Portfolio Skills

Delve into our background: Browse through a selection of our projects based on our skills and see some of the innovative software, applications and web services we have created for and with our clients. We develop for many platforms and work with Windows, UNIX, Linux and OS X servers.

PwC – Pulse, Profiled Business News

PwC – Pulse, Profiled Business News

PwC Global Services

Pulse – Profiled Business News

PwC – Pulse: Profiled Business News

PwC is an international accounting and consultancy company, providing high quality tax, assurance and advisory services. Their consultants therefore rely on direct access to up-to-date, reliable and relevant business news.

Prior to the arrival of Pulse, PwC Nederland employed six information specialists. Their task was to keep consultants up-to-date with the latest business developments. Firstly the specialists gathered news from various premium sources, such as Factiva, Lexis Nexis, and Gartner. They then combined the information, producing about 60 weekly newsletters. Each one focused on specific lines of business. This approach was obviously time-consuming. What is more, 60 newsletters could not cover every line of business. Which meant PwC consultants often resorted to Google, spending 26% of their time searching for information online. An inefficient method that produced results of doubtful quality.

PwC was convinced they could address this issue more effectively. Therefore they approached BSL. We have experience with knowledge management solutions, business intelligence and search. As a result our developers came back with a custom-made news-alert system. Called Pulse, our software delivers profiled news alerts to thousands of consultants within PwC.

Pulse: Smart Business News

“In order to introduce Pulse as a global service, we have worked with many different teams, each with their own technical and functional requirements. These wishes all had to be supported, making my work on this project both challenging and varied.”

Peter

Java/Sr. Software engineer, Bright Side of Life

Pulse Smart Business News

Business Intelligence, a custom solution

BSL designed and developed Pulse using Oracle ™ and Exalead technology. It imports around 80,000 new articles each day from global news services (Bloomberg, Factiva, Forrester, Gartner, Lexis Nexis, ISI…). It also imports local news sources, along with RSS feeds, selected website contents, and Twitter. Pulse imports articles from over 10,000 sources, updating the Pulse database in real-time. But Pulse isn’t just a database. It also classifies, indexes and maintains profiled news feeds for PwC employees.

Just four information specialists now manage over 1,000 profiled business news feeds in the Netherlands. PWC consultants subscribe to these feeds via the company’s website. But also via email and smartphones. And our technology ensures that every feed provides reliable, high quality content. Which means PwC consultants are at the top of their game when they meet their clients.

PwC first rolled out Pulse in the Netherlands, but its success has led to international growth. It’s now used in more than 20 countries. With over 10,000 users, and more than 30,000 subscriptions to news feeds. Most noteworthy is that over 92% of users would recommend Pulse to their colleagues! And PwC management teams are also equally enthusiastic. In PwC Germany the cost of briefing consultants decreased by 95%. Their consultants save time, they’re well-briefed, and they can focus on clients – not on Google searches. This success has been rewarded. Pulse has won two prestigious business awards.

Business Intelligence, a custom solution

BSL designed and developed Pulse using Oracle ™ and Exalead technology. It imports around 80,000 new articles each day from global news services (Bloomberg, Factiva, Forrester, Gartner, Lexis Nexis, ISI…). It also imports local news sources, along with RSS feeds, selected website contents, and Twitter. Pulse imports articles from over 10,000 sources, updating the Pulse database in real-time. But Pulse isn’t just a database. It also classifies, indexes and maintains profiled news feeds for PwC employees.

Just four information specialists now manage over 1,000 profiled business news feeds in the Netherlands. PWC consultants subscribe to these feeds via the company’s website. But also via email and smartphones. And our technology ensures that every feed provides reliable, high quality content. So PwC consultants are at the top of their game when they meet their clients.

PwC first rolled out Pulse in the Netherlands, but its success led to international growth. It’s now used in more than 20 countries. With over 10,000 users, and more than 30,000 subscriptions to news feeds. Most noteworthy is that over 92% of users would recommend Pulse to their colleagues! And PwC management teams are also equally enthusiastic. In PwC Germany the cost of briefing consultants decreased by 95%. Their consultants save time, they’re well-briefed, and they can focus on clients – not on Google searches. This success has been rewarded. Pulse has won two prestigious business awards.

Pulse Smart Business News

“As we all know, time is precious. I’m using Pulse on a daily basis, because it saves me so much time. It is easy to scan the news and then drill down to the full article if necessary. I have subscribed to several feeds that keep me up to date with all the news which is related to my Clients and the Industry.”

Sr. Consultant, PwC

At BSL, you have come to the right place for…

Search expertise

BSL has expertise with many search and business intelligence technologies, including Autonomy, Exalead, Oracle Text, Elastic Search and Sybase FTS. The full contents of documents can be indexed. We use language intelligence and semantic search techniques to recognize words, sentences, concepts and synonyms. These technologies ensure that we can find and select the most relevant information, even from millions of documents.

Award winning software

Pulse has won two important international MPF business awards. In 2008, the Best Use of Technology Award. And also the Best Collaboration Across International Borders award in 2013. The jury of the MPF award ceremony praised the simple way in which the ‘knowledge and management platform’ enables efficient collaboration between international teams.

