Jinfo: Subscription Services Continue to Innovate

Subscription Services Continue to Innovate
Jinfo Blog

11th November 2015

Abstract

Andrew Grave, co-producer of the FreePint Topic Series "News, and Other Commodities" reviews the latest articles in the series and selects some future highlights. If you're interested in sources covering business, company, financial, industry and people research, discover more and register to ensure you receive regular Topic Series updates.

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How Responsive are Vendors?

During a recent meeting with a large vendor, I was told that he felt one of the perceived weaknesses faced by well established players was the ability to respond quickly to customers' needs. He contrasted this to the agility of new entrants.

I reflected on this when reviewing some recent highlights of our FreePint Topic Series "News, and Other Commodities" as it seemed at odds with what I was reading:

In a Q&A with FreePint, Bureau van Dijk's deputy CEO, Mark Schwerzel, told Dale Moore that most enhancements are the result of requests from clients. One such enhancement has been a module to identify and track state-owned businesses.

In my product review of Factiva, I was particularly interested to see the productivity enhancements that the company has introduced. These improvements reflect the company's knowledge that information professionals are having to deliver more, but often with existing headcount. If you can identify with this, take a look in particular at the Product Review of Factiva (Technology - Outputs & Alerts; Administration & Help) section.

In her comprehensive Product Review of Alacra Premium, Sophie Alexander learnt that the company will be making the interface a lot cleaner and quicker to use. It is currently upgrading the entire interface to surface more relevant content into the results panels without the user having to click on so many tabs.

What Can You Get for Free?

With the wealth of free news and company information around, it makes sense that well-established subscription services are having to be particularly responsive to users' needs. In "Is a Subscription-based Company Information Service still Worth the Fee?", Chris Porter revealed the fascinating results of a case study he did. If you've not read it, I urge you to do so. He'll also be looking at this subject from a different angle in an upcoming article: "UK Company Information - What Difference Does 'Free' Make?"

Chris's article is one of many interesting articles we've commissioned for FreePint's Topic Series "News, and Other Commodities" which continues to run throughout November and December. We'll also be looking at the thorny issue of disaggregation and putting video content under the microscope.

Original Research

Research in the series includes our "Survey into Web Usage Policies" just published. This looks at whether organisations have policies in place to govern their use of web content, from social media to sources essential for business decisions.

Our popular Annual Survey of News Needs and Preferences concludes the series - participate in the survey and we'll send you a copy of the research as a thank you.

Register for Regular Series Updates

If you haven't already registered for the FreePint Topic Series "News, and Other Commodities", register now to receive free updates and a PDF report containing selected Subscription articles upon registration, as well as a copy of the index report at the end.

Blogs and articles published since the last series update:

Articles and reviews coming soon in the series: