21 free and paid sources of industry reports that you must know if in consulting — AskBrian - AI-Powered Digital Assistant for Business Professionals (2024)

Consultants help clients from different industries grow their businesses and address their most critical challenges. For them to be at their best, it is significantly important to know the sources of comprehensive reports and insights related to these industries so that they can provide sound advice in identifying market opportunities and developing effective business strategies.

Although there are multiple sources of industry information on the web, the information is usually chaotic and requires a lot of time to evaluate. For consultants, the most helpful sources are those offering:

• A comprehensive view of a particular industry
• Proprietary knowledge and usually difficult to find insights
• Multiple perspectives from across the globe
• Deeper insights going below the surface
• Megatrends and disruptive developments

At AskBrian, we are on a constant look for the best data available, so we can help consultants do their job best. We integrate both paid and free sources in our AI assistant for professionals – Brian. This time, we did a detailed screening of various information industry sources from around the world, and here we would like to share the results covering the leading providers in the field.

These sources offer detailed proprietary industry research to their users, gathered from expert networks worldwide and from multiple secondary sources available online.

We have noticed that almost all of these leading sources offer industry reports on a paid basis. However, there are a couple of them where you can find quality industry information free of cost. Consulting firms often share their thematic research work for free, and many of the research firms also provide some sources and sample reports free of cost too.

In addition to these providers, there are brokerage houses and research arms of large investment banks that also share insights on various industries. We have decided to exclude them from the scope of this study.

We have described these sources in 4 categories based on their focus, geographic coverage, and content type.

A) Large industry intelligence firms with global coverage:

1. Statista: Statista is one of the leading providers of market, industry, and consumer data globally. Statista offers comprehensive data on industries, including industry overviews, size, revenues, and the number of employees, as well as the latest information about the state of the industries, trends, and forecasts.

Scope of coverage: Insights and facts across 170 industries and 150 + countries

Website: https://www.statista.com/studies-and-reports/industries-and-markets

2. Moody’s: Moody’s is one of the largest rating companies globally. It also provides proprietary research on multiple industries for all major markets. Moody’s global coverage and expertise help business leaders and decision-makers with the most relevant and detailed insights into these industries.

Scope of coverage: 50 industry verticals and sub-segments worldwide.

Website: https://www.moodys.com/researchandratings/home

3. IHS Markit (part of S&P Global): IHS Markit is a leading provider of research and analytics to customers in business, finance, and government worldwide. IHS Markit has a large team distributed worldwide that helps them prepare strategic insights on numerous industries in multiple geographies.

Scope of coverage: IHS Markit covers 55+ industries in all major markets worldwide. The user can also search reports using any of the 350+ topics.

Website: https://ihsmarkit.com/research-analysis/index.html

4. Fitch Solutions: Fitch Solutions industry research offers high-quality business intelligence that helps clients better understand the opportunities and risks they face, particularly in emerging and frontier markets. It has years of historical data on industries and offers comprehensive industry forecasts to its users.

Scope of coverage: Research on 24 industries in 200 +economies

Website: https://www.fitchsolutions.com/products/industry-research

5. S&P Global: S&P Global is one of the leading providers of market intelligence and proprietary research gathered from millions of sources across the globe. It provides industry-specific performance metrics to M&A data, insightful news, forecasts, financials, ratios, and analytics, which is difficult to get from other sources.

Scope of coverage: S&P Global has deep sector-specific intelligence on energy, financial institutions, fintech, industrials, maritime & trade, metals & mining, Technology, Media, Telecoms, real estate, retail, construction, and commodities.

Website: https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/campaigns/sector-coverage

6. Bloomberg Intelligence (BI): Bloomberg is one of the largest providers of market intelligence and proprietary research worldwide. BI aggregates data from proprietary Bloomberg sources and multiple third-party providers into interactive charts and research. The platform covers key performance factors, thematic issues, and profitability and valuation drivers for each industry. Its clients include large corporations, government agencies, financial institutions, investment firms, academic institutions, and others.

Scope of coverage: Industry research coverage spans all 10 major sectors and 135+ industries.

Website: https://www.bloomberg.com/professional/product/bloomberg-intelligence/

7. Frost & Sullivan: Frost & Sullivan is a consulting and research firm, which generates intelligence spanning multiple industries and geographies using a powerful understanding of how value chains operate on a global level. For each industry, it shares perspectives on competitive intensity, customer dynamics, disruptive trends, and emerging markets.

Scope of coverage: 21 industry verticals and multiple sub-segments and sectors within those industry verticals.

Website: https://www.frost.com/research/

8. Gartner: Gartner is one of the leading research firms and shares its research both through private consulting as well as executive programs and conferences. Its clients include large corporations, government agencies, technology companies, and investment firms.

Scope of coverage: Gartner offers comprehensive coverage of 9 industries and many sub-sectors. The company operates in 100 +countries.

Website: https://www.gartner.com/en

9. MarketResearch: MarketResearch.com is the leading provider of industry intelligence for businesses, consultants, investors, and many others. It covers every sector of the economy as well as emerging industries worldwide.

Scope of coverage: MarketResearch covers around 1,000 industries, sectors, and sub-segments across multiple geographies worldwide.

Website: https://www.marketresearch.com/browse/taxindex.asp

10. Mordor Intelligence: Mordor Intelligence is another source of intelligence in various industries. It relies on expert networks in 100+ countries across the value chains of different markets to source the latest data and insights. It also sources information from a large network of reputed publishers.

