Learning to Trust Private Company Information
Jinfo Blog

By Robin Neidorf

Abstract

See the initial results from FreePint's research into private company data - and don't miss the opportunity to participate and to receive a copy of the results upon publication.

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As part of the current Topic Series, "News, and Other Commodities" (register for free updates and more), FreePint is investigating a range of content types that feed information needs throughout an organisation. One of these content types is company information.

Information about privately held companies is often highly valued by varied parts of businesses, including sales, competitive intelligence, marketing and R&D.

The challenge: many researchers mistrust this information, having had poor experiences with accuracy or comprehensive coverage.

To better understand your needs and perceptions regarding private company information, we are conducting a short survey of information professionals, which has already gathered input from 50 respondents.

Complete the Survey

Take 10 minutes to complete the survey. Include your email address at the end of the survey, and you'll receive a copy of the results from FreePint when published in November.

Tell us the current and potential sources of private company information you use, purposes to which this information is applied, and how you perceive the accuracy and value of information from different parts of the world.

Do You Trust the Information?

In one question, we ask respondents to rate the importance of a set of characteristics in fostering their trust in private company information. Each can be rated on a scale from 1 = not important to 4 = very important. The characteristics are:

• The data are standardised and normalised
• The underlying sources are identified
• The underlying sources are linked and viewable
• There is a clear process for correcting any identified errors
• Identified errors are corrected in a minimal amount of time.

Figure 1 shows results to date. The number in the box shows the average rating on the 4-point scale, and the coloured bars show the percentage of respondents to date who rate each characteristic a 1, 2, 3 or 4.

Interestingly, standardised and normalised information - one of the key selling points of many databases that offer private company data, has received the lowest percentage of "4" ratings to date (although with an overall average of 3.15, it's still clearly important).

The highest average rating to date goes to the visibility of underlying sources of information - we can see from responses that researchers want to know where the information they are relying on ultimately comes from.

Participate in the Research - Receive a Free Copy of the Results

The FreePint Survey: Private Company Information is collecting data through 23rd October.

Take 10 minutes to complete the survey. Include your email address at the end of the survey, and we'll send you a copy of the results when published in November.

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