Product Review of Leadership Companies Premium: Executive Summary
30th August 2013

Leadership Companies Premium offers a tightly focused and well-executed product for organisations which require executive contact and network details on US public companies and the largest/most important private companies, finds Aileen Marshall in her executive summary. Particular strengths include the detail available in the executive records and the links to and visual representation of their networks.

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FreePint Report: Information Services Management Monthly Update (August 2013)
29th August 2013

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Corporate Social Networking - Be Cautious but Assume It's Here to Stay
29th August 2013

Information managers may be right to be cautious in claiming too much for social media within the enterprise, and can perhaps help avoid both the bandwagon effect and the backlash if social networking fails to live up to the hype. But as Pew Research Center findings imply, the senior executives' generation is rapidly getting to grips with social networking. Furthermore, predictions from Microsoft suggest that its roll-out within large organisations is inevitable. One year after its acquisition by Microsoft, Yammer continues to integrate with established Microsoft products and to link with other partners - most recently Klout, which can measure influence and expertise within the workplace.

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Product Review of BvD Compliance Catalyst: Executive Summary
28th August 2013

Compliance Catalyst from Bureau van Dijk (BvD) is a workflow application which helps organisations to take an informed, risk-based decision on whether to accept a potential new customer, supplier or other business partner. It aims to speed up the due diligence research and decision-making process by streamlining steps which many users are currently undertaking in a very manual way. It also monitors existing business relationships for changes in risk levels.

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FreePint Report: Product Review of BvD Compliance Catalyst
27th August 2013

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Product Review of BvD Compliance Catalyst: Customer Support, Pricing & Contact Details
27th August 2013

The final part of the review of BvD's Compliance Catalyst identifies the help options available online and through telephone support, the pricing options and contact details. Compliance Catalyst helps users such as financial services institutions, accountants and corporations (especially those in high risk areas such as mining and defence) with client onboarding and acceptance processes, customer due diligence and Know Your Customer checks on companies across the world.

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Product Review of BvD Compliance Catalyst: Outputs, Alerts, User Interface & Special Functionality
22nd August 2013

Examining the outputs, alerts, user interface and special functionality, Chris Porter finds BvD's Compliance Catalyst offers rich and complex functionality complemented by a clear, uncluttered and easy to read user interface. The system is so highly configurable that users can build their own "decision models" with different sets of steps and scores for different sets of entities to be researched. Alerts are also a key feature of the service, allowing clients to monitor in an ongoing manner - an essential part of effective due diligence.

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ROI Again - What's the Value of Properly Managed Information?
21st August 2013

There's no shortage of evidence that professional management of an enterprise's information can provide a good return on investment. But as recent reports from the vendors Huddle, Encompass and Wand show, the problem is that it's easy to dismiss evidence from interested parties, no matter how reliable the evidence they provide. But with more neutral analysts such as Gartner and the Economist Intelligence Unit also highlighting the importance of information as an asset, perhaps it's time for the information profession to follow the example of the Chief Marketing Officer Council and set up a resource to concentrate expertise in demonstrating ROI.

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Product Review of BvD Compliance Catalyst: Search Options
21st August 2013

Chris Porter delves into the search options in BvD's Compliance Catalyst and explains how to create a new piece of detailed research on a company for client onboarding, working through a series of sections including client type, beneficial owners, directors, corporate group risk and negative news. Other processes can be added (or some of the pre-configured options dropped) to match the organisation's risk appetite.

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Product Review of BvD Compliance Catalyst: Sources, Content & Coverage
20th August 2013

Reviewing the sources available in BvD's Compliance Catalyst, designed to help client onboarding and mitigate risk, Chris Porter finds information on over 115 million companies worldwide, including records on over 24 million companies in North America and over 43 million in Western Europe. The number of records in other countries such as India and China are increasing steadily, with the goal of six million records for China.

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