Database of the Month: Business Insights Global

Business Insights: Global is Gale/InfoTrac's revamped collection of company and industry information. It replaces Business & Company Resource Center; you'll find some of the same content, and some new, with several more tools and ways to search. The database contains thousands of articles, reports, case studies, reference articles, rankings, and profiles. Business Insights: Global, while technically a new database, continues Business & Company Resource Center's role as one of the Bentley Library's key resources on company, industry, and country information, with an emphasis on strong international coverage.

Tools

Company Finder The company finder (in the top toolbar) allows you to make a list of companies from around the globe using a number of criteria, including NAICS, number of employees, and revenue. You can then download the list to a CSV file (up to 500 results). Charts

One of the most useful features of Business Insights: Global is the user's ability to create custom charts. Click on "Comparison Charts" in the top toolbar, and create a chart comparing companies, countries, or industries on a number of different metrics. You could, for example, compare revenue or sales per employee among Google, Microsoft, and Apple, or compare countries on several metrics, including literacy rates, wage equality, tariff rates, and many more. For example, see the chart below comparing exports of goods and services between China and the United States. (Click the image to see the fine print.)

Search

Business Insights: Global features a single search box, and displays results grouped by source type. For example, a search for "solar energy" turned up most of the source types the database contains, including:

• company profiles
• industry profiles
• case studies
• association profiles
• market research reports
• journal articles
• news articles
• videos (with transcripts)
• rankings

Everything is linked - for example, the company profile for Solar Energy Host (a Canadian company) links to competitors, industry codes and profiles, and charts for both company and industry revenue (to which you can easily add other companies or industries to compare).

Browse

Using the top toolbar or the advanced search, you can search specifically for any of the sources in the bulleted list above. Especially interesting are the rankings, pulled from Gale's established reference work Business Rankings Annual - they include everything from lists of the largest companies in each state to "World's Most Ethical Construction Companies" to "World's Top Airports."

Connect to this Database:

You will find Business Insights: Global listed on the library’s Databases A-Z page, as well as under the Companies & Industries database subject page.

Database of the Month provides a very brief introduction to an important research database, highlighting key features of the database that you should know about. If you would like more information about this database (or any of the library’s databases) please contact the Reference Desk.  If you would like a demonstration of this database for a class, please contact our Coordinator of User Education, Elizabeth Galoozis.