Andrew Lucas
Contributing Editor
Andrew is a consultant with global experience in the online business information market. He has worked in executive roles for a number of leading business information companies, including Dow Jones, Thomson Reuters and Factiva. His expertise includes strategy, business development and M&A, as well as content licensing and managing third party distribution. As a consultant with FinTech Partners, Andrew has undertaken numerous projects in the content and information sectors. He is also the managing director of the Africa Alert current awareness service which provides coverage of local and international business news from across Africa.
Email: andrew.lucas@fintechp.com
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Articles by Andrew Lucas:
Synaptica is a leading provider of enterprise taxonomy and ontology management software tools. Jinfo recently caught up with Dave Clarke, co-founder of the company who also leads research and development, to find out about the company, its products and what makes them unique as well as his thoughts on the future of the industry.
Read our highlights from content and events in our Research Focus, "Creating an Information Centre of Excellence". Andrew Lucas guides us through the models, research, practitioner articles and interviews as well as webinars and Community sessions which will help you map your services and practices against those of the most successful information teams.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is one of the world's leading pharmaceutical and healthcare companies. As part of our Research Focus, "Creating an Information Centre of Excellence", Andrew Lucas recently spoke to Helen Malone, director of the Global Information Hub at GSK and the president of Pharma Documentation Ring to find out about the company, Helen's recent talk at the ConTech conference, GSK's comprehensive data and analytics strategy and what role information professionals can play in the future.
This product walkthrough looks at TRG Screen's INFOmatch, a database application for market and reference data contracts designed to assist market data business professionals to manage their market data costs, processes, and workflows more efficiently. We take a look at the company's background, the product's development and how it benefits market and reference data stakeholders, procurement, IT, finance and business users, as well as information departments. Sectors most likely to benefit from using INFOmatch include asset management, banks, and brokers through to corporates and data vendors.
The digital workplace means different things to different people but the evolution of its associated technologies means workers now expect an always-connected environment where they can access everything they need. Andrew Lucas recently spoke to Steve Bynghall, one of Jinfo's regular contributors, to find out about his experiences as a consultant and writer on the digital workplace, how organisations can most effectively use the tools they have, and what role he foresees for the information professional within this environment.
Andrew Lucas recently interviewed Andy Tattersall, an information specialist and long-time contributor to Jinfo, to find out how he uses technology in his work at The School of Health and Related Research at the University of Sheffield (ScHARR) and how his skills have helped to shape the university's approach to information. He also had some interesting things to say about where he thinks the information profession is headed.
This article reports on some of the articles and reports published as part of our Research Focus, "The accidental technologist - where your expertise meets the new world". It covers the pervading influence of technology on the information profession, in particular, the impact of artificial intelligence and its implications for information professionals and the organisations they work for. Also covered are the evolution of intranets and the increasing use of chatbots.
A key focus for information centres in many organisations is the provision of news and current awareness. The accuracy and veracity of news are increasingly being questioned in a "post-truth" world in which objective facts are considered less important in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief. In keeping with this theme, Jinfo recently attended an SLA Europe meeting which looked at, among other factors, the role technology plays in enabling the potential manipulation of the news and this article looks at some of the issues raised as well as offering some tips on what both information professionals and end-users can do to avoid being deceived.
This product walkthrough looks at TDNet Discover, a content and workflow management system, with up to 300 million citation and abstracts in its index. We take a look at the company's background, the product's development and how it benefits libraries and information centres in large companies, particularly pharma, biomed and electronics companies, along with hospitals and research organisations.
This mini review looks at IncFact, a company information and business discovery engine covering up to three million US companies with a focus on those that are privately owned and midsized. We look at how IncFact can be used by companies for strategy and competitive intelligence as well as by private equity firms, and hedge funds for originating and sourcing deals and for due diligence.
