A comparison
of databases:
-S&P NetAdvantage
-Factiva
S533: Online Searching
Presented by Eddie Clem
Subject: Business
Databases: S&P Net Advantage and Factiva
Scope of Coverage
Scope: S&P NetAdvantage
 From
IUPUI: On the Standard & Poor's
NetAdvantage Home Page you will find
feature articles by Standard & Poor's
analysts offering independent and
unbiased opinion on the stock market, the
economy and long and short-term
prospects for equities, bonds, funds, and
industries.
Scope: Factiva
 From
IUPUI: Factiva provides general and
business news and information. Useful for
monitoring and tracking company and
industry trends alongside business
forecasts, as culled from over 10,000
resources. Daily newspapers such as the
Wall Street Journal and New York Times
can be read here.
Searchable Areas
(Or, in other words, what topics are searchable
within each database!)
Searchable Areas:
NetAdvantage
 S&P
NetAdvantage provides industry
surveys and forcasts, stock reports,
company descriptions and company
financials, and assists with mutual fund
research. S&P also provide directories of
security dealers in North America and the
Register of Corporations, Executives, and
Directors.
Searchable Areas:
Factiva
 Factiva
allows you to search by source,
search for a company, business and
industry subject, or by NAICS industry. You
can search by region and language.
Factiva also searches for stock quotes
(also searchable by ticker symbol), funds,
currencies, and common market indices.
Historical quotes from the present up to
five years are also available.
Searching Methods
Searching Methods:
S&P NetAdvantage
 S&P
categorizes most of their information
within the five categories listed above.
Advanced searching options are
provided within each category.
NetAdvantage:
Company Information
NetAdvantage:
Industry Information
NetAdvantage:
Mutual Funds/ETFs
NetAdvantage:
Directories
Searching Methods:
Factiva
 Unlike
the categorization of
NetAdvantage, Factiva uses a more
advanced searching feature they call
“Search Builder” to construct your search
statements and desired information
return. See next slide for a screenshot.
Note that industry is set as the default
screen.
Factiva:
Search Builder
Similarities & Differences
For example, let’s look at company information. I
have chosen Deere and Company (of John Deere
fame), ticker symbol DE.
Comparisons:
 Both
NetAdvantage and Factiva provide
information on companies and industries,
as well as news sources about them. Look
at the next two slides, comparing the key
points. I’ll highlight key points of each in
RED ink.
Comparisons, cont.
Factiva Company Profile
Factiva offers
just a broad
overview,
highlighting
stock
information.
You can create a
company report, but it
is minimal, with an
emphasis on
financials.
Unlike
NetAdv.,
Factiva
focuses
on news.
Comparisons, cont.
NetAdvantage Company Profile
NetAdv.
Has a
MUCH
more
detailed
compan
y profile
than
Factiva,
with the
following
sections:
Notice news/press
releases. See next
slide to see how it
compares to
Factiva.
Comparisons, cont.
News Items: NetAdvantage
NetAdv. Only
provides NYSE
reports and press
releases from
principally Business
Wire and other
business news
sources.
Comparisons, cont.
News Items: Factiva—Latest News
Provides much more detailed bibliographic information about
the news articles. Also categorizes them, making them easily
searchable. Note the word count, similar to DIALOG.
Comparisons, cont.
News Items: Factiva—Web News
Note that the web news has different categories and comes from
different sources. In fact, the articles are different, too. Both latest news
and web news are very current.
Boolean, Search Strings,
etc.
Comments and Thoughts
Boolean and Searching
 While
you can certainly use Boolean and
search strings in these databases,
because of their content and design, they
are primarily menu-driven. You select
main categories of information and get
chose more and more specific results from
menus to retrieve your information.
Summary
Summary
 While
both databases cover an immense
amount of information, and cover a lot of
the same information, each specializes in
certain areas. NetAdvantage is extremely
thorough in industry and company
information, including financials. Factiva
provides the same information, but to a
lesser extent. However, Factiva provides a
more complete news coverage.
Summary, cont.
 Because
of the nature of these business
databases, searchers often seek the most
current information available. It is also a
known fact that the same information
from different databases can be quite
different, especially financial data. For this
reason, it is imperative to check multiple
databases and a company’s own
website to attempt to verify that you have
Summary, cont.
 the
most current data possible. It is
sometimes easier to use outside sources,
such as Yahoo Finance to find ticker
symbols and long-range stock
information. You could also supplement
this information with that which you find in
the databases. While this presentation
covers only a VERY small portion of the
available information contained within
Summary, cont.
 NetAdvantage
and Factiva, there is so
much more upon which I could have
elaborated.