Keeping Commercial Awareness Up To Date: FreePint for Professional Services Firms
Jinfo Blog

By Gillian Mitchell

Abstract

Gillian Mitchell demonstrates how FreePint can help professional services organisations keep their commercial awareness up-to-date as well as keep on top of new products and developments in key issues from compliance to news and social platforms.

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Professional services firms offer a wide range of solutions to their clients. The information department supports the everyday delivery of these services by enabling practice staff access to research resources in all areas of audit, tax and specialist advisory.

Extensive Knowledge Required

Such a diverse requirement of resources commands extensive knowledge from information professionals. It's time consuming work to continually review, select and maintain products; and keep your commercial awareness up-to-date all at the same time.

It's also the information department's role to be at the forefront of any conversations impacting the delivery of information to the organisation. In most instances the information department won't work alone in the delivery, often they will work alongside IT, compliance, internal communications plus many others, in implementing change projects.

Keeping Up With Trends & Issues

It's essential for the information professional to hold a knowledgeable grasp of trends and issues from an information point of view affecting professional services organisations and the resources they use.

Three key topics recently highlighted in FreePint that generated much discussion are: Compliance in Context, Beyond Aggregation and The Social Enterprise.

Comprehensive Understanding of Compliance

The FreePint Topic Series: Compliance in Context provides an in-depth insight into the spectrum of tools available in such a fast-paced market. Not only that, it helped piece together a comprehensive understanding into the many elements of regulatory compliance, and how the information department of a professional services firm should be supporting the delivery of compliance products.

Articles of interest:

• Keeping Up To Date with Regulatory Changes
• Understanding Politically Exposed Persons & Their Associated Risks: Part 1
• Understanding Politically Exposed Persons & Their Associated Risks: Part 2
• Q&A with Thomson Reuters: Developing a Connected Approach to GRC
• Compliance Product Vendor Map: Who Does What in the Regulatory Space.

News Needs & Tools

The second series to provide timely insight was the FreePint Topic Series: Beyond Aggregation. With the Factiva DJX developments causing a huge impact on the industry, there's no better time to take stock of ongoing news needs and use it as an opportunity to understand the wider aggregation market.

Articles of interest:

• Supplier Selection Process: News Aggregation
• Journey to DJX had "Customers' Needs in Mind"
• FreePint News Survey 2013. Results: Key News Suppliers and Satisfaction
• The Online Information Researcher of 2014: Beyond News Aggregation.

Social Platforms & Collaboration

Finally the FreePint Topic Series: The Social Enterprise delivers an interesting perspective on the opportunities and barriers presented to an organisation when implementing a social platform.

In instances where the technology choice is taken out of the information pro's hands, how can the information department understand the challenges and influence key stakeholders in defining a collaborative environment that will fit a professional services firm's culture?

Articles of interest:

• Bridging the Gap Between Business Processes & the Social Enterprise
• Is Gamification Right for My Organisation?
• What's the Problem with Enterprise Social?
• Making Social Succeed: What Organisations Need to Do.

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Editor's Note: Compliance in Context

The FreePint Topic Series: Compliance in Context ran from September to October 2013. You can still register your interest to receive a free copy of the FreePint Report: Buyer's Guide on Regulatory Compliance published in October 2013.

Editor's Note: Beyond Aggregation

FreePint readers may be interested to read more about news products in our FreePint Topic Series: Beyond Aggregation, which ran from October to November 2013. You can still register your interest to receive a free copy of the FreePint Report: Buyer's Guide on News Content published in early December 2013.

Editor's Note: The Social Enterprise

FreePint readers may be interested to read more about maximising internal social connections and knowledge management in the FreePint Topic Series: The Social Enterprise which ran from January to March 2014. You can still register your interest to receive a free copy of the FreePint Report: Buyer's Guide on Social Tools published in March 2014.

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