1 Business Information Module 2: Seeking for business information – Web-based information resources Part B: Company information International Summer School on Information Literacy, funded by CEI, September 2007, Fermo, Italy Sabina Cisek, PhD Associate Professor Institute of Information and Library Science, Jagiellonian University Krakow, Poland

2 Company information Information about different types of organizations: –publicly trade companies (listed on stock exchanges) –private companies –state-owned companies –not-for-profit organizations –government bodies Information about: –Company background – name, address, website, contacts, identification number; managers; line of business – products, services; legal status and type of a company; size, number of employees; corporate affiliations; basic financial data (income, profit or loss, turnover) –More in-depth information – company finances, competitors, history, perspectives, policies (ecological, social, etc.)

3 Company information sources Directories, yellow pages, databases National/official registries Business/industry/product classifications Lists/rankings Annual reports and other formal documents Stock exchanges’ websites and services Trade magazines, journals, news services Companies’ websites …

4 Company directories, yellow pages, databases globalEdge – Company Directories: s.asp s.asp Central & Eastern European Directory On-Line: Hoover’s: Europages, the European Business Directory: Kompass: Teleadreson [Poland]: ThomasNet [USA]: Short assignment: find on the Web the yellow pages / business telephone book for your country and describe its information content

5 Company identification numbers – come from: official / governmental company registers (in most countries companies and other organizations have to be registered with a government agency or a court or a statistical office – and get a national registration number); examples – Company registration around the world [links to registers] RBA – Official Company Registers UK Companies House – Worldwide Registries #reg #reg commercial information providers; the most important is DUNS Number by Dun & Bradstreet

6 Business/industry/product classifications List of NACE (Nomenclature Generale des Activities Economiques) codes. NACE is a EU industry standard classification system consisting of a 6 digit code : cases/index/nace_all.html cases/index/nace_all.html LogisticsWorld – NAICS / SIC Codes Lookup and Conversion Table: The United Nations – List of international family of economic and social classifications:

7 Global, international, local lists/rankings of companies Gary Price's List of Lists Forbes ; 07forbes2000-cz_sd_0329global_land.htmlhttp:// 07forbes2000-cz_sd_0329global_land.html Fortune ; Assignment: What type of information can you get from rankings? Check Forbes and/or Fortune lists and their information content. Work in pairs.

8 Annual reports and other formal documents (compulsory prepared by „listed” companies, but also – by other organizations) AnnualReports.com CAROL – Company Annual Reports On-Line: [Europe, USA] IRIN – Annual Report Resource Center bin/main.cgi?index=mainhttp:// bin/main.cgi?index=main NYSE Listed Company Directory Example of an annual report – European Patent Organisation Annual report reports/2006.htmlhttp:// reports/2006.html

9 Annual reports and other formal documents (compulsory prepared by „listed” companies, but also – by other organizations) Assignment – work in small groups –Look at two or three different annual reports. What data and knowledge do they offer? How in-depth and comprehensive is the information? Describe information content and potential uses of annual reports.