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BOSTON, March 30, 2021 Aissel Technologies, the leading provider of Healthcare Professional Engagement Solutions has launched their new product - konectar Social. konectar Social is an AI-powered Platform for connecting Life Sciences companies to the right Digital Opinion Leaders. It is the largest database of Digital Healthcare Influencers across the globe.

Adoption of Social Media platform for sharing of scientific and medical information has been steadily increasing in the medical community. The pandemic era has accelerated the adoption of Digital technology and more exchange of information is happening over platforms like Twitter and YouTube. It is therefore imperative for the Life Sciences companies to have a close understanding of the interactions in the medical community on the Social Media and Digital platforms.

It has become important for Life Sciences companies to communicate the latest developments, scientific breakthroughs, and discovery of newer therapies to the medical community through Digital platforms. konectar Social provides the most effective way to identify the right DOLs or Digital Experts within the medical community. konectar Social automatically crawls the Social Media activity of DOLs and ranks them based on their influence and reach. konectar Social also generates real-time analytics on the DOLs and tracks their engagement across different Social Media platforms. By doing so, it helps Life Sciences companies develop an effective communication strategy for their product communication.

With the combination of AI and Machine Learning technology, konectar Social analyses the posts of the Digital Opinion Leaders and generates insightful reports on their technology and treatment preferences, interests, networks, influence and reach, which can be leveraged by the Life Sciences companies to accurately align their products with the right DOLs.

"konectar Social is the only product that provides complete Social Media analytics of all the Digital Healthcare Influencers helping Life Sciences companies to create better communication strategy using the Digital world in the new post-pandemic times." says Suraj Prabhu, CTO and Co-founder of Aissel Technologies.

About Aissel
Aissel's Medical Thought Leader Management solutions are deployed at leading global Life Sciences companies. Aissel's end-to-end software solutions are designed to help Life Sciences companies accomplish their business objectives. Aissel has 100+ employees working from offices in Hubballi and Boston.

For more information, visit https://www.aissel.com/konectar/social

Media Contact:
Preeta Nayak
Manager - Global Marketing
marketing@aissel.com
+1-(347)-966-8181

BOSTON, March 30, 2021 Aissel Technologies, the leading provider of Healthcare Professional Engagement Solutions has launched their new product - konectar Social. konectar Social is an AI-powered Platform for connecting Life Sciences companies to the right Digital Opinion Leaders. It is the largest database of Digital Healthcare Influencers across the globe.

Adoption of Social Media platform for sharing of scientific and medical information has been steadily increasing in the medical community. The pandemic era has accelerated the adoption of Digital technology and more exchange of information is happening over platforms like Twitter and YouTube. It is therefore imperative for the Life Sciences companies to have a close understanding of the interactions in the medical community on the Social Media and Digital platforms.

It has become important for Life Sciences companies to communicate the latest developments, scientific breakthroughs, and discovery of newer therapies to the medical community through Digital platforms. konectar Social provides the most effective way to identify the right DOLs or Digital Experts within the medical community. konectar Social automatically crawls the Social Media activity of DOLs and ranks them based on their influence and reach. konectar Social also generates real-time analytics on the DOLs and tracks their engagement across different Social Media platforms. By doing so, it helps Life Sciences companies develop an effective communication strategy for their product communication.

With the combination of AI and Machine Learning technology, konectar Social analyses the posts of the Digital Opinion Leaders and generates insightful reports on their technology and treatment preferences, interests, networks, influence and reach, which can be leveraged by the Life Sciences companies to accurately align their products with the right DOLs.

"konectar Social is the only product that provides complete Social Media analytics of all the Digital Healthcare Influencers helping Life Sciences companies to create better communication strategy using the Digital world in the new post-pandemic times." says Suraj Prabhu, CTO and Co-founder of Aissel Technologies.

About Aissel
Aissel's Medical Thought Leader Management solutions are deployed at leading global Life Sciences companies. Aissel's end-to-end software solutions are designed to help Life Sciences companies accomplish their business objectives. Aissel has 100+ employees working from offices in Hubballi and Boston.

