Tales from the Terminal Room

September 2002, Issue No. 35

Archives

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Tales from the Terminal Room (TFTTR) is a monthly newsletter, with the exception of July and August, which are published as a single issue. TFTTR includes reviews and comparisons of information sources and search tools; updates to the RBA Web site Business Sources and other useful resources; dealing with technical and access problems on the Net; and news of RBA's training courses and publications.

In this issue:

• Monitoring Web Page Changes
  • Spyonit Goes on Holiday
• Information Resources
  • Snapshots launches pay-as-you-go service
  • IRN Research gets a makeover
  • US Limited Liability Companies - Knowx.com, FindLaw
  • Business Access Web (support for Australian SMEs)
  • Better Business revamped
  • FreeDirectories.com
  • Australian Business Register
  • ASIC National Names Index
• Gizmo of the Month
  • TweakUI
• Training and Meetings
  • Key Business Resources on the Net
  • Market Research on the Web
  • Advanced Internet Search Strategies
  • EBRD/ETM Meeting: Investing in Eastern Europe
  • ETM Workshop: Web Based Marketing Tools

Monitoring Web Page Changes

http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/monitor.htm

Spyonit Goes on Holiday

The Spyonit service (http://www.spyonit.com/), which monitors Web pages for changes, has announced that is "on hiatus effective July 26, 2002. However, we do intend to bring it back online after a significant upgrade and the addition of several exciting new features."

The site remains accessible but any Spies that you have set up will stop checking their sources and notifying you of changes.

They go on to say :

"We've learned a lot, and we're actively working on some exciting new technology that will allow this service to return in fitter, even more usable shape. We hope to restore it as a better wireless experience, especially, in late Fall 2002 by re-releasing our most popular Spies with new notification capabilities."

When it does come back on stream we may find that, as with other similar services, some of the new features will no longer be free of charge.

Information Resources

Market Research http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/mr.htm

Snapshots launches pay-as-you-go service http://www.snapdata.com/

Snapshots International, the publisher of international market research overviews, has launched a new pay-as-you-go service. Snapshots cover a wide range of industry sectors including food, beverages, IT and automobiles. Country coverage includes Western Europe, Czech republic, Slovak republic, Russia, Ukraine, China, Japan, Canada, the US and Australia.

The site is straightforward and easy to navigate. You can browse by industry or country, or carry out a keyword search in combination with country and industry sector. No password is required for the site and payment is by credit card with discounts for multiple purchases. If you are an intermediary and need to pass on costs to clients or allocate charges to cost centres, you can track their usage by entering account numbers or charge codes.

My only complaint about the service is that you only see the title of the report. I know that publishers are reluctant to give away too much by displaying tables of contents, but a short abstract would be helpful.

IRN Research gets a makeover
http://www.irn-research.com/

IRN Research, who provide market research and information consultancy services to corporate and academic customers throughout the UK, have redesigned their Web site. As well as information on their services, there is a Research Centre that offers briefings for the consumer goods and services sectors, useful links to market research organisations and information sources worldwide, market research publishers and aggregator sites, and Market Research associations.

The Knowledge Zone provides links to essential tools and background reading on every aspect of a market researcher’s work. Gone, though, is the excellent annotated listing of trade associations that was such a useful starting point for many of us looking for free market and industry sector statistics.

Company Financials and Annual Reports http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/finars.htm

US Limited Liability Companies

A question we are often asked is "Where can I find information on US limited liability companies (LLCs) and other non-listed companies?" Unlike the UK, which has a central Companies House for information on limited companies, the US handles LLCs (Limited Liability Companies) state by state. To carry out a Dun & Bradstreet search, you have to know the location of the company. But what do you do if you do not even know in which state the company is based?

Knowx.com (http://www.knowx.com/) enables you search the company databases of most of the states. Not included in the service are Alabama, Delaware, Hawaii, New Jersey and New Mexico. On the home page, follow the link "Corporate Records", which is under "Ultimate Business Finder". You can then search on company name and a state or all states. It lists, free of charge, the companies it has found and the state in which they are incorporated.

Further information is available for a fee and payment is by credit card. The charges in this section of the site are USD 4.95 for a single record or USD 12.95 for all the records in your search. The information that you get is limited to ID number, type of company, status, date of incorporation, address and dates of any significant "events". It does, though, give you enough information to search, for example, Dun and Bradstreet or Experian both of which can be accessed via Knowx. Do remember that you may still not be able to find any substantial financials; disclosure requirements depend on a company's size, legal form and the regulations of the state in which they file.

Alternatively, you may be able to find more information if you go direct to the state's own Web site. Some are free but others charge for access. A list of links by state can be found on FindLaw at http://cobrands.smallbiz.findlaw.com/startup/structures/llc/forms.html

Support for SMEs http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/sme.htm

Business Access Web http://www.businessaccess.vic.gov.au/
Our Support for SMEs page usually concentrates on information that is relevant to UK businesses. However, we have now added an Australian site called Business Access Web. Business Access provides "business information and referral services to facilitate the growth of an efficient and viable small business sector in Victoria, Australia" and is a business unit of the Department of State and Regional Development. The information it provides is also of interest to anyone wishing to do business in Australia and there are a range of links to other sites that provide information on Australian Companies.

