Niche search engines pinpoint specific needs
By Jim Fulcher, contributing editor -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 10/1/2005 12:00:00 AM
Blame it on Google—or Yahoo!, or Ask Jeeves— but the world loves search engines. And because these high-profile tools cannot—and do not—meet everyone's needs, some smaller vendors are making a business out of offering search capabilities for niche markets.
One such vendor is iSleuthHound Technologies, which has a low-cost solution to quickly locate documents on a company's internal network. Called Intranet Sleuthhound, it targets small and medium-size companies using one or two central servers containing somewhere between 50,000 and 200,000 documents, says CEO Dan Walker.
Sleuthhound is programmed to locate highlighted words in Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint documents—or those in PDF or HTML formats—in one second or less.
"Intranet Sleuthhound is a very simple application—much simpler than applications from Microsoft and other vendors," Walker says. "It's also important to remember that it's a stand-alone application that doesn't need additional services such as a Web server. Any user can install and begin using Intranet Sleuthhound from scratch. Other users may opt for advanced technology and settings to customize the software."
GlobalSpecoffers a Web-based search engine that caters to engineers. Users log on to GlobalSpec's Web site to access its SpecSearch engine to browse, by specification, through more than 82 million parts listed in more than 14,500 supplier catalogs.
"It's a win-win situation for both customers—engineers and technical buyers—and manufacturing suppliers," says Scott Virkler, VP of business development, GlobalSpec. "People conduct a search, get a list of results, filter through the list, and find the solution to their problem in less than two minutes, compared to the days—if not weeks—the process would take using Google."
Product suppliers pay to be listed in SpecSearch, and the business case for doing so is apparent. GlobalSpec gathers information on anyone using its engine to search for parts, and then feeds those names—which amount to qualified sales leads—to suppliers of the parts users are looking for.
The benefits to a company such as Canyon Electronics & Cableshave been tangible. The Grand Junction, Colo.-based contract electronics manufacturing services provider specializes in producing custom cables, wire harnesses, printed circuit boards, and electromechanical accessories.
A key challenge for Canyon, launched in 2002, is identifying prospects with an immediate need for its services. After listing itself in the SpecSearch engine, Canyon Electronics almost immediately started getting both sales leads from GlobalSpec, and inquiries from qualified prospects that found Canyon Electronics through the search engine. Within 60 days, Canyon was closing new sales, says Steve Kramer, a company VP and cofounder.
Overall, Canyon Electronics gained $300,000 in new contracts in its first year with GlobalSpec, boosting total revenues from $60,000 in 2002 to $845,000 in 2004, Kramer says.
"The quick ROI working with GlobalSpec put us well ahead of plan, and took us from being a start-up to an established player," Kramer says. "I expect the search engine to become more effective as we continue to work with GlobalSpec and they learn more about the particular needs of a service-oriented business like ours."
