BvD's Mint: A Fresh Approach to Business Intelligence
Jinfo Blog

By Dale Moore

Abstract

'Business intelligence' is usually used as a collective term for a diverse group of technologies, tools and processes which help organisations make more informed strategic business decisions. Bureau van Dijk's Mint, a fresh approach to business intelligence, is one such tool. If you need access to high quality company information backed up by industry reports and news - no matter what your role in the organisation - Mint could be just what you need.

Item

'Business intelligence' is usually used as a collective term for a diverse group of technologies, tools and processes which help organisations make more informed strategic business decisions.  The technologies and tools used can come from outside the organisation as well as from inside.

Bureau van Dijk's Mint, a fresh approach to business intelligence, is one such tool. If you need access to high quality company information backed up by industry reports and news, BvD's streamlined product could be just what you need.

The modular approach used by Mint provides an effective way of accessing the main components of this particular aspect of business intelligence, and the flexibility of the platform ensures it can be used in a number of ways to achieve specific business goals.

If you're involved in business analysis and need to conduct a peer review based upon industry activity or growth potential, you can quickly get this information and export it for further analysis with other sources. If you're involved in M&A activity or due diligence procedures and are interested in monitoring companies, you can set up a watch list and be alerted when anything changes. If you're involved in marketing activities and are prospecting for potential new leads, you can create lists of companies with named contacts. If you're more of a generalist and want to bring company, news and industry research together, this is all very simple and straightforward to do with Mint.

The data - particularly the company data - is both broad and deep. Individual company records contain a lot of information, and the range of options for personal customisation is impressive. Searching is flexible, and queries can be built up using a combination of form filling, selecting from pick lists and full Boolean search capabilities.

Results can quickly and easily be filtered, downloaded, exported and printed as well as saved for future use.

Geographical coverage ranges from global (over 100 million companies from around the world), Europe (50 million companies), the Americas (30 million companies) and Asia-Pacific (9 million companies). In addition to coverage of entire regions, there are also country specific data sets such as the Netherlands, Italy and the UK.

Although Mint is a database tool that can be used by practically any individual in the organisation, it really comes into its own when teams of people use it for specific purposes, and when an information professional oversees and manages the collective activity, offering help and advice where necessary.

Make no mistake, Mint is a business intelligence tool you're going to want in your armoury. It's not only powerful and flexible; it's also incredibly easy to use. So is it a tool for information professionals? As always, simple can often be misleading, as you still need to know what you're doing, what the data means and who is most likely to benefit from it.

FreePint subscribers can access the full PDF report now to read more about BvD Mint.

« Blog