BLOGROLL
Thank you Broadlook for a First-Hand Glimpse of The Future of Sourcing Automation
Posted on February 23, 2010
Filed Under Broadlook, Sourcing Technologies | Leave a Comment
I received a rare privilege of which I am exceptionally grateful. A few weeks ago Donato Diorio, CEO at Broadlook Technologies called me and invited me visit his headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to which I heartily accepted and appreciated. Granted, I have visited other vendors in the broad category sense, but I have known Donato for the last five years and I have used his products for at least three of them and I would make a distinction between being invited to visit and have dinner with visiting and meeting each individual staff member at their headquarters. In this instance, upon arrival, Broadlook’s CEO personally picked me up from the airport and picked up my bags. Upon arrival, his Executive Assistant, Jenny Locke had personally developed an hour-by-hour itinerary of my schedule, with each member of their team allotted time to demonstrate their expertise and relevant tool set they oversee in addition to after hour entertainment. Wednesday night we I met Donato, Broadlook Co-Founder, Dan Hughes, and Sales Director, Andy Stanczyk for dinner at Sobaor Brazilian Churrascaria and had a spirited conversation about the recruitment industry.
Thursday morning I was picked up from the Marriott Hotel by Jenny and given direct one to one lessons on Broadlook’s Exclipse with the legendary Mike Tischer, Director of Client Experience. I use the word ‘legendary’ for a specific reason: he is the salient example of how his customer care in ensuring clients are well versed in product utility led to his desk being filled with assorted items of Kansas Barbecue as a means of showing appreciation. In the staffing space, this is a rare experience, let alone for the client experience side of the business. I saw it with my own eyes and feasted on its benefits with a BBQ greeting me on Thursday’s lunch hour with some of the best chicken breast and pork I have had in some time hot off the grill outside the cold Milwaukee landscape grilled by Mike himself. Thursday night I had the pleasure of joining Kalin Konop and Sales Consultant, Ross Hoppenjan for a Marquette basketball game and a round of post-game Mohitos at Pfisters night club lounge.
Friday I received the most gratifying visual of data mining in practice with Broadlook’s intensely intelligent and ever modest “Data Czar”Kary Valley. Few are equally adept at such technical processes as I observed and he was kind enough to part with two hours of his day to demonstrate some of the more advanced capabilities of data mining. In addition, I spent the remainder of the afternoon getting an advance viewing of the latest beta versions of their software suite in addition to what can be, Objectively speaking, be defined as “Game Changing” new technologies yet to be launched for public consumption.
The final evening was memorable. Donato was kind enough to have me break bread with the Diorio family. I met his charming wife Chris, and his four children, Callandra, Prometheus (“Theus”), Andromeda (“Andy”) and Rhea – the newest addition to their family. What was memorable was likewise touching., Upon meeting us at the restaurant with her mother and siblings, his six year old Callandra approached Donato and I and mistook the restaurant owner sitting next to us for me. She then greeted him with arts and crafts she had personally made to welcome me, including a paper plate necklace. Even though it wasn’t me, it was on my behalf and it was quite a heart warming visual of one of the most considerate welcomings I have ever received. I had four year old, “Theus” explaining his favorite number was 1,000 while little two year old, Andromeda kept shuttering her eyes and smiling every time I caught her looking at me. After a nice dinner we went to Donato’s home where I got to play with his 190 pound Newfie, “Archer” named after Star Trek’s “Enterprise” short lived series. Donato and I then met up with Dan Hughes and his girlfriend at a jazz bar.
Thank you to the team at Broadlook in Milwaukee for the personal time and care taken to welcome me to your headquarters to see where the technical wizardry of your staff culminates in the products I enjoy for my daily sourcing needs in Denver.
Broadlook Technologies suite of tools enhance website profile searches in real-time , providing important information. It can build data lists within a folder, hit profile plan to research that url, providing sources to identify which are both most and least updated, and ranks accordingly and with high probability. These applications are used to automate many of the most redundant tasks in doing Internet research, and collecting information within commercial, and non-profit sectors. This helps researchers come to rapid conclusions on initiatives such as:
With their tool, Diver, a sourcer can automate extraction of search engine results with either contact centered data retrieval or parse through identified resumes within search results – in both cases organizing data results with name, title, company, phone number and email. I use Diver daily – it is likewise the most convenient way to bookmark and save and reconfigure my favorite sourcing string syntax. A sourcer can learn the basic nuances of Diver within ten minutes and the export feature makes for reliable metrics on the most reliable niche sites, blogs, and overall resume sources available for any given search effort.
In the instance of member based groups, a sourcer is invariably navigating through structured records, one link at a time. With tools such as Eclipse however one can capture and extract from structured lists, highlight a directory and get links within a working grid creating intricate capsules. The tool automates real-time extraction from the deep web with dynamic retrieval. It breaks into what types of data sources within online lists, associations, societies. Viewing the process on two large screens as demonstrated by Data Mining Wizard, Kary Valley, I was in awe of the ability of Eclipse to deep mine thousands of members within a niche forum site. Even with the most advanced sourcers, parsing through the deluge of data was a matter of weighing the opportunity costs of selecting particular data from a host of options within target rich sites due to sheer volume. Objectively speaking, anyone reviewing the mass of information Kary carefully constructed and then recorded into macros to automate future data particular mining would leave impressed if not in awe of how far technology, or in this case in particular – how far Broadlook’s technologies have advanced.
With Market Mapper, a researcher can build target lists of companies where you may not have an SIC code. It allows users to use keywords to submit terms.
Contact Capture makes putting contact information from lists, documents, and emails into a database as easy as copy & paste. Our patent-pending technology recognizes contact information such as names, titles, addresses, emails, phones, websites, and exports the data directly into your favorite database application.
Secondary filters can distinguish a website’s home page or the “about page” to confirm and verify the relevance of the data extracted.
ProfilerX is a strategic partnership with Hoovers to provide a solution to the HR sector. Listings can be developed on the basis of criteria provided by Hoovers and D&B research companies. Websites, contacts, urls and market relevancy can all be accurately distinguished with this novel utility.
In each of the instances stated, Broadlook data does all the above, and enables a researcher to export entire listings of each of the profiles/urls extracted. Most importantly, Staffing executives can weigh accurate, real-time ROI of the data provided in developing accurate lead generation and promote metrics on the value of the data generated as compared to other approaches more often attributed to professional services provided by vendors or people finder sites that tend to be less frequently updated or as accurate.
People may ask whether this personal experience skews my objectivity on reviewing software suites such as Broadlook. In this instance I can reliably state that I was a user of Broadlook tools for my day to day sourcing before I became a Broadlook supporter – not the cart before the horse. In this instance, there was nothing to evangelize to the evangelized given I was already convinced of the utility of the company’s products. Those who know me well know I do not support products I wouldn’t include in my arsenal of web tools. Above all, what more convincing does one need to be aware that the each of the last several Sourcecon Conference challenges were won by contestants utilizing its tools, Broadlook Eclipse in particular. Moreover, it should be well emphasized that, Again, it’s one thing to marvel at a tool set, but quite another to see the people behind the machinations of technology that are made to make things more efficient, more precise, and to enhance the researcher experience. I can now say the pleasure is full circle in having known there is so much more involved to having a crucial set of applications on one’s desktop, its about people passionate about data as myself and my fellow peers. Thank you Broadlook for letting me break bread with you and visiting your work spaces as your guest. You had me at download.
Comments
Leave a Reply