Information Broker
Information brokers are also referred to as infobrokers or information intermediaries. They are self-employed or salaried employees who deal with the research and evaluation of information on behalf of a client or their employer. Information brokers may, for example, prepare industry overviews, conduct economic research, or compile financial information.
Tasks of Information Brokers
When an information broker receives an order, he first analyzes exactly what information the client needs to meet his information requirements. Only then does he determine which sources he can draw on to research and obtain the required data. As soon as a database is available, it is selected and prepared according to the customer’s specifications and weightings. The information broker then provides the required data in a report or as a database, depending on the scope of the data.
Training as an information broker
In principle, anyone can call themselves an information broker, as this job title is not yet protected. However, anyone who wants to train specifically for this industry can take advantage of a variety of options. The courses of study Information Scientist and Diploma-Information are geared towards working as an information broker, as is the vocational training as a specialist for media and information services. In practice, it has also paid off for many information brokers to add specialized studies to their training in order to gain expertise in a particular industry. Given the variety of possible sources for information, it is common for information brokers to specialize in one or more industries.
Salaried and self-employed information brokers
Information brokers are predominantly salaried in large companies. Here, depending on the scope of the required research, they sometimes even maintain their own research departments. In small and medium-sized companies, however, this is usually not possible. For them, self-employed information brokers are the more cost-effective solution. Independent information brokers are additionally used by larger companies when they need special information from another industry that their own brokers cannot collect.
Transformation of the job description
The pure research activity of an information broker is less and less in demand. This is due to the fact that companies can now gather a great deal of information themselves through available online databases. Nevertheless, information brokers still have their raison d’etre. Today, however, their main activity is increasingly moving in the direction of evaluating data sets that are already available. This is due to the huge masses of information that can now be obtained very easily and cheaply. They make a speedy evaluation even more difficult. In this case, information brokers can take over the filtering and structuring of the data. Most information brokers offer further services for companies, for example, they act as business consultants or conduct training courses.
