Have you considered Data Services?
March 11, 2015
Today’s innovative companies have an insatiable appetite for data. But there is one problem plaguing many of these organizations; a significant portion of the data they need exists only on the web, and many companies do not have the resources or expertise in-house to acquire web data successfully. This problem is exactly what Mozenda’s Professional Service organization solves every day for hundreds of customers.
My name is Brian Anderson, and I am the Services Manager here at Mozenda. My team is full of Mozenda experts that are responsible for building, monitoring, maintaining, and delivering high quality and timely data feeds to our clients. We measure our success by the accuracy, consistency, and timeliness of the data we deliver, and we continue to improve our internal processes to provide the best service possible. The projects we accept range from small, one-time scrapes of a few thousand web pages to large, multi-year contracts where we process hundreds of millions of pages. Our proven methodologies combined with our state-of-the-art harvesting cloud make Mozenda an agile and highly capable Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) provider.
Is DaaS right for you?
To determine if Mozenda’s DaaS solution is right for you, ask yourself the following questions:
- Is web-data acquisition an internal process or is it something I can outsource?
- Do I have a realistic budget for data acquisition?
- What is the deadline for setting up the process that acquires the data we need?
- Is my organization prepared to do post processing of the data (i.e. analytics, visualization, integration)?
- Do I have internal resources available to build and maintain scrapers as target websites change and my organization’s web data needs expand?
- What is the opportunity cost of using internal resources to manage and maintain a web data extraction process?
- Are there sites that are currently being scraped unsuccessfully?
How much does it cost?
Unfortunately, there is no catalog for pricing a DaaS engagement. We work with each client and price each project individually based on several factors:
- The number of different websites to be scraped
- The volume of processing it will take to obtain the data required
- The frequency of the scrapes (i.e. daily, weekly, monthly)
- The estimated effort it will take to monitor and maintain each scraper
As a general rule, DaaS pricing starts at $2,500. Many companies have found that after all of the costs associated with building and maintaining a web data extraction process are considered, partnering with a DaaS provider is a much more cost-effective solution for their organization.
How do I get started?
If you’re interested in getting a quote on a project, email sales@mozenda.com or call 801-995-4550 and choose option number one. Our sales representatives are eager to help and will respond to you immediately. They have worked on thousands of different websites with hundreds of different organizations. Our representatives are experts at understanding requirements and will work with you to create a DaaS strategy that will provide the data your organization needs. I personally work with the sales team on every Statement of Work (SOW) to ensure that both the client and Mozenda will be successful. Once the SOW has been agreed upon and approved, we can usually start producing data within just a few days.
I currently use the Mozenda software, should I consider Services?
If you already use the Mozenda SaaS platform and are happy with the results then don’t change anything. The primary reason for switching from a software subscription to DaaS is if your project is too complex or you struggle to find internal resources capable of building and maintaining your project. Many of our DaaS customers are both services and software customers; they value the flexibility of being able to use the software themselves for a portion of their data extraction needs, but they also have enjoyed the ease of outsourcing the more difficult jobs to Mozenda’s Services team.
