FirstRain launches API to Increase Use of Predictive Analytics in Enterprise Applications

FirstRain, a provider of business analytics solutions, has introduced FirstRain API, a new analytics application programming interface (API) that enables enterprise application developers to embed FirstRain's just-in-time analytics within their enterprise mobile and Web applications.

The FirstRain API provides enterprise developers with real-time, data-level access to the proprietary FirstRain business graph, generated using real-time big data analytics of millions of sources, documents, and social media from across the global Web. The FirstRain business graph extracts the deep, interconnected relationships between companies, businesses, and markets and also includes access to users' own personal predictive analytics profiles through a RESTful secure API.

This combination of business and personal analytics profiles allows developers to deliver actionable business insights within their own high-value apps. These could include, for example, enterprise applications like sales acceleration technologies that tell users who to call, when to call, and what to say; or strategic planning applications that advise executives on key developments deep in their customers that can drive growth or identify risk; or applications to analyze supply chain risk.

"This powerful new API helps enterprise developers take advantage of FirstRain's personal and predictive analytics to easily build custom apps that mine the FirstRain-generated business graph, extract personalized meaning and trends in real-time from the millions of documents and tweets across the Web, and guide their users to action," said Penny Herscher, FirstRain's president and CEO, in a statement. "We are opening up the deep data science technologies that FirstRain has built over the last 10 years to developers everywhere in order to help our customers and partners drive revenue growth and customer engagement for sales, marketing, and business teams throughout the enterprise."

Using the FirstRain API, enterprise developers can build customized tablet or mobile applications, enterprise customer relationship management (CRM) and master data management (MDM) integrations, merge into existing sales acceleration technologies, and develop specialized functions, such as search and email briefs, all with the same API calls used by FirstRain in its global enterprise products.

The FirstRain API empowers FirstRain customers and partners to develop solutions that will do the following:

• Increase the Quality and Frequency of Customer Engagement: FirstRain API allows enterprise developers to build solutions that combine external and internal customer insights.
• Guide Activities to Drive More Opportunities: FirstRain API gives developers access to analytics that can be integrated into applications that guide sales professionals by prompting them with just-in-time insights to help them identify new business opportunities.
• Reduce Risk Through Real-Time Understanding of Customer and Market Events: FirstRain API provides relevant and actionable market and customer insights that can be part of mission-critical enterprise applications.

In addition to FirstRain's Personal Business Analytics end-user tools and its new API, FirstRain's cloud-based OEM platform solutions also integrate into almost any third-party environment. Many enterprise and OEM platform customers also choose to add the full power of FirstRain’s personal business analytics with a single line of code, making them fully-deployed within days.

In June, FirstRain introduced Personal Business Analytics for Salesforce1, a personalized, role-based analytics application for mobile devices. The company first released a version of its sales intelligence tool for Salesforce roughly a year ago. It then released its Customer Insights on Salesforce.com's AppExchange in October.

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