Where was I when the press release went out on March 21st from LinkedIn?  Talk about a disruptive move into the corporate data business...

If you missed it like I did, go onto LinkedIn and look at the new company offering that recently rolled out.  Click on any contact, then scroll down into their work experience and click on a company.  Pick a large company like SAP, Microsoft or IBM.  I picked SAP... it's called "Companies Beta"

I can see all of the SAP users on LinkedIn together... recent promotions, their new hires by name and title and where terminating employees go... as in who is hiring from Google?

As an example, Paul Applegate, this month was promoted from Senior Director to Vice President, EMEA Alliances.  Now if Paul keeps his LinkedIn profile current, the information is current, otherwise I'm not sure when the promotion actually occurred, but it looks pretty recent...

Looking at this level of detail - why do I need Hoovers, InfoUSA or Dunn & Bradstreet?

These companies spend millions every year calling into businesses to interview them in order to compile their lists of contacts with title information, etc.  Why should I pay for their data when this stuff is free!

I know, I know there are still many reasons to use the other guys, but this is impressive and useful...

Now, wouldn't you like to have this linked into your CRM system?  I would...

If you missed the announcement from LinkedIn here's a snippet and link to the release:

"LinkedIn members who are interested in a company can also access data on the typical career paths of people entering and exiting the company, as well as view common job titles at the company. Members can see how their LinkedIn network connects them to current employees of the company. The data on company profiles is based on information from the over 20 million professional profiles on LinkedIn and as well as data from its partners, CapitalIQ and BusinessWeek." LinkedIn press release

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