Financial Professionals: Information Usage, Preferences, and Challenges, Including Mobile Technology and Social Media

The extent to which financial professionals adopt new technologies for research, communication, and collaboration will guide product development in the credit and financial information industry in the next few years. This report analyzes key metrics from Outsell’s annual survey of knowledge workers that relate specifically to financial professionals, including findings relating to mobile technology and social media. Conducted in January 2011, this survey-based research garnered 1,780 responses from the corporate, education, government, and healthcare sectors in the US. This report breaks out data in the survey results that is specific to US financial professionals, and further segments the respondents into investment banker roles and finance roles. We’ve particularly focused on a number of issues related to these professionals’ usage of mobile technologies and social media. In addition, the data encompasses attitudes and preferences related to their overall information consumption and use. Marketers and product development specialists at publishers and information providers who are engaged with targeting offerings to this market segment will find the data provides a useful gauge of adoption levels and pain points in this community and suggests a number of opportunities to develop new products for the credit and financial information marketplace. This report contains:
- An overall look at US financial professionals’ information needs and habits
- Data and trends that depict core differences between two types of US financial professionals' information consumption
- Detailed data on use of mobile devices and social media
- Trends in individual content purchasing within the enterprise
- Data on spending related to devices, and mobile content
- Essential actions for publishers and information providers who want to keep up with US financial professionals' changing information expectations and habits