What to Make of Market Trends in Online Information Products

There has been a proliferation of online information sources for businesses, many with translation capabilities, web 2.0 features, mobile interface options and visualisation tools

So, how can research and business professionals ensure that they make the best choices in online information products for their organisations?

To asses this, let’s look at the three broad trends within the market for online information products.

First is the availability of more local sources from around the world. There are more localised sources of business information but the biggest and most reputed providers of business information for international businesses are still found in the US or the UK.

It can be helpful to know the local players, if you are focusing on just one market. There is a growing demand for information products that cover emerging markets such as Russia, India or China, so you find such smaller localised companies helping to provide news feeds for global information aggregators.

Secondly, the user functionality has improved. Standards for international information products improved in terms of user functionality.

Many secondary information vendors offer access to their databases and reports via smartphones, and visualisation tools to create dashboards that summarise key trends and developments.

Translation functions are now available for information that used to be offered in the original language only. According to the Market Intelligence Trends 2015 survey from Global Intelligence Alliance, people are in favour of the increased use of RSS feeds, news aggregators, webcasts and iPhone applications over the next five years.

So there is a need for integration of smart phones and other devices in the information communication process.

And finally, multiple sources are still needed. For the most part, any one information source will not be comprehensive enough. An information aggregator won’t have the full range of companies your want to evaluate or all the news publications you want to monitor.

Even when you have subscribed to a service, you still need to keep a healthy scepticism about the data. Information is often not up to date. Financial results may be one or two years old, when fresh information is already available in other sources. Some details of companies or products may be inaccurate, so it helps to pay attention to the details.

If you are looking at a report on a company’s accounts for instance, check that you are looking at consolidated figures or just a part of the company or a subsidiary. This may not always be obvious.

Also, you need to know if the information has been standardized to follow a certain structure or if it is in its original format. For example, some line items may have been grouped in a different way from the original income statement. This could affect how you assess a company’s profitability.

One also has to be careful with exchange rates, when the information provider has used a different currency from the original source. The indexing or categories differ from one database to another, so it is easy to miss important news articles or reports if you choose the wrong industry sector, for example.

It is good to also check what news sources or report publishers are tracked by an aggregator, and if they are covered comprehensively or selectively. At times, you still need to search the original publisher’s own web stores to ensure that you get all the information that they can offer.

So how to make the best choice for your organisation? Some publications (such as Information World Review) help to provide comparisons of information sources and can be helpful for the initial overview and decision regarding which databases to subscribe to.

Things to consider include customer service, prices and terms of subscription. What is the minimum number of user licenses? Can you pay for a corporate wide license and unlimited access to data or “pay as you go”? Are there restrictions on how information that is retrieved may be distributed within a company? Is the provider well respected

When spending large amounts of money on business information products, it is also important to compare prices. You may find the same report or company list at a significantly lower cost in another database. In some databases, reports can be included at a fixed annual fee, in other databases you may need to pay separately for each report. One option may make better economic sense than the other, depending on your needs.

At the end of the day, decision makers usually cannot rely on just one or two information products or databases for the basis for their decisions. They need specialists who can search such databases to retrieve relevant information and complement that with details from other sources, such as company websites, recent postings with official company registries and primary research.

Finally, it helps to be familiar with a wide range of information products and is able to help you assess their strengths and weaknesses, set up trials and negotiate prices.

Vanhala is senior vice president of information resources at Global Intelligence Alliance

For media inquiries, send an email to media(at)globalintelligence.com.

About Global Intelligence Alliance

Global Intelligence Alliance (GIA) is a strategic market intelligence and advisory group. GIA was formed in 1995 when a team of market intelligence specialists, management consultants, industry analysts and technology experts came together to build a powerful suite of customized solutions ranging from outsourced market monitoring services and software, to strategic analysis and advisory.

Today, we are the preferred partner for organizations seeking to understand, compete and grow in international markets. Our industry expertise and coverage of over 100 countries enables our customers to make better informed decisions worldwide.

www.globalintelligence.com