Mississauga, ON (PRWEB) July 12, 2010

BizCompare.com publishes detailed company profiles of 1.5 million companies in the U.S. in the business services vertical. The site features a lead generation tool so sales managers or sales reps can quickly narrow a group of companies into more qualified sales leads. The lead generation tool provides one-click filters to taper a potential audience of prospects by geography, size of business and how long they’ve been around. The specific filters are by State, annual business sales, number for employees, sales per employee and years in business. The final outcome is detailed business profiles that only match the desired criteria. See a sample BizCompare company profile.

“Most companies have a sense of what their current customers look like such as how big they are, where they are located and their age” says Geoff Vincent, CEO of BizCompare.com. The challenge is how to narrow a large pool of sales leads to those with the best odds of becoming long term customers. “The filtering tool on our site enables sales managers to take their specific knowledge of their best customers and apply those attributes to find the most highly qualified prospects.” The tool is intuitive and fast. In minutes, a user can look at dozens of combinations of attributes and quickly distribute leads to their sales force. The tool is also useful for sales planning tasks such as territory alignment. See an example companies listing page for Building Inspectors with filtering tools.

The site also has 108 detailed industry reports, one for each of the business service sectors covered. “Who hasn’t received a cold call from a sales rep who knows nothing about your industry. It’s an immediate turn off and virtually dooms the call” says, Mr. Vincent. An industry report helps prepare a sales rep for a call by providing a foundation of information including industry description, top 20 services provided by that industry, graphs on sales, employees, sales per employee & years in business plus the number of companies nationally or by state. See an example industry report for Building Inspectors.

Information provided for the 1.5 million companies: Company name, address, phone number, website, contact name and title, services/specialties/brand names associated with the company, NAICS and SIC codes, Annual Business Sales, Number of Employees, Sales per Employee and Years in Business. Not all data elements are available on all companies.

About BizCompare Inc.
The BizCompare.com site is owned and managed by BizCompare Inc. which was founded in 2010 and is based in Mississauga, Ontario, just west of Toronto. The BizCompare.com site consists of profiles of 1.5 million U.S. businesses who are primarily involved in the business services sector. Site users are looking for information on various business services industries and the companies that may provide these services. Key features of the site include peer group comparative information presented in text and graphs. For more information go to www.bizcompare.com or call 647-220-2515.

Contact Info:
Geoff Vincent, CEO
647-220-2515

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For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2010/07/prweb4242344.htm

Dallas, TX (PRWEB) July 12, 2010

More than two-thirds of organizations anticipate increasing their investment in open source technology, according to a recent survey by Accenture.

This comes as no surprise to Dallas-based LevelTen Interactive, which has been preaching the virtues of top open source development platform Drupal to clients and colleagues since 2008.

Of those surveyed, 40% said they plan on migrating mission-critical software to open source platforms within the next 12 months.

With such an open source expansion, there is a need for effective training solutions that will show organizations how to harness open source technology properly. LevelTen has released a schedule that will offer a fast-paced Acquia training overview for Drupal users.

Schedule:

Drupal In a Day — July 19, 2010. This class is designed to show you how to create your own Drupal site from start to finish.

Beginning Drupal for Site Builders — July 20 & 21, 2010. In just two days, this class will bring you up to speed on Drupal site building, and will equip users to tackle their own projects.

“I have been nothing but pleased with the recommendations and services we have received from LevelTen,” Tektronix Communications E-Marketing Manager Brooke Blackwell said. “Their consultants are top notch, always having a clearly defined, reason-based recommendations. The training we received was easily understood by all team members.”

Why should organizations make the switch to open source? In both the United States and United Kingdom, respondents cited quality and improved reliability as the key benefits to open source programs.
More than 70% said they believed open source could save them software maintenance costs, while 69% said that open source provides better security and bug fixing solutions.

Among companies in the Communications & Hi-Tech industry, 83% have either fully committed to using open source in their business or are experimenting and open-minded to future usage.

“LevelTen is about radical transformation on the web,” Director Tom McCracken said. “Whether its training, strategy, marketing, or development, we offer services that can build any organization into an online leader.”

About Drupal:

Drupal is an open-source content management system (CMS) that allows an individual, a community of users, or an enterprise to publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website. Hundreds of thousands of people and organizations are using Drupal to power their online efforts.

About LevelTen Interactive:

LevelTen Interactive is full service Interactive agency, with a focus in Drupal development, Internet marketing, and digital strategy services. LevelTen Interactive focuses on building their clients into online leaders. LevelTen Interactive was founded in 1999, and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. For more information, please visit http://www.leveltendesign.com or call (214) 887-8586.

