My Favourite Tipples from an Independent Information Professional
Jinfo Blog

By Jan Knight

Abstract

Jan Knight is an independent information professional who works across a diverse range of industries. She shares her favourite tipples.

Item

Jan Knight is an independent information professional and president of Bancroft Information Services whose work often helps to shape business plans, marketing strategies and business development, to name just a few areas. As a generalist Jan doesn't work in only one industry and thus her favourite sources tend to be diverse.

One day she can be working on a high tech competitive profiling project and the next day looking at the potential market for a cider brewery. In addition to some of her favourite subscription databases like IBISWorld Industry Reports and Market Research Reports from Profound, some of her other "go to" sources are below.

• HighBeam Research: When I want to get a good idea of the key publications covering an industry I often start with HighBeam Research to search for articles on the topic (and it has an advanced search) and then create a list of the publications that seem to cover the topic or the industry.
  
  Their article database includes journals, magazines, newspapers and more with coverage of almost all industries from an international perspective.
  
  
• MarketAnalysis.com: This is an online publication from Market Research Media and is a great site to, as they suggest, "connect the dots" in a variety of industries.
  Their market intelligence and analysis helps to get a feel for market trends and opportunities in IT, biotech, aerospace & defence, media, mobile and government.
  
  
• Statista: Statista is great because as a hybrid source, you can sign up for newsletters and the "Chart of the Day" and find great value in random facts and data. I tend to keep these "just in case I need them one day" - or you can subscribe for more in-depth premium data.
  
  The data also provides great ideas for keeping in touch with clients or potential clients.
  
  
• ThomasNet: For some experienced (aka older) readers, the name Thomas Register conjures up images of large green hardbound books found on the shelves of purchasing manager offices. This is what I associate it with but it now offers much more!
  
  ThomasNet is an online source for finding suppliers and calls itself the "Engineers' and buyers' choice for finding trusted suppliers". I not only subscribe to their newsletters for keeping up on news across multiple industries, but it's a great way to kick start some competitor research.
  
  
• FindTheBest Venture Capital Firms: Sometimes it's really important to get an idea of just "who is funding what" when it comes to venture capital money.
  Most VCs focus on specific industries and specific stages. This tool is a great first step in this type of search and comparison and provides links to a page of further details for each company.

An article in FreePint which I found particularly interesting:

• Harness Multilingual Resources for Research was a timely read as I had recently presented a workshop on Finding Better Business Information Online, where I'd spent some time reminding them (the American audience) that there was information they'd miss if they didn't consider even some common spelling variants like "aluminium versus aluminum" and "harbour versus harbor".
  
  The article's discussion of how global commerce requires, actually demands, that organisations have multilingual capabilities in some manner supports that reminder by talking about the need for translation tools and multilingual interfaces.

Editor's Note:

FreePint Subscribers can log in to read and share more about Jan's favourite resources in FreePint's Mini Review: Statista and Mini Review: ThomasNet.com.

« Blog