Achieving a Competitive Edge with Web Data Extraction
Posted On Monday, April 9, 2012 at at 6:23 AM by web research
In order to remain profitable in today's tough economic times, companies need to stay one step ahead of their competition. For example, e-commerce sites need to track the prices being offered by other online stores, and manufacturers need to monitor new products or enhancements introduced by other vendors.
Traditionally, companies had to devote extensive resources to the manual collection of this information. Searching for, locating, then copying, pasting, and formatting the needed data proved to be tremendously time-consuming. This approach not only drained resources, it hindered the timeliness of the information obtained - putting companies at risk of missing critical opportunities because of the time wasted on manual procedures.
But, in an environment where competition is more aggressive than ever, and companies continue to struggle to keep customers loyal, this data is crucial to success.
One of the best ways to collect this information in the most economical and timely manner possible is through automated Web data extraction. With tools known as Web data extractors or Web crawlers, organizations can eliminate error-prone manual browsing and cumbersome "cut-and-paste" activities, streamlining the entire process from end to end.
How do Web data extractors work? They automatically find and capture any static or dynamic data using certain key words or phrases, or from a series of target Web sites. Once the desired information has been collected, it is transformed into a text file, Excel spreadsheet, or database format. So, companies can proactively and continuously monitor the Web sites of their key competitors. As a result, they can instantly identify any news, announcements, or other details that may warrant immediate action, such as price adjustments or a shift in marketing strategy.
Because of their ability to improve the productivity, accuracy, and timeliness of competitive research and analysis, as well as their usefulness and value in a wide variety of other applications, Web crawlers are growing in popularity. Companies realize the value of being able to instantly gather and leverage information about prospects, market trends, competitors, and more, and are implementing Web data extraction tools at a rapid pace.
Ficstar Software is a Toronto-based provider of powerful and innovative, yet intuitive and affordable Web crawlers. The company's custom-designed Web Grabber is currently utilized by companies of all sizes, across all industries, helping them to quickly harvest information from any site or combination of sites, and save them in the format of their choice - without the need to spend extensive amounts of time and money on inefficient manual tasks.
With the Ficstar Web Grabber, companies can browse the Web for specific keywords, or collect results from search engines, portals, or a list of defined URLs. Complete Web sites can be navigated, including the paths of all static and dynamic links both within the site, as well as to other sites, providing the most complete and precise results possible. Data can then be refreshed based on pre-defined schedules, to ensure that the information used to make mission-critical business decisions is always accurate and up-to-date.
And best of all, Ficstar solutions are flexible and customizable, so they can be modified to meet the unique and specific needs of each and every user. For example, Ficstar's Web crawler can be customized to support any target Web site, or to save data in almost any popular format. No matter what the Web data extraction requirement, Ficstar can meet it - efficiently and economically. With the right Web crawler in place, such as Ficstar Web Grabber, businesses of all types can achieve - and sustain - the competitive edge they need.
Author:William He
Source:http://goarticles.com/
