Information Sources for Industry Developments
2nd December 2015

Useful research either costs money or time. This overview of information sources can help you to choose between doing the research yourself and buying an industry report that gives you the necessary economic and statistical information.

The more specific the information is you are looking for, the more creative you might have to become to find it. Ada Kaspersma provides an overview of information sources you can find from behind your desk, only using your computer and maybe your phone or credit card.

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Curating Commodity Information
1st December 2015

Curating information efficiently is an ever-important skill as the volume of information continues to increase exponentially. Eileen Steer examines how information professionals are curating information and adding value to the data selected before directing it to end-users. She also looks at technology vs human solutions.

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Laying the Groundwork for Real Change in Stakeholder Attitudes
30th November 2015

Robin Neidorf, FreePint's director of research, shines the spotlight on the tricky issue of convincing stakeholders of the value of information services. She posits a model of the stakeholder world view and advocates re-constructing that, to show the threat presented by missing information expertise and the potential benefits that can accrue from incorporating it.

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How to Develop Strong Relationships between Buyers and Suppliers
25th November 2015

Catherine Pask reports on feedback from information managers to provide suggested steps and tips for improving relationships between buyers and sellers of information, such as avoiding surprises and keeping communications open.

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Market Landscape - Media Monitoring
24th November 2015

FreePint presents an overview of some key vendors in the media monitoring space. The table identifies key vendors and  products, a brief description of the platform, geographic scope and highlights any special  features, key use-cases and value. Products covered include Cision, Commetric, Factiva, Infomart, LexisNexis Publisher, Meltwater News, Newsdesk, NewsEdge, Nexis, and SinglePoint.

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Detecting Latent Sales Opportunities via Sales Triggers
24th November 2015

Competitive and sales intelligence expert Michael Levy highlights how using subscription information services coupled with information from social media and other sources is essential to allow sales reps to identify companies in flux and with emerging demand. He identifies how vendors such as Avention, BvD Mint, Hoover's, InsideView, and Owler help identify emerging opportunities and prospects.

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Options for Authentication - Which Approach Does What?
24th November 2015

User authentication is one of the most challenging aspects of information access and delivery. In a recent FreePint webinar Isabelle Garcia, library manager at Qualcomm, outlined the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to authentication, including single sign-on, IP authentication as well as other popular tools such as EZproxy. Sophie Alexander extracts practical next steps and need-to-know information in her article.

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UK Companies House Information - What Difference Does "Free" Make?
23rd November 2015

Since June this year, the UK government has been making digital data from the national corporate registration agency, Companies House, available free of charge from its website. Chris Porter catches up with the latest free offering and analyses how leading information vendors Arachnys, Avention, Dow Jones, DueDil and LexisNexis see the change affecting their subscription-based services.

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Considerations and Lessons Learnt from Developing a Virtual Information Centre
23rd November 2015

Following the article on "Developing a Global Virtual Information Centre in the Subsea Sector", we asked Mandy Smith, the group library manager for the organisation, to identify the key factors for developing such a service and how to ensure it's well-used.

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Avention, OneSource, iSell - What's New, or What's Familiar?
20th November 2015

Global business insights provider Avention has announced that it is bringing back the OneSource brand name. FreePint contributing editor Chris Porter talks to Avention about what is happening and why, and also asks about the company’s perspective on current market trends.

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