Career Development and Predictions for 2013
24th December 2012

Information professionals are a diverse lot, so much so, you never quite know where they might by lurking! Many work for large organisations, some not so large, and many work for a variety of customers as consultants. They also wear many different hats but one thing is certain, they all need to understand the modern information landscape and this inevitably involves acquiring new skills or simply moving to a new employer. Sometimes, they even try to predict the future! Dale Moore gives an overview of career development and key technologies for 2013.

Read

Infogroup Repositions Itself After OneSource Sale
24th December 2012

OneSource, once a stalwart of company and business information, and acquired by Infogroup (then known as InfoUSA) in 2004, has been sold. The purchaser, Cannondale Investments, specialises in acquiring “data-enabled” information services. What will the future hold for OneSource’s business intelligence and prospecting tools such as iSell? Penny Crossland also updates on developments at Infogroup.

Read

FreePint Report: Information Services Management Monthly Update (December 2012)
24th December 2012

Read

Battling Digital Distraction
20th December 2012

Individuals working in legal and other firms are facing a big problem at the moment, a new disease that is affecting a lot of workers. The name of this new disease: "inefficiency". Whilst you might not be surprised that this is a problem, the cause of the problem, new technologies and the resultant 'digital distraction', may be unexpected.

Read

How Intranets can Help with Ambient Awareness
19th December 2012

Sharing small snippets of information about our daily lives and what we're doing has been a key feature of social networking tools for a number of years. More recently, organisations have started to look at how activity streams, status updates and microblogging tools like Yammer, Salesforce and Pulse could be used to surface content and details about individuals. Being aware of what an individual is doing through the use of social networking tools is usually referred to as ambient awareness and intranets have a big role to play in helping to develop this.

Read

Islamic Finance - How Transparent Will it Be?
18th December 2012

As Thomson Reuters announces further initiatives in the rapidly expanding field of Islamic finance, Gartner predicts continuing growth in enterprise information technology spending in the Middle East and North Africa region. But transparency concerns persist – all the more so if a movement in the region for tighter regulation of the internet gathers momentum.

Read

Comparing News Providers: Pricing and Licensing
18th December 2012

In today's world of shrinking budgets and increasing focus on ROI, cost is definitely a top concern. Pricing is often based on the specific features and customised elements of an implementation, but FreePint reviews attempt to provide some scope for understanding the likely costs whenever available. But what exactly are you paying for? In addition to cost, we consider the rights you obtain with your license and how they may affect your usage.

Read

Comparing News Providers: Analytics
18th December 2012

Corporate information managers want analytics because these reports help them understand how their organisations are making use of products. Users want a different kind of analytics – the kind that helps them make sense of the raft of results their news searches produce. Premium providers offer both kinds, with varying degrees of success.

Read

FreePint Report: Comparative Report on News Products
18th December 2012

Read

Comparing News Providers: Search and Post-Search Functions
17th December 2012

Information managers responding to FreePint's annual survey on news needs and preferences consistently report that the powerful search functions and special features of premium products add value to those products. Comparing the news product reviews published in 2012 for search and special features shows how publishers have tried to leverage that advantage. As this year's comparison includes our review of free search engines as well, it's easier to see the tradeoffs inherent in free approach versus the fee approach.

Read