CD-ROM Review

One-Stop Convergence Infomart

Rich Friedman

It's hard to get a handle on the convergence industry -- it's a fast-moving, growing, and changing beast.

For its CD-ROM, Deloitte & Touche defines convergence to include the following: on-line service providers, content companies, broadcast networks, consumer electronics companies, software developers, and telecommunications and cable companies. Deloitte & Touche convergence.d&t, a monthly CD-ROM service, contains news and analysis from industry newslett ers and trade journals; government reports from the FCC, White House, Congress, and Commerce Department; SEC filings from convergence-related companies; and exclusive analysis.

The CD-ROM is easy to navigate and search, but the $2495 question is, why pay that much money for a compilation of mostly already-published material? A better question to ask is how much time the CD-ROM will save you by providing all the information in one place. According to Deloitte & Touche, "You would have to visit more than 200 [Internet] sites to obtain equivalent content." Obviously, the company is selling convenience and the fact that the CD-ROM yearly charges are fixed as opposed to paying for on-line time with a service such as Nexis. From my quick perusal, there's much good information on the first edition.

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Where to Find

Deloitte & Touche convergence.d&t........$2495 12-month subscription
.........................................$4495 24-month subscription

Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group
P.O. Box 514
Fairport, NY 14450
Phone:    (888) 333-3824,
Fax:      (202) 986-2431
Internet: 
http://www.peerscape.com/converge


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Easy Does It

screen_link (88 Kbytes)

An uncluttered interface makes it easy to find what you want.