Presents comments on selected findings of the Business Information Resources Survey 2004 in light of the experiences of Euromonitor plc, covering the selected issues of: site licences and user licences; usage analysis and what to measure; pay per view versus subscription; and promoting information and the information service. A major problem is that vendors fail
to appreciate that, whereas a company may have over 500 staff, it may only be a group of 50 who need the database product and the pricing strategy adopted by Euromonitor is based on precisely this premise, the company having abandoned the selling of subscriptions based on the number of users. Euromonitor?s approach to providing access to its electronic products follows closely the findings of the survey. Predicts that the provision of meaningful analytical data on database usage will be very important in the near future as publishers and vendors find that they must work harder and more closely with their users. The benefits for both parties are likely to be very great, leading to better products, well informed and trained users, high usage of resources, and more secure subscriptions and budgets. Concludes that the role of the information manager is becoming increasingly challenging as the World Wide Web continues to provide a massive, primary information resource and neuromonitor.com is providing leadership in this area by uploading free market data. |