For more information, visit https://www.aissel.com/konectar/social

Media Contact:
Preeta Nayak
Manager - Global Marketing
marketing@aissel.com
+1-(347)-966-8181

BOSTON, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Aissel Technologies, Inc., a global leader of enterprise SaaS application for Medical Opinion Leader Management launched its new product, konectar Virtual Engagement. konectar Virtual Engagement Platform enables life sciences companies to conduct online meetings and Advisory Boards with their Healthcare Professionals.

In an ever-evolving healthcare space, Physicians play a very important role in life sciences companies. Pharma companies continually engage Physicians to conduct critical research at various stages of the drug development cycle starting from discovery to commercialization.

With the COVID-19 outbreak globally, it has become challenging for the life sciences industry to meet their Healthcare Professionals and conduct in-person meetings. To ensure that the customers overcome their challenge, Aissel Technologies has developed konectar Virtual Engagement Platform which helps the medical community to conduct hassle-free online meetings with their Healthcare Professionals.

konectar Virtual Engagement Platform is a robust, compliant and easy to use application. Using konectar's high-resolution video conferencing feature, life sciences companies get the same experience as face-to-face meetings enabling real-time collaboration with Healthcare Professionals. It also reduces logistical challenges of in-person meetings and the cost involved with travel.

konectar's innovative approach to conduct Online Advisory Board is an effective way of streamlining knowledge exchange within the Healthcare community. Online Advisory Boards will have participants who initiate important group discussions on a range of relevant topics, share content and conduct opinion polls. Healthcare Professionals can easily login to the application and share their knowledge on the latest medical developments. Combined with our flagship product konectar KOL Management, this becomes the most robust Healthcare Professional engagement platform available to the medical community.

Speaking about the benefits of the konectar Virtual Engagement Platform, Prasad Patil, Co-founder & CEO of Aissel Technologies, said, "Life sciences companies work with Physicians on critical research to bring new medicines and better healthcare for patients. With travel restrictions, medical teams within the pharma are facing huge challenges. Our new Virtual Engagement Platform will enable them to conduct seamless meetings." 

About Aissel
Aissel's Medical Thought Leader Management solutions are deployed at leading global life sciences companies. Aissel's end to end software solutions are designed to help life sciences companies accomplish their business objectives. Aissel has 80+ employees working from offices in Hubballi, Bangalore and Boston.

Visit: https://www.aissel.com/konectar/virtualengagement

Media Contact:
Preeta Nayak
Marketing Manager
marketing@aissel.com  
+1-(347)-966-8181

Bangalore, India, January 26, 2018/The Hindu ---- 

BANGALORE, India and NEW YORK, January 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Aissel Technologies, Inc., announces the launch of their new product, konectar. konectar is a highly advanced medical KOL Management Platform designed to enable industry-leading life sciences companies Discover, Profile and Engage the right medical experts for their business objectives.

konectar has a readily curated database of Medical Influencers in the US, which can be accessed by the users through the cloud application. Users can search these influencers by specific targeted disease areas and segment the required Healthcare Professionals into Global, National and Regional Influencers. Creating effective communications strategy requires reliable data and analytics, and konectar equips the users with this information.

konectar KOL Management Platform has built-in CRM features, advanced network visualizations and data analytics, and is built to offer maximum flexibility to customers to customize the platform. konectar uses Machine Learning technologies to identify the trends in the activities of the Healthcare Professionals that the user selects and automatically recommends newer influencers; a cutting-edge feature that is first-of-its-kind in the Medical Influencer business applications.

"konectar is the most advanced application in its space and is designed based on our deep understanding of the needs of life science companies to engage with the right experts," says Prasad Patil, CEO and Co-founder of Aissel Technologies.

Aissel's Medical Thought Leader Management solutions are deployed at leading global life sciences companies. Their enterprise-class software solutions cater to the business intelligence needs of industry leading Pharmaceutical, Biotech and Medical Devices companies. Aissel has 80+ employees working from offices in Hubballi, Bangalore and Boston.

For more information, please visit http://www.aissel.com/konectar

Media Contact

Aparna Shivapura

Director - Marketing

Aissel Technologies, Inc.

