SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cleantech Group CEO Sheeraz Haji and Executive Vice President Greg Neichin began the first day of Cleantech Forum San Francisco declaring a new era for the market research industry, unveiling a variety of new features in the company’s i3 market intelligence platform (http://i3.cleantech.com). Building upon the firm’s decade of experience establishing connections throughout the sector and collecting industry data, i3 represents a bold new vision that will combine the most comprehensive cleantech industry database of companies, executives, transactions, and relationships, with a variety of new ways for users to identify and connect with prospective partners, investors, and customers. The latest release of i3 allows subscribers to contribute content, receive targeted alerts, make connections, and keep private notes.
“In an age when access to information has increased dramatically, over-paying for static, paper reports seems antiquated,” said Haji. “We believe that we can lead a collaborative revolution in developing a knowledge base for the industry. i3 is the most immediate, cost effective, and insightful way to satisfy the industry’s market intelligence needs.”
In commenting on the growth of data within i3, Haji continued by explaining, “It took our firm 10 years to catalogue over 7,000 investment transactions in the sector, but it has taken us less than 10 months to amass a database of over 7,500 business relationships in the industry. While investments continue to be critical to the sector, the velocity and magnitude of partnership and supply chain activity is remarkable.”
i3 leverages Cleantech Group’s vast network of industry contacts built through events such as Cleantech Forum San Francisco. “Ninety-nine percent of the data points and market information that the people in this room need and want is currently known by someone else in this room,” said Neichin in addressing the Forum’s opening session. “In most cases, it’s not confidentiality that keeps us from sharing and recording this information. It is simply the lack of a comprehensive tool that enables networking and research, one that bridges the gap between research and business development. We call that tool i3.”
Haji and Neichin demonstrated a number of new enhancements to the i3 platform and hinted at future developments:
- People pages that will allow users to see how management team members and board members are linked across the industry and, via LinkedIn’s API, how they might be personally connected to those executives
- New search features that allow users to sort through thousands of relationships, customer announcements, joint ventures, and technology development agreements. Highlighted improved visualization tools that help users make sense of this data.
- New Private Notes feature that allows users a simple, private, secure area to keep team notes on interactions and opinions on individual companies.
- New product roadmaps for the next quarter that will feature dramatically improved ability for individuals to contribute and share content, update relationships and transactions, and connect to individuals across the network.