Data Services Are More User-Friendly : Information: Searching through millions of facts has become easier and less expensive as database companies come of age.
For the executive who needs information, vast reservoirs are literally a phone call away, thanks to a growing network of computer database services. Tapping into this resource takes time, patience and, of course, money--but it is easier and less expensive than it used to be.
Nearly 600 companies offer individuals and corporations “online” computer access to more than 4,000 electronic databases.
Users can scroll through hundreds of pages, scan thousands of facts or pinpoint one word among millions, at hourly fees ranging from $6 to more than $100. A sample database might specialize in the newest technological products on the market, or the business applications of biotechnology and biomedical research.
“Online services are easier to use now,” says Dave Kishler, a spokesman for the Columbus, Ohio-based CompuServe Inc., one of the world’s largest general online services. “The information becomes more easily accessible all the time--otherwise people won’t use it.”
For the novice, searching through high-priced databases has been frustrating and expensive, a task complicated by instructions that took weeks to decipher and months to master. Today, companies in the competitive market for online services produce simpler systems that offer well-planned menus of services at reasonable fees that the user can closely monitor.
Companies use these services in a variety of applications:
- One metal-products manufacturing company used a database search to investigate two companies that it considered acquiring. In addition to the background and financial history of the potential acquisitions, the search revealed that 85% of one company’s revenues were tied to a government program that would be phased out in 1991. The acquisition was declined.
- A high-technology engineering support company recently used a database search to study a new technology called SCADA--supervisory control and data acquisition systems. Such machines are used to monitor the flow in all sorts of processes--the number of bottles processed in a manufacturing operation or the flow rate of water or oil in a pipeline system.
The report revealed which manufacturers build the systems, which academic institutions were doing research on the system and the identity of the experts in the field.
Every day, for a variety of clients, ESI Services Corp. in Arlington, Va., scans the Commerce Business Daily and other publications that list services sought by government agencies and for products or services that the client might sell to the government. Founder and database expert Eileen Ward then notifies her clients of upcoming contracts. Often, her clients receive this information earlier than those who subscribe to the publication.
A computer database is a collection of information in electronic form, according to the authors of the book “Business Online, the Professional’s Guide to Electronic Information Sources.” Users can pay to search individual databases, or they can use online services such as CompuServe, which sell them access to hundreds of databases and communications services such as electronic mail and computer conferencing.
Database information is available on almost any subject: from mundane topics such as news, weather and business information to nuclear science, advertising and marketing, and currency-rate fluctuations--even something called the Database of Databases.
To use online services requires a personal computer, a modem and a telephone to link the PC to the online network. Users must have a service agreement with one or more online services, and they must learn how to use each service.