Ph: +1(347)966-8181

Email: marketing@aissel.com

HUBBALLI, India, November 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Hubballi-based Aissel Technologies Pvt. Ltd., announces the launch of their new product, konectar. konectar is a highly advanced medical KOL Management Platform designed to enable industry-leading life science companies to discover, profile and engage the right medical experts for their business objectives.

konectar has a readily curated database of medical influencers which can be accessed by the users through the cloud application. Users can search these influencers by specific targeted disease areas and segment the target customers into global, national and regional influencers. Creating effective communications strategy requires reliable data and analytics and konectar equips the users with this information.

konectar KOL Management Platform has built-in CRM features, advanced network visualizations and data analytics, and is built to offer maximum flexibility to customers to customize the platform. konectar uses Machine Learning technologies to identify trends in the activities of the healthcare professionals that the user selects and automatically recommends newer influencers; a cutting-edge feature that is first-of-its-kind in the medical influencer business applications. Aissel has initially released konectar for the Neuroscience specialty and many other specialties will soon be launched in 2018.

"konectar is the most advanced application in its space and is designed based on our deep understanding of the needs of life science companies to engage with the right experts," says Prasad Patil, CEO and Co-founder of Aissel Technologies.  

Aissel's Medical Thought Leader Management solutions are deployed at leading global life sciences companies. The enterprise-class software solutions cater to the business intelligence needs of industry leading pharmaceutical, biotech and medical devices companies. Aissel has 80+ employees working from offices in Hubballi, Bangalore and Boston.

For more information, please visit http://www.aissel.com/konectar

Media Contact:
Aparna Shivapura
aparnas@aissel.com
+91(836)235-1011
Director - Marketing
Aissel Technologies Pvt. Ltd

BENGALURU: The State Government on Wednesday picked up 100 most innovative start-ups after following through a four-layered selection process. These startups will get a funding support of about Rs 35 crore from the government to pursue their tech-ideas and scale them up. 

When the final leg of selection process began on Tuesday at Hotel Lalit Ashok, there were 270 startups vying for these top 100 slots. The jury, however, finalised the list of most innovative startups on Wednesday. The contest saw the participation of more than 1700 startups from across Karnataka, but most of the nominations were from Bengaluru. 

The startups are being selected under the government’s ELEVATE 100 programme. The initiative also attracted 350 women entrepreneurs and 400 applicants from the rural areas.

The ELEVATE 100 roadshow has traversed the length and breadth of Karnataka in a rigorous hunt to pick the 100 most innovative start-ups and help them turn their ideas into successful businesses. The short-listed startups will have access to the government’s start-up fund besides access to government VC funds, pilots, private VC funds, world class accelerators and mentors, the IT department said in a press release.

Information Technology & Tourism Minister Priyank Kharge said: “The efforts of the Karnataka government doesn't stop at elevating the chosen 100. We see ELEVATE 100 as a continuing process where the best ideas from the state gets the support and guidance it deserves.”

Of the 100 startups finalised, 27 are from electronic semiconductor design, 19 from life sciences, 11 each from biotech, agri tech, four each from animation and gaming, and clean tech, and 26 from IT/ITES. There are also 19 startups founded by women entrepreneurs and 11 from rural areas

As part of its ELEVATE 100 programme, the State Government has signed eight deals with private firms to provide support to the chosen startups. As per the deal, Google will provide $3000 worth cloud credits for startups registered with Startup Cell and $20,000 worth of credits for startups which are winners of Elevate100. PwC will provide mentoring and consulting services and YES Bank & Kotak Bank will provide banking and other services, among other firms. 

The list of top 20 firms: 


1. 5w ventures pvt. Ltd
2. Aadyah aerospace pvt ltd
3. Afterglow tech(opc) private limited
4. Aissel technologies private limited
5. Ameliorate biotech private limited
6. Amvicube
7. Anb fuels
8. Anekastra software technologies

HUBBALLI: Despite the government's alleged apathy towards IT-BT sector in north Karnataka, a city-based startup - Aissel Technologies Pvt Ltd - has been adjudged winner in Startup Karnataka Top Tech 25 Awards-2016. The award was presented at Bengaluru TE.BIZ held recently in Bengaluru.

Expressing happiness over the achievement, the company's CEO Prasad Patil said it is a proud moment for their employees. "Being awarded as one of the top 25 tech startups in Karnataka is a great motivation for not just our employees, but also to all aspiring entrepreneurs in the region. We should aim high to serve global markets and create products that cater to the needs of wider markets. We have shown to everyone that one can serve global companies by operating from a tier-2 city like Hubballi. I hope this it will encourage more startups in this region," he said.

