Careers at Information Builders

Mission

Information Builders seeks to enhance the operational efficiency and data management systems of commercial clients through a range of business intelligence software solutions.

Founding story

Information Builders was founded in 1975 by Gerald Cohen (“Cohen”), Peter Mittelman, and Martin Slagowitz. The Company pioneered the business intelligence industry, launching its first product, FOCUS, a software product that allowed computer users with no technical expertise to manipulate digital databases. Information Builders quickly expanded its geographic operations, securing its first international contract in 1977 from a Swedish company, and opening its first international subsidiary in London in 1980.

Information Builders continued to expand during the 1980s, diversifying its product range significantly, and further developing its FOCUS offering. By 1993 FOCUS was running on approximately one million computers worldwide, with more than a third of the Company’s sales coming from overseas.

Information Builders is today among the largest and most popular business intelligence software providers in the world, counting a number of high-profile businesses among its clients, including BT, Ford, and Petrobras. In 2015 Information Builders was reportedly the top ranked vendor across a range of categories in its peer groups in the BARC survey, the largest independent global survey of business intelligence end users.

Business model of Information Builders

Customer Segments

Information Builders provides a broad range of business intelligence software solutions to commercial and institutional clients across multiple industries. The Company’s clients span the following industries:

  • Construction and Manufacturing, including industrial contractors, construction firms, and original equipment manufacturers;
  • Consumer Goods and Retail, comprising consumer goods producers and distributors, retailers across multiple sectors, retail wholesalers, and distributors;
  • Education, comprising education providers such as universities, as well as education companies;
  • Financial Services and Insurance, comprising various banking and financial service providers, and insurance companies;
  • Government, comprising various state and federal government bodies and public institutions;
  • Healthcare, comprising healthcare providers such as medical centres and hospitals, as well as health services providers such as healthcare product manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies;
  • Media and Publishing, comprising various publishing houses and producers of media content;
  • Technology, comprising technology companies, software companies, and producers of electronics and technological companies;
  • Transport, comprising transportation providers such as airlines, logistics companies, and travel service providers; and
  • Utilities, comprising producers and distributors of energy, telecommunications companies, and gas and water transmission providers.

Information Builders includes a number of high-profile businesses among its clients, including well-known companies such as Petrobras, BT, Ford, MasterCard, Fuji Xerox Information Systems, and Bollore.

Information Builders serves a global client base, with its native US comprising its core market. The Company principally serves customers across the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Africa.

Value Propositions

Information builders provides value to its clients in the following ways:

  • Its industry sanding and reputation, with the Company established as a leading provider of business intelligence solutions, having a positive reputation demonstrated by its ability to secure business from influential, market leading companies such as MasterCard, Ford, and BT;
  • Its broad portfolio of products and services, with the Company offering a wide range of products, services and solutions to its clients, including technical support, data management, analytics, and professional services;
  • Its proprietary technologies, with the Company able to provide unique software solutions using a range of proprietary technologies and intellectual properties;
  • The flexibility of its solutions, with the Company’s various services and solutions able to be tailored to suit the needs of commercial enterprises across multiple business sectors, including the financial services, education, and transport industries; and
  • Its international sales reach, with the Company serving a global client base spanning its native US, as well as other markets across the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Africa.

Channels

Information Builders operates a website at www.informationbuilders.com, through which it provides information on its product, services and solutions, as well as its target industries, partners, and customers. The Company also operates a number of international websites that provide market-specific and local language information.

While Information Builders does not operate an online sales channel, it does allow potential clients to register an interest in products via an online contact form. Many of its solutions are also delivered through online software platforms.

Information Builders makes its sales primarily through its in-house sales force, the members of which deal directly with clients. The Company’s sales personnel operate out of the Company’s international network of sales and administrative offices across the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Africa, including in China, Australia, Morocco, Brazil, Germany, and South Korea.

Additionally, Information Builders make sales through a network of third party channel partners, including independent software vendors, value added resellers, referral partners, and other distributors. These partners offer products and solutions to clients in various international markets on the Company’s behalf.

Customer Relationships

Information Builders make its products available for sale on a self-service basis. The Company does have certain contact tools that allow clients to register an interest in products and solutions independently. Similarly, once purchased, the Company’s software solutions and platforms can be utilised independently.

The bulk of Information Builders’s sales are made through its in-house direct sales force, the members of which consult closely with clients to ensure that their individual needs are met and that, where possible, its services and solutions are tailored to fit their industry and circumstances. The Company seeks to establish long-term relationships with its commercial and institutional clients, often agreeing multi-year service contracts.

