LexisNexis Nationwide Survey Reveals that Delivering ROI - "Return on
Investment" - is Information Professionals' Top Priority for the Future
NEW YORK, June 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Special Libraries Association (SLA)
Annual Conference, The Hilton NY Booth #616 -- A strategic shift is occurring
in the information professional market as individuals are challenged with
providing more value to their organizations and aligning themselves closer to
profit centers, reports a new survey sponsored by LexisNexis(TM) U.S., a
leading global provider of legal, business, and news information. Ninety-one
percent of respondents agree that their roles have shifted from information
gatherer to information consultant.
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Survey Highlights
- Sixty-nine percent of information professionals cite that "adding value
back to the organization to meet its business goals" as one of their
top priorities for the future; 67% point to "improving the quality,
efficiency and value of information as a business and competitive
asset."
- Improving the productivity and business impact of information
technology and services is central to the librarian's enhanced role,
with the highest priorities being "upgrading services to take advantage
of new technology" (64%), "increasing employee productivity in their
information use" (58%), and "managing more information with fewer
resources" (58%).
- Information professionals are on the cutting edge of leveraging
technology to make information more valuable, relevant and accessible,
with 85% of librarians saying they currently use intranets for managing
and distributing information, and seeing collaborative workspaces
(55%), wireless (53%), and portals (51%) as very important for the
future.
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"Now that most employees have Internet access on their desktops,
information professionals are forced to justify their positions constantly,"
said Wendy Beecham, senior vice president, LexisNexis. "To survive in this
business environment they must be able to provide not just data, but
additional strategic value as well."
To address this need, LexisNexis in a separate announcement today released
several new enhancements to its market-leading information services suite.
Industry Dossier, an advanced version of the popular Company Dossier, and the
LexisNexis Publisher product provide information professionals with a broader
and more comprehensive tool set enabling more informed business decisions.
The three major trends identified by the survey results include:
- Information professionals are charged with developing a stronger mastery
of technology and understanding of the tools available on the market. Ninety
percent are now involved in the evaluation and review of new technologies and
services, with 51% highly involved in the selection of these services. A full
91% have become more involved in training internal clients to use information
services more effectively. Respondents see this trend continuing, reporting
that they see themselves becoming more directly involved with information
technology and how it relates to the information within the company.
- Information professionals are challenged to understand the business in
which they operate, and deliver results that are more relevant to the
business. Information professionals realize that they need to become more
aligned with the organization in order to provide value. They identify the
following as their highest priorities in the future, in regards to aligning
themselves with the business:
-- Continuing to add more value back to the organization to meet its
business goals
-- Moving into a strategic role internally; collaborating with business
development
-- Understanding the context behind their client's needs - i.e., working
with more focused groups and becoming a more integral part of the day-
to-day operations
- Information professionals are being underutilized in their
organizations. Just as their managers are focused on establishing greater
productivity and yield with fewer resources, information professionals know
that they must set priorities within their organizations for better packaging
and delivery of information. However, the survey shows that while respondents
are aware of these issues, 59% feel that they are underutilized when it comes
to helping internal clients prioritize research requests for value/efficiency.
An additional 47% concur that they are not fully exploited for their analysis
and interpretation of information.
The survey was conducted in May 2003 by Insight Express, a professional
online research firm, and was anonymously sponsored by LexisNexis.
About LexisNexis
LexisNexis(TM) ( http://www.lexisnexis.com ) is a global leader in comprehensive
and authoritative legal, news and business information and tailored
applications. A member of Reed Elsevier Group plc (NYSE: ENL) (NYSE: RUK)
( http://www.reedelsevier.com ), the company does business in 100 countries with
13,000 employees worldwide. In addition to its flagship Web-based research
service, LexisNexis, the company includes some of the world's most respected
legal publishers such as Martindale-Hubbell, Matthew Bender, Butterworths, Les
Editions du Juris-Classeur, Abeledo-Perrot and Orac.
SOURCE LexisNexis
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Related links:
http://www.lexis-nexis.com
http://www.reedelsevier.com
CONTACT:
Jennifer Aleknavage of LexisNexis,
+1-301-951-4565, or jennifer.aleknavage@lexisnexis.com
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