Kapow gives Morgan Stanley a competitive edge by automatically harvesting investment data from thousands of sites and protecting intellectual property embedded in web intelligence robots.
Customers
Analytics & BI
- Home
- Customers
- By Solution
- Analytics & BI
Challenge
- The company was looking for a competitive edge to improve investor advisory services.
- They wanted to leverage web-based product inventory information at key retail outlets to predict sales performance of a leading technology company.
Solution
- Kapow enables them to harvest investment web intelligence from thousands of public websites.
- Kapow's approach protects intellectual property embedded in robots.
Results
- Massive data harvesting has improved investment analysis.
- Easy-to-use tools for building web intelligence robots has reduced reliance on consultant developers.
With Kapow, Fiserv automated their compliance dashboard without building APIs for 300 banking partner applications.
Challenge
- Fiserv was struggling with regulatory compliance on high volume transactions across 300 global banking partners and went without the automated compliance dashboard they needed for 3 years.
- As processing load grew to 10,000 transactions totaling $1 billion each day, manual processes became unsustainable. Many errors were occurring due to manual web intelligence and reconciliation.
- Real-time cash balance account data access and integration was essential, but developing APIs for 300 highly secure banking applications was out of the question. They had tried and failed.
Solution
- Today, Fiserv uses Kapow to automate data gathering and aggregation from banking partners' internal web-based applications.
- Kapow robots gather and transform information from these external systems and bring it together with data from Fiserv internal systems and data repositories to create meaningful BI.
- With Kapow, a management dashboard is available that enables treasury associates to track KPIs including debt balances, cash flow and net settlements so they can make informed financial decisions in real time.
Results
- Kapow completed a POC in 2 weeks and went live across 300 banks in 3 months.
- Automation reduced Fiserv staffing requirements by 2 full-time equivalents.
- They now have real-time access to global financial data and automated processing of over 10,000 Treasury transactions per day to meet regulatory compliance requirements
- Using robots in tandem with dashboard reporting has enabled Fiserv to consolidate funds for investment, which generates more revenue/income and reduces the number of draws from its credit facility.
Automating web intelligence generates 6-figure cost savings for this Global Auto Manufacturer.
Challenge
- Marketing team receives periodic reports with information on sales, leads, ad revenue and other team performance metrics.
- The information in these reports was collected manually from disparate sources.
- Manual web intelligence affected the timeliness and accuracy of information, making the information less valuable to decision makers.
Solution
- They now use Kapow to automatically collect data from third party marketing sites and feed it into a data warehouse for reporting and analysis.
- Kapow is also a central component of their interactive media ROI tool. Without it they would be unable to collect a critical piece of the data they need for performance metrics relating to online advertising and search placements.
Results
- Data is now accurate and up-to-date.
- 6-figure cost savings relating to vendor reporting and pricing functions.
AstraZeneca, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies, uses Kapow to automate web intelligence for executive reports and dashboards.
Challenge
- To meet U.S. compliance requirements, pharmaceutical companies are required to maintain a Health Care Professionals (HCP) Exclusion List, showing HCPs that should be excluded from existing or new contracts.
- AstraZeneca wanted to automate existing manual processes for developing and maintaining the HCP Exclusion List.
Solution
- They used Kapow to create a master listing from information on external websites.
- The listing is automatically updated with specific regulated information.
- The process is integrated from delivery to a spreadsheet to a downstream compliance system.
- Data is integrated into an internal data mart built on Business Objects to create executive reports and dashboards.
- This is a major reporting system to the FDA, including all money spent for contracting outside HCPs and research organizations.
Results
- After implementing the Kapow automated master web intelligence and matching process, the time to develop a list of possible suspects for non-compliant HCPs was reduced from 6 months to 2 weeks.
- AstraZeneca estimates that it could save millions of dollars in FDA fine avoidance with the improved compliance monitoring.
AGCO, the largest pure play, full-line agricultural equipment manufacturer, uses Kapow to automate web data extraction on hundreds of thousands of parts.
Challenge
- AGCO's parts division needed to pull data from 10 websites, which sell AGCO parts as well as competitors' products.
- Their existing data feed was inflexible. They got infrequent data dumps, and AGCO had to do a lot of manual work on the product description lists.
- Overall not a very good or agile solution, given that they were extracting hundreds of thousands of parts in a very competitive industry.
Solution
- Kapow provides a fully automated data feed solution, including robots to pull from the 10 key websites and a hosted installation of Kapow running on Amazon EC2.
- Kapow also provides ongoing robot maintenance and support.
- An in-house deployment is planned for the next phase.
Results
- Kapow eliminated manual work associated with web data acquisition.
- Competitive information is up-to-date.
Attivio, a leader in unified information access, uses Kapow to automate web intelligence and integration with regulatory management systems.
Challenge
- Attivio needed to capture regulatory information from public websites, including content in JavaScript and PDFs, for their end-customer, a major financial institution.
Solution
- With Kapow, web data – including content in JavaScript and PDFs – is automatically fed into Attivio's Regulatory Active Management System, which runs on the Attivio Active Intelligence Engine.
- Attivio built a connector to their software so data output from Kapow robots is automatically transformed into the correct format.
