InfoCommerce Group Inc.

The ABCD's of Business Information

Download the ABCD's of Business Information in PDF format

Few would deny the power of business information products to deliver results for publishers of all kinds. But there's a gaping chasm to cross to get from concept to clear roadmap. For many it's just a question of getting started. For others, it's a blurred vision that somehow running a business information operation is a sinecure - a license to print money with little or no work.

Offering such products is not a new notion, but over the last twenty years business information publishing has fundamentally reinvented itself. There's a lot of confusion about just what business information is and how to make it work.

Business information cuts a very wide swath of form and content. Unlike traditional magazine publishing or newsletter publishing, there is no one formula for producing a business information product. Each product arises in response to particular and often highly specialized business needs. Thus it can be difficult to grasp the underlying similarities, particularly for the uninitiated.

There are not a few but many ways to make money; not a few but many ways information is used by customers. It's sold by direct response, on the web, by face-to-face sales, through third party channels. Even the same product employs this whole array of channels in some cases.

One thing we do know about business information is that it's a rare situation where use of business information is a passive activity. It's usually a step in the process. People come to business information to help them figure out what the next step should be: answer a question, find a company, judge a resource, find a like person. Business information is used not just to become smarter but to inform well enough to take action. There are so many different approaches to business information products, we began to see a keen need to develop some organizing principles, a way to keep track of who's doing what and a way to bring the whole picture into focus. We found that people frequently ask us at Infocommerce Group about business information and it all really boils down to four key questions:

How will we make money? Who pays for it; for what privilege will they pay?
How will we build it? What are the sources of information/data and how is the process managed?
How will we take it to the market? How will we engage buyers? Will we sell it face to face, off the page or let someone else take it to the user?
How will it be used? What's the next step for the user and how does the data inform the decisions required in the next step?

Taking a step back and looking at the broader landscape, there are certain key building blocks for a business information product. These building blocks define the four key dimensions of business information, each driven by a specific model of operation.

These four dimensions circumscribe the four models we define: applications, business, content and distribution - as we say the ABCDs of business information.