In a sector dominated by Thomson (with its Westlaw and Sweet & Maxwell services) and LexisNexis (including the Butterworths and Tolley brands), users of legal, regulatory, tax and patent information have little option but to go to a handful of suppliers.

Given this dominance, user complaints about high costs and poor customer relations are frequent.

“Although the sector boasts a lot about listening to customers, this is largely not so,” says one independent business information consultant. “Customer consultation is often just going through the motions because it’s expected or it looks good.”
“One key supplier introduced a new platform without adequately reflecting the needs of UK users and has been struggling ever since to change it to meet their requirements,” says a tax information purchaser at a large accountancy firm.
“Even the shortfalls in the content would not be so unpalatable if we were informed about them in advance, understood the rationale or had clearer information on what the content includes,” a librarian at a leading law firm adds.

“Downloads can be incredibly expensive. Mistakes can be even more costly,” an independent marketing research project manager says. She goes on to accuse one supplier of being “complacent in the service and support provided”.

As well as the Big Two, there is a clutch of specialists, with Jordan, the Practical Law Company and Informa cornering areas such as family, commercial and shipping law.

But some niche suppliers come in for criticism too. “Some of the smaller/niche suppliers still don’t make key works available online,” complains one knowledge manager. And a law librarian expresses frustration at “niche vendors pulling out of aggregation deals”.

So are the complaints justified? Not surprisingly, both LexisNexis and Thomson say they listen carefully to their customers.

“One of the most important messages we get from customers is the need for speed,” says a LexisNexis spokesman. “It was with this in mind that in March we upgraded the LexisNexis Know How product with a user-friendly search function of the 7,500 links to the LexisNexis Butterworths legal research platform.”

“Customers are now asking us for more effective ways of reducing the risks associated with non-compliance,” adds a Thomson Sweet & Maxell spokesperson. “Consult GEE is now launching Consult GEE Connect software, aimed at meeting these challenges head-on.”

LexisNexis adds that it does face competitive pressures: “Content that was previously impossible to access without a premium subscription is now often available for free on the web. New open solutions have been developed and consumer expectations have risen dramatically.”

“There is much free, cheap and reliable information out there on the web and these sites are regularly used,” acknowledges one group of government librarians. “The skill is the knowledge of such sites.”

However, the tax information specialist is not so sure of the value of free or low-cost alternatives. “This is a specialised area, so there are only limited possibilities because of the need for material to be accurate and up to date.”

So how much value do suppliers add?

“In many cases the suppliers have not actually written the information but simply formatted it, reissued it and marketed it, although publishers would say they add much value,” one user suggests.

Louise Green of Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing takes issue with this view. “BvDEP has always added value to company information by sourcing complementary data and linking multiple sources,” she says. “It’s currently looking to create further links from its company records to patent data to indicate which companies own which patents.”

One imminent development that will put the value-adders on their mettle is the European Commission’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid). This introduces from November new requirements for firms in the conduct of their business and internal organisation.

Convinced of the huge regulatory importance of Mifid, Thomson Financial is focused on offering Mifid-compliant solutions. “However,” its spokesman continues, “as implementation begins, it has all the hallmarks of turning into a protracted process due to a lack of clarification on deadlines and standardisation across the region.”
Users also seem cautious. “We have had little demand for such information so far,” say the government librarians. “A combination of free sites like the FSA’s and relevant financial text from the mainstream publishers is sufficient.”

Whatever developments take place within the legal and regulatory information sector, there’s little evidence of greater competitive pressures. Barriers to entry seem high ­ and end-users may bear some responsibility for this.

“I think it is a reflection of how the professions like law and accounting see themselves: their market power is derived from the fact that not everyone can do it,” suggests an information manager at a bank. “This exclusivity and set ‘way of the world’ informs how they operate, leading to a conservatism when sourcing information and a reliance on a few brand-name suppliers. This in turn has made competition and innovation pretty moribund in this part of the information world.”