Innovation and experience

Although Pulse started as a Dutch project, it has become a worldwide success within PwC. It was recently upgraded to a global service. Which goes to show that no bridge is too far for BSL to find suitable solutions for challenging projects.

This is a great example of BSL creating a custom solution designed specifically for a single client. And it’s grown to become a global solution! If you’ve got ideas for your own web applications or service, then why not get in touch – no strings attached!

Martyn Simpson

Director, Bright Side of Life

Financieele Dagblad – News, Image and Audio Archive

Financieele Dagblad – News, Image and Audio Archive

Financieele Dagblad

The financial news source for the Netherlands

Financieele Dagblad Multimedia News Archive (NIA)

The Financieele Dagblad (FD) is the “Dutch” Financial Times. So first of all they focus on the economy, and business news. Furthermore, they produce in-depth financial reports, background studies and analyses. While their own journalists and photographers are key to the FD brand and style of journalism, they also use content delivered by press bureaus (such as Reuters or ANP). Consequently they receive more than 3000 photos and articles each day from these sources.

BNR (part of the FD Mediagroep) prides itself on providing the most ‘up-to-the-minute’ radio news service in the Netherlands. BNR reports on news from both home and abroad, the financial world, politics and sport.

The combination of print and radio journalism presents a number of challenges. So when the Financieele Dagblad decided to create their own editorial system, they came to BSL. We designed and built a custom content management system: the NIA (News, Image and Audio archive).

financieele dagblad
Copyright Het Financieele Dagblad

BSL designs and develops an editorial system

Working together with the Financieele Dagblad, we created their NIA (News, Image and Audio Archive). First of all we introduced processes that import the stream of content that they receive each day. Thousands of images, videos, text articles, and artwork delivered from press bureaus. Likewise content provided by their own photographers and journalists. We store this content using Sybase ASE. As a result we can use Sybase FTS indexing technology to make searching for content fast, and flexible. After the initial introduction, we extended the system, importing and indexing audio produced by BNR (Business News Radio).
 
Financieele Dagblad news editors can create search profiles, describing the the content in which they are interested. As a result the NIA can automatically deliver matching images and text to their browser. The FD journalists then use the integrated text editor (along with a built-in  spelling and grammar checker) to write new articles. The text we select from their feeds is available, making it easy to copy/paste content, or to check their articles against external sources. When complete, the NIA exports the final text, alongside cropped and scaled images chosen by the photo editors. While the NIA was designed initially for print, new articles can also be sent to the FD website. Finally, published articles and pages are stored as text and PDF’s in the NIA. Creating an archive of published content.
Copyright Het Financieele Dagblad

At BSL, you have come to the right place for…

Search expertise

BSL has 20 years experience of advanced search and business intelligence technologies. These include Autonomy, Exalead, Oracle Text, Elastic Search and Sybase FTS. As a result, users can also quickly and easily make partial matches, combine search terms using and/or and apply wildcards. We can even support linguistic techniques designed to extract the meaning from content. These technologies ensure that we can find and select the most relevant information, even from millions of documents. Applying this technology, the NIA offers the Financieele Dagblad journalists fast and secure access to all their news and multimedia content.

Robust technology

News is a 24hr business. Hence software such as the Financieele Dagblad NIA must be available 24 hours a day. Importing new content, and managing the editorial workflow. Consequently our web applications are designed to be robust. Likewise, our experienced developers are familiar with the latest demands of Internet security. So we are familiar with using tools such as Veracode and Fortify, to keep your content private, and your users safe.

Long-term support

When a software product has entered production, users need long-term support and maintenance. Hence we offer clients a range of flexible support services. These can include many options such as 24/7 availability, guaranteed response times, and on-site visits. All at a fixed annual cost.

Probably the biggest challenge with this type of project is the steep-learning curve. In this case, learning about the type of content, the editorial workflow, and the needs of journalists. Consequently BSL has developed unique skills in picking up the information needed to design and create custom solutions. Why don’t you get in touch to discuss your next project?

Caroline Bos

Relation Manager, Bright Side of Life

FD News and Image Archive Brochure

FD News and Image Archive Brochure

FD News and Image Archive Brochure

FD News and Image Archive

The Financieele Dagblad (FD) is the Dutch equivalent of the Financial Times. They focus on financial and economic news, background information and analyses. They also own a radio station (BNR). This provides up-to-the-minute financial news around the clock. FD editors make frequent use of the thousands of financial reports and news items that arrive each day from press bureaus. Their photo editors are responsible for commissioning and selecting the best possible images, also using press bureaus, and in-house resources. These images are used in print, and on the FD website. Keeping up-to-date with this constant stream of content is their number one priority. BSL was asked to develop an editorial system that could support their editors, and to archive the articles, images and broadcasts produced each day. The result – the FD’s News and Image Archive (NIA).
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ING Image Bank Brochure

ING Image Bank Brochure

ING Image Bank Brochure

ING Image Bank

The ING Group, an international financial organization, was searching for a solution to efficiently manage all its digital material, including brochures, graphics, images, and house style information. BSL was therefore asked to design and develop the ING Image Bank, a custom-made system based on BSL’s FRS software. The ING Image Bank manages tens of thousands of multimedia assets, including house style information and complete brochures, as well as images. The ING not only used this database to manage their assets, but also use the system to deliver collections of design information and images to their design partners, and publishers.
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