EBSCO is an information service provider and its research offerings can be found in almost all academic business libraries and many public libraries. Researching suppliers requires access to financial and industry/market information and best practices/operations research can be found in scholarly, management and trade journals. EBSCO databases are popular with business researchers because of the excellent search capabilities that allow you to easily find targeted information. The key is to use the advanced search feature and all the refinement features, such as narrowing by date and type of publication. EBSCO offers three products that are useful to procurement professionals: 1) Business Source Corporate, 2) Business Source Elite, and 3) Regional Business News.
Business Source Corporate provides access to full-text general business periodicals, business management journals, and trade publications such as Chemical Week and American Banker. There are country economic reports from Business Monitor Unit, Global Insights, and Country Watch to name a few. You can find company profiles with excellent SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis reports and full-text industry reports. Business Source Elite is a popular database with an academic focus and is often the business database of choice for public libraries. It provides access to scholarly business and trade journals, in addition to company reports that feature the SWOT analysis section. Regional Business News provides business publications on a regional level for the U.S. and Canada, containing business journals, newspapers and newswires. These regional publications are helpful when researching small and/or private companies and is also a database that is found in many public libraries.