“This is going to shake some people up. We’re really excited about it. It’s an unprecedented move.”
That’s how Frank Vaculin, CEO of Spoke Software, a provider of online business contact information, describes his company’s decision to make its database of more than 30 million accessible free of charge for individual salespeople, marketers, recruiters, and job seekers willing to validate where their business contacts work, a process that Spoke automates.
Unlike traditional business data providers that only have corporate information and top-level executives, Vaculin says, Spoke’s free service gives recruiters unlimited access to corporate information and individuals at all levels of an organization, including managers, directors, executives, and individual contributors. Users have online access to all available contact information for the entire database, making it possible to access information such as title, job history, email pattern, phone numbers, and address.
Vaculin says Spoke’s “secret sauce” is having its database users validate the information it collects from web content and licensed corporate data without having to divulge the actual contact information for the coworkers whose employment they confirm.
“Spoke is tearing down the archaic model of paying large sums for incomplete or inaccurate data. It’s a move we expect will cause some heartburn among traditional data providers,” like Hoovers and OneSource, Vaculin says.
Spoke is still available for $50 per month for individuals who do not want to validate where business contacts work. The San Mateo, California-based software company also offers a premium service, for corporations, with integration to customer relationship management and campaign management solutions; intra-company networking; user administration; and live Web-based training.
The corporate solution is available with an annual subscription and volume discounts are available. In addition, Spoke allows direct marketers to export lists with pricing based on the number of contacts exported.
Spoke Software is a privately held company with investment from Sierra Ventures, Partech International, and DCM — Doll Capital Management.
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Tim Trevathan Jul 31, 2006 at 10:47 am
Frank,
Thanks for thinking “quick on your feet” and making the necessary changes to get the recruiting community the resources we need. Unlike jigsaw.com, validating the veracity and current status of information will truly make a difference. It will truly get us ‘inside companies’ below the V.P. and “C” level to provide new opportunities to communicate with passive candidates. With complimenting software like broadlook.com/profiler & eclipse, there will be few employees that we will not at least have the opportunity to communicate with. With 79 million baby boomers reaching retirement age by 2010 and only 39 million new workers entering the workforce by then, companies will be treating their employees like Platinum or losing them to their competitors. That sucking sound is the sound of employers going into the ground who have not planned accordingly and send the majority of their work force off – shore only to find that supply/demand has made each country (India, China, Russia & South America) as expensive as home in time with a multitude of more complexity to run their companies over multiple times zones with an added increase in Project managers and Business Analysts to support the whole effort. Of course having workers available to work around the clock world-wide can’t be an entirely bad thing??