In the final part of our review of Digimind Intelligence, we examine how it performs in areas such as monitoring web and social media and enterprise-wide publishing, and plans for future developments. We also look at the competitor landscape, from Hootsuite to Commetric, Factiva and Comintelli. Note: Full review (PDF) at https://web.jinfo.com/go/sub/report/3064
In part 3 of our review of the Digimind Intelligence platform for market intelligence professionals, we review the search and user interface, built around three different user experiences; the wide range of options for publishing and sharing information; and the administration functions. Note: Full review (PDF) at https://web.jinfo.com/go/sub/report/3064
Current awareness continues to be a key focus for many information centres with the availability of more options than ever before. This article looks back at some of the content Jinfo has published over recent months in the Research Focus "Intelligence systems - beyond awareness to action", in relation to the provision of current awareness, content aggregation services, and intelligence systems and gives readers a chance to reflect on some of the issues involved when choosing a current awareness or intelligence platform.
In part 2 of our review of market intelligence and web monitoring platform, Digimind Intelligence, we review how to set up search queries, key sources covered - from blogs to videos. We also look at industry sectors covered and news aggregator connectors, including the link with Factiva. Note: Full review (PDF) at https://web.jinfo.com/go/sub/report/3064
In part 1 of our review of Digimind Intelligence we look at the key advantages of this competitive and market intelligence product and how it supports the organisation's strategic decision-making. We also outline key customer groups, sectors, look at changes since last reviewed and how Digimind Intelligence and Digimind Social complement each other. Note: Full review (PDF) at https://web.jinfo.com/go/sub/report/3064
ISI Emerging Markets Group is a leading global provider of data, analysis and research on developing economies. Incorporating two well-known emerging market information and data brands, CEIC and EMIS, it brings together news, research and analytical data and peer comparisons for over 125 emerging markets. The company was sold in April of this year and having recently published a product review and product roadmap strategy, Jinfo wanted to learn more about the new company structure and the product development process at ISI.
Manzama caters to those in the legal, accounting and financial fields with an easy-to-use market intelligence platform which offers innovative searching and filtering features, tailored to the needs of its audience. Our most recent review of Manzama Base, the specialised market intelligence platform, was published this time last year. In our latest review, we look at Manzama Insights, which was launched earlier this year and is the analytics application for Base. Insights uses the same content set of 80,000 websites and social media sources and this review provides some background information on Manzama Base and a detailed explanation of how Insights was developed; highlights its value and use-cases; explores its content and integration partnerships with premium content providers, such as D&B, LexisNexis and the Financial Times; reviews the platform's technology, particularly in relation to the user interface, ease of use and outputs and alerts; and covers product maturity and development plans along with pricing information.
Comparing our information services to others and looking at how we might improve or alter our services, structure and measures of value are at the heart of our Research Focus, "Benchmark information roles - Jinfo models of excellence". This article highlights some of the articles, interviews, models, webinars and Community sessions within the Research Focus and which organisations can use as fuel for innovation.
Jinfo spoke to Barbara Hirsh, director of Information Resources & Knowledge Management at NERA Economic Consulting, along with two of her colleagues to find out a bit more about the group and how they use Altarama's RefTracker, a browser-based reference and enquiry management system, to manage the information flow to and from its staff. She spoke about why they started using RefTracker, how they use it along with some of the benefits it offers.
With a growing number of companies needing data analytics tools, there are plenty of products available on the market to help them do this. One such tool is data analytics platform TIBCO Spotfire, which we last reviewed in 2015. We revisit this "enterprise-class analytics platform that helps both business and technical users quickly explore data to develop actionable insights, without requiring IT intervention".
