Fame and Orbis

Contents
To connect to Fame and Orbis on campus
To connect to Fame and Orbis off campus
How to use Fame and Orbis
Saving and printing records

Fame and Orbis are published by Bureau van Dijk and are available via the web on and off campus. This handout is not intended to give instructions on the use of these databases, but see the section below on the publisher's Fame and Orbis Quick Guides.

Fame contains the accounts and other details of over 130,000 of the largest active UK and Irish PLCs and their subsidiaries, including a number of private companies.

Orbis includes the accounts and other details of over 900,000 international companies, including the UK, with an operating revenue in excess of 10 million EUR (or 13 million USD).

Both databases can be used to find information on individual companies, to identify the major players in specific countries, regions and industries, to understand ownership structures, and to compare companies with their competitors. You can also create targeted mailing lists, for example using Fame to find engineering companies in Oxford with a turnover between £20-£250 million.

The search software, although it sometimes looks slightly different on Fame and Orbis, works in the same way and offers similar functionality. Searches can be made on over 100 different criteria, including company name, financials, growth rates, industry codes and descriptions, geography and number of employees.

Up to 10 years accounts history is given in standardised report formats, plus ratios, stock data (current and historic share prices for publicly-quoted companies), names of directors, major shareholders and subsidiaries. A wide range of analyses can be run, and data can be exported into Excel and displayed graphically.

An additional feature on Fame are credit ratings provided by Qui Credit Assessment Ltd, which rate companies according to risk bands, ranging from High Risk to Secure.

To connect to Fame and Orbis on campus

Fame - the on campus URL is: http://fame2.bvdep.com/ip

Orbis - the on campus URL is: http://orbis2.bvdep.com/ip

To connect to Fame and Orbis off campus

For off campus users this database uses Athens authentication. Log on first by clicking on the Athens login button at the bottom of the Brookes Library homepage:

http://www.brookes.ac.uk/library

Enter your Oxford Brookes Username and Password.

For the next 8 hours you will remain logged in to Athens so long as you do not close your browser. Click on the off campus URL for the database you require and you will automatically be connected.

Use the back button to navigate back to this page and click on the off campus URL:

Fame - http://fame2.bvdep.com/athens.aspx

Orbis - http://orbis2.bvdep.com/athens.aspx

If you have any problems contact: businesslibrarians@brookes.ac.uk

How to use Fame and Orbis

There are many features of Fame and Orbis that are difficult to describe in writing, so we recommend that you look at the exercise on using this database in our Virtual Learning Course "A guide to using business and economics databases", which covers most (not all) of the business databases. Every student and member of staff can register themselves by consulting the page on the Virtual Learning Course at: http://www.brookes.ac.uk/library/business/virtuallearning.html

However, for your convenience we have linked the exercise from here: https://www2.brookes.ac.uk/library/resources/How_to_use_Fame.pdf

This document is on the intranet, off campus users will have to enter their Brookes username and password to enter. Register for the course if you want to check the self-test results

Contact a member of the subject team at businesslibrarians@brookes.ac.uk if you have difficulties.

Additionally, user guides and quick tours can be found by clicking Help on both Fame and Orbis Home Pages.

Saving and printing records

You are recommended to print records directly. It is possible to save by selecting the "Export" command into a variety of formats: Excel, ASCII, Word etc. Instructions are available on the Support screens.