Scope of coverage: 20 industry verticals and 150 segments within those industry verticals

Website: https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports

B) Research providers focusing on specific markets or niche sectors:

11. Mergent First Research (a Dun & Bradstreet company): First Research is the leading provider of industry intelligence for sales and marketing professionals to help them prepare better for client interactions. For each industry, it covers industry overview, financial information, outlook, top challenges, key trends, opportunities, news, and social media updates. First Research customers include leading companies in banking, accounting, technology, telecommunications, business process outsourcing, and professional services.

Scope of coverage: Mergent covers hundreds of industries and over 1,000 segments with a high focus on the North American region.

Website: https://mergent.firstresearch-learn.com/

12. IBIS World: IBIS Worlds offers industry research reports on multiple industries in different geographies. For each industry, the user gets information on industry performance, outlook, products, markets, competitive landscape, major companies, and key statistics. IBIS also provides risk ratings, financial ratios, and important data on these industries.

Scope of coverage: IBIS World covers around 25 industries, and within these industries, it has reports on hundreds of sub-industries and sectors. Geography-wise, IBIS covers Europe, North America, China, and Australia.

Website: https://www.ibisworld.com/products/industry-research/

13. EMIS Intelligence: EMIS is one of the leading providers of industry intelligence for emerging markets. It sources information from its analysts and by integrating intelligence from local providers of news, analysis and data in these markets.

Scope of coverage: It offers detailed coverage of 14 industries in over 197 emerging markets.

Website: https://www.emis.com/industries

14. BCC Research: BCC Research provides detailed market research reports assessing growth opportunities, market sizing, the latest trends, supply chains, and companies helping decision-makers make informed business decisions.

Scope of coverage: BCC Research library includes numerous reports covering 25 categories in Life Science, Materials, Sensors, Commerce, and Environment/Sustainability.

Website: https://www.bccresearch.com/market-research

15. Mintel: Mintel is the leading provider of market reports for CPG (Consumer packaged goods) industries. It also covers other industries like travel, healthcare, e-commerce, telecom, electrical goods, and financial services. For these industries or verticals, it covers industry size, key players, customer segments, outlook, trends, consumer behavior, and other insights.

Scope of coverage: Mintel provides industry reports for 150 +industries and industry verticals, including 60 major CPG categories in 34 markets.

Website: https://store.mintel.com/browse-mintel-reports-by-industry-vertical-market

16. BIS Research: BIS Research provides intelligence on innovative technologies such as precision medicine, medical devices, artificial intelligence, machine learning, the Internet of Things, blockchain technology, 3D printing, robotics, and UAVs.

Scope of coverage: 11 industry verticals and 45 segments within those verticals

Website: https://bisresearch.com/industry-reports

17. Technavio: Technavio is a technology advisory and research firm that focuses on emerging tech trends to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies. Their clients include end users, consulting companies, technology suppliers, investment firms, and research institutes.

Scope of coverage: 10 industry verticals and 120 +segments within those industry verticals. They cover 800 +technologies in 50 +countries.

Website: https://www.technavio.com/industries/

C) Industry reports by global consulting firms:

Industry insights by leading consulting companies: The leading global consulting companies work alongside clients on their most critical challenges around the world, which often results in new industry perspectives and insights. These companies keep sharing strategic insights on multiple industries regularly. Most of the strategic reports by consulting companies are available for free.

Scope of coverage:

Note: *Within these industries, there are many sectors/subsegments covered

D) Some special providers of industry intelligence:

19. Damodaran data: Damodaran research offers 80 KPIs for 100 industries for the last five years based on public companies. These 80 KPIs cover eight categories – operative efficiency, capital efficiency, growth, working capital, capital structure, cost of capital, risk, and multiples. This information is available free of cost.

Scope of coverage: The user can get these KPIs at a Global, Europe, and Emerging Markets level and also for the US, Japan, China, and India.

Website: https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/datacurrent.html

20. Primerli: Primerli offers concise industry primers/briefs in video formats tailored to the needs of consultants. Its goal is to teach anyone the fundamentals of an industry in under an hour. Basics of an industry – key products, value chain, etc.

Scope of coverage: 25 +industries (a constantly expanding library)

Website: https://www.primerli.com/pages/home

21. AskBrian: Brian offers 80 KPIs for 100 industries as it has integrated Damodaran research data into its offering. Additionally, we are also working on an “Industry brief” skill, which will combine information from structured (Damodaran research, Refinitiv, Contify, etc.) and unstructured (GPT-3) sources to generate a comprehensive brief on selected industries for Brian’s users.

Scope of coverage: For each industry, a user will get the following information:

• Slides created using customized GPT-3 prompts: These slides will cover useful info on a select industry, including intro, value chain, Porter’s forces analysis, and key trends
• 80 industry KPIs from Damodaran’s research
• List of public companies sourced from Refinitiv
• Most recent 20 news articles for the industry from Contify

Website: https://www.askbrian.ai/skills/#IndustryReport

We hope you found these industry sources helpful for your work!

About the author

Jeewan Gaur works as product manager and customer success manager at AskBrian. He has more than 10 years of experience of working with start-ups, consulting as well as large firms. Before joining AskBrian, Jeewan worked at CRISIL Ltd (a Standard and Poor’s company) and BCG Knowledge in Mumbai, India.