Creating information packages that pay - A VIP Editorial
Jinfo Blog

By Mark Faulkner

Abstract

I can see why I was asked to offer my views in this issue’s editorial as the products reviewed – Digimind and S&P Capital IQ – are certainly pertinent to the work of the financial regulator I am currently employed by.

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I can see why I was asked to offer my views in this issue’s editorial as the products reviewed – Digimind and S&P Capital IQ – are certainly pertinent to the work of the financial regulator I am currently employed by.

On first impressions, though, talking about a competitive intelligence service (in Digimind’s case) may not seem relevant since the Financial Services Authority (FSA) is a non-profit organisation. Neither are we in competition with anybody.

However, there is relevancy when you consider that our main focus is in regulating companies, ensuring that financial products are being marketed and sold correctly, ensuring consumer protection is the key to all. Consequently, this competitive intelligence can also play a major factor in the supervisory areas of the FSA in which we keep track of how companies and institutions are being reported and keeping an eye on any adverse coverage. This will be particularly pertinent as we, as an organisation, approach legal cutover and the formation of the Prudential Regulation Authority next year.

There is a sentence in Jenny Robertson’s S&P Capital IQ review that piqued my interest: “If an alternative to a traditional trading platform such as Bloomberg or Thomson Reuters is being sought, it is certainly worth considering …” I’m all for that!

If anything, this highlights the need to be creative, to supply value-added services; to move away from the tried and tested databases and suppliers being offered towards either new services or at least those who are able to supply the same information at a cheaper rate. I would imagine that these are challenges many of us face as managers and team leaders of central information services. It is a consideration at the forefront of my mind at present as the FSA approaches regulatory reform next year, and my team and I review and assess the services we provide to our immediate colleagues.

What both of these services reviewed in this issue suggest to me is the importance in grouping and packaging information (the combination of niche research, news and financial data), limiting the amount of time it takes to search across disparate databases or sources. Why spend hours on the telephone chasing contacts or search half a dozen different sources, pulling everything together when the data required can be downloaded direct to the desktop? This has been an interest of mine over the last couple of years, culminating in the launch last year of our own Information Centre portal.

Perhaps it doesn’t sound very revolutionary – amalgamating a number of online subscriptions and bringing them all together under one platform – but it has been fascinating to see the idea first catch the inspiration of departmental colleagues and then, through constant marketing, watch a gradual culture change take effect as they explore the benefits of housing everything “under one roof”. You know you have launched a successful service when you receive feedback comments like: “We’ve wanted something like this in ages! What took you so long?”

This editorial appears in VIP Magazine No. 101, April 2012. Purchase online >>

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