Aissel co-founder Suraj Prabhu, who has worked with a beverage company in Atlanta (the US), moved to Hubballi along with Mahesh Grampurohit and Patil to start Aissel. Prabhu, who wants to work in a startup, said: "Aissel, a cloud software company, has deployed Medical Thought Leader management solutions at leading global life sciences companies. We help our life science customers understand the landscape of Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) in any disease area. We create targeted communications strategies, thereby achieving stronger professional relationships between industry and healthcare providers."

Amit Vikram, who heads the global sales at Aissel, said that finding right customers who believe in the company's capabilities is key to success. "We focus on building long-term relationships with our customers. There is no alternative to commitment, and it is our core value. That is why our customers, despite not seeing our office, believe in our capabilities," he claimed.

Mahesh Grampurohit, co-founder and director, said Aissel is a software technology solutions and business research company specializing in healthcare Thought Leader analytics. "Our enterprise-class software solutions cater to business intelligence needs of industries like pharmaceutical, biotech and medical devices. KOL Management Suite is our flagship product that enables our customers to integrate, manage and monitor their KOL development and engagement initiatives," he explained.

Abhilasha, senior manager (marketing), stated that the company's software solutions have been built on robust technology platforms and can be integrated with existing enterprisewide applications. "Our content research services and methodologies complement our software solutions and enable us to help strengthen the information and analytics needed by our customers. With an integrated delivery platform, we render data with unparalleled accuracy and insights with unmatched clarity," she claimed.

Hubballi: Cardiologist from Narayana Hrudalaya Shanmukh Hiremath has said, people should take precautionary measures to protect themselves from heart related diseases.

“Precaution is better than cure. Therefore, people should take measures necessary for keeping themselves away from the heart-related disease. Chest pain and kidney problems should not be neglected,” he said.

Speaking to media persons here on Sunday, Dr Hiremath said, cardiac problems have become common these days. Changed life-style and food habit were the main causes for this.

Heart problems could be successfully prevented if they were identified and treated at the earlier stages, he noted.

Earlier, inaugurating a health checkup camp organized by Aissel Technologies at IT Park here, Dr Hiremath said, stress, depression and sleeplessness could lead to heart problems. Those who were working under continuous stress should check their blood pressure, sugar, and cholesterol level in blood regularly. Those who had crossed 40 years should compulsory undergo health checkup, he advised.

Aissel Technologies chief executive officer Prasad Patil said, as part of company’s social responsibility scheme, the health camp was conducted. The company would conduct such camps at regular intervals in future also.

Dr Bhuvanesh Aradhya and others were present

Aissel Solutions, founded by entrepreneurs Mahesh Grampurohit and Prasad Patil in Hubli, Karnataka, is a technology solutions and business research company that focuses on medical thought leaders analytics. Its solutions cater to the business intelligence needs of pharmaceutical, medical devices and biotech companies. It works with four of the top ten healthcare companies in the US and has also implemented solutions to identify and manage the experts in dentistry for a leading oral care company there.

Hubballi: "Students have the power to make difference to the world. They can transform themselves and become successful leaders and managers to make the world a better place to live in", said Co-founder and CEO of Aissel Technologies Pvt Ltd, Hubballi Prasad Patil.

He noted this while speaking after inaugurating the orientation programme of the new batch of MBA students at KLE Society's Institute of Management Studies & Research (IMSR) here recently.

Sharing his experiences with anecdotes, he asked the students to focus on five things to be successful, namely, making careful choices, working hard with commitment, having good character, maintaining physical fitness, and learning to have fun. He said, the world has many opportunities in terms of career, but one must be careful while choosing the right option. The decisions must be ethical, honest, and truthful. There is no substitute for hardwork.

Explaining the importance of English in this globalised era, he asked the management students to learn English which is essential in any sector these days.

He also stressed on the need to have good network and contacts by learning from the experiences of successful people. He gave example of Lord Bernard Shaw who became one of the finest orators in the world despite being shy natured. He also said, students must enjoy their work and emerge as successful individuals.

KLES IMSR Director Prasad Roodagi asked students to acquire knowledge and skills during their stay in the institute besides developing the ability to accept challenges in the corporate world.

Dean Academics Rajendraprasad proposed vote of thanks.

