Featured resource: FAME: How to do a peer analysis

Next in our posts on our featured resource FAME is how to do a peer analysis.  The peer analysis enables you to compare a group of companies, chosen by you, against one another.   

1. First make sure you have cleared any previous searches you have done: on the home page if you see a box at the bottom of the page with your previous search strategy click the "clear all steps" button.

2. Now click on "company name".

  

3. On the next screen you can search for your first company's name.  In the list of results tick the box next to the correct company.  This will add it to the selected companies in the box below.

 

4.  To add your next company click the "add a company" button and repeat step 3.  When you have finished adding companies and your chosen ones are all in the "selected companies" box click OK.

 

5.  Once you have clicked OK it will take you back to the main search page.  Now, from the menu on the right, click on peer analysis, from where you can choose a predefined analysis (e.g. comparing them by the key financials) or a new to create your own analysis. A new analysis will open up a wizard to guide you through the different categories you may want on your analysis. 

How to access FAME if Library Search goes down

There have been a few problems accessing Library Search today so if you are unable to access FAME that way please try this link: https://fame2.bvdep.com/ukfederation.aspx 

You will then need to choose University of Westminster from the drop-down menu, as before, and you may be required to enter your university username and password.

Featured resource: FAME

Continuing on with our featured resource, FAME: today we look at how to do a simple company search.  See our previous post if you want to know how to access FAME. 

1. Once you are in FAME enter your chosen company name in the search box in the top left hand corner.

2. From the list of results click on the company your require, you can always check the registered number if you are unsure.

3. The standard report will be shown, to see the full report select "report format - full report" from the menu on the right hand side.  You can scroll down the report to view the different sections.

4.  The menu along the right hand side shows the contents of the report, from here you can navigate to each individual section of the report.  For example if you just wanted to see the "key financials and employees" click on the financials and ratios tab and select "key financials and employees".  To go back to the main report select "report format - standard report" from the menu.

5. You can export the data to a spreadsheet, Word or a PDF.  Click on the export button.  You can either do this for just one section of the report (see step 4 above) or all sections of the report (when you are displaying the standard report).

6.  You can also modify which sections are shown in the report by clicking on the sections button and choosing which elements you want to see in the report. 

7.  When viewing figures remember to note what currency and unit is being used- for example figures are often given in th GBP or mil GBP.

8.  You can also view a peer report for the chosen company or view diagrams such as the ownership structure by selecting these sections from the menu (near the bottom).

See also our post.....how to do a peer analysis in FAME

Database trial - PI Navigator

We have a trial to PI Navigator (from Perfect Information) until June 2011.

“PI Navigator is a financial and capital markets database providing access to over 15 million global company filings including annual reports, Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A), equity transactional documents (including Initial Public Offerings) and bond prospectuses. PI Navigator surfaces the value of the data buried within financial documents, providing the ability to significantly reduce the time taken when modelling company financials.”

Click here to access PI Navigator (you will need your University username and password if you are off-site). Check out the online tutorial with PI Navigator.

Please take a look and forward any feedback to Sara Goddard at s.goddard@westminster.ac.uk

Datastream Q&A session

Do you need help using Datastream?

Thomson Reuters are holding online Q&A sessions to answer your Datastream queries.

To sign up, email training.uki@thomsonreuters.com stating the date, product (i.e. Datastream) and time of the session you would like to attend. Thomson Reuters will then email you with login details for the 1 hour session.

• 9th February, 10am (Wednesday)
  
• 23rd February, 3pm (Wednesday)
  

Management book of the year 2011

'Managing' written by Henry Mintzberg (Pearson Education) has been named as the CMI Management Book of the Year, as well as winning the Pratical Manager category.

If you would like to read the award winning book, just go to Library Search and do a "Books, journals & more" search for Managing Mintzberg to find our copy.