In the News

• Data Mining Employee Email Contacts Roger Matus' Death By Email Blog, April 22, 2008
  
• Email Software Delves Into Employees' Contacts Marketing Muse and News Blog, April 21, 2008
  
• Email Software Delves Into Employees' Contacts The Wall Street Journal, April 21, 2008 (Subscription Required)
  “We're able to infer where people have relationships, based on their electronic vapor trail of activities,’" said Geoffrey Hyatt, founder of Contact Networks in Boston. The company, whose product is called ContactNet, said the program is used at about 40 law firms, including Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, both in New York.” 
• MySpace Mind-Set Finally Shows Up at the Office The New York Times, April 09, 2008 (Subscription Required)
  “Despite the huge popularity of networks like MySpace and Facebook, they have had a slow start in the business world, where I.T. managers and executives remain leery of them. But that is starting to change as the technology is becoming more integrated into corporate software applications.” 
• Eagan's Thomson West Touts Network-building Web tools for Law Firms Pioneer Press, February 21, 2008
  “Kilpatrick Stockton, an Atlanta-based firm with more than 500 lawyers scattered across nine offices, put ContactNet to the test recently. One morning before work, a lawyer at the firm saw a TV news story about a food company blamed for selling a tainted product. As soon as he got to the office, the lawyer logged into ContactNet to find out whom at the firm knew people inside the food company. By the end of the day, Kilpatrick Stockton's litigation unit had signed up a new client, said David Gregson, the firm's chief information officer. ‘You don't know who your partners know and you don't know who the clients know,’ he said.” 
• Thomson Acquires ContactNet Electronic Information Report, January 28, 2008
  “We know implicitly our whole business depends on communities,” said Mike Wilens, Thomson corporate executive vice president and chief technology officer. “We have been in the business forever, but now it’s going online.” 
• Using Corporate Social Networking to Rev Up Revenue CRM Buyer, January 25, 2008
  “Companies have always invested heavily in growing their relationship network. Now, with enterprise relationship management, firms have a way to capitalize and leverage that "asset" -- the extended network of relationships that they have built and maintained.” 
• Thomson Acquires Contact Networks Destination CRM, January 18, 2008
  “The fight to establish an influential presence in the rapidly emerging B2B social networking market just found itself a new participant in the Thomson Corp. With its acquisition Tuesday of Boston-based Contact Networks, Thomson adds the enterprise relationship management (ERM) product ContactNet to its existing arsenal of business intelligence and relationship management services.” 
• Thomson Buys Contact Networks Octavianworld Blog, January 17, 2008
  “As a customer, I can attest to that... In short, it was probably the most elegant software application concept and execution of a concept I have seen in my career so far, and just a killer value proposition: one incremental sale a year would cover the nut.” 
• Thomson adds Contact Networks to Portfolio Boston Globe, January 16, 2008
  “ContactNet, a networking application built specifically for corporate environments, automatically uncovers, aggregates, and prioritizes a firm’s internal relationships with external business contacts.” 
• Thomson Bags B2B Social Search Vendor eWeek.com, January 16, 2008
  “Businesses, including legal firms and marketing agencies, are increasingly using such tools to find referred employees, invite users to events, as well as for cross-selling opportunities and competitive intelligence to gain an edge on rivals.” 
• Today’s Law Offices Embrace Tech Solutions Mass High Tech, December 7, 2007
  “Contact Networks -- another in the Thomson family -- has introduced an appliance that combs the e-mail and documents to find and report on user "relationships." This helps leverage relationships and enhances cross marketing opportunities between practice areas.” 
• Social Networking Tools Destination CRM, November 2007
  “Networking has always revolved around the concept that it's not what you know, it's whom you know. Paralleling the growth of consumer social networks, social networking applications are automating the corporate Rolodex, helping companies leverage existing relationships to drive engagements, maximize sales, and reduce marketing and operational costs.” 
• Case study: Unlocking the relationship paradox Managing Partner Magazine, September 2007
  "Squire, Sanders & Dempsey L.L.P. introduced an enterprise relationship management (ERM) solution to merge technology with marketing and give lawyers a greater range of client contact information."
• CRM's New Sidekick Law Firm Inc, September 2007
  "Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom recently signed a long-term contract for ContactNet, which Skadden's CTO, Harris Tilevitz, describes as an efficient way to understand, manage, and leverage the powerful relationships of our global team."
• "Collaborative Thinking: Unified Social Networks" Burton Group, July 9, 2007
  "Enterprise software vendors are also focusing on the market opportunity represented by social networking."
• "Skadden Selects Leading Corporate Social Networking Solution from Contact Networks to Leverage the Firm's Relationship Network" May 21, 2007
  "We chose Contact Networks' enterprise search solution for its ability to instantly map our attorneys' relationships to each of our clients and prospects."
• "White Paper: Institutionalizing Relationships as a Firm Asset" ILTA White Paper April, 2007
  "The firm will invest significant time and money to acquire and nurture relationships, and that investment cannot be properly realized without a system and culture to use those relationships."
