Until Web Integration, there was no way to automate the collection and standardization of data available on the Internet.

Background
Unlike other solutions outlined, data collection is unique in the sense that the alternative is a pure manual collection process which is cumbersome and outdated.. There is no other alternative. Web Integration used for data collection adds significant value in areas like:

• Research and Development support - collection, standardization and delivery of relevant research data typically from many different sources both generally available or behind a log-in page.
• Competitor tracking and market intelligence - gathering competitive product information, press releases, patent information, etc. from competitor Web sites.
• Information Aggregation - automated collection of large volumes of information such as job-postings, credit information, news etc.
• Price Information - tracking of pricing information from sources like vendors, organizations and public institutions tracking such information.
• Catalogues - information gathering and dissemination.

Web Integration collect data in minutes
Web Integration is the ideal method to collect Internet information. Actually, RoboSuite was originally designed for that task. It can read and write quickly and easily through an entire site. RoboSuite was been designed to collect and feed data into either another Web application or other targets such as >XML>, databases or Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.

It uses a visual environment that collect content fast and data as illustrated below:

The ability to log on to any Web site and extract structured and unstructured content using the browser font-end enables legacy content migration into content management repositories or IntranestIinternets in a matter of minutes. Applications like collecting competitive information, research data or reverse syndication has proven to be extremely beneficial for competitive enterprises.

RoboSuite collects data from any source with a Web interface, including enterprise applications, Intranet sites, and external Web sites from partners, customers, competitors, or others. The Web Integration platform intelligently maneuvers through the content available from the target site and automatically collects the pertinent information for migration.

The result of the data collection can be made available in a number of formats. Typically, the data would be stored in a database, written in XML format to a file, or submitted to a content management system. Data can also be automatically transformed to a Web Service, or a portlet in an enterprise portal system.

Data collection can be done on a one-off basis, on a continual basis or real time as federated queries against several content sites. RoboSuite handles all the issues around data sources being temporarily inaccessible, data sources that change their Web interface over time, data validation, data transformation, and so on.

RoboSuite replaces the tedious and time consuming task of manually copying content. Furthermore, as data is retrieved through an applications Web front-end, RoboSuite eliminates the need for direct access and/or alterations to systems in which the targeted data is located. Through this “non-intrusive” collection process, data can be retrieved from systems beyond your control and can turn the Internet into your library of data!

Key benefits
• Non-intrusive access to any Web data source –information often not available in any other way than through the browser front-end due to technical or commercial reasons
• Takes a fraction the time of alternative more manual solutions to move data
• Change detection with incremental updates enable handling of even very large volumes in a short time window
• Low cost development
• Reduced on-going maintenance time than comparable solutions

Contact us >>