Company Research Online
by John Craske
The purpose of this article is to look briefly at the types of information that
lawyers need to know about their commercial clients and then to look at some
of the products available online to satisfy those needs.
Step 1 - What Information Is Needed?
People want instant access to the information that they need to do their jobs.
However, it is usually not the information that is the end result. The information
is an enabler to help with a decision or an action. For example, the three main
areas where law firms use information about companies are:
- Credit control & finance. Before accepting a new client company, various
checks need to be carried out to comply with regulation (e.g. money laundering
regulations) and internal procedure (for example credit checks). It may also be
important to check the background of the directors or whether the company is
owned by another.
- Transaction. In transactions, lawyers are often asked to find out information
about a company, perhaps a target in an M&A transaction or provide
information about their own client. Information like a company group
organisational chart can be very valuable.
- Client development. Knowing your clients is a key factor in providing the best
service and can give you great opportunities with potential clients. Having
access to news about a company’s activity, reports on a particular market or
industry or details of the people involved in the company and their other
activities and interests can help with this.
Step 2 - What Products Are Available?
Some of the information required is available in the public domain for free and
anyone with a limitless amount of time to surf the internet will get at least a
snapshot of the information available. Some of the more detailed information
is available from Companies House, for a fee. Finally there are some company
information gathering organisations who provide rich and detailed information
that you can subscribe to.
Free Web Resources
Search engines. A carefully constructed search on a search engine can yield
good results. My own personal favourite search engine is Google
(www.google.com). When searching, avoid general searches and think carefully
about what you actually want to find and how you may be able to limit your
search. If you want to search for a phrase, enclose the phrase in quotes. If you
want to limit the search to hits relevant to the UK, include ‘UK’ in the search. For
example: a Google search of ["Six Continents plc" UK] found 2,230 hits as
opposed to [Six Continents], which found 13,300 hits.
Company’s Website. Most major companies now include annual accounts and
other valuable company information on their own website as well as a press or
news room. If you don’t know the web address, try one of the search engines
or a web directory like www.yell.com.
General News sites. If you keep a regular eye on a selection of news sites, you
can find a great deal of information. The BBC news site (news.bbc.co.uk) has
a good general business section, as do all of the daily broadsheet papers e.g.
The Times (www.the-times.co.uk) and the Scotsman (www.thescotsman.co.uk).
Ft.com (www.ft.com) is an excellent resource, although their decision to charge
for access to much of the content makes decent searches more difficult.
Stock Exchange and PLC news sites. There are many sites that provide
information about the stock exchange or listed companies. A good place to start
is the stock exchange (www.londonstockexchange.com) or one of the stock
exchange sites, like the free subscription service from FML Exchange
(www.fmlx.com). One of the most comprehensive news services is UK-wire
(www.uk-wire.com), which is a company press release service for listed
companies where you can subscribe to receive emails about specific
companies.
Industry and Market Sector information. If you are looking for information about
a particular industry or market sector, there are often specialist sites. For
example, Red Herring (www.redherring.com) covers the technology industry
and the Estates Gazette (www.egi.co.uk) covers the real estate and property
industry. General cross-market sector sites like EIU Viewswire
(www.viewswire.com) can provide a useful overview.
Official Information. For the majority of other law firms, the first stop for
information about UK companies is Companies House. Companies House
offers a free basic service (www.companies-house.gov.uk).
Companies House Direct
In addition to the free service, Companies House offer a "pay as you go"
subscription service that offers access to all of the information that has been
registered by or against UK companies (www.direct.companieshouse.gov.uk).
This is excellent for up to date and accurate information about a company’s
registered office, directors, charges or notices of striking-off/insolvency and
includes document packages for download.
The drawback is that the information is not filtered or sorted, which makes the
downloadable document packages a bit hit and miss. With older or larger
companies in particular, there no guarantee that the information or document
you actually want will be in the document package. Other downsides (although
for obvious reasons) are the lack of any analysis, comment or news.
Subscription Resources
After even a brief look at the available subscription tools and products
available, it soon becomes clear that no two offerings are the same. They are
often so expensive that the choice becomes very important as you may only be
able to afford one (or none). Set out your basic requirements and compare
each service against these. The following criteria may help you compare
resources:
- How many companies do they cover? Be careful to match this to the type of
company that you need information about. For example, some resources only
cover listed (plc) companies in detail.
- What is the licence model? This governs how much the resource will cost.
Some resources charge based on the number of users with passwords, some
by number of employees, some by site and some by the number of searches.
How frequently do you intend people to use the resource? For example, for
limited searches, a pay as you go option may work out cheaper.
- What data sources do they have, how current are they and what other
conditions are there? Information that is wrong or out of date can be worse than
no information at all. Make sure that you find out where they get their company
information and news from. Any limitations, for example only being able to
search for news over the past 7 days, may influence your decision.
The following services are available:
ICC (www.icc.co.uk) offer a pay as you go company document and report
service (called Juniper XD), an equivalent subscription service (Juniper) and a
full news and information service (Plum)
BVD (www.bvdep.com) offer a full UK company research tool called FAME, but
no news feed.
Onesource (www.onesource.com) is a full company and industry research tool
that offers a huge range of online news sources.
Hemscott (www.hemscott.net) provides Company Guru, which is a company
research and news resource (including director biographies) that focuses on
listed companies.
LexisNexis (www.lexis-nexis.co.uk) provides subscription access to over 30,000
news sources.
Summary & Conclusions
With so many different resources available and with budgets coming under
tighter and tighter control, there is a real drive to get value for money.
Any law firm that deals with or for companies will almost certainly have a
subscription with Companies House Direct. Used correctly this can be a
valuable resource, but firms should consider producing some guidance notes
on how to get the best out of the service for their users and provide a summary
of and access to the many free resources to fill in the blanks that remain.
The subscription resources are often amazingly detailed and powerful, but they
are also expensive to implement across a large number of users. A subscription
resource may be valuable for a power user or staff tasked with client or
business development, but be careful to pick a service that meets your needs.
John Craske is Knowledge Manager at Dundas & Wilson
(www.dundas-wilson.com) and is also responsible for the firm's electronic and
online resources.
Email John.Craske@dundas-wilson.com.
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