Giving the first talk of the day at any event is never easy, but there was a good turnout at the Business Information Forum at Online Information 2008 this morning for my session on "Proving your Value as a Research Team in the Current Financial Situation". This is a subject close to my heart, and not just because of the services Dow Jones provides to many customers around the world, but because of the type of organisation we also are.

Within our own company, my group includes the Market Intelligence team, so we are ourselves a research group which has to prove its value every day. After a few generalities about the information landscape (clouded, turbulent and currently prone to violent eruptions), my talk today was mainly devoted to a case study of the "Research the Researcher" project which Dow Jones carried out to understand the challenges facing professional researchers.

In addition to pointing the way to areas where these researchers feel that they could add more value --focusing more on producing analysis and recommendations rather than gathering and organising facts -- it also showed us where their pain points are and how we can help. (Of course it was also an excellent example of how a research team -- mine -- can add value to organisation -- Dow Jones!) And it goes without saying that expertise in areas such as taxonomy and the organisation and management of an organisation's information assets is critical in adding value.

Overall impressions of the Online conference: fewer exhibitors perhaps, with smaller booths, and maybe not quite as much traffic. But that's only to be expected in the current environment. Nonetheless, there's still plenty of activity and plenty of buzz around the place.

If you are interested in the Dow Jones research study results on 'The Evolving Role of the Business Researcher', a recorded Webcast with Product Manager, Ken Sickles and Market Research Manager, Ellen Maccabe from October 2007 is available on demand.

Photo|Flickr|lija