Internal control of a company’s procedures is an essential part of business. It helps to keep track of productivity and holds the company workers to account. While internal monitoring procedures are part of the daily routine of most established companies and successful start-ups alike, there are other levels of monitoring which are vital to the efficiency of business.
First of all, looking away from your company and focusing on the surrounding market is vital for the creation and maintenance of a successful business model: this was recognised by Michael Porter’s influential theory, a reference model for business over the last three decades.
Laid out in 1979 at Harvard Business School, Porter’s five forces model recognizes the importance of the external environment surrounding a company and shows how a corporate strategy should be based upon careful analysis of the forces determining intensity of competition. More specifically, Porter pointed at how the analysis of competition can help businesses influence or exploit the characteristics of their industry.
The key areas of industry analysis are suppliers, competitors, buyers and substitutes. Within them, the difficulty for new business to start competing, the difficulty to substitute a product or service with cheaper ones, the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers and the existing competition are the main factors to be taken into account when conducting market research.
In 1979, however, market research was a laborious process that made the possibility to apply Porter’s theory carefully an expensive task for start-ups.
But things have changed greatly over the last three decades. In today’s internet era, most answers can be found online for free. Conveniently enough, you can now search for companies at Duedil as well as from other online services such as Company House WebCheck. This will help you answer many questions raised by Porter’s model, such as the strength of rivals, the position of sellers and the buyers’ role too.
The quantity and quality of company information available through these online services is staggering. Their databases include more than 8 million registered UK companies, making for a huge catalogue of the country’s businesses. With resources this wide, some may be dubious of the immediacy of the process. In fact, web-based company check services are all about making business quicker.
For a start, you will just need to register on the website – this can be done also via Linkedin, Facebook or Twitter, which will spare you filling in forms. Once registered, you’ll just need to type a company’s name into the search bar and all the vital data you need will show up in front of you. From the turnover, to profit figures, litigations and eventual fraud, relevant company information is at your fingertips, leaving nothing hidden.
We’re talking about reliable data, coming from authoritative sources such as Companies House, London Gazette, the FSA, the SFO, the Intellectual Property Office, the Office of Government Commerce and Ordinance Survey. With additional features giving you the chance to download documents, contact information, full corporate structures and director timelines, transparency is the name of the game for Duedil. If you want to move your business towards a more conscious approach to competitors and suppliers alike, this is the place to start from.
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Guest Author Bio
Helen Major 
Helen Major has a keen interest in business finance and has been writing for blogs and newspapers on the subject for a number of years. Recently, she has been consulting small and start-up businesses on building successful internet marketing campaigns.
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