Search and Navigation Software Pioneer EasyAsk Has Banner 2002
EasyAsk Strengthens Market Leadership Within E-commerce
While Expanding Into New Markets
Littleton, Mass. - January 30, 2003 - EasyAsk, the market leader in information access software and the only provider of Synchronized Search and Navigation™, announced today that it completed its most successful year ever in 2002.
During the year, EasyAsk’s revenues increased at a record pace over the preceding year, capped by the fourth quarter, which represented the company’s seventh consecutive quarter of rapid revenue growth. With the addition of many new customers to the company’s customer base in 2002, EasyAsk now provides hundreds of corporations with advanced search and navigation capabilities. EasyAsk’s Synchronized Search and Navigation solution provides users with the most intuitive and powerful search and navigation experience in the market today.
“EasyAsk’s success is quite an achievement in any economy, but the company’s continual, rapid growth and market penetration is even more astounding considering the state of last year’s economy. Buyers of technology solutions are only willing to invest in those solutions that have a proven value proposition, rapid payback and meaningful return on investment. EasyAsk has proven time and again that Synchronized Search and Navigation leads to immediate revenue increases and/or cost reductions,” said Bob Alperin, president and CEO of EasyAsk.
Other major EasyAsk milestones in 2002 include:
Thirty-five E-commerce Sites… and Growing
Continuing its leadership position, EasyAsk more than tripled its e-commerce customer base in 2002, adding leading online retailers BassPro, The Bombay Company, Talbots, Jo-Ann Fabrics & Crafts, Lenox, LampsPlus, J. Jill, SmartBargains and others to its prestigious list of customers, which already included premiere brands such as Lands’ End and Coldwater Creek. EasyAsk now has at least three times the number of customers compared to other e-commerce search and navigation vendors. By leveraging EasyAsk’s advanced search, dynamic navigation and merchandising platform, retailers have increased search-conversion rates and improved customer satisfaction by allowing customers to efficiently search and navigate to find the products they are looking for quickly and easily.
“The EasyAsk functionality appeals to the diverse needs of the wide range of online shopping experience our site visitors have,” stated Linsly Donnelly, chief operating officer of IdeaForest and www.joann.com , the online presence of 1,000-store retailer, Jo-Ann Fabrics & Crafts. “With an ever-changing array of products, finding information quickly and easily-whether you’re a novice or an expert to shopping on the web-allows us to provide an improved customer experience and, of course, an increase in sales.”
Leading Software Vendors Integrate EasyAsk at Rapid Pace
A vibrant OEM channel is testimony to EasyAsk’s technological superiority, and it continues to be a cornerstone of EasyAsk’s success. In 2002, EasyAsk’s OEM partner base increased by over 25 percent. EasyAsk’s technology continues to be adopted by leading enterprise software application providers who incorporate its advanced search, navigation and business intelligence capabilities into their end-user applications. EasyAsk enables these leading software providers and their customers to realize tremendous productivity and cost savings by improving information access throughout the enterprise.
Some of EasyAsk’s newer OEM partners include NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, a rapidly growing software provider of applications that address the practice management and electronic medical record needs of healthcare organizations; Callidus Software, a developer of enterprise incentive management software; and PDS, a developer of Web-based human-resources applications for middle-tier businesses.
Additional Market Penetration
In addition to serving critical business needs in pharmaceuticals, healthcare, government and the rapidly expanding e-commerce segment, in 2002 EasyAsk further penetrated the financial services and manufacturing segments after being selected by one of the largest global investment management corporations, as well as the world’s leading chemical company. EasyAsk’s Synchronized Search and Navigation is now providing users in a broad number of verticals first-time access to vital business information in a timely manner, while improving efficiency and effectiveness of employees, customers and other important constituents.
“The very definition of a ‘search vendor’ has changed quite dramatically in the past 12 to 18 months as organizations conducting online commerce have begun to understand the tremendous benefits to the bottom line that can be realized with the right search and navigation solution,” stated David Yockelson, executive vice president and director of Technology Research Services with the META Group. “We anticipate that search will continue to be at the top of the priority list for companies who are serious about accelerating the acceptance and growth of online commerce.”
International Expansion
ARG Equation, the UK’s retail giant, perhaps best known in the United States as the parent to Burberry and Hart Shaffner and Marx, also selected EasyAsk’s Synchronized Search and Navigation platform and is in the process of installing the platform across the ARG Equation family of online retail Web sites.
About EasyAsk
EasyAsk is the leading provider of intuitive and precise information access solutions that empower enterprise users to quickly find and retrieve critical business information. Powered by a unique linguistic capability, EasyAsk’s Synchronized Search and Navigation* platform accesses both structured and unstructured data, intelligently interpreting users’ queries to find accurate and complete results with unprecedented efficiency. Leading retail, financial services and business-to-business companies such as Lands’ End, Siemens Medical Systems (SMS) and Glaxo SmithKline use EasyAsk’s technology. In addition to dozens of direct customers, over 100 companies have acquired EasyAsk’s core technology. Strategic partners include IBM-where EasyAsk is a preferred provider of IBM’s WebSphere Commerce Group-and SAIC. Leading investors include Sigma Partners and Flagship Ventures. EasyAsk is headquartered outside of Boston with sales and support offices throughout the U.S., as well as internationally in London, Brussels and Germany. For more information, please visit our website at www.easyask.com or contact us at 1-800-425-8200.
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