Hubballi: Ravindra Kulkarni had never imagined he would ever step into an IT company, let alone get healthcare advice from one. Hubballi-based Aissel Technologies Private Limited has set out to change the 56-year-old railway engineer's perspective.

The four-year-old start-up has launched an initiative, under which senior citizens will be invited to its premises in the IT Park for sessions on healthcare. Medical experts will be roped in for the health awareness camps.

The initiative has a twin-pronged strategy: Give key healthcare tips to the elderly and familiarize them with the functioning of IT companies. Prasad Patil, chief executive officer of based Aissel Technologies Private Limited, says the health awareness programmes will serve as a platform for senior citizens to clear up health-related doubts with doctors. "Besides, they can get a feel of the atmosphere inside an IT company. People whose children work in IT firms should feel at ease about the working conditions there."

Co-founder Mahesh Gramapurohit says the sessions will be organized once in 4-6 weeks.

Aissel is founded by Prasad Patil Mahesh Grampurohit is a Co-founder & CTO. It’s a software technology solutions and business research company. Our software solutions cater to the business intelligence needs of pharmaceutical and biotech companies. These are built on technology platforms (like Apple or Microsoft) and can be integrated with existing enterprise applications.

Our research services and methodologies complement our software solutions and enable us to help strengthen the information and analytics needed by pharmaceutical and biotech companies. We use Microsoft, Java and other technologies with service oriented architecture to enable us to integrate wide range of Enterprise-Class Pharmaceutical and Healthcare systems

NEED FOR YOUR BUSINESS

We map thought leaders from various specialties such as cardiology, oncology, rheumatology, and neurology. The implementation of software solutions coupled with data and analytics will give a new edge to a company in targeting the right experts and managing their relationship with the scientific community.

KOL Management Suite is our flagship product that enables our customers to integrate, manage and monitor their development and management initiatives.

INITIAL CHALLENGES

It’s been a a year and half since we started operations. The biggest challenges, so far, have been putting a dedicated team together and convincing companies to use our solutions.

We needed a team who can work in an uncertain environment; one that is creative when it comes to problem solving and all this took us around 6-8 months to establish.

Initially, when we reached out and pitched our product to customers, we had a real tough time. The value of our customer relationship management solution would be questioned. Also, it competes with large software companies.

We’ve received a small round of funding from an international angel investor (not disclosed).

HOW UNIQUE IS THE IDEA?

Our key differentiator is the aggregation of different enterprise customer relationship management applications. Companies generally sell lot of different products to make informed decisions of all their products information . We have mapped it into one single platform. For example, we have mapped physicians in a hospital and segmented their specialities at affordable costs. This will drive revenues for us.

With regard to adoption, we recently signed three of the world’s top pharmaceutical / medical devices company. Over the next few months, we will be working with these companies to implement our BI software and analytics solutions.

Further, we are working with the world’s leading supplier of eye care and ophthalmology products. We have partnered with this American company to support them in finding out the top medical experts in ophthalmology and implementing our full suite KOL management solution.

We are also working with this Minnesota-based company, supporting their dental division in finding out the best dental experts in the US who they can partner with to grow the dental products sales.

We have released the new version of our KOLM software. The new version is fully integrated with mobile and iPad access so the users can log interactions and view profiles from practically anywhere and any device. The ChaterOn! feature brings the power of Facebook and Twitter to the closed secure user-group within the organisation. Now, our users can increase productivity and collaborate using the same benefits of social media. With a strong life-sciences team and robust BI software for healthcare experts, we are now the only Indian company offering a solution in the medical thought leader management segment.

LEARNINGS

As a startup, you have lots of things to do. A big learning was to prioritise.When we started out we took an incorrect decision by targeting a wrong market (India) which was not ready for our solutions. For several months, we were evaluating the market and putting our energies into it. This resulted in missing out on building another market. It taught us the value of opportunity costs.

FUTURE PLANS

No plans to raise money in the immediate future. On the business side, there is ample scope to build more offerings into our platform as companies are still grappling with different systems. Long term plan is to sell our solutions into other verticals and use social media. We also want to continue to build on existing products so that multiple organisations can take advantage. Our ultimate aim is to grow in multiple geographies; emerging markets are a huge opportunity.