In the final part of our new product review of InfoNgen, a web monitoring and aggregation service from EPAM Systems, we highlight the product's key value, in particular, its search functionality, industry vertical focus, and distribution capabilities. We also look at the help and training available as well as its competitors from Cision and Meltwater in the PR market to Manzama and LexisNexis Newsdesk in the legal market, whilst in the corporate sector, there is Digimind, Dow Jones Factiva, and Comintelli. The company also has some exciting product developments in the pipeline including the enablement of artificial intelligence (AI) and voice-activated query building. Note: Full review (PDF) at https://web.jinfo.com/go/sub/report/2989 |
Q&A with Synaptica - leading the way in taxonomy and ontology|
Reports by Andrew Lucas:
In this market landscape we look at 20 products which help researchers seeking information on private equity and venture capital: AlphaSense AVCJ from Acuris Bloomberg CB Insights D&B Hoovers from Dun and Bradstreet Eikon from Refinitiv FactSet for Private Equity...
We review Digimind Intelligence, a competitive intelligence and web monitoring product aimed at market and competitive intelligence professionals in industries from banking to pharmaceutical and agro-food. Since our last review, in 2009 - when the product was known as Digimind 9 - it has...
We last reviewed InfoNgen, the web monitoring and aggregation service, in 2013 and in this fresh new review we revisit the product to see what's changed. The InfoNgen discovery portal is a semantic web discovery platform that provides content discovery and text analytics solutions for...
This market landscape gives an overview of 12 private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) products: Bloomberg Bureau van Dijk Dow Jones - VentureSource FactSet Research Mergermarket Perfect Information - PI Navigator PitchBook Prequin PrivCo S&P Capital IQ...
AlphaSense is a company search engine for analysts, researchers, and other financial professionals who wish to search and analyse corporate filings and other research documents. Having only been introduced to the market in 2011, it has already won many awards. It uses proprietary linguistic...
The S&P Capital IQ platform is a web-based platform providing highly structured, in-depth financial data and information on over 63,000 public and 4.5 million private companies, as well as data on markets, industries and people. The platform provides sophisticated tools for analysis,...
Credinform Globas-i is an online database of Russian companies and entrepreneurs as well as businesses from the Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. This review evaluates the English-language interface which gives access to very detailed reports on a wide range of companies, helping users to enhance...
EMIS Professional specialises in providing business intelligence on emerging markets. It has evolved from EMISPro with significant redesign including a new user interface and improvements to navigation and functionality. This review: Introduces EMIS Professional and how it has...
MarketScape MS4 is a content integration platform which is used by market intelligence and information management professionals in mid-size and large international companies to search, manage and access external open access and licensed information. This review: Introduces...
ReferenceUSA, from parent company Infogroup, is an online research tool that provides business and consumer data on millions of US and Canadian businesses, households, consumers, and doctors and dentists. It is made available to end users through 85% of large public libraries in the US, as well...
Private company and investor database PrivCo provides difficult-to-source data on non-publicly traded companies including family-owned, private equity-owned, venture-backed and international unlisted companies as well as information on mergers and acquisitions and private equity and...
Cortera Pulse is a business credit risk monitoring and intelligence database. This review reveals how it has shaken up the analysis of business-to-business risk assessment and distinguished itself from other B2B players. This review: Describes the target audience and identifies how...
Review of the recently-launched strategic decision support tool Findout, designed to identify relevant research content and competitive intelligence from the web. This review: Provides examples of key selling points and the value Findout provides purchasers. Considers the...
LexisNexis Publisher is a professional current awareness solution whose sources include premium news and legal content as well as web news and social media content. Users include those in corporate, legal and government, in areas from competitive intelligence to marketing. This review:...
This collection of FreePint articles on the topic of risk and compliance covers those included in the FreePint Topic Series: What You Need to Know Your Customer (KYC) . The articles tackle topics from the changing compliance culture to free resources for managing risk and keeping compliant. A...
ISI's Emerging Markets Information Service (EMIS) platform has been completely rebuilt and EMIS PRO has been launched as the professional version of the product aimed at investment bankers, researchers, credit analysts and business development users. An outstanding collection of emerging markets... |
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"Creating an Information Centre of Excellence"
This Research Focusdefines the characteristics shared by successful information centres who we define as "Information Centres of Excellence". (April - June 2019).
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