Today more than 5000 institutions use an FT Group Subscription to help them achieve their goals faster. In this post we explore the reasons why demand for shared sources of market information is growing, and the specific benefits of providing FT access for everyone in your organisation.

Pre-pandemic, research conducted by the Financial Times suggested that there was a growing appetite for wider access to trustworthy market intelligence, to help organisations adapt more quickly to an evolving business environment. 64% of the FT readers surveyed for the Edge of Intelligence report said that the use of market intelligence was a high-level priority for their board.

During the onset of covid-19 ft.com attracted millions of new visitors hungry for a news source that could help them make sense of what was happening, and the potential business implications as countries closed their borders and financial markets plummeted. The crisis undoubtedly increased the need for reliable, actionable insight at a time when hysteria and misinformation were rife.

However, C-suite leaders and senior managers were in disagreement as to what extent trusted information was effectively disseminated throughout their organisations. 53% of C-level executives said they were effective or very effective at making market intelligence available to all levels of the business. This was compared to just 29% of department heads.

Organisations that are asking themselves searching questions about their current ability to exploit and share market insight are inevitably drawn to Enterprise licences from FT Group Subscriptions. A flexible pricing model where you’re only charged for users who need frequent access to FT content, and occasional readers also get access at no extra charge, offers a cost-effective means of providing a company-wide source of trusted intelligence.

FT Group Subscriptions customers have a range of plans to choose from, depending on the number of potential readers, budget and the level of flexibility they’re looking for. An Enterprise plan provides premium access to ft.com for everyone within an organisation. As well as the convenience of having a common reference point, an Enterprise subscription also includes the following:

• Unlimited premium ft.com access
• SAML-based Single Sign On
• Support of a dedicated team of multilingual Customer Success Managers
• Exclusive curated newsletters
• 20 gift articles per user per month
• Admin tools to facilitate cross-charging and usage reporting
• Integration with Microsoft Teams
• Access on over 60 third party platforms
• Priority telephone support
• Exclusive benefits through the Platinum Programme

The Platinum Programme is an exclusive set of perks for Enterprise customers. These benefits help subscribers extract even more value from the FT, its specialist knowledge and the strength of its global network:

FT Board Director
6 weeks complimentary access to FT Board Director. This is a new community for board members that offers the latest intelligence for corporate boards, virtual events and practical peer-to-peer knowledge exchange.

FT Live events
Complimentary professional passes to selected FT Live events for senior decision makers.

FT Enterprise Sharing
Free trial use of Enterprise Sharing to enable FT articles to be shared with clients, investors or other external audiences. These links can be opened up to 100 times regardless of whether the recipients have ft.com subscriptions or not.

Headspring
Access to Headspring’s thought leadership pieces, and research for senior stakeholders. Headspring is a joint venture between Financial Times and IE Business School, delivering bespoke executive education programmes and strategic learning consulting.

Nikkei Asia
1 month of free access to Nikkei Asia, the FT’s sister publication that brings you news and insights on the region's most influential companies, plus comprehensive coverage of politics, the economy, markets and trends.

FT Forums
Attend events across a selection of our forums. These include Women in Business Forum for mid-career women, Future Forum for senior leaders, Due Diligence Forum for the company CEO and chair only and the Chair’s Forum for the company chair only.

Customers with enterprise-wide FT subscriptions often tell us about the value of everyone within the organisation having access to the same information. Matt Tickle is a partner at independent UK consultancy Barnett Waddingham and views the FT as a crucial source of knowledge for all levels of the business.

“We want all of our consultants, analysts and trainees to have as much, up to date market knowledge as possible,” Matt says. “I learned coming up through the ranks the importance of information sources like the FT. It’s vital so we can do our jobs and be best positioned to advise our clients.”

Fortune 100 manufacturer Caterpillar Inc. makes the FT available to its entire global workforce of over 100,000 employees. It was important to subscribe in this way as “understanding where we are in the business cycle and what’s happening around the world is useful to everyone: economists, engineers, marketers. It’s useful for wherever you’re standing in the organisation chart,” explains chief economist, Nicolas Clerc.

While Enterprise customers enjoy a host of additional perks, the primary benefit is a fairly simple one. “The main benefit of our FT subscription boils down to knowledge and everyone within the organisation having access to that,” says Rob Walker, a director and PR specialist at Headland Consultancy. “It’s that information that ultimately gives us the platform to advise our clients better.”

View more of our customer stories.

Help your team make better business decisions with the FT’s trusted commentary and analysis. For more information about how the Financial Times can help your organisation or to request a free trial, please get in touch.