HUBLI, OCT. 2: Aissel Solutions, an analytics and CRM solutions provider which has presence in US and India, has opened its product development centre at Hubli.

The company’s centre is located at Hubli’s IT Park. “This will be the key development centre of Aissel and has over 3,500 square feet of space with high-bandwidth connectivity,” Prasad Patil, CEO Aissel told Business Line.

So far Aissel has been able to deliver solutions to its clients in the US and has created product for medical thought leader management and is competing with few Silicon Valley based pharma CRM providers.

Early this year, the company has signed up with three global pharmaceutical / medical devices companies to implement business intelligence (BI) software and analytics solutions.

Prasad said “We are currently working with a Minnesota based company supporting their dental division in finding out the right dental experts in the US, who they can partner with to grow the products sales.”

The new facility was opened by Vijay Sankeshwar, Chairman and Managing Director, VRL Logistics. The first two employees of the company, Amit Vikram and Nityanand Channur were also honoured.

The company currently has 30 people in Hubli centre and has plans to double the head count by end of this year.

“There were a lot of apprehensions when we started off about a year and a half back in Hubli. Getting experienced people in Hubli was difficult especially in a challenging product development environment,” Patil said.

“Now the team determines the success and there is tremendous availability of talented people in the region and the KOL Management product was released to the global market in less than a year’s time,” he added.

Aissel Technologies: Pioneering Healthcare Thought Leader Analytics

The tremendous growth that the life science sector is now witnessing has opened a door of wide range of opportunities for new ventures. The industry, especially in analytics and content area, reflects huge potential with scope of business in every aspect of it. Focusing on these openings offered by the industry, Aissel Technologies was founded. Aissel is a Software Technology Solutions and Business Research company specializing in Healthcare Thought Leader analytics. -The vision behind starting this company was create significant value to users by providing accurate content on their customers at very low costs. Based on the traction involved in this industry, we focused on providing services to pharma, medical device and biotech companies,- explains Prasad Patil, CEO, of Aissel Technologies, who was earlier working for a company in Bangalore. In order to capitalize on this market, Prasad decided to partner with Mahesh Grampurohit, who was working as the Chief Architect, then, at a Pune based company. The huge potential and growth opportunity in the space attracted the attention of the duo who then decided to quit their respective jobs and cofounded Aissel in 2010 which is headquartered in Hubli.

"Every startup has to go through two major challenges. The first is to build the right team and second is to find your first customer," says Prasad. The success of any startup company is based on these two parameters. "Since, being a startup, the work load and responsibility is enormous, the team employed should be capable enough to handle them easily. Secondly, it is very difficult to signup your first customer as companies do not easily trust that a startup can execute their critical work. There is a lot of convincing that goes into persuading customers to buy our product. From the development side, being a product company, you don't get requirements from customers. You have to be imaginative and design features based on your research and market understanding" he further adds. Predicting the market needs and flow, and making course corrections was yet another challenge faced by the duo as they were the new entrants into the world of entrepreneurship.

With a fair understanding about the market and thorough research on the product they were developing, the company began its journey with their product KOLM. "It took around five months to build the demo version of the product. And then we began marketing it," says Prasad. Although there were several hurdles faced by the team, their marketing team struck gold when they roped in their first client, a U.S. based pharma company. This pharma company happened to be one of the top 5 life science companies which added credibility to Aissel's portfolio in the market thus making it much easier for them in finding subsequent companies. Aissel currently boasts of several top pharma and medical device companies as their clients and also has increased its employee strength to over 45 people. Aissel has throttled its growth since its beginning and owes the success to its two strengths: software development and content curation. Under the software development area, they have product development team which develops KOL Management Suite, the company's flagship cloud application. KOLM is an enterprise-class web-based application built on robust technology platform. It offers the complete set of features needed for KOL management. KOLM simplifies most of the time-consuming activities around curating and analyzing the KOL activities. The company is also into supporting their other customers in outsourced product development. Their life science team helps their customers identify and discover right medical expects across different therapeutic areas and specialties.

Aissel is now gearing up for the launch of Sales force app which is going to be the only stand alone app which the existing Sales force users can integrate. Apart from that, the company aims to make this into the most cost effective enterprise software product which can provide rich and accurate content on the thought leaders. It is also focusing on supporting more companies on the product development side in the outsourced product development model.