Syndicate Date Suppliers : Their Business Environment, the Industry, and Their Core Business Process

• It has become increasingly important for firms to monitor the competitive forces affecting their business and competitiveness (Arnott & Pervan, forthcoming; Davenport & Harris, 2007). As a consequence, more and more attention has been directed towards data originating external to the own organizations, that is, external data. The increased interest is also shown in current literature and many authors have expressed the benefits thereof. The following quotations illustrate the perceived benefits of incorporating external data: (1) Oglesby (1999, p. 3) claims that “Companies who use external data systems have a strategic advantage over those who don’t, and the scope of that advantage is growing as we move deeper into the information age,” (2) Stedman (1998, p. 2) states that “external data helps us understand our business in the context of the greater world,” and (3) Inmon (1996, p. 272) argues that “the comparison of internal and external data allows management to see the forest for the trees.” In alignment, a majority of companies incorporate their external data from organizations specialized in collecting, compiling, refining, and selling data (Strand, Wangler, & Lauren, 2004; Strand, Wangler, & Olsson, 2003). Kimball (1996) refers to these specialized and commercial data suppliers as syndicate data suppliers (SDSs).

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