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For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2010/07/prweb4240104.htm

(PRWEB) January 24, 2010 — PayPal is a secure online payment method, which allows you to pay or get paid quickly and easily without sharing any of your financial information. PayPal remember and safeguard your bank, credit or debit card details, so you don’t have to. You can use PayPal to pay for items on eBay or any of the thousands of online retailers that accept PayPal, now including the bathroom giant Plumbworld.co.uk.

Over the last week Plumbworld have also re-worked its website, menu structure display and more noticeably the checkout.

Scott Morris, E-Commerce Manager of Plumbworld said :

“It has taken quite some time to implement the PayPal payment system into our checkout, it almost took a complete re-write of our checkout system, and subsequently this was carried out. We feel the Plumbworld website is more useable as a result of our hard work and hopefully we will see increased conversions as a reward. The websites new look has brought it right up to date for 2010, and with more changes set to happen over the next few months we are hoping our sales of bathroom suites and showers will increase as a result.”

PayPal serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods such as cheques and money orders. A PayPal account can be funded with an electronic debit from a bank account or by a credit card. PayPal performs payment processing for online vendors, auction sites, and other commercial users, for which it charges a fee. PayPal deliver one of the most secure payment platforms in the world. After more than a decade as the leader in online payments, they have learned a thing or two about keeping information safe.

On October 3, 2002, PayPal became a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay.

Anthony Langston, Website Administrator of Plumbworld said :

“Some of the changes we have made on the Plumbworld website have been small, but it is always good to freshen up a site every so often. The navigation bars at the top have all been re-worked, the checkout re-written from the ground upwards, and PayPal now implemented. We are hoping that with the introduction of PayPal we will introduce more customers who prefer to use the PayPal payment system, and feel secure when doing so.”

Plumbworld sell a wide range of bathroom suites, showers, bathroom furniture and shower enclosures and have seen a huge increase in sales in the new year.

Plumbworld is based in Evesham, Worcestershire and now employs 50 staff within their 2,000 sqm, purpose built warehouse and offices. The company had a turnover in 2008 in excess of £18 Million. Plumbworld was established in 1999 by James and Anita Hickman who sold the business to The Grafton Group Plc in December 2006.

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For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/Plumbworld/Paypal/prweb3496384.htm

(PRWEB) December 13, 2009 — SLI Systems develops learning-based search and navigation technology for publishers, ecommerce and corporate sites that Searches, Learns and Improves the user experience. SLI Systems’ hosted site search and user-generated SEO solutions empower businesses to enhance customer satisfaction and help site visitors find the products and information they seek as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Scott Morris, E-Commerce Manager of Plumbworld said :

“We have been looking for a comprehensive ‘learning’ website search for a long time, and SLI Systems ticked all the boxes. SLI’s search system “learns” from user behaviour by analysing search terms people use on our website and the resulting items they click on. It then uses that information to return search results based on the popularity of all visitors to the site – leveraging the “wisdom of the crowd” to improve relevancy of results. This is shown quite clearly from the reduced bounce rates that have resulted following the last few months of trialling.”

SLI Search can automatically generate navigational pages from website data, allowing users to browse and refine their browsing through the website via multiple paths, for example by manufacturer, category, price range, size etc. The products shown on these navigational pages can be ordered by popularity. Items added to the site are automatically included in the appropriate category, brand, or price range without manual editing efforts.

James Hickman, Managing Director of Plumbworld said :

“Keeping prospective customers on our website is one of the most important things, and with such a intuitive search system, SLI has clearly helped achieve this. Not only does SLI ‘learn’ from the text customers search for, it can also be manipulated manually so when a customer types in a specific search term we can ‘route’ them to the best possible landing page. For example, a customer typing in ‘Heated Towel Rails’ as a generic search can be routed to a Heated Towel Rails product group, landing the customer in the perfect place and reducing their search time.”

Most search technologies use complex algorithms to determine which results should be returned for a query. SLI’s patented learning search technology takes relevance a step further by learning from visitors’ behaviour over time to deliver more relevant results, which leads to increased customer satisfaction and more sales, while reducing costs and yielding valuable customer information that can positively impact other marketing activities.

Plumbworld have seen an increase in sales through the use of the search facility and have reported growth in the bathroom suites and electric shower categories.

Plumbworld is based in Evesham, Worcestershire and now employs 50 staff within their 2,000 sqm, purpose built warehouse and offices. The company had a turnover in 2008 in excess of £18 Million. Plumbworld was established in 1999 by James and Anita Hickman who sold the business to The Grafton Group Plc in December 2006.

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For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/bathrooms/showers/prweb3325604.htm

London, United Kingdom (PRWEB) October 30, 2009 — Alibaba.com and Applegate sign marketing partnership to promote UK businesses internationally

Alibaba.com, the world’s largest business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce company, and Applegate Directory Ltd, the UK and Ireland’s leading online B2B directory, have announced a marketing partnership aimed at promoting UK suppliers to global buyers on Alibaba.com’s international marketplace of nearly 10 million members.

Applegate features tens of thousands of suppliers across 12 industries including Business Services, Chemical, Oil & Gas, Construction, Electronics, Engineering, Plastics & Rubber and Textiles & Clothing. It regularly attracts an audience in excess of 1.5 million unique users and achieves more than 5 million page impressions every month. Under the arrangement, Applegate-listed businesses will be given a ‘free storefront’ on Alibaba.com, where their company and products can receive exposure to a vast, international buying audience from more than 240 countries.

Maggie Choo, EMEA Director, Alibaba.com said, “UK companies have a world class product offering which is in demand around the world, making this a key growth market for Alibaba.com. We are excited to be working with such a market-leading B2B partner, helping UK SMEs to reach out to active buyers from established markets like the US and Europe as well as emerging economies such as China, India, the Middle East and South America. This relationship delivers on Alibaba.com’s promise to bring on partners to better serve the needs of our local markets and we believe that Applegate’s expertise in the UK combined with our global reach will offer huge opportunities for British business.”

“This agreement will allow Applegate listed businesses to interact directly with millions of registered Alibaba.com users, potentially opening new commercial opportunities for UK SMEs at a time in the economic landscape when focus on finding new customers and driving revenues is vital” commented Jon Molyneux-Bracchi, Applegate Directory Ltd CEO. With export and import growth high on the Government’s agenda for ecomonic recovery, online trading platforms provide an excellent forum for greater communication and UK SME’s and Applegate’s marketing partnership with the market leader provides a particularly powerful solution to meet these needs.”

About Alibaba.com

Alibaba. Com Limited (HKSE: 1688.HK), the flagship company of Alibaba Group, is the world’s leading business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce company. Founded in 1999, Alibaba.com makes it easy for millions of buyers and suppliers from around the world to do business online through three marketplaces: an English-language marketplace for global importers and exporters, a Chinese marketplace for domestic trade in China, and a Japanese marketplace facilitating trade to and from Japan. Together, our marketplace form a community of 38 million registered users from over 240 countries and regions.

Headquartered in Hangzhou, China, Alibaba.com has nearly 8,000 full-time employees and offices in more than 40 cities in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe and the United States.

For further information contact: Linda Kozlowksi - +852 2215 5210 or email lkozlowski (at) hk.alibaba-inc (dot) com

About Applegate Directory Limited

Established in 1996, Applegate is the UK and Irelands original and most influential B2B internet directory. Applegate regularly attracts an audience in excess of 1.5 million unique users and achieves over 5 million page impressions every month. These figures are independently audited by ABC Electronic to give independent validation of site statistics.

Stock-on-Line from Applegate is rapidly becoming the UK’s largest single source of online B2B stock and currently features over 5 millions items.

For further information contact: Caroline Shopland-Saich - 01271 852000 or email caroline.shopland-saich (at) applegate (dot) co (dot) uk

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For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/10/prweb3125234.htm

Harpenden, Hertfordshire, UK (PRWEB) July 10, 2009 — Hertfordshire-based web management company, Net Commerce Solutions has been rated the best Link Popularity Services Company in the UK, for 3 consecutive months, by Topseos.com, the well known independent authority site on Search Vendors.

Internet promotion has grown massively in the past few years, both in terms of paid promotion eg Pay Per Click Advertising, and in Natural Search Promotion, which includes link building. By the end of this year, the total internet promotion spend in the UK is likely to exceed the spend on all other media, including television advertising.

Natural Search Promotion is the activity needed to get your site on to the first pages of the results of the major search engines, especially Google. There are many aspects to this, but the key measure is the number and the quality of the links coming in to your site - in effect, each link is a vote for your site, and if you have more such links, and of better quality than your competitors, then you are well on the way to gaining a higher position in the search results.Clearly then, active link building is essential.

You also need properly structured pages, which have been correctly optimized, but that will bring you little visibility unless you also win good quality inbound links to your site - the simple shorthand for “good quality” being the Page Rank which Google award to each page within a website.

To increase link popularity Click this link. you can gain links by Search Engine submission, hosting and distributing content (which in turn attracts links to the content holding pages on the site), free directory submissions, press releases, article marketing and reciprocal links - although the latter are less valuable for link building than previously. Until a couple of years ago, paid-for -links featured extensively in link building services, but this can trigger penalties from Google, and is not now recommended.

A strong web promotion strategy Click this link. is likely to involve the optimal use of both Pay Per Click Click this link. and Natural Search Promotion, especially link building.

‘We have built the range and depth of our Link Building Services steadily over the past few years” said Dave Abernethy, Managing Director, NCS, ”It is great to see this recognized by Topseos”

Since its launch 6 years ago Topseos has become recognized as an independent authority on vendors who supply internet promotion services.

NCS started in 2000: it is a full service web management company, based in Hertfordshire UK, and has developed a wide ranging client base spanning Retail, Commercial, Personal and Charity clients. Each of its three Directors have in-depth technical and commercial experience.

Managing Director,
Net Commerce Solutions Ltd

6 Bramble Close
Harpenden
Hertfordshire
AL5 4AN
+44 (0) 870 246 7642

http://www.net-commerce-solutions.co.uk
Net Commerce Solutions Limited is registered in England and Wales, company number 4052885; registered address 6 Bramble Close, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 4AN

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For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/07/prweb2625804.htm

First off, Freedman says, merchants should know their brands and how to best bring them to market via the content on their retail sites. For example, apparel retailer Wet Seal, which targets young women and teens, sports snazzy copy, contests and events on its e-commerce site. By contrast, Baby Universe, which caters to mom’s–many of whom are on a tight budget—offers a prominent free shipping promotion smack in the center of its home page.

Another tip Freedman suggests is to “embrace the human factor.” People miss chatting with store associates or even fellow shoppers when they shop online. E-retailers can help fill that void by posting profiles of employees, such as customer service staff, to help consumers establish a human connection with the company and brand. Another warm and fuzzy tip is to play up any charitable endeavors to help build a sense of trust with customers.

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Ronning was executive vice president and chief merchandising officer when he left competing home shopping retailer QVC Inc. in 2007 after a six-year stint, and before that spent 30 years at J.C. Penney Co. Inc., where he headed the catalog, distribution and Internet divisions. Ronning rejoins another QVC veteran, Keith Stewart, who joined ShopNBC in August 2008 as president and chief operating officer, following the firing of CEO Rene Aiu, who had been in the job only six months. Stewart was named CEO early this year around the same time as Ronning joined the ShopNBC board as a member.

Buck, who was interim CEO after the firing of Aiu, says the time is right for him to leave ShopNBC, No. 87 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide. “The company is nearing completion of its cable and satellite renegotiations and, while doing so, has maintained its national footprint of 73 million homes while significantly lowering its distribution fees,” Buck says. “ShopNBC`s seven-member Board has been reconstituted over the past 12 months with five new directors, who will be chaired by an extremely well-versed multi-channel retailing veteran in Randy Ronning.”

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The stakes are huge. On May 1, the San Francisco Tax Collector determined that Expedia owed $32 million in hotel room taxes, penalties and interest to the city. Expedia has filed a lawsuit to appeal this ruling, but this is just what a single city says it is owed by a single OTC in back taxes — albeit a city that is one of the top tourist destinations in the United States.

Still, it represents just a tiny fraction of the number of hotel rooms in the country — about three-quarters of one percent. At last count, there were 42 active lawsuits in which tax authorities assert that the OTCs owe what could ultimately amount to several hundreds of millions of dollars in back taxes, penalties and interest. In addition to these potential tax liabilities, a requirement that OTCs collect hotel room taxes in the future would increase their customers’ out-of-pocket costs and possibly impact the earnings of the OTCs.

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CSI Products is the newest addition to the Chess Storage and Interiors (CSI) Group and has been formed to service online customers from industry and commerce.  The recent launch of the unique new website - www.csi-products.co.uk – means that products are now being sold to a rapidly growing number of online customers the length and breadth of the UK.

Some 9,500 items are listed, broken down into industry sectors and with colour coded category areas for easy navigation and purchasing.  Regularly updated offers and deals sit alongside downloadable product information and a unique bespoke products section.  The website also offers free delivery and no minimum order charge, providing quality products in a fast, efficient and affordable manner.

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