Information Builders provides ongoing support to its customers. The Company offers online channels where clients can request product information, and professional services assistance, and operates a dedicated technical support team that can be contacted over the phone. It also offers an online technical support centre that includes a range of resources such as technical documentation and case studies, as well as more general online resources such as ebooks, white papers, webinars, and videos.

Additionally, Information Builders operates a number of social networking accounts – including with Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest – through which it is able to provide corporate updates and interact directly with clients.

Key Activities

Information Builders is a business intelligence software provider. The Company develops and distributes software solutions for business intelligence and analytics, enterprise integration, data integrality, and performance management.

It also offers various functional solutions, including call centre management, customer relationship management, financial reporting, human capital management, logistics, marketing, sales, and supply chain management services, as well as solutions.

Information Builders serves a broad range of industries, including the banking and financial services, energy and utilities, government, healthcare, education, manufacturing, transport, retail, and technology sectors. The Company serves a global client base, maintaining an operational presence across markets in the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Africa.

Key Partners

Information Builders works in close collaboration with a broad range of partner companies and organisations that ensure the Company is able to develop and deliver solutions effectively. The Company organises its partners into three core categories:

  • Technology Partners, comprising a range of technology companies, software companies and digital service providers that provide solutions that complement the Company’s platforms and solutions with a view to streamlining deployments and enhancing performance;
  • Systems Integrator and Advisor Partners, comprising local and international systems integration and consulting companies that assist in design and develop applications that solve business challenges and improve business processes for Information Builders’s clients; and
  • Independent Software Vendors, comprising various software developers and software platform operators that embed or integrate the Company’s software directly into their applications and products, offering Information Builders’s analytics, integration, and data quality available to their customers.

Information Builders has a number of key strategic partnerships in place. The Company lists many of its partners on its website, including technology partners Cloudera, IBM, and Unisys; systems integrators New Light Technologies, Blue Ocean Global, and ATKINS; and independent software vendors Lean Logistics, Serena Software, and HealthEdge.

Key Resources

Information Builders’s key resources are its intellectual properties and proprietary technologies, its software solutions and platforms, its IT and communications infrastructure, its sales and distribution channels, its partnerships, and its personnel.

Information Builders uses a range of intellectual properties in the development and implementation of its solutions. Searches of records published by the US Patent and Trademark Office identified a number of patent applications in which the Company is named as assignee, including applications entitled ‘Framework for adapter used in enterprise application integration’, ‘Generating a file with integral dynamic reports from queries to an external database’ and ‘Method of producing electronically readable documents with updatable pie charts’.

Information Builders additionally owns and or leases a number of physical properties that provide an operational presence across multiple markets. This principally comprises its network of sales and administrative offices across the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Africa.

Cost Structure

Information Builders incurs costs in relation to the development of its technologies and solutions, the development and maintenance of its software platforms, the maintenance of its IT and communications infrastructure, the operation of its sales and marketing channels, the procurement of professional services, the management of its partnerships, and the retention of its personnel.

Revenue Streams

Information Builders generates revenue through the provision of various business intelligence software solutions – including data management and analytics products – as well as the provision of professional and technical services to clients across multiple industries. The Company derives its revenue under service contracts.

Information Builders remains privately-owned and as such is not obliged to disclose its financial results online. The Company’s recent revenue figures are unclear.

Our team

Gerald Cohen,
Co-Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer

info: Cohen has serves as President and Chief Executive Officer at Information Builders. He has been a member of the Company’s senior leadership team since co-founding the Company in 1975. He is the Company’s key decision maker and oversees its overall strategic direction. Cohen also serves as a member of the Advisory Board at the New York City Emerging Industry Fund of the Economic Development Council.

Frank Molitor,
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

info: Frank has served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since 2015. He is responsible for leading the Company’s various financial functions, including its internal audit, accounting, and tax departments. Molitor is a long-serving employee of Information Builders. He first joined the Company in 1985, and has since held numerous roles at the Company of increasing responsibility. He does not appear to have any significant professional experience outside of the Company.

Michael Corcoran,
Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer

info: Michael has serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Information Builders, overseeing the Company’s group marketing efforts. Corcoran has been with the Company since the 1990s, serving in roles of increasing responsibility, including a spell as Vice President and Chief Communications Officer. Corcoran began his career in 1984 as an IT manager at Grumman Aerospace. He held this role for three years before moving to Software Publishing Corporation in 1990, where he worked various in sales and marketing roles over the course of just over two years.