Alison Laferla reports
MAID, the business information supplier, has unveiled two products due for release in the New Year.
The products are based on the company's Profound system, which it claims gives users access to the world's largest database of business information, including news, market research and company data.
Profound lets users download detailed business information quickly. Its indexing system ensures that a search request retrieves relevant documents only. Sixteen of the top 50 law firms currently use the service.
Maid is now set to introduce an intranet package which can be custom-designed. The company says the intranet will give users all the security advantages of a closed network, as well as access to the Profound database.
The intranet package lets a firm ensure that only information which it has defined as relevant is available on the system. External information taken from Profound is indexed along with the firm's internal data. Any information downloaded from the external database is stored in the firm's electronic library.
Maid chief executive Dan Wagner said: "The intranet solution is specifically designed to counter the problems of information overload."
The company is also launching an alerting system, Profound LiveWire. This allows news alerts to appear direct on the desktop, whatever application the user is in, within minutes of the story breaking.
Users can select the news topics they want to be alerted to. When relevant information enters the Profound database, a flashing icon or new headline scrolls across the screen to alert the user to its existence.
The service is sold at a fixed price irrespective of the number of users or how many headlines are downloaded.
