Searching FAME:

An Expert Search

Open your browser and type in the Learning Resources web address into the location bar ……..

• www.lr.mdx.ac.uk

• Select Electronic Resources

Make sure that you have set your institutional cookie

• Scroll down to the bottom of the Electronic Resources page and click on to the link

• Once you’ve clicked on to the link, a pop-up window will appear and then close automatically – you only need to do this once

Log into Athens

• Athens is an authenticating system that allows students to access Middlesex University databases outside of the university

• Click on to the Athens link

• Log in using your IT user ID and your network password and once you have accepted the terms and conditions, you will be presented with a list of databases

Searching FAME

• Scroll down and choose FAME from the list of databases

About FAME• FAME is a database that contains information

about companies in the UK and Ireland

• They provide extensive support from their user guide

FAME – Expert Search

• Begin by clicking on Expert Search

• While Expert Search sounds complicated, it actually provides more search criteria with which to search or exclude irrelevant companies

Finish with companies that exactly meet your criteria

Refine further choosing carefully so as not to exclude too many companies

If you have too many results, add another criteria

Refine by introducing broad but important criteria

Start you search with one or two basic criteria

Scenario

• Imagine that you want to search for a small company

• Click on to No of Employees on the left hand panel

• Set the number of employees to between 1 and 30

Refine the search• Reduce the number of small companies by

setting a geographical location

• Click on Geographical Location, search by County and then choose London

• Click on > so that it appears in the right hand panel

You could select several counties

Too many hits?....................

• You many need to select further criteria

Selecting further criteria

• Reduce the number of companies further by specifying the number of directors

• Click on Directors/Contacts and then No of Directors. Choose between 1 and 3 directors

Look at the results

• You may need to include further criteria to reduce your results

Specifying the Activity or Industry of your company

• Click on Major Sectors

• Choose Hotels and Restaurants, for example

• Click on > so that it appears in the right hand panel

Look at the results again

• Refining your results has meant a reduction from thousands to tens

Viewing your results

• In order to view the list of companies, click on the List tab making sure that the default, General format, is selected, click on ok

Choose a company with fewer than 10 employees

• Click twice on the heading of the final column in order to sort from 1 onwards

Odessa Trading Company Ltd

The Standard Report

• Double click on the company name and make sure that the Standard Report option on the left hand panel is clicked

The Standard Report

The Executive Report• The Executive Report gives a more graphic

view of company performance

Drawing out company Ratios

• From the Report Sections on the left hand panel, choose Ratios

Looking at the Ratios for OdessaTrading Company Ltd

Exporting the Standard Company Report into Excel

• Select the Export option at the top right hand side of the screen

Exporting the Standard Company Report into Excel

• Make sure that you choose a name for your report and that you have selected Excel

Exporting…..

• A pop-up window will appear

Opening the report• Double click on the link to open the report in

Excel

The End…..

Results

Refine

Reduce

Search