AUSTIN, Texas, June 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Hoover's, Inc. (http://www.hoovers.com/), a D&B company that gives its customers a competitive edge with insightful information about industries, companies and key decision makers, today announced the first phase of integration between Hoover's and First Research (http://www.firstresearch.com/). D&B acquired industry intelligence provider First Research in March 2007 and folded the company under Hoover's to better meet the needs for commercial insight among sales and marketing professionals.

"This phase is the first step along the path to full integration, and each successive step will bring more value to both Hoover's and First Research users," said Jeff Guillot, Hoover's executive vice president of product and technology. "This phase also serves as the basis for a 'test and learn' approach to broader content integration, and allows us to deliver new value to our customers as soon as possible."

As part of this initial phase, First Research customers now have quick access to Hoover's company data via a Hoover's search box on the First Research site. In turn, Hoover's subscribers now gain additional industry insight for free via access to a subset of First Research's in-depth Industry Profiles. This phase allows easier navigation during this interim period before true integration between the sites.

Additionally, those who purchase a bundled subscription can now access both Hoover's and First Research content directly from within Hoover's, which ultimately leads to time savings and improved sales force productivity. This bundled product facilitates quick access to the sales intelligence tools customers need to identify opportunities, needs, and contacts, as well as the business issues to help them create mutually beneficial relationships with the right contacts.

"Any business professional with a vested interest in building client relationships stands to benefit greatly from this first phase integration," said Bobby Martin, president and co-founder of First Research. "By cross- promoting our content in contextually meaningful places on each site, we've made it even easier for our clients to truly benefit from Hoover's and First Research's market-leading sales intelligence solutions."

First Research industry intelligence now available on Hoover's includes: -- Directory of First Research Industry Profiles that cover more than 600 industry segments. -- A subset of First Research Industry Profiles including: * Industry Overviews, which provide a brief summary of the key players and outline the competitive landscape of an industry. * Call Prep Questions designed to help users engage prospects and clients in discussions about their key business issues and challenges.

"Competitor and market information top Unmet Information Needs in our ongoing studies of sales and marketing professionals' content usage," said Chuck Richard, Vice President and Lead Analyst at Outsell, Inc. "First Research Industry Profiles and Call Prep Questions address just this gap, as well as Relevance and Ease of Use, which salespeople rate as their most important criteria for selecting information sources."

About Hoover's, Inc.

Hoover's, a D&B company, gives its customers a competitive edge with insightful information about industries, companies, and key decision makers. Hoover's provides this up-to-date information for sales, marketing, business development, and other professionals who need intelligence on U.S. and global companies, industries, and the people who lead them. This information, along with powerful tools to search, sort, download and integrate the content, is available through Hoover's (http://www.hoovers.com/), the company's premier online service. Hoover's business information is also available through corporate intranets and distribution agreements with licensees, as well as via Hoover's books. The company is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

About First Research

First Research, a D&B company, is the leading provider of Industry Intelligence Tools that help sales and marketing teams perform faster and smarter, open doors and close more deals. First Research performs the "heavy lifting" by analyzing hundreds of sources to create insightful and easy to digest Industry Intelligence that can be consumed very quickly to better understand a prospect's or client's business issues. Customers include leading companies in banking, accounting, insurance, technology, telecommunications, business process outsourcing and professional services such as ADP, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and Sprint. Used by more than 60,000 sales professionals, First Research can benefit any organization which has prospects in multiple industries. First Research is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information, visit http://www.firstresearch.com/.

Contact: Lisa Glass 512 / 374-4662 lglass@hoovers.com

CONTACT: Lisa Glass, +1-512-374-4662, lglass@hoovers.com

Web site: http://www.hoovers.com/
http://www.firstresearch.com/