Better Business revamped
http://www.better-business.co.uk/
Better Business, essential reading for many UK based SMEs, is another site that has had a recent makeover. The new site is fast and easy to use - no fancy graphics and no pop-up adverts. It now offers a wider range of tips, news and in-depth guides for all sizes and stages of venture, from start-ups and home offices to mature concerns coping with growth or change. The site includes The Resource, a directory of resources and links for small businesses, with entries covering almost 50 categories. Topics include dealing with junk mail, faxes and calls, company information, checking up on people, and health and safety. Some links are to free information: others are priced articles from Better Business that can be purchased individually online. There is also The Directory, which lists the services of hundreds of freelance experts.

Company and Telephone Directories http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/directs.htm

FreeDirectories http://www.freedirectories.com/
FreeDirectories.com is a worldwide directory of free access directories and databases. You can search by country, industry or by keyword from the title of the directory. The listings give you the language of the directory and the "type", for example Archive Contacts, Links, Portal, Ranking.

Australian Business Register http://www.abr.gov.au/
The Australian Business Register is a publicly available, online database that contains some of the information that is provided by businesses when they register for an Australian Business Number (ABN). The information that is publicly available includes Australian Business Number (ABN), ABN Status and date of effect, legal name, trading name(s), entity type, State or Territory and postcode of the main business location, associated Australian Company Number (ACN) or Australian Registered Body Number (ARBN) or Australian Registered Scheme Number (if applicable), goods and services tax (GST) and deductible gift recipient (DGR) details and dates of effect.

ASIC National Names Index http://www.search.asic.gov.au/gns001.html
The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) has a company search facility that offers basic information on a company or business name. The free information that is available is the same as that in the Australian Business Register but additional data including financials, if available, can be purchased through commercial brokers that are linked from the ASIC site.

Gizmo of the Month

TweakUI

If you have ever struggled to beat your Windows operating system into submission and make it behave in the way you want it to, then you may have come across TweakUI. TweakUI is part of Microsoft's Powertoys suite and enables you to quickly customise many aspects of the Windows interface. Without TweakUI, some of the options can be changed via Windows Control Panel but it can take an age to work your way through the whole lot. Other options can only be changed by manually editing the registry, which is not a task to be taken on lightly!

TweakUIs are version specific so you must make sure that you have the one that is appropriate for your operating system. The one for Windows XP can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp

You can change menu animation, menu fading, toggle on/off the "beep on errors", change your mouse sensitivity, remove the arrows from your desktop icons and choose whether or not to prefix new shortcuts with "Shortcut to". For me, though, the winner is the option for removing those extremely irritating balloon tips from the Task bar.

Training and Meetings

Workshop: Key Business Resources on the Net
Organiser: RBA Information Services
Course leader: Karen Blakeman
Venue: Reading Business School, Reading, Berkshire UK
Date: Tuesday, 8th October 2002, 9.30 - 16.30 (re-run on 26th November)
URL: http://www.rba.co.uk/training/bii.htm

This one day workshop concentrates on Internet resources relevant to business applications, and in particular portals and the so-called "invisible web". The emphasis will be on pay-as-you-go and free services. The workshop will benefit anyone who plans to use, or already uses, the Internet for gathering essential business information.

Cost: GBP 195 + VAT (Total cost GBP 229.12)
Discounted rate for those also attending the Market Research workshop - GBP 165 + VAT (total cost GBP 193.87)

Workshop: Market Research on the Web
Organiser: RBA Information Services
Course leader: Karen Blakeman
Venue: Reading Business School, Reading, Berkshire UK
Date: Wednesday, 9th October 2002, 9.30 - 16.30 (re-run 27th November)
URL: http://www.rba.co.uk/training/markres.htm

This one day workshop offers practical guidance on how to find and evaluate Web based statistical and market research information, both free and fee based.

Cost: GBP 195 + VAT (Total cost GBP 229.12).
Discounted rate for those also attending the Key Business Resources workshop - GBP 165 + VAT (total cost GBP 193.87)

Cost: GBP 195 + VAT (Total cost GBP 229.12).

Workshop: Web Based Marketing Tools
Organiser: Effective Technology Marketing Ltd.
Venue: Open Learning Centre, City University, London
Date: Seminar: Thursday 17th October. Practical workshop - Friday 18th October
URL: http://www.dataresources.co.uk/workshop.htm

Speakers include Karen Blakeman, Frank Ryan, Jonathan Gordon-Till, Sheila O'Sullivan

Conference: Investing in Eastern Europe - Company Focus
Organiser: EBRD/ETM
Venue: Royal Lancaster Hotel, London
Date: Thursday, 31st October 2002
URL: http://www.dataresources.co.uk/eebic.htm

TFTTR Contact Information

Karen Blakeman, RBA Information Services
UK Tel: 0118 947 2256, Int. Tel: +44 118 947 2256
UK Fax: 020 8020 0253, Int. Fax: +44 20 8020 0253
Address: 88 Star Road, Caversham, Berks RG4 5BE, UK

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