Results
- Web data is collected automatically to support regulatory compliance.
- Based on their success with the financial company project, Attivio will be using Kapow robots to automate web data extraction on 200 additional sites.
Milestone is generating e-buzz with social media monitoring that helps clients manage online reputation.
Challenge
- Launch a social media management service (www.ebuzzconnect.com) that would enable hotels, restaurants, and businesses to monitor and manage online reputation and social media channels from a single integrated interface.
- Needed to extract reviews, rankings, and blog posts from 40 hotel and hospitality sites, including hotels.com, Orbitz, and FaceBook.
Solution
- Enables hotels to monitor and manage online reputation by aggregating content from dozens of sites in real time.
- Offers powerful reporting and the ability to provide actionable reports that can help hotels improve services to customers and increase profitability.
Results
- 3 developers maintain the site, with plenty of time to focus on adding new features and content to grow the service.
- Milestone was selected to present eBuzz Connect™ at the 2009 Travel Innovation Summit. Out of hundreds of competing innovators from around the world, Milestone was one of only 30 to take the stage.
- eBuzz Connect won a Silver Award in the Web Applications Category from the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI), the largest and most prestigious travel marketing competition globally.
Before automating web intelligence, 5 employees were manually copying and pasting competitive pricing information into spreadsheets. Now they can focus on putting the real-time data to work.
Challenge
- Automate web data acquisition for greater market awareness and competitive intelligence.
- Acquire the intelligence needed to make informed decisions for optimizing product pricing.
- Free employees from manually searching, copying and pasting data from the web.
Solution
- Kapow automates the extraction and aggregation of nearly 15 million records/year of market and competitive intelligence.
- No coding is required. Business analysts built the Kapow robots that automate web data extraction.
Results
- With Kapow, data acquisition is comprehensive and scalable. They aren't limited to data staff can manually extract.
- They've eliminated errors associated with manual data entry.
- Data is up-to-date.
Viking relies on Kapow for secure, noise-free, real-time web intelligence.
Challenge
- Hedge funds depend on “asymmetrical intelligence” for competitive advantage. When information is commonly known, it is just noise. They needed high quality, noise-free data.
- Security is critical for hedge funds. Viking needed a solution they could build, maintain and host onsite.
- Much of their analysis is based on data over time. It can include seasonality and other factors. Therefore, robots accumulate and persist. They needed an industrial strength solution.
Solution
- They now use Kapow to automate “noise-free” web intelligence.
- Robots are developed and maintained onsite.
- Kapow's debugger accelerates development and improves data quality.
Results
- Kapow robots are 75% faster to develop and maintain than the custom-built robots they were using before.
- Data is secure and noise-free.
With Kapow, a leading provider of business software was able to increase their monitoring of social networking sites from 1% sample size to 100% with zero increase in staffing.
Challenge
- Increase customer loyalty for a popular software product.
- Gather customer feedback across multiple touchpoints including CRM applications, contact center notes and call transcripts, email, captured internet chat sessions, external forums and review sites such as Amazon and CNET.
- Current solution covered less than 1% of overall customer feedback.
Solution
- With Kapow they get custom, automated, real-time data feeds from all required sources.
- This includes social networks, review forums, blogs, internet chat and CRM systems.
Results
- Real-time visibility of analytics and action on every customer feedback instance.
- Zero headcount increase.
- Zero administrative cost.
Neckermann, one of the leading multi-channel retailers in Europe, keeps popular products in stock and priced to beat the online competition with automated web intelligence from Kapow.
Challenge
- Neckermann lacked fundamental metrics on their own web business and needed a more effective way to check competitor pricing to compete effectively with online retailers.
- An audit quantified the problem, showing SKUs priced too high relative to the competition and out-of-stocks on popular items.
Solution
- With Kapow, the company has automated web intelligence to support competitive pricing, category management and inventory applications.
Results
- Increased service levels and revenue by reducing out-of-stocks.
- Increased revenue resulting from dynamic pricing strategies informed by real-time view of competitor pricing.
P&G uses Kapow to monitor social media sites for consumer reaction to their company and products.
Challenge
- P&G wanted a more automated way of tracking and responding to social networking discussions that mention P&G products.
- They were performing manual search of websites, but this was too time consuming and they were missing out on vital information needed to make the data sampling relevant.
- The Text Analytics team was responding to requests on an ad hoc basis by doing a search with custom-built robots and providing their analysis in PowerPoint.
Solution
- P&G is now using Kapow robots for social media monitoring.
- They build custom robots to search social media sites for key words related to the brand, circumstance (for example, new product launch) and location.
Results
- LOB managers get real-time insight on consumer reaction to new product releases, product recalls and other issues that affect sales and margins.
- With fresh data, P&G can react and respond quickly to opportunities and threats. This is particularly important for new product releases and product recalls, when problems with products are in the news and under discussion on social media sites.
JB Hunt, one of the largest transportation logistics companies in North America, keeps trucks running at capacity by harnessing real-time web data with Kapow.
Challenge
- Reduce freight costs by filling all trucks on all routes to capacity.
