Business and Finance

British Standards Online
Searchable full-text British Standards - PDF. Printing and downloading available at one of our libraries or discovery centres.
Access by library members is restricted to non-commercial research purposes or private study only

NewsUK
Full text current and past information from 67 British national and regional newspapers
Business/Finance titles include Financial Times June 1996 to yesterday's edition; The Economist Jan 1991 to last week's edition

Oxford Reference Online
An extensive collection of reference works from Accounting to Zoology
View full list of titles.

Credo Reference
An online library providing access to a selection of reference books, including encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri and books of quotations.

Free business sites recommended by Library staff

Company information

Kompass is an international database of companies and products that can be searched using keywords.
Companies House direct access to all the latest UK-registered company accounts and data, with an email enquiry service.
Kelly's Directories allows you to search for suppliers, from stationery to bath plugs
Hemscott UK includes a range of information on UK companies, including key financials, major shareholders and contact details. For selected companies there are also interim and annual reports.
Company Researcher a commercial listing of sites providing UK company information by category, including region, industry, news and accounts.
Company Profile
Reports from the London Stock Exchange, available as PDFs. Each report contains company contact information, share prices and trade data, five years of detailed fundamental data and key ratios, company director details and dealings , historical price charts and volume history.

Supplier information

The Phone Book allows you to search for business and residential phone numbers, although ex-directory numbers are excluded
Yellow Pages is an electronic version of yellow pages directories and covers over 1.6 million companies, searchable by business type, name or location.
Thomson Directories electronic versions covering 2.2 million companies. Searchable by name, business type or location
Europages http://www.europages.co.uk/ Information on European companies can be found in a business-to-business directory with brief company information for 900,000 SME European and international suppliers, manufacturers and distributors (out of a total of some 25 million in Europe). The directory can be searched by company name, product or process and industry sector, and results can be filtered by country.

Government sites for business

Department of Enterprise and Regulatory Reform aims to promote enterprise, innovation and increased productivity by encouraging the capacity of business to grow, to invest and to develop skills. It is a useful site for information on a wide range of business subjects from employment legislation to environmental information.
The UK Trade and Industry website aims to promote best practice to exploit business opportunities abroad.
Customs & Excise details custom and excise duties in the UK
HM Treasury covers economic news, budget information and general government economic policy and key economic indicators
Foreign & Commonwealth Office details UK foreign policy, assistance to exporters and advice to travellers, as well as visa requirements for visitors to Britain and contacts for British embassies and overseas missions.
Inland Revenue contains text of tax leaflets and forms and details of tax rates.
Office of National Statistics the home of official UK statistics, the site details Britain's economy, population and society at national and local level. Summaries and detailed data releases are published free of charge

Business Advice

Is 4 profit provides free information and advice for small business, including guides, plans and factsheets.
Business Link source of advice and guidance
British Chambers of Commerce the network of UK approved Chambers of Commerce, which provide a news service and bulletin board and links to other business services.

Commercial Property

The Property Mall covers the UK commercial property market, so is useful if you are looking to find or move to new premises.

Market Research

Free Research http://www.free-research.com/overview.asp Offers free market research reports and competitor information from public and private sources. This source covers 27 vertical markets, from Automotive to Travel, in most countries around the world. Most reports are brief - from one paragraph to several pages. Other useful content includes trade associations in each of the global industry sectors, as well as country guides and market insight reports.

Due to licensing the following resoures are not available for remote access but can be used in Libraries and Discovery Centres

Marketline Business Information
Over 2,500 market reports, 10,000 company profiles and 700 strength and weakness analyses, covering over 50 countries. A wide range of subjects, including Defence Industries, Consumer and Retail, Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals, Finance and Media.

Company Information
The Experian database is available at Winchester Discovery Centre and Basingstoke Library. Staff will, for a fee, undertake company searches or find the mailing lists of UK businesses. Prices available from the library.