What's Essential? Engaging with FreePint Customers
Jinfo Blog

By Robin Neidorf

Abstract

FreePint offers many opportunities to get engaged with peers through Communities of Practice or webinars in areas from mobile deployment to international copyright. Focusing on topics and products relevant to Subscribers is essential and to support this we've just launched a new "sounding board" of FreePint Subscription customers representing all our key audience segments. As a result, upcoming coverage will include mobile security and authentication, and trends and challenges in pricing and licensing models.

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Two weeks ago, I reached out to a select group of FreePint Subscription customers to invite them to be part of an ongoing "sounding board" to help us make more informed decisions about which products to review and which topics to cover in the coming months. Those who accepted the invitation received a link to a brief survey.

Within days I had meaningful input from customers representing key segments of our audience, and a clear plan for the coming months. Thanks to our new sounding board, you can look forward to reviews of Euromonitor Passport and competitor products, plus increased coverage of products and dashboards designed for competitive intelligence.

For topics of interest, we're now able to prioritise and plan coverage of:

• Mobile security and authentication (Topic Series already planned for December 2013 - register your interest here)
• Challenges in copyright compliance, particularly for international organisations
• Pricing and licensing models, trends and challenges.

Dialogue in Communities of Practice

We have other valuable opportunities to connect with and hear from customers, particularly through Communities of Practice (CoP). These confidential calls provide unique peer-to-peer discussion on critical topics to organisations that have a FreePint Subscription at the Team level or higher.

In October's CoP calls, we've again picked up the challenges so many organisations are facing in evaluating different news aggregation products - a timely topic as our FreePint Topic Series: Beyond Aggregation is underway. If you'd like to attend one of the upcoming sessions, please email me at robin.neidorf@freepint.com for details (and a quote on upgrading your subscription if necessary).

When I facilitate these discussions, I particularly appreciate the opportunity to hear about projects in progress. Too often I don't get to learn about your work until a project is done and dusted, but there are so many interesting variables to consider when decisions are still being made and solutions remain unclear.

Face-to-Face Experiences

Despite the seamless connections we're now able to build and nurture through computer-mediated communications, there's still nothing quite like a face-to-face meeting. I had the honour of presenting a session at the annual meeting of the Pharma Documentation Ring in Chicago in September.

Over 30 information managers from pharmaceutical companies participated in a lively discussion around technology culture, some of the highlights of which you can read about here. For my part, I got to learn more about priorities for technology integration and advancement in information work at pharma companies - a key audience for us now and in the future.

Be Engaged

One consistent piece of feedback we hear from FreePint readers is how busy you are - over-busy, with little time for professional development. Please don't let a busy desk keep you from getting the most out of FreePint. Complete our surveys, attend our webinars, consider a Team or higher subscription to access Communities of Practice, and attend them when you are eligible. Tell me about events you are organising or attending - I love to share our research with groups like the P-D-R.

If you're not sure how best to engage, start by completing the online form "How can FreePint help?" Or contact me directly at robin.neidorf@freepint.com with questions, ideas or suggestions.

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