At a recent technology venture presentation, I introduced Dex by outlining the shortcomings of popular online networking tool LinkedIn and CRM software salesforce.com.

I really like Linkedin.  I have been a member for a couple of years and have twice as many professional contacts on Linkedin than I have “friends” on facebook.  I like that when people change jobs, I am notified, so I can keep track of their careers over time.

But the problem with Linkedin is that it just shows me a list of my professional contacts.  There’s no context to the list - it doesn’t show me how well I know them, when I spoke to them last, how their career path could intersect with mine, how they could help me - it doesn’t show me how “important” they are to me professionally.  In short, it doesn’t help me “work my network”.

I like salesforce.com and other CRM systems much less.  To me, CRM systems today are similar to excel spreadsheets with web forms attached that allow you and other people in your company to fill out information about people and interactions with those people.  Salesforce.com is simply a “central repository” that takes all the information you already know about people, and regurgitate it in nice charts and graphs.

What Dex provides - and what everyone should expect from their CRM system in a “networked world” - is a system that knows more than we know about our contacts.  Dex enhances the information we already know with the information our contacts say about themselves on the social web, like Linkedin and Facebook, with the information that trusted news sources say about them.  Dex takes all of that information, digests it, and then presents it back to us in a context that helps us make decisions to improve our business opportunities and professional careers.

Dex is going to revolutionize professional networking and contact relationship management for individuals and SMBs.

And we’re almost ready to launch…

I receive several invitations every week to join people’s network on LinkedIn.  Some are from past colleagues looking to reconnect, some are from a “super-duper sales guy” who is trying to rack up connections to sell on craigslist, but most are from people looking for work.

Which makes a lot of sense, because that’s when people turn to their professional network.

It’s the old adage “it’s who you know, not what you know” when it comes to finding work, and LinkedIn does a fantastic job of connecting you to that network… when you’re looking for work.  However, there are some problems with this model:

1. Professional information is often spotty. I know of three senior managers that uploaded their professional information and were active on LinkedIn until they found a new job.  They didnt update their information afterwards, because, let’s be honest, who has time for that?
2. LinkedIn “Recommendations” are a good idea poorly implemented. When job seekers are looking for work, they spend a lot of time building a beautiful profile, and then send “recommendation requests” out to everyone they know.  Although similar to a letter of reference, LinkedIn recommendations are used like an online employment bartering system or currency.  I have recieved over a dozen “if you recommend me, I’ll recommend you” emails… not very genuine.
3. It can be a little too obvious. When I first joined LinkedIn I sent out invitations to many people in my professional network.  Several months later one of my invitations was accepted by a senior Vice President of a fortune-1000 company… at 2pm on a Thursday.  Sure enough, two weeks later he was actively looking for a job.

LinkedIn does a great job connecting job seekers and people who are hiring, making finding work through your network much more efficient - even if it does sometimes seem a little desparate…

—-

PS - the invitation above is from my brother who recently graduated with his PHD in biochemistry if anyone’s hiring