- To achieve this goal, they needed real-time access to relevant information from diverse sources, including logistic and payment information, but access to secure/external databases was seemingly impossible.
Solution
- Kapow web intelligence robots enable them to monitor public and partner websites for freight bid information in real time.
- They can integrate data from hundreds of partners and companies within a complex value chain.
- Data flows are integrated using web application interfaces. This eliminates the need for manual copy and paste between systems.
- The solution provides mobile access to application data, crucial for a transportation company.
Results
- More trucks are running with full loads, reducing freight cost per mile.
- Automating data integration has reduced cost (and errors) associated with manual data entry.
- Real-time visibility into partner logistics drives increased margin, revenue and customer satisfaction.
- CFO has a real-time view of cash flow.
Automating web data extraction with Kapow improves the timeliness, comprehensiveness and accuracy of data for this consumer credit reporting agency.
Challenge
- Reduce operational costs and scale to consume more data sources.
- Improve timeliness, comprehensiveness and accuracy of data.
- Speed up aggregation and integration of personal consumer information from financial institutions and government sites to improve credit risk assessment.
Solution
- The Kapow platform automates web data acquisition.
- Kapow integrates this data with internal systems.
Results
- Increased efficiency and eliminated the delay, cost and errors associated with manual processes.
- Improved information products available for customers.
- Provided greater scalability for web data acquisition.
Specialty retailer is using Kapow to automate web intelligence of competitor prices on sporting gear.
Challenge
- The company had a poor handle on management of pricing promotions on their own website and no visibility into how competitors were pricing the same or similar products.
- There are 500 high volume SKUs they need to monitor very closely as these products are bestsellers and cause site visitors to buy other products.
- They wanted to monitor pricing on all products, not just the 500 high volume SKUs.
Solution
- They are using Kapow to automate web intelligence for comparison pricing on all products, with a focus on the high volume SKUs.
- They can now monitor their own website for impact of promotions and price changes.
Results
- They are now better able to monitor their own promotions and make timely price changes on their site.
- They can readily see how competitor pricing compares to theirs and make same-day pricing adjustments on their site and in their stores.
- They can see what competitors are selling, enabling them to make more informed merchandising decisions.
With Kapow, InfoGroup collects and refines data to the highest compilation standards from the widest range of web sources.
Challenge
- Top internet search engines, in-car navigation systems and operator-assisted directory services rely on InfoGroup as the source of truth.
- The challenge for InfoGroup was to maintain the highest data compilation standards and seek out additional sources of validated data.
Solution
- Kapow enables them to extract web data from a wide range of sources, including FCC filings from county court houses and basic company data from public websites to supplement the business and consumer data products they sell.
- Much of the information they receive is from subscription-based data feeds. They use Kapow for all custom data requests, which are not available from data providers.
- By automating web data extraction, the Business Content Group can support the diverse needs of all InfoGroup departments and divisions.
Results
- Improved quality of data they provide to their customers.
- Dramatically reduced or eliminated hours of manual web intelligence.
- They can now get to data sources they couldn't reach in the past.
A leading provider of branded merchandise is using Kapow to aggregate supplier data from partner sites so visitors to their e-commerce platform can take advantage of bulk discounts and an industry view of all promotional products and pricing.
Challenge
- Their existing platform only offered intra-company purchasing aggregation – so you could receive a volume discount based on orders your colleagues placed around the same time. They wanted to offer a new technology platform that would give users a view into all products, group discounts and pricing in the branded merchandise industry.
- Specifically, they wanted to pull product data from partner/supplier websites into their application to give customers a 360 degree view of promotional products from 1 website.
Solution
- Kapow automates web intelligence from partner sites, with no coding required.
- Robots will be used to complete e-commerce transactions.
Results
- Their customers are now able to take advantage of bulk discounts while choosing from a larger inventory of products. This results in substantial cost savings and improved service.
- Kapow enables them to integrate with partner/supplier applications in an automated fashion, something they couldn't do before.
A leading mobile phone manufacturer uses Kapow to monitor blogs, forums and social media sites for consumer commentary on their mobile phones.
Challenge
- They needed a more effective way to extract business intelligence on mobile phones and mobile phone customers from comments found on blogs, forums and industry websites.
- They were using a home-grown solution that was offsetting benefits with excessive maintenance and troubleshooting costs.
- They needed a robust platform for web data extraction and integration that could handle JavaScript, Ajax and other challenging source content.
Solution
- Kapow robots automated web intelligence, with no coding required.
- Collected web data is integrated directly to an internal database.
Results
- More comprehensive and accurate data for making product decisions.
- Easier maintenance and development with the Kapow platform compared to their previous home-grown solution.
- More robust technology for extracting data in JavaScript, Ajax and other difficult web content sources.
Online components distributor is using Kapow to track competitor pricing data on the web.
Challenge
- They needed an efficient way to monitor competitor pricing data.
- Manual data monitoring was costly and time consuming.
Solution
- Kapow automated the process of harvesting competitor pricing information.
- No coding was required.
Results
- By tracking competitor prices in real time, the distributor can adjust their own pricing for competitive advantage.
- By offering consistently competitive prices, they've increased revenue and customer loyalty.