An alternative to custom data warehouses costing millions to create and maintain, Open Data will revolutionize the research, purchase, delivery and use of marketing data by providing an extensible system which integrates the data from multiple sources right on users desktops. There are currently more than 40,000 users of MarketPlace which contains a database of more than 10 million U.S. companies. Open Data will now enable these users to integrate data from multiple sources in combination with a comprehensive database in order to further refine their target marketing efforts. Prior to the advent of iMarket's MarketPlace Open Edition and Open Data, the only alternative for marketers was to hire a list broker, marketing consultant, or service bureau to collect, merge and refine lists. Not only is this process expensive and time-consuming, but it also forces marketers to relinquish control of their market analysis and marketing campaigns to outside sources.
Marketers live and die on information.
Doug Borchard, Vice President of Product Development at iMarket Inc. explained that a key benefit to users is that they retain control over which data source is used. Open Data enables users to choose their own brand-name data sources, and receive data that has been updated at least once a quarter. Most importantly, it enables a broad range of businesses to build their own custom marketing databases at a fraction of the cost it would take using traditional solutions, Borchard said. This is a big win for any supplier of marketing data, says Craig Whitney, Vice President, Product Planning and Strategy at ZD Market Intelligence With Open Data, MarketPlace gives us a way to reach a whole new market of small to medium-sized businesses that we couldn't afford to serve before. And its a win for customers, too.