Information resources

These resources are available either in the Business Library or via the Business Information Service, or directly online, e.g. e-book subscriptions. Most of the information is available free of charge, or at a nominal cost. Please contact us for further information.

Electronic resources

Company information

  • FAME - financial and ownership information on over 2 million UK and Irish companies
  • Orbis - covers around 100 million companies throughout the world
  • Zephyr - information on mergers & acquisitions
  • Morningstar Company Intelligence - 2,500 UK listed companies and biographical information on directors' and their remuneration details
  • Kompass - information on producers and service providers, distributors, importers and exporters in over 60 countries
  • Graydon - UK and international company credit reports. IoD members can receive 2 free credit reports on their own (UK) company, per calendar year, via the Business Information Service.  

Newspaper and magazine articles

  • EBSCO Business Source Corporate Plus - contains 2,700 full-text business journals. Additional sources include country economic reports, company profiles and industry reports
  • Nexis - comprehensive global news resource with access to over 23,000 news and business sources

Market research reports

  • Key Note - UK market research reports covering many market and industry sectors
  • Marketresearch.com Profound - provides an extensive collection of global market research, including reports by Datamonitor and Frost and Sullivan

Model documents and templates

  • Practical Law Company (PLC) - has a wide range of business model documents including directors’ service agreements, employment contracts and templates for various commercial contracts. We can also send you guidance notes to help you tailor those model documents to your own needs

Briefings

  • Practical management tips for established and growing businesses, covering topics such as finance, HR, IT, law, marketing and strategy

Dictionaries, encyclopedias and biographies

  • Access to Who's Who and 50 reference titles, including business guides, dictionaries and biographies in electronic format

Printed resources

  • Directories: UK trade directories covering a broad spectrum of industries such as transport, utilities, retailing, IT and insurance
  • Reference books: on all aspects of running a business, ranging from company and employment law, taxation, finance, personnel management and marketing. New additions to the collection.
  • Dictionaries, almanacs and biographical directories
  • Salary surveys and pay information: including those from Incomes Data Services
  • Journals: business, academic and trade journals such as Economist, Business Moneyfacts, Estates Gazette, Forbes, Fortune, People Management, Management Today, and Which?
  • Newspapers: daily and weekend broadsheets
  • Corporate governance collection: books, pamphlets and articles
  • International information: including books, directories, journals and grey literature on doing business with other countries.

 

Company formation

IoD members can take advantage of a suite of company formation packages and services at a preferential rate.

Credit checks

Members can obtain company credit reports on UK and international companies through the Business Information Service. They are ideal for risk analysis of existing customers, suppliers, competitors or business partners.

Mailing lists

Members, who want to carry out direct mail and telemarketing campaigns and target named individuals with particular titles, for example, Marketing manager/director, HR director, Finance director, should make use of Marketingfile.com