Jinfo: What Do Consultancy Firms Want From FreePint?

What Do Consultancy Firms Want From FreePint?
Jinfo Blog

14th August 2013

Abstract

With a wide range of unpredictable topics to cover, information managers in consultancy firms need to keep track of an equally wide spread of information developments. FreePint’s Tim Buckley Owen has been talking to a few, finding out about their interest in big data, mobile media and news aggregation - plus the formidably comprehensive range of information products they need to be aware of.

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This analysis of recent FreePint Articles and Reports highlights how FreePint keeps its subscribers in the consulting arena and further afield up-to-date on a wide spread of information developments, from big data to mobile media and news aggregation, plus the formidably comprehensive range of information products.

The following are the kinds of article that information managers and researchers who work for consulting firms have found especially useful:

Keeping Information Managers and Researchers Ahead of the Curve

Researchers at consulting firms need to get up to speed on an unpredictably wide range of subjects, sometimes at very short notice. So how do their information managers respond, and how can FreePint’s information help?

FreePint has been talking to a few, finding out what’s particularly interested them recently and what content they’ve found useful. Big data and mobile are two particularly crucial topics – as is the perennial issue of news aggregation.

“Opportunities abound for info pros to take the lead as content advocates on big data issues and to deliver… a strong return on investment,” said Victor Camlek recently in a piece on big data and the enterprise information professional. He also examined how social networking is set to take the big data world by storm, impacting on sales, marketing, research and knowledge management professionals across all fields.

Opportunities Bring Challenges

But with the opportunities come challenges. As I reported a while back, information professionals could satisfy the demand for the scarce analytical skills that big data demands, but they may face a formidable reskilling challenge first.

Alongside the sheer volume of data comes ubiquity of access. As FreePint’s Community of Practice: Mobile Deployment in the Enterprise, has discovered, when it comes to mobile provision vendors are currently “all over the place” in how far they can support information managers’ strategies.

Take competitive intelligence. Smartphones, global positioning systems, apps and “our love of sharing information, personal as well as private”, has created a new opportunity for professionals, says Rachael Elliott – but she also warns that we need to be wary of new developments such as Google mapping inside buildings.

Which leads us neatly to consultancy info pros’ interest in specific products. With the upcoming changes at Factiva as it's absorbed into the DJX portal (FreePint background here), interest in news aggregation services continues unabated.

What May Happen Next

However, as FreePint’s Robin Neidorf discovers, information buyers now seem to be seeking more than simply aggregation. In addition to the long-standing "must have" news products, FreePint’s latest News Aggregation Products and Trends report also covers niche aggregation products and complementary supporting offerings such as Linex and Attensa StreamServer.

As befits their wide-ranging and unpredictable role, consultancy info pros need to keep track of an equally wide range of products. One listed no fewer than 10 FreePint product reviews as being of particular interest over the past few months – including, for example, Nexis Media Coverage Analyzer.

For another it’s the searching techniques that frequently feature in product reviews that are of particular interest – and one also offered a little paean of praise for the FreePint Newsletter’s regular Tipples feature. It was in Corey Halaychik’s Tipples in Newsletter 380, for example, that she learned about Feedly as an alternative to the axed Google Reader.

Could Google Alerts be next? If so, it may also be worth following up Penny Crossland’s review of alternative free alerting services. As well as evaluating current provision, part of FreePint’s job – like that of consultants – is to wonder about what may happen next.

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