Top 5 ways information professionals can benefit from an FT Group Subscription

However, these issues also present opportunities to demonstrate their value through understanding and fulfilling the business intelligence needs of their key stakeholders.

Below are the top five ways that an FT Group Subscription can help information professionals meet the challenges of their role head on.

One task information managers face is ensuring c-suite executives and their other stakeholders have access to the information sources they need quickly to make business decisions. Typically, senior professionals are time-poor and don't have the resources to look across hundreds of information sources, and work out what may or may not have implications for their business.

The FT invests considerable resources in its premium content so information can be aggregated and the meaning distilled into a concise format. By deciphering the facts and providing analysis on the potential knock-on effects, the FT gives information professionals a means of better supporting the decision-making of their stakeholders.

FT subscribers have access to a wide range of newsletters, which are curated by FT editors. These email briefings are a great way of receiving regular news updates about specific sectors and topics. For information professionals this is beneficial, as FT newsletters refine the news into digestible pieces of valuable insight for subscribers.

For example, Due Diligence is the FT’s daily newsletter that keeps subscribers up to date with the latest news around M&A, including analysis of global deals and dealmakers. The specialist team of Due Diligence reporters curate the most important stories and analysis from across the web, and save readers time by presenting only what they need to know.

FT newsletters are just one way of eliminating the challenge of sifting through and filtering information. Information managers understand that senior leaders never have enough time and will benefit from bite-sized snippets of information. With the FT, subscribers receive decision-ready information in a concise format across their choice of platforms and devices.

Another part of an information professional's role is to provide a comprehensive view on what could be relevant to stakeholders. Nonetheless, this is a challenge that raises concerns around information overload.

When businesses are provided with useful, accurate and timely information, better business decisions can be made. The FT appreciates that professionals require access to a multitude of quality resources in order to build a complete picture on global news events. To help lessen the information burden, the FT makes its content available to corporate subscribers through third party channels.

Channel access provides content through a host of media monitoring agencies and news aggregators. By leveraging this method of accessing content, information professionals can gain visibility of thousands of sources including the FT, in a single search. This saves valuable research time and offers information professionals of way of consolidating many sources into one complete view for the teams they support.

Information professionals are expected to communicate constantly and be as efficient as possible when circulating information across a business. For information to remain relevant it must be shared at speed and seamlessly.

There are plenty of ways to share FT content with colleagues and across departments. With an FT Group Subscription, employees who are on that subscription can simply copy and paste links to share internally and this can be used to produce in-house email updates.

Subscribers can also share multiple articles as part of a reading list. This tools enables stories to be grouped together and then shared with colleagues.

For organisations where not all employees are part of its FT Group Subscription, a new beta feature called Enterprise Sharing has been developed to enable frictionless sharing of FT article links with non-subscribers. With Enterprise Sharing, information managers can keep all internal teams well-informed, and not just those who are eligible to join their FT subscription.

The tool generates links that can be included in emails, as well as posted on internal hubs and communications platforms. These article links can be opened 100 times or more depending on requirements. Find out more here.

Ensuring teams and departments know which resources they have access to is a key part of an information manager's role. The FT offers tools such as Access Manager to help improve visibility of an organisation's group subscription.

Access Manager presents a pop-up on FT.com that alerts employees on their company's IP range to the availability of a group subscription they can join. As well as increasing awareness, it also reduces the risk of an individual signing up to a personal subscription when they didn't need to. Access Manager acts as a safety net and lessens the burden on information professionals of needing to constantly remind employees and notify new starters about their FT subscription.

Further to this, information managers want to ensure that all employees have straightforward access to the content and resources they have available to them. The FT’s Single Sign On (SSO) solution allows end users to access FT.com through their company network login details, rather than having to create a new password.

As well as rolling out and promoting access to news and data sources, information professionals need to manage and monitor how those resources are being utilised across their organisation. FT Enterprise Tools is a secure and easy-to-use platform that allows licence administrators to add and remove subscribers, set up myFT topic follows on behalf of colleagues, and review usage insights.

With this visibility and clarity around how much a resource is being used, information managers can more effectively demonstrate ROI to business stakeholders and quickly identify areas for improvement.

Accurate and well-informed business decision-making can only be made when it's based on trustworthy information. Information professionals need to help their organisations mitigate the risks associated with using questionable sources.

In a world prone to fake news and false data assumptions, it is necessary that execs understand the importance of where information and insights come from. Without an information professional gatekeeping information and data, there is an increased risk that information will go unchecked and could potentially mislead the decisions that are taken as a consquence.

Through an FT Group Subscription, organisations gain access to an intelligence source that's globally recognised for accuracy and integrity. Over 600 FT journalists around the world collaborate to capture analysis and in-depth insights from every angle. Every FT article is double-sourced, which provides subscribers with confidence that what they're reading is correct and doesn't require further validation.

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.