ATLANTA, Oct. 16, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- iLumen announced today the introduction of the iLumen Online Business Community, a service designed to combine online social networking features with iLumen's core financial analysis capabilities. This new service enables private companies to collaborate with their peers and trusted financial advisers including banks, accounting firms and other authorized third parties in a secure, online environment.
iLumen's Online Business Community offers participants:
-- Trending Analysis -- view key financial metrics for your
business on easy to read dashboards
-- Industry Benchmarking -- compare your trends to continually
updated industry averages
-- Industry Intelligence -- get insight into the challenges and
opportunities in your industry
-- Industry Community -- directly connect and interact with peers
and financial advisors
"We feel that an online business community needs to have a financial component as part of its DNA," said Robert H. Woosley, Chief Executive Officer of iLumen. "This platform has created a foundation never before developed that enables financial institutions such as leading banks, CPA firms and business information providers to connect with private companies they otherwise would not have had access to."
This new service is an extension of iLumen's core business, which is focused on providing a standardize flow of financial information from any accounting system and making that information accessible on a permission basis to facilitate financial e-commerce.
Key elements of the iLumen Online Business Community include robust online community capabilities found in social networking sites, including the ability to connect with community members, receive tailored industry news feeds and participate in blogs and ongoing surveys. Private companies can choose to securely upload their financial data in order to receive additional benefits such as benchmarking trends, collaborating with their trusted advisors on those trends and receiving feedback from other authorized parties.
Creating A Truly Unique Virtual Business Community
The iLumen Online Business Community drives connection between businesses and brings companies together with like interests. One of the first examples of the Online Business Community is "The Reed Construction Dashboard connected by iLumen" (www.reedconstructiondashboard.com).
"Through the Reed Construction Dashboard connected by iLumen, managers in our construction industry will be able to connect to assess information that will improve critical decision making," said Julian Francis, SVP Reed Business Information. "With actual financial comparisons based on real company data updated at the speed of the customer, managers have the information that they need to understand how their business is performing and what they should do about it."
The key reason leading financial institutions connected to Reed's iLumen powered online business community was iLumen's ability to manage the permission-based access to private company financial data. With a company's permission, banks can assess credit worthiness or a CPA firm might proactively identify tax, accounting and business issues. With a click of a button, standardized private company financial information is made available to these invited institutions in a way they can digest it easily and take action.
"RSM McGladrey's mission is to continually demonstrate our unique understanding of the needs and aspirations of mid-market companies in every interaction and solution we bring to market," said Kaye Laurentson, partner RSM McGladrey. "We were the first national accounting firm to connect to The iLumen Network which today we use to better serve our business clients. We believe our participation in the iLumen Online Business Community is a targeted way to connect to private companies and demonstrate to them how RSM McGladrey can help them with their business."
Pricing and Availability
For more information on pricing and availability, please contact iLumen at sales@iLumen.com.
About iLumen
iLumen, Inc. (www.iLumen.com), an Atlanta-based financial services company, provides a financial information network that enables virtual business communities. iLumen allows private companies to submit, analyze, aggregate and deliver their financial data in collaboration with their trusted financial advisers including banks, accounting firms and other authorized third parties. iLumen connects private companies with leading accounting firms, financial institutions and industry partners in a secure online environment. The company utilizes proprietary (patent pending) technology and business processes to deliver the first and most widely used business financial network of its type.
For more information visit www.ilumen.com or call 888.663.8003. iLumen(tm) and iMonitor(r) are trademarks of iLumen, Inc., all rights reserved.