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:
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
In the third part of Jinfo's fresh product review of InfoNgen, a web monitoring and aggregation service from EPAM Systems, we look at the mix of proprietary and open source technology used by the product, how searches can be filtered using facets, its taxonomies, and categories, as well as its visualisation features, alerts and newsletters. We also take a look at the administrative functions within the product, including the ability to set up alerts, newsletters, and widgets and receive monthly reports. Note: Full review (PDF) at https://web.jinfo.com/go/sub/report/2989
We live in a fast-moving world and being able to adapt to change is a key requirement for information professionals. Whilst their existing knowledge and skills are still important, they are increasingly being called upon to provide services in new ways. This is what our Research Focus, "The information team with the right stuff", is all about and this article highlights some of the articles, interviews, webinars and Community sessions we've recently published which illustrate how information teams can achieve long-term relevance.
In the second part of our new product review of InfoNgen, a web monitoring and aggregation service from EPAM Systems, we take a detailed look at the wide range of business and professional sources available within the product, along with its coverage and how it processes content. Note: Full review (PDF) at https://web.jinfo.com/go/sub/report/2989
In the first part of our new full product review of InfoNgen, a current awareness solution serving the legal, pharmaceutical and financial markets, we give an outline of the company and product, look at some of its key advantages, use-cases, as well as all changes introduced to the product since our last review in 2013. Note: Full review (PDF) at https://web.jinfo.com/go/sub/report/2989
We interview Jantinus Meints, global director of external content at EY, to find out how this leading multinational professional services firm organises its content and procurement to service its users around the world.
The final part of our product review of AlphaSense, a company search engine for analysts, researchers, and other financial professionals, looks at the value the product provides to its users, as well as the help and training available and its competitors, including Thomson Reuters, Dow Jones, Bloomberg, FactSet, S&P Capital IQ, Acuris, Moody's Bureau van Dijk and Prequin. The company also has plans to improve the product and we take a look at some of the possible developments, pricing is also covered. Note: Full review (PDF) at https://web.jinfo.com/go/sub/report/2973 |
Guide to value in the Jinfo Research Focus - the accidental technologist|
Reports by Andrew Lucas:
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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"The accidental technologist - where your expertise meets the new world"
This Research Focus provides you with the insights and tools you need to be a technology-savvy partner and advisor on information technology-related projects. (January - March 2019).
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