On Thursday, Toronto-based company Remote Approach announced the launch of its inaugural solution, an online service that provides its clients with the ability to track and administer PDF documents through a variety of distribution channels.
"A user uploads the PDF they want to track to Remote Approach, assigning variables like distribution channels and groups to add additional detail to the data captured. From there, they can download and distribute the PDF as desired," said John Bielby, president of Remote Approach Inc.
"Every time the PDF is read, it briefly interacts with the reporting repository to record the event. The user has access to live reports and data to see reports on views, distribution by channel or user group, or even download the logs into other systems and applications," Bielby said.
According to Bielby, clients of the service already are using it in several ways.
Some simply wish to know whether their customers actually read or forward a clients PDFs after downloading them from the clients Web site, while others engaged in peer-to-peer marketing want measurable data on whether their available PDF is being effective, given that traditional Web analysis cant measure such data.
"Using our service, [our clients] have been able to gauge the depth of their document penetration through the peer-to-peer networks. They can then use this data and reports to measure the effectiveness of their budget, identify more effective file names and determine timelines for document distribution," Bielby said.
Forrester Research principal analyst Bob Markham said that while other applications exist that are similar to Remote Approachs, he is not aware of any other solution that is subscription-based.
Read the full story on PDFzone.com: Remote Approach Launches PDF Tracking Service
Web 2.0, SOA, and Web Services News & Reviews 
