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Beginners
How To Guide
The Internet as a Business Intelligence Tool
1.8
Professional Associations
Business and professional associations provide valuable
information and standards of performance for particular
industries and occupations.
1.9 Conferences and Seminars
Like professional associations, conferences and seminars
provide opportunities for networking and staying up-to
date on key issues affecting the future of the industry
or occupation of interest. It is not necessary to attend
the conferences to mine data from them. There is a vast
wealth of information available from the event brochures.
Often they list sponsors, tradeshow attendees and keynote
speakers. They also breakout the discussion groups,
roundtables and topics under discussion. It is an excellent
way of finding out:
- Which
of your competitors are attending/sponsoring
- What
are the key issues affecting your industry
- Who
are the opinion leaders
- What
are the new technologies/skills being discussed
Here
is a list of websites that specialise in tradeshows and conferences. They are
searchable.
1.10
Discussion Groups
Discussion groups are a great way of taking the pulse
of customers. You can join discussion groups and pose
and answer questions. However, it is not necessary to
get active in discussion groups to mine business intelligence
from them. A useful resource is Google's Usenet Service
(formerly Deja.com). This site allows you to search
newsgroups for discussions about technologies, trends,
markets, and companies and their products. It is also
a good opportunity to find out how your company is viewed
by your competitors.
1.11 Business Meta Site
The business meta-site can be a handy and timesaving
tool and is a good place to begin your research. These
websites link to a very large number of online business
resources from around the world. One well-placed search
in a meta-site can save your hours of surfing through
individual business sites.
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Corporate Information
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Offers an extensive list of links to public, private,
domestic, and international resources for company
research. |
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A Business Researcher's
Interests
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Provides access to thousands of resources on cutting-edge
topics including business process engineering,
knowledge management, intranets, intellectual
property, and MIS research. |
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CEO Express
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Loaded with categorised links, this is a good
place to start for business research assignments.
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1.12 Industry Information
Most industries have dedicated information portals providing
current, insightful and deep coverage of their respective
markets. There are thousands of industry portals on
the web and it is outside our scope to list them all.
However, we have provided the following general industry
websites as good starting point for your research.
| Hoover's
Industry Snapshots |
Provide an overview of a variety of major industries
with links to relevant sites in each area. |
| Hoover's Sector Analyses |
Detailed overviews and news articles on 28 sectors
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| Yahoo! Industry News |
Check industry press releases and current news
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Links to industry resources in over 30 sectors
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| Industry
Research Desk |
Links to U.S. and international industry home
pages in over 30 areas. |
| FindArticles.com |
Search multiple periodicals, journals, and newswires
simultaneously for industry information |
| MagPortal.com |
Search multiple periodicals, journals, and newswires
simultaneously for industry information |
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