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Business Information Use in Small to Medium U.S. Businesses: 2005 Survey

Product Type: Market Research Report
Published by: Shore Communications, Inc.
Published: June 2005
Product Code: R575-0004
Description
Small and medium businesses in the United States are very active users of internal and external business information and growing their budgets for business information rapidly. While many traditional sources of business information show strong use, new sources and online access methods are changing the marketplace for business information services rapidly. This ground-breaking quantitative study details the business roles, budgets and preferred purchasing methods of executives purchasing business information and profiles the usage, sharing and importance of newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals, market research reports, books and reference materials, weblogs, subscription services, company information and internal sources. The report maps sources to preferred access methods, including in-house systems, source Web sites, search engines and Web portals, fee-based online services and other access methods.

REPORT PROFILE

FOCUS

This report provides the results of a detailed quantitative study of business information usage in more than 200 small to medium businesses in the United States. The study focuses on purchasers of business information who make purchases for their entire company, a business unit or a workgroup. The report reveals how and how often business information is purchased, used and shared by surveyed companies with key trends and preferences. The report includes extensive charts and analysis of the results and reveals best practices for purchasing, using and redistributing business information used in today's small to medium U.S. businesses.

AUDIENCE

Senior management involved in market strategy and product planning, operations, and information technology for business media, business information services and aggregators. Business information technology companies will also discover key trends and insights that will guide their development of services for small to medium businesses. Small to medium businesses will learn about best practices in similarly sized companies to guide their acquisition and development of business information services.

CONTENT

A complete presentation and analysis of the data from the study. Data collected in this study focuses on the usage, sharing, purchasing, media and tools used to access business information. The study looks at both business information generated within a company and business information obtained from outside a company. The study examines:
  • Current and projected 2006 budgets for business information
  • Mixture of centralized and decentralized purchasing and purchasing roles
  • Frequency of credit card use in purchasing business information
  • The frequency of business information usage
  • Which sources are considered most important
  • Preferred media for accessing and sharing specific source types
  • What business roles are responsible for purchasing business information for entire companies, business units and workgroups
  • Effectiveness of Web search engines and subscription services
  • Importance of specific source types researching companies
  • Importance of tools that find companies based on filtering criteria
  • Required length of business information archive availability
Sources examined in the study include internal documents, newspapers, information from other companies, subscription online information, books and reference materials, weblogs, market research reports, magazines and scholarly journals. The report includes 25 tables and charts that highlight key findings of the study along with statistics tables collected from the study's questionnaire.

USE

A comprehensive benchmark resource for planning business information strategies for small and medium U.S. businesses, with analysis that highlights key trends and effective strategies for sales and service deployment. Data will effectively support strategies for many specific kinds of business information across the general breadth of surveyed companies.
Table of Contents
1. Report Profile




2. Executive Summary




3. Overview

3.1 Introduction

3.2 What is "Business Information?"

3.3 Study Objectives




4. Key Findings

4.1 Highlights

4.2 Business Information Usage

4.2.1 A Lack of Business Content Integration

4.2.2 Company Information

4.2.3 Weblogs vs. Newspapers and Magazines

4.2.4 Subscription Information Services

4.2.5 Web Sites, Web Search Engines and Web Portals

4.2.6 Books and Reference Materials

4.2.7 Market Research Reports

4.3 Business Information Purchasing and Budget Trends

4.4 Business Information Sharing and Retention




5. Research Methodology




6. Detailed Findings

6.1 Overview

6.2 Usage of Business Content

6.2.1 Preferred Methods for Accessing Business Information

6.2.2 Frequency of Sharing Business Information by Media Type

6.2.3 How Many People are Copied on Business Information

6.2.4 Frequency of Usage by Business Information Types

6.2.5 Frequency of Sharing by Business Content Types

6.3 Importance of Business Information Sources

6.3.1 Most Important Kinds of Business Information by Source

6.3.2 Importance of Types of Business Information for Researching Companies

6.3.3 Importance of Business Information Tools for Finding Companies

6.3.4 Effectiveness of Subscription Content Sources

6.3.5 Effectiveness of Web Search Engines

6.4 Retention Requirements for Business Information

6.5 Purchaser Demographics

6.5.1 Company Sizes

6.5.2 Scope of Purchasing Responsibility

6.5.3 Departmental Roles of Business Content Purchasers

6.5.4 Centralized Subscription Purchasing and Purchasing Roles

6.6 Paying for Business Content

6.6.1 Departments that Pay for Business Information Centrally

6.6.2 Individual vs. Central Purchasing

6.6.3 Purchasing via Credit Cards Outside of Central Budgets

6.7 Budgeting for Business Content

6.7.1 2005 Business Content Budgets

6.7.2 2004 Spending vs. Expected 2005 Spending

6.7.3 Spending Forecast for 2006 vs. 2005




7. Recommendations

7.1 Overall Recommendations

7.2 Recommendations for Publishers and Aggregators

7.3 Recommendations for Content Technology Providers

7.4 Recommendations for Purchasers and Deployers




8. Conclusion




9. About the Authors




10. About Shore




11. Appendix - Frequency Tables
Ordering and More Information
Price and Delivery Options


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