The Web Data Services Blog

Our “No Coding” tagline has resonated with many of you.  Thank you for the support and positive comments in the media and your blogs.  Disruptive technologies often have the opposite effect e.g. making people uncomfortable.  The Kapow Web Data Server is truly a paradigm shift – radically changing how traditionally complex migration of data between source and destination systems or turning applications into web services is done.

Many customers have described to me the “aha” moment they’ve had.  Across the board, our customers kept saying to us, “the amazing thing about the Web Data Server is that it requires no coding”.  It’s great when your customers do your marketing for you!

Two revolutionary inventions with the Kapow Web Data Server are key to our ability to eliminate traditional coding associated with Business Intelligence, Data Integration, and application integration projects:

1.    Existing applications can be easily accessed as-is through their HTML/AJAX front-end through our point-and-click visual development tool, eliminating the need to deal with proprietary APIs.  Even better, it’s done in the context of the content owner or business user (through what they see in their web browser), eliminating any misunderstandings that occur when explaining to coders what needs to be done i.e. translating business/ functional requirements to technical specs.

2.    Instant, visual feedback allows results to be seen on the spot – delivering high productivity and time to market improvements.

We have several videos on our website demonstrating how users easily access, enrich, and serve web data with “no coding”:

•    Harvest the web for pricing and market intelligence

•    Access and serve web data from Linkedin, Jigsaw and more with no coding

In fact, the tool is intuitive and easy enough that even our marketers have been known to build their own Kapow robots to harvest web data.

But programmers love our product even more.  Why?  It makes them more productive.  With a visual interface, real-time feedback, and 100% accuracy, programmers get more done in a lot less time.

All Content Migration, data warehouse ETL, data integration and application development projects require an iterative process, from first attempt until solved.

With traditional methods, each iteration can take weeks and even months to get it right.  This is cumbersome and frustrating for most.

The Kapow Web Data Server cuts down each iteration to 3 simple steps (measured in minutes):

1.    Visually instruct what you want (without coding), just like working with the data in a web browser (point and click).

2.    See the end result in real-time, right in the middle of instructing how and what to do.  (Since this happens real-time, step 1 and 2 are basically the same… but would you  believe me if I called it a 2 step process?)

3.    Modify instructions based on the instant, visual feedback, i.e. go back to step 1.

This extremely quick turn-around per iteration with the Kapow Web Data Server allows you to get to 100% of what you want.  100% accuracy in 1/10th the time.  And did I mention “no coding”?

Don’t just take my word for it, please check out what Intel and Audi had to say about Kapow.

Technology continues to evolve.  The market demands it.  Register for our free trial.  It really works.

By:  Stefan Andreasen

When you hear the words “web data”, what comes to mind?  Is it any information you can find on Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, or just simply WWW?  As a consumer, the Worldwide Web is certainly the defacto source of any data that I care about.

But when I walk into my office on Monday morning, something suddenly changes.  “Web data” becomes much more.  It’s campaign or lead information in Salesforce.com.  It’s HR and company information on our Wiki.  It’s essentially any data within my corporate firewall that I need to get my job done and data that is critical to the success of my company.  On the other hand, WWW is generally a secondary source of information e.g. when I’m doing some market research or keeping an eye on my competitors.

A common theme has emerged in my discussions with executives of global companies: an increasing need among all of them to tap into WWW information and make better business decisions.  But for the most part, these projects are departmental and functional – competitive pricing, voice of the customer, etc.  Here’s the problem.  If companies are trying to increase their competitive advantage based upon the use of public web data (i.e. WWW) then their competitors will also have access to that same data… thus their competitive advantage will certainly be short lived!  While creating departmental use cases for the use of public web data is a good first step, it’s not sufficient.  Every company’s ability to compete and win is based upon its unique operational capabilities.  Therefore, it’s essential that ALL sources of information be incorporated within the same enterprise information architecture.

Enter “Web Data Services”: the intersection of Web2.0, Enterprise 2.0, and BI 2.0.  Web2.0 provides modern tools for companies to marry traditional enterprise data (ERP,CRM, Supply Chain, etc.) with data from the Cloud and WWW thus modernizing their information systems.  And the net effect is enabling executives to bring their dashboards, reporting and analytics to the next level for critical decision making.

“Web data” is effectively any data you can see in a browser… a website or web application that is inside or outside your firewall, in your partner’s intranet or in the Cloud.  But consider this:  It is much easier to mine or harvest public web data than it is to pull data from behind firewalls and then turn it into valuable assets that drive your business forward.  The need for automation tools, or Web Data Services, that access, enrich and serve all web data is critical to the success of your business.

Please jump in with your thoughts!

By:  Ron Yu