Euroalert.net

Euroalert.net (ISSN 1988-3382) offers daily access to the most relevant European Union related information and contents. Everyday, the most outstanding contents about EU institutions, policies, Community Law developments, opportunities for businesses and citizens, as well as many other aspects of EU day to day life, find their place at Euroalert.net.

Some examples of information sources include the following:

1. European Union Funding Opportunities: Euroalert.net tracks those opportunities, identifying its main elements and providing information about the different Programmes adopted by the European Community and the Calls for Proposals falling under the objectives of each Programme, and published in the OJEU
2. Commercial opportunities with public sector in the European Union: Calls for Tenders, Contracts Awards and other Public Procurement related services.
3. Commercial Opportunities issued under EU External Cooperation Programmes and development Banks: information related to tender procedures and contracts issued by European Commission Co-operation Office – EuropeAid, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
4. Recent EU News : Up to date information about the most recent events related to EU day to day life: Activities and meetings of EU Institutions and Agencies, Legislative developments, Public consultations, Member states activities towards EU policies and activities.

Euroalert.net offers information web services providing access to a comprehensive range of European Union public information. Value is added to the European Union contents by:

• Aggregating multiple and scattered sources into unique databases for each type of content and information.
• Improving contents and structuring information with input from Euroalert EU expert teams.
• Extracting new knowledge and data from non-structured contents through intelligent algorithms that are continually learning from our customers needs.
• Indexing and sorting information so it can be efficiently filtered, searched and extracted, to be then delivered according to the customization required for each clients needs.

Euroaltert.net offers both free and subscription services, packaged in several innovative products:

• Free Widgets or One Web Full Content Widgets: specialised widgets which make possible to have Euroalert contents published on the customer websites,filtered and adapted to their visual design and layout
• Customized Data Mining services: Euroalert provides raw statistical data customized to the client's interests, searching and extracting knowledge from hundreds of thousands of commercial opportunities with the public sector published every year.
• Web services: Contents are delivered automatically to the clients' databases so they can combine them with other sources of information and then re-use these contents in their own services
• Outsourced profile tailored newsletters and alerting systems: A subscriptions Widget for the change of profiles is installed in the web/s of the organization, so the final user do not perceive the outsourcing. Then periodical e-mail newsletters, tailored to each company's profile with public procurement commercial opportunities is sent with the organization layout.

The overall value Euroalert.net adds to the information and contents processed can be summarized in three basic points:

• Publishing those contents automatically in the subscriber's website: The end effect is that the content is on the subscriber websites and prevents the viewers from leaving a site to view information.
• Adapting the contents to their users' information requirements: Substituting the links to other external websites by original contents within their own one, with a very simple installation process
• Freeing their teams to invest time in higher value tasks and services: they can perform other tasks with higher value for their users and increase performance of their information services, benefiting from our economies of scale.

Euroalert aims to provide innovative ways to deliver added-value PSI in the area of European issues and International Tendering through technology-driven, scalable services.

Both consultancy and R&D teams involved in the development and daily operations of Euroalert services belong to Gateway Strategic Consultancy Services. All services are build on GTW-Framework, which is the software development platform created by Gateway S.C.S.. Its architecture reflects the philosophy the company applies for the deployment of software applications over the Internet. GTW-Framework makes possible for Gateway S.C.S. to deliver to its clients software as a service that is constructed considering the web as a platform.

All services are delivered from GTW-Cloud infrastructure, which is also completely deployed and operated by Gateway S.C.S. That is why both large scale and high demand services, such as Euroalert.net and some smaller projects are treated with the same care, attention and quality of services.

Although the continuous innovation in Gateway S.C.S.'s search technology, cloud computing services and GTW-Framework represents an important yearly investment in R&D, it assures the improvement and evolution of Euroalert.net services and the launch of new and always innovative products.

Euroalert.net has 10 years of experience but recently has developed for its clients a new value proposition using technological innovation to change the way in which EU public sector information is delivered. Although most of the contents provided are mainly of public access, subscribers appreciate publishing those contents automatically in their own web sites. Contents are filtered, sorted and delivered according to each organization interests and customized to their website layout in a cost-effective way

Thus, Euroalert.net is achieving a growing customers base across Europe, ranging from regional governments to Chambers of Commerce, Business and Trade Associations, and Agencies for the Promotion of Export and Trade, apart from private held companies

Many of the contents are also provided in a Euroalert free widget version that is mainly used by bloggers and small projects an initiatives that are willing to provide high quality EU related contents. In this version links go to Euroalert.net website and some branding is also displayed.

Euroalert.net business model has been presented as case study, “Doing Business by Selling Free Services” in a chapter of the book entitled: “Web 2.0: The Business Model” published by Springer.

More information on:

· http://en.blog.euroalert.net/2009/02/euroalertnet-as-case-study.html

· http://www.openeconomy.net/2009/02/web-20-business-model.html

Preview available at Google Docs:

(Publisher: Springer; illustrated edition (28 Nov 2008), Language English, ISBN-10: 0387858946 ; ISBN-13: 978-0387858944 )

Service started before publication of the PSI Directive