Desk Research

“The first step”

The concept of Desk Research subsumes research methods, that can be executed from the desk and frequently “ad hoc”, however excluding telephone interviews.

It is sensible to find relevant secondary sources in the advance of statistical inquiries and to check on the informational needs in order to procure a first overview over the research object itself. Sometimes, it is completely sufficient to do a quick search of publicly accessible sources, for example in cases of very narrow deadlines, budgetary restrictions, or with comparatively low requirement of topicality.

Our analysts as well as our associates in the Global Intelligence Alliance have access to a multiplicity of relevant national and international data bases, roughly classified into:

- On-line data bases (via internet / direct access)
- Off-line data bases (usually on DVD or CD)

Additionally, we master the search technologies in the world-wide web, of course.

Charging

With only sporadic inquiries, we favor jobwise invoices, i.e. we charge you accrued costs for documents as well as our work time. No further obligations like minimum fees or minimum volumes occur. Every inquiry is calculated individually in advance.

We check the following data bases and providers regularly:

- Genios
- GBI - the Content Machine
- Datastar
- Dialogue
- Globally Access
- Creditreform
- BvD-Suite
- Worldbase
- Market-Zone
- German Census bureau
- Hoovers Online
- Dissertation agency
- Compass
- BfAI
- Subito
- FIZ-Technik

We visit the following hosts / providers sporadically:

- Dataquest (Gartner Group)
- Frost & Sullivan
- Forrester Research
- Reuters
- Profound

You'll find a more elaborate survey about these data bases under on-line data bases (PDF, 57kB)

Find further issues in the chapter Research.