Research, Tools and Tips!
During transcription one comes across a variety of company specific terms, financial figures, financial terms, participant names, analyst names, et cetera that need to be researched before being put in a transcript.
Knowing how and where to find the information that needs to be verified helps a transcriber save time and effort spent on researching. Secondly, every term that you research for should come from a reliable source for you to be sure that it has the right spelling and format. Google will search for you, but it is you who decides, what’s the right term?
Here we will try to learn about the three basic questions in Researching:
1) What to Research?
2) Where to Research?
3) How to Research?
But first, let’s learn, what’s reliable and unreliable source of information?
The internet is a database containing millions of webpages. To mine this and get the right information is very important. For a transcriber, this poses a problem as to whether what he has researched is the right term or not. So he has to make sure what he gets is from a reliable source.
Here is a list showing the various sources at a transcriptionist’s disposition that he can use to research listed in the order of reliability, the first being the most reliable and the last being the least:
1) Company Website
2) Press Release for the Event covered.
3) Annual Report of the Company.
4) SEC Filings of the Company.
5) Previous Conference Call Transcript of the Company if available for reference.
6) Website of companies related to the Company holding the event, i.e., Competitors, Joint Venture Partners, et cetera.
7) Google Search Results
Please note: Google searches for the query term in the cache or snapshot of webpages taken at an earlier point of time, so the results shown in Google Search Results page is not current, and there is a probability that changes have been made to the webpage. Hence it is always advisable to open the link and verify the data before putting it in your transcript.
Now let’s learn What, Where, and How to Research!
1) Forward-Looking Statements: Forward-Looking Statements can be verified from the company’s press release or previous transcript, but it should be noted that the previous transcript is prepared not at the company end, so reliability is less, and thus press release should be considered for verification first.
2) Corporate Executive Names and Designations: This can be verified from the Officers and Directors list provided at the Company website. If an Officers and Directors list is not provided on the Company’s Website, refer Google Finance or Yahoo Finance to get Corporate Executive Names and Designations. Alternatively a company’s Annual Report also contains a list of Officers and Directors of the Company.
To research Investor Relations Officer’s name and designation go to the Contact Information Page, Investor Relations Home Page, and lastly the company’s press release page.
If all these resources are exhausted and you don’t find the name and designation of a particular Corporate Executive, do a proper Site Search (explained below) on the company’s website which will surely give you the required information.
3) Financial Figures: This can be verified from the company’s current press release. Usually comparison in financial figures is done with the previous quarter figures and a year ago quarter result, i.e., Q2 this year will be compared with Q1 of this year, and Q2 of previous year. Thus it is advisable to open the press releases for the other two quarters as well.
Quite a few times a little common sense and a simple calculator can be used to solve the problem.
E.g.:
a) The EPS of the company [increased/decreased] from $1.20 to $1.25.
Here just by looking at the numbers you can tell that the speaker is saying increased, and not decreased.
b) The company repurchased [215,000/250,000] shares for a total amount of $2.95 million at a rate of $13.75 per share.
Here a simple calculation of dividing the total amount with the amount per share would give you the answer 215,000 shares. i.e., 2950000/13.75 = 214545.45, approximately 215,000 shares.
Formatting of financial figures is very important. The company uses either the currency symbol ($) or currency code (USD) for denoting financial figures. Normally, what’s used in the press release should be used, but client specification can be otherwise and you will have to follow that.
Also always do check the base currency used by the company. This is very important because if the company speaker says a figure in cents and its base currency is Euro, then chances are that he is hinting towards Euro cents and not cents in Dollar terms, i.e., three cents will be €0.03 and not $0.03.
4) Mergers, Acquisitions & Divestments: This information can be confirmed using the Acquisition & Divestment page of a company. If it is not provided then the history page of the company may have the information you are searching for. If all else fails, do Relative Site Search (explained below).
5) Competitors, JV Partners, etc.: This information can be found at Google Finance Page and Hoover
E.g.: Google Finance Page for HEI : This site gives a list of related companies. As a company’s Competitors and Partners are companies in the same field of operations, this list helps.
Hoover's Inc. Company Fact Sheet for HEI : This site provides a short list of Competitors, usually three.
Note: Both these sites are third-party sites and it is advisable to go to the company’s website you are searching for, and check the spelling and format of the company’s name.
6) Industry Specific Terms: General terms related to a specific industry like jack-up, white goods, drill bit, generic drugs, et cetera are not known by everyone. A transcriber to have knowledge of all the industry specific terms of various industries is very difficult. Hence it is advisable to check the glossary provided by the company for such terms. If a glossary is not provided by the company you are covering, checking out a glossary of that specific industry helps.
Please note always check the company website through a Site Search for the specific term as the formatