Part I of this paper sets out by examining the external factors of change and how corporations are organisationally adjusting to the new reality. Set against this background, the new type of highly adaptable and flexible company has very specific information needs. Above all, it need less raw but more timely and value-added business information across very specific areas of corporate key concerns. Part II looks at both the risks and opportunities in the information industry of which research is a part.
In 1975 we started building our first data bank without an existing model. So far we have met with many problems and challenges which are centrally connected with the research institute's change of role from a researcher to a data producer. This is not a story of a sudden success and riches but an account of a research institute's learning process which we have gone through during the past eight years.
The paper describes roughly the activities of the Commission of the European Community in the area of Videotex and highlights especially the European situation with regard to Videotex access to existing databases. Finally it gives a summary of the CEC's own host ECHO and its activities in Videotex.
This paper reviews, briefly, the new technologies relevant to information handling and attempts to place them in the economic context of Europe to-day. The role and potential of these technologies and their possible application in Market and Opinion Research and in Marketing management are then discussed. Finally the EEC role in these developments is analysed.
The availability of large scale databases of particular interest in Market Research has grown recently. There is now detailed information on most companies in Europe and databases are also available on completed market research projects and business opportunities in Europe. The increased numbers of intelligent terminals on market researchers' desks will lead to a rapidly expanding European use of such data.
This paper describes an unusual information system in so far as it handles marketing data for the multinational meetings industry. Multinational meetings, as marketing researched products, represent an area little explored on a public platform. The subject matter and the system built around it could well lend themselves as an example of a computer-based information management system, in a service industry.
The paper stresses the need for modelling as a tool for structuring the complexities of the marketing environment so that marketing management can better utilise the data at their disposal as well as their knowledge. This will help in meeting the goals of the organisation. The paper further looks at some available models and their implementation and use.
The developments in micro networks have already begun to have an effect on the communication of information between the pharmaceutical industry and the medical profession. However the links between the different groups of the medical profession e.g. hospital doctors, GPs and pharmacists have only recently began to show signs of the potential which has been outlined in this paper. The next step will be a micro network which links not only those groups mentioned but the general public too.
This paper outlines the development of the Medilink project from its inception to preparations for the full Medilink panel.
In producing this paper the author has tried to show that: 1. A large scale market research survey can be used as a data-bank model of the market of households or customers in which one is interested; 2. Such a model is capable of interrogation in order to answer subsequent questions about one's market; 3. Such further analysis is easily undertaken and does not require computer programming capability by the staff of the organisation requiring such data; 4. Computer access to survey data has been simplified and taken out of the specialised hands of the computer analyst.
This paper discusses how the department store "Magasin du Nord" uses the historical purchase information collected through the credit customer system as a source for planning purposes combined with the externally collected marketing research data. The tool is a marketing information system that makes it possible to investigate behavioural aggregation of the customers. It is possible to define segments predicted by demographic variables and purchase aggregation. To describe how MMIS was created, its uses and limitations is the main purpose of this paper.