• "Spotlight: Contact Networks" What's Next March 6, 2007
  "Contact Networks has an 80% market share, and through this experience has learned how to implement an ERM system in a broad range of corporate cultures."
• "Relationship Management: Find Contacts In the Next Cube" CIO Magazine March 1, 2007
  "To avoid missing potentially profitable connections, Sheppard Mullin, an AmLaw 100 firm with offices throughout California, installed an ERM system from Contact Networks."
• "New Technology Solves Old Relationship Management Problem" Marketing the Law Firm February 4, 2007
  "Most partners and practice group leaders are up late thinking, "How do we leverage our talent to grow in China? How do we cross-sell our IP clients? Whom do we know in the legal department of AstraZeneca because we have an opportunity to do a major pitch?"
• "Emerging Technology: Consumer Appeal" CIO Magazine October 15, 2006
  "At the Boston law firm Mintz Levin, attorneys search for contacts on the firm's intranet using Contact Networks' software. Now, the firm's 475 lawyers can search for contacts within the firm from a link on the company intranet page."
• "ERM Software Builds Better Client Base" Legal Technology September 12, 2006
  "As you evaluate ERM solutions for your firm, consider which approach best meets your criteria. Ask for multiple references and ask your peers at other firms about their experiences. Benefit from the experience of others and learn some best practices for launch and adoption."
• "Social Networks: Execs Use Them Too" Business Week September 11, 2006
  "Within a matter of days, the software uncovered a key connection that the existing CRM software had failed to capture. 'It showed a senior relationship that existed in our firm with them,' says Schechter. Duane Morris subsequently won the business, thanks in part to the Contact Networks discovery, Schechter says."
• "CEO Guide to Technology: Social Networks" Business Week September 11, 2006
  "Days after the system was installed, it uncovered one relationship that the CRM system missed, providing an entrée into a company that is now a client."
• "ERM: The Process of Bringing in New Business" ILTA Peer to Peer August 14, 2006
  "Visionary IT executives have been implementing ERM solutions to help generate more new business by leveraging their firm's entire extended network of relationships. In each case, they have seen user acceptance, adoption and measurable results."
• "Gartner's 2006 Emerging Technologies" Gartner Group August 9, 2006
  "Social Network Analysis (SNA) is rated as high impact (definition: enables new ways of performing vertical applications that will result in significantly increased revenue or cost savings for an enterprise) and capable of reaching maturity in less than two years."
• "Overcoming a Bear of a Communications Gap" Destination CRM July 1, 2006
  "The biggest challenge with venture firms is that the partners know a huge number of people, but the organizations do a poor job of consolidating that information in any meaningful way," says Steve Maxwell, recruiting partner for Kodiak. ContactNet helps Kodiak with two modes of use, a recruiting module for locating new executives, and a venture investment search for finding companies to fund. "In 2005 we added about 35 new executives to our portfolio, and we were able to find two-thirds of them with ContactNet," Maxwell says."
• "ContactNet 5.0 Boosts CRM" Law Technology News July 1, 2006
  "ContactNet 5.0 analyzes several new data sources, including client relationship management systems such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM, from Microsoft Corp.; NetSuite Inc.'s NetSuite CRM+; LexisNexis InterAction; Elite Enterprise from Thomson Elite; and others."
• "CRM: It's Not Just About Who You Know" Law.com June 06, 2006
  "Our goal, for example, was to strengthen our relationships with our existing clients, and to boost our business development efforts. Integrating ContactNet with InterAction ties right in to those strategic goals."
  - Pat Purdy
  Senior Marketing Director, Duane Morris
• "Software turns contacts into corporate capital" Law Times May 23, 2006
  "In a small firm, it's not hard to wander down the corridor, tapping on doors and asking if anybody knows anyone at a potential client's company. In a bigger firm, you might search the company's customer relationship management system, which may not have everyone entered, or you can resort to blast e-mails and sit back and hope some responses will trickle back in time. Imagine instead a simple search that immediately provides you with a list of colleagues with their relationship with the wished-for contact ranked in terms of strength."
• "An ERM Upgrade for Professional Services" Destination CRM May 15, 2006
  "Using ERM as leverage on CRM is the winning business case. Social networking on top of CRM has a high capability to drive more revenue, which is more compelling than cutting costs," Dan Keldsen, senior analyst and CTO with Delphi Group, a Perot Systems company says. "Within five years we should see many more companies that have tied social networking into sales and especially marketing."
• "New ContactNet Reveals Whom You Know BEST at Targets" Professional Marketing Blog, May 12, 2006
  "Business development and marketing professionals at larger firms have the advantage of having more employees with more relationships to potentially leverage for business development efforts. On the flip side, the larger the firm, the more difficult it becomes to know all of your colleagues and the valuable relationships they have."
• "What's Next @ MITX: Member Spotlight" [PDF] MITX Weekly Information Exchange, May 9, 2006
  "The process of trying to identify colleagues who know a particular individual is inefficient and ineffective today. The typical approach is to send out blast emails, check the CRM system for any helpful relationship information, and see if any local colleagues can provide a lead."
