Case Study – NICE Systems

Case Study – NICE Systems

Company Background

NICE Systems (NASDAQ: NICE) is a global provider of advanced solutions and consulting services in the field of multimedia interactions -- enterprise recording applications (such as call-centers and trading floors); enterprise and security video; and government solutions. Two of its departments currently use Net Snippets: Business Intelligence, which produces analyst reports based on information gathered, and the Information Center, which manages the corporate library and handles information searches and knowledge management for the entire company. Both departments search a wide variety of Internet-based and commercial databases.

The Problems:

1. Time wasted on routine work
Both departments were spending a great deal of highly-paid professional time on low-level work: cutting and pasting information from different sources into Office documents, manually adding the source references, organizing everything within the document, and adding comments. Since a typical report could be dozens of pages long, they also had to manually add a table of contents or index.

2. Organizing multiple files
Besides text, the Business Intelligence department often needed to save tables and graphics. Since it’s very awkward to work with the big files Word creates when a document includes pictures, they saved each separately. This again took time and created a complicated information structure, which had to be merged at the end into one final report.

3. The need to focus attention on the relevant information
After extracting information from disparate sources and collating it into a Word document, the staff still had to go over it again and highlight the most important parts, to enable busy executives and R&D staff to get the jist of the report from a quick scan. They wanted to streamline this process.

4. Collaboration difficulties
In the Information Center, two information specialists would often work concurrently on the same urgent request. For security reasons, they could not usually put the work-in-progress on a company server in order to allow joint access. It was very complicated to check what the other had found so as to avoid duplication, and at the end they had to merge the two disparate documents into one final report. The business center often needed to allow five or six people access to the raw material, and then select from their input when creating a report.

The Solution: Net Snippets

The Information Center bought one copy of the client-only version of Net Snippets; use quickly spread to everyone in the Information Center, and then to the Business Intelligence department. They added the server version upon its release, and are planning to introduce it to more departments.

The Results

1. Focused, professional reports in a fraction of the time

	Net Snippets produces clearly structured reports -- automatically. The Information Center’s clients especially like the report’s organization, with an automatically added table of contents and source information.
	Net Snippets drastically cuts the time needed to gather and collate information. “It organizes as I work,” says Sarit Haim, head of the Information Center. “It doesn’t require any additional work. It just flows with me. The ‘drop spot’, which saves material to Net Snippets from any application, solves the problem of capturing information from even the most user-unfriendly database interfaces. And I can do most of it just by drag-and-drop.” The highlighting feature allows her to mark relevant material “on the fly”, while saving a document or selection.
	“Net Snippets handles all media formats equally well,” adds Vivian Leisorek, head of the Business Intelligence department. “We no longer need to save pictures and video files separately and link them by hand.”
	“We use the screen-capture function a lot,” says Sarit Haim. “For instance, sending half a screen by e-mail is the easiest way to show our users what books they owe – much easier than building a report via the library management software. Before Net Snippets, I’d have had to capture the whole screen and edit it manually. Net Snippets does that for me automatically.”

2. Easy collaboration, tracking and dissemination of information

	While preparing an analyst report, The Business Intelligence staff often need to share material with others on the team, and find that a structured Net Snippets report is the easiest way to do it.
	Net Snippets automatically records source information, which can be included in the final report and is always available in the original snippets for future reference.
	Collaboration on the same project is no longer a problem: both departments put work in progress on the Net Snippets server, where any member of the team can access it. Team members can drag-and-drop material from each others’ folders; all folders can be merged at the end. The server includes a full password-authentication security system, so that only authorized personnel can access it.
	Final distribution: the Business Intelligence department puts reports intended for several people on the Net Snippets server, and sends each person a link to it via e-mail. Reports for one or a few people are sent by e-mail: the software automatically packages all information into one of several recognised formats, for e-mail delivery.

3. Unforeseen bonuses:

	Ease of use: “Our most enthusiastic users,” comments Vivian Leisorek, “are those who gather information for their own needs: the marketing and management people, the engineers, the R & D department. They understand technology, but they don’t want yet another application on their desktop. Net Snippets suits them because it’s a browser plugin – when they’re not using it, they don’t see it. And they love the graphics capabilities – the ease of capturing screens, parts of screens, or single pictures, for use in presentations.”
	Technical support: “the company is constantly looking for feedback, in order to improve future versions, and constantly checking back to make sure we’re getting the most leverage from the product.”
	All-in-one convenience: “everything I need,” says Sarit Haim, “I put in Net Snippets – even my passwords to databases. And I keep a folder containing a list of the databases we have access to, and use it as a checklist of what we’ve covered in the current search. Before, I used to do all that in e-mail, or on paper. But I can’t imagine returning to the way I used to work before.” “Once you’ve begun to use it,” agrees Vivian Leisorek, “you’re hooked.”