Therefore, we attempted to categorise the news to capture significant statistics allowing for some form of analysis. However, we were stuck in the age of word processor and A4 formats that limited our options.
Consequently, we had to admit defeat. The idea took a backseat and the main focus of our activities was geared towards reports and analyses.
Fast forward to today and AcuComm! The business incorporates all the ideas we had 10-20 years ago but due to impractical practices and inadequate systems, we were never able to realise their true potential.
AcuComm is specifically set up around providing strategic sales and market information, together with speedy access. We effectively took control of the information and shaped it for its true purpose; to quickly inform and activate businesses.
We demolished the ‘out-of-sync’ problem and removed the necessity to rely upon the institutions that limited our progress and efficiency.
So when we say “Real-World’ Practical & Strategic Sales & Market Intelligence”, at AcuComm we mean it!
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