• "Need to Know: Kodiak Venture Partners uses ContactNet software" TheDeal.com, April 20, 2006
  "The recruitment chief at Kodiak Venture Partners and other principals at the early-stage fund use software from Contact Networks Inc. that helps the firm coordinate thousands of professional relationships, cuts down on the costs of recruiting portfolio company executives and generates sales leads."
• "Social Networking: Getting in Touch the CRM Way" CRM Magazine, March 1, 2006
  "We discovered we had more than 37,700 unique contacts in 3,300 different organizations."
• "Marketing Technology: Speaking to a Brick Wall?," Law Technology News (Registration required),February 15,2006
  "In preparation for a client pitch, lawyers traditionally walked down halls and asked if anyone knew someone at the company in question. With the advent of e-mail, the "all-lawyer" e-mail blast has become commonplace. But are you truly leveraging your firm's relationship capital?"
• "Manage All Relationships, Not Just Customer Relationships: ERM helps to drive revenue by leveraging key relationships," CRM Magazine, February 2,2006
  "A CRM system should be a key data resource to manage customer relationships, but it cannot be the only data resource for managing all company relationships".
• "Social Networking and CRM: the Next Step for Law Firms," Excited Utterances Legal Technology Blog, January 13,2006
  Tom Baldwin, Sheppard Mullin's Chief Knowledge Officer, blogs about two new social networking software products which will enhance your firm's client relationship management system.
• "Adding Relationship Capital to CRM…," Legal Industry Knowledge Management Blog , January 12,2006
  If you're firm is serious about leveraging its relationship capital, these tools shouldn't be overlooked.
• "IT@ Mintz Levin: Nurturing Relationships," Law Technology News (Registration required),January 1,2006
  "We needed technology that would help us better leverage our relationships. Our attorneys have developed relationships with thousands of firms and organizations, but we had no way to systematically catalog, search and leverage that information."
• "Search is back...," Mass High Tech,November 24,2005
  "Search technologies have been (around) for years, and really decades, across internal data. What some companies are doing now is applying search technologies to business problems instead of to data" said Geoffrey Hyatt, CEO of Contact Networks Corp., a startup based in Boston whose software enables employees to track colleagues' contacts within a large firm.
• "Unlocking Corporate Relationship Data,"CRM Daily, July 26, 2005
• "How to balance employee privacy and enterprise search technology" Computerworld July 21, 2005
  
• "Enterprise relationship search - New application from Contact Networks", KMWorld, July 11, 2005
• "Contact Networks unlocks relationship data", by Cathleen Moore, InfoWorld, July 5, 2005
• "Law firms reinvent KM",  Judith Lamont, KMWorld, July 1, 2005
• "Social Networking: M&A Matchmaker Gets Automated Help" Bank Technology News, May, 2005
• "Contact Networks Makes Making Connections Easier", by Ethan Forman, Mass High Tech, March 28, 2005
• "Technology Can Help Change Corporate Culture", by Eric Chabrow, Information Week, September 22, 2004
• "Digital prospecting--social networks in sales", by John Harney, KMWorld Magazine, June 1, 2004
• "Networking Overload", by Scott Kirsner, Fast Company, April 29, 2004
• "Alumni Sites Use New Tools to Keep Grads Connected", by Jennifer Saranow, Wall Street Journal, April 28, 2004
• "Leveraging Your Leads", by Dan Tynan, Sales and Marketing Management, March 22, 2004
• "@Large 3-2-1", by Scott Kirsner, Boston Globe, February 9, 2004
• "Trend Watch: Social Networking Is the Newest Link in the CRM Chain", by Lisa Picarille, Destination CRM, February 2, 2004
• "Making Contact", by Rob Wright, VARBusiness, January 13, 2004
• "15 Minutes With: Contact Network's Cesar Brea, on Corporate Social Networking", by Scott Van Camp, Technology Marketing, January 6, 2004
• "Social Networking Targets the Enterprise", by Ephraim Schwartz, Infoworld, December 15, 2003
• "Six Degrees Co.", by Chris Gaither, Boston Globe, December 7, 2003
• "Encouraging Social Interaction At Work", by Paul Golden, IT's Monday, December 8, 2003
• "Social Networking Reaches Into The Enterprise", by Matt Hicks, eWeek, December 3, 2003
• "Market Watch: Collaborative Selling", by Lisa Picarille, CRM Magazine, December 1, 2003
• "Contact Network shares its contacts", by Elizabeth Dinan, Mass High Tech, November 10, 2003
• Networking Software Helps Make Introductions Transform Magazine, October 2003
• "I get by with a little help from my friends of friends of friends", by David Kirkpatrick, Fortune, September 30, 2003 (October 13 print edition)
• "Delayed Gratification", by Tom Witkowski, Boston Business Journal, September 27, 2003
• "Computer Program Helps Business-School Students Expand Their Networking Opportunities", by Scott Carlson, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 23, 2003
• "New Product Highlight", CRM Magazine, August 27, 2003
• "New Application for Contact Collaboration", KM World, August 26, 2003