IT news that's fit to download - online sites that serve IT professionals - Company Business and Marketing

Software Magazine, March, 1997 by Julekha Dash

IT executives know that gathering timely business intelligence is a critical part of staying on top of their job. As the number of information outlets continues to grow, selecting the right venue can be as confounding as getting the information itself. As a result, many IT professionals are turning to specialized online services that compile industry data from a variety of sources.

All less than a year old, three online sites are now popular among IT executives: Gartner Group's @vantage (pronounced atvantage), sponsored by the Stamford, Conn.-based IT market research group; inquiry.com, San Mateo, Calif., whose online service bears the company name; and Cambridge Technology Partners' Cambridge Information Network (CiN), developed by the Cambridge, Mass.-based IT consultancy.

All of these companies say their sites serve IT professionals, but each offers unique content that attracts a particular audience. Unless you are a CIO or similar high-level executive, don't expect to access CiN. The service is free, but potential members must fill out an application and have about a one-in-three chance of gaining admission. Paul McNabb, founder and publisher of CiN, says the site's goal is to create an online community for CIOs, who rely on professional colleagues as their primary information source. "We're selling peer interaction and peer collaborative problem-solving," he says.

CiN subscriber Dean Sivley, CIO and vice president of marketing at Rosenbluth International, a Philadelphia-based travel management firm, says he values CiN's high-level white papers, case studies, cyber-consultant "office hours" and CIO interviews. While he appreciates the limited audience, Sivley says he avoids soliciting interactive advice from anyone he hasn't met in person. "I would expect a different response than from somebody I do know," he observes.

Sivley's company also subscribes to @vantage, which features research reports and IT trends analysis conducted by Gartner and other leading IT research firms. The @vantage site offers a discussion group and E-mail links to Gartner analysts. The service targets business managers, as well as those who report to the CIO. "Someone who works for me would use @vantage for specific, more detailed information, such as which Web server to purchase," explains Sivley.

Alex Anderson, manager of informa- tion services at Crestar Energy in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, says @vantage helped him decide whether his organization should migrate to Windows 95 or NT. "We were interested in knowing what other organizations were doing and whether it's strictly an either/or choice, and the advantages or disadvantages of either [product]," he says.

Although Anderson has found @vantage useful, he says he isn't sure whether Crestar will renew its subscription to the costly service. He points out that as Internet users become more sophisticated in accessing free online information, they may become less reliant on packaged data sources.

Atiq Khan, senior information technology specialist at ISSC, Gaithersburg, Md., is not so sure that he's ready to give up his one-stop surfing service. Khan subscribes to inquiry.com, which offers its users nitty-gritty product information and technical advice. The site's "Pro Pages" feature detailed advice from experts in software, networking and other topics.

According to Phil Ressner, vice president of marketing for inquiry.com, the site's founders were interested in making the buying process for IT products easier for the purchaser. "We thought the Web would be a perfect medium to give people an information service that would put them in control of when the vendor gets involved with them to help them sort out their buying decisions," says Ressner. Like its competitors, inquiry.com is still being tweaked. Ressner says the site is currently expanding beyond its ori- ginal audience of software developers to include all areas of IT.

ISSC's Khan says he relies on inquiry.com to keep him abreast of the latest application development tools. He also likes the fact that the site provides him with direct access to vendors. "If I didn't have these types of services it would take me days or hours to get this information," says Khan. "Now I expect it to be there at my fingertips."