There is no universal method for getting information on enterprises and their activities. However you can save yourself valuable time by asking yourself a couple of simple questions. And then by matching your query to the most appropriate resources. This should at least partially answer most queries, and at very least provide a contact within a company for you to make appropriate enquiries personally.
Q.1. In which country is the enterprise located?
Q.2. What kind of information do I want?
If all you want is simple information such as a contact for correspondence or the identities of principal officers, the place to start is the company's website. If you want more detailed information, you'll need to broaden your scope into the online databases, web sites and available print publications listed in the Resources by Region tab.
Business Source Complete: full-text access to nearly 1,700 peer-reviewed journals covering accounting, economics, finance, international business and management. Also includes full-text books, company profiles, country economic reports, market research reports, trade journals and business magazines. Videos: Basic Searching, Advanced Search.
Company accounts, ratios, activities, ownership and management for the largest 2.6 million UK and Irish companies, summary information for a further 1 million smaller businesses. Fame is best viewed using Internet Explorer: some advanced features may not work with other browsers.
Search: use Search text (home page), or go to Multi-region search or Advanced search
Browse from 50,000 categories by selecting "browse category" from "Search Type" list in Search text and Multi-region search options.
See online help as well as the video below
Creating your personal account: you can now create a Fame account to save your searches, to create alerts and to customise lists, reports etc. To register, make a note of the Username and Password here, then go to this page, enter the login details and register. To login to your account, click here.
Information on Irish companies
Researching Irish companies online can be hit-and-miss. You'll get basic information (activities, officers and contacts) either through the company's website or through Fame. If you seek financial information on a PLC, recent annual reports are usually available on the company's website. Figures for private companies are a good deal harder to find and you may have to go directly to the organisation itself. The database Fame has company accounts, ratios, activities, ownership and management for the largest 2.6 million UK and Irish companies and summary information for a further 1 million smaller businesses. For more detailed analysis, you'll need more initiative, checking various sources. In general, you'll be able to find more material on larger PLCs. For private companies or smaller plcs, information will tend to be more sporadic and possibly confined to a high-profile issue involving that organisation. Consider using company information sites, journals databases and the NexisUK news service.
Information on non-Irish companies
Generally speaking there is more, and better-organised information available for companies based in larger markets and for multinationals (especially for parent companies). You'll find DCU Library-subscribed electronic products like Datastream (available from designated PCs in Library and Business School only). There should be plenty of journal articles and company profiles relating to larger companies in Business Source Complete, and business and market news coverage through Nexis UK. The Library also holds some print reference material, and the picture is completed by a range of freely-accessible web sites providing supplementary material, which are all listed under the Resources by Region tab above.
Datastream Advance: financial and economic information database covering financial instruments and indicators for over 140 countries and 60 markets.
Nexis UK provides company and director profiles, market and M&A reports and more from a wide range of sources.
