SkyMinder has been awarded the "Best Commercial Efficiency" prize at the 2003 FEBIS (Federation of Business Information Service) conference in Marbella, Spain. SkyMinder was selected as winner in this category on the basis of Net Marketing, On-line Sales Process, After Sales Process and Customer Relationship Management. The annual competition, "The Website Audit", awards three prizes, Best Commercial Efficiency, Best Technical Approach and Best Graphics.

In the financial world, there is no room for guesswork when it comes to making decisions. Accurate, up to the minute business information is an essential tool which is why ANZ Banking, Australia's leading banking and financial services group, turned to SkyMinder, a leading global online business information provider, to assist in researching and justifying their strategic decisions. Before ANZ Investment Bank does business with a company, it needs to piece together a thorough picture of that firm's financial background, credit history, recent reports etc.

Its first port of call is research, and as David Prosser, Manager of Management Information at ANZ comments: "SkyMinder is a valuable part of the armoury." He continues: "The Relationship Managers in the Credit Support team need to search for a range of information as quickly and cost-effectively as possible. SkyMinder's "pay-as-you-go" charging structure gives us the flexibility that we need, and the user-friendly site allows us to refine our search and only pay for the specific components we need."

SkyMinder holds a vast range of easily accessible information under one roof including Company Profiles, Financial Data, Credit Ratings, Industry Breakdowns, Market Trends, Investment Research, News and Statistical Information - vital to ANZ when scrutinising a company before possible investment. This data comes from a range of highly regarded sources such as D&B Worldwide, Thomson Financial e Graydon UK, in addition to local information providers, and aggregates it into a ready to use, dossier-formatted report.

The range and geographical reach of the information has perfect synergy with users who operate on an international scale, such as ANZ who have branches world-wide. SkyMinder provides extensive online access to global business information on over 50 million public and private companies in 230 countries around the globe. ANZ's European operations are centralised in London, where staff can benefit from SkyMinder's exclusively aggregated on-line content on more than 29 million European companies. SkyMinder has recently updated its site and the new look and feel gives improved usability and functionality, with features such as simultaneous searching in different areas.

David Prosser concludes: "Efficiency is always key for us, and we are very impressed by the quality and structure of the information SkyMinder offers. As a cost-conscious organisation we also find the transparent charging very attractive." ANZ discovered SkyMinder at the Online Exhibition at the Olympia in London last year, and based on its current experience anticipates continuing its subscription long into the future.