PRSA and The Measurement Standard Honor Customer Success and Technological Achievement
SAN MATEO, Calif., and NEW YORK, NY, February 9, 2004 - Biz360® Inc., the leading provider of active market intelligence that drives business performance, today announced that PRSA and The Measurement Standard have each individually recognized the company's contributions to business management and performance in 2003. The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) honored Biz360 and Colorado-based McDATA Corporation, the expert provider of multi-capable storage networking solutions, with a Compass Award in Interactive Communications. The Measurement Standard awarded Biz360 "Business Management Product of the Year" for the recently announced Point-of-View Sentiment™, the assisted-sentiment option for Biz360's media measurement application, Market360®. The awards recognize Biz360's cutting-edge technology and its ability to help customers drive better business performance.
The PRSA Compass Awards honor public relations programs and practices. Biz360 and McDATA were recognized for providing a unique application of new technology for a McDATA product launch to the small to mid-sized market. The company used Market360 to:
Research critical journalists and influencers in the new space
Analyze current messages in the market
Benchmark and set goals for success
Track the results of their media outreach in real-time
Make adjustments during the campaign based on real-time market feedback
Report results with quantitative charts and graphs
Using Market360, McDATA exceeded the communications goals set by the public relations team. Because the McDATA product was launched without advertising support, the PR department was recognized as a strategic contributor to corporate goals as the public relations portion of the product launch could be precisely tracked via messages and immediate coverage garnered.
In 2003, The Measurement Standard awarded Product of the Year Awards to one product in each of four categories. Biz360's Point-of-View Sentiment was awarded "Business Management Product of the Year" for its "potential impact on helping management understand the value of PR," said Katie Paine, editor of The Measurement Standard. Point-of-View Sentiment delivers reliable analysis of media sentiment with a custom perspective controlled by the organization. Point-of-View Sentiment automatically rates each article as it enters Market360, offering immediate and continuous analysis of communications activities to drive and improve planning and engagement strategies.
"From the point of view of management, when you can easily see positive or negative trends in the media's portrayal of your company versus your competition, you get a whole new understanding of how PR impacts your business," said Paine. "The availability of this data enables management to quickly see the relationship between action and media coverage, and ultimately the relationship between media coverage and business outcome."
"We are proud of the honors Biz360 received in 2003," said Bud Michael, president and chief executive officer for Biz360. "The honors reflect our commitment to providing lasting customer value through innovative technology and services."
For more information, please contact us at (866) 424-9360 or visit our Web site at http://www.biz360.com/newsroom.html.
About Biz360
Biz360 provides Fortune500 companies with real-time market intelligence enabling them to improve competitive market strategies and drive better business performance. The company's holistic 'plan, engage, evaluate' approach brings market intelligenceto the world of business performance management (BPM). Its software-as-service application, Market360®, delivers continuous media analysis of over 50,000 print, online and broadcast sources, providing enterprises with active market intelligence for business activities that rely on external information, such as communications,competitive intelligence, analyst relations and industry influencer programs.
Leading companies including 3Com, Harley-Davidson Motor Company, PacifiCare Health Systems, Sun Microsystems and VeriSign Inc. use Biz360's media measurement application, Market360, to improve their marketing performance by analyzing difficult-to-measure concepts such as brand perception, corporate reputation and issues management. Biz360 is a privately held company located in San Mateo, CA and is funded by Foundation Capital, Granite Ventures, BA Ventures and Adobe Ventures. Biz360 can be reached at 866.424.9360 or www.biz360.com.
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Media Contact:
Donna Sokolsky
SparkPR
415.962.8200 x222
biz360@sparkpr.com
