SaaS: it is more about business value than cost benefits

Anastasios Avramis, General Manager talks about media monitoring companies using SaaS solutions

Anastasios Avramis, the General Manager of DataScouting, talks to netweek about the benefits of media monitoring companies using SaaS solutions as well as about the advanced SaaS solutions for managing and processing multimedia and textual information.

SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions are playing an increasingly important role in information infrastructure, and, according to analysts, they will continue to grow at a fast pace in the coming years. Already, more and more companies and organizations are turning to SaaS solutions as they have proven benefits, not just economic. SaaS solutions reduce the complexity of applications and technological infrastructures, while they increase performance and generate significant cost savings.

What kind of challenges do media monitoring companies face and how DataScouting responds to them?

More and more companies are asking me how the explosion of Big Data is affecting the media monitoring industry. I believe this “explosion” has been positive for the media monitoring industry as it has clearly shown that our clients’ needs are fueled today by data analytics and the solution lies in the use of specialized tools and integrated methodologies. Because of Big Data, companies today have become too demanding as regards news monitoring services. Media monitoring is no longer a simple tool you use to monitor, track, record and archive clips but it has evolved into a unified, integrated platform for real-time, 24/7/365 news tracking of traditional media (press, internet, radio and TV), social media, analysis, reporting and crisis management that offers valuable insights for successful business decision making.

Why SaaS solutions are ideal for companies and organizations that process large amounts of information?

The phenomenon of “information overload” is a reality but things are much simpler than you think, provided that companies and organizations have direct access to structured information. DataScouting has developed SaaS solutions for the media monitoring industry. Any company that wants to manage directly, easily and effectively the publicity it gets in the media it can make full use of all the advantages of SaaS with zero purchase cost and no software installation, while using it anywhere, anytime. How? Well, the software is already installed in our own servers and so clients can simply Log in with their user name and password. The final information that the client has access to is already filtered, categorized and structured in a way to easily extract the required insights. The navigation, search, evaluation and extraction of metadata, graphs and statistics is simple, fast and unique in a fully organized user environment.

What’s different about DataScouting?

We know content counts and our primary objective is to make media monitoring easier than ever. Using technologies such as OCR, NLP, Automatic Speech Recognition, Data Mining, Information Retrieval and Knowledge Discovery, DataScouting provides intelligent media solutions for managing the workflow of print, broadcast and information management. We focus on finding ways to extract usable intelligence from very large data sets and provide innovative and profitable solutions. With proven expertise and state-of-the-art technologies, we deliver SaaS and standalone services and products that clients and partners need to achieve strategic goals and gain a competitive advantage. Our solutions are certified by TÜV Rheinland (ISO 9001:2008). Moreover, DataScouting is an Associate Technical Member of FIBEP, the world’s largest association for media intelligence and communications insight, an Associate Member of AMEC, the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication) and a Member of SEPVE, the Association of Information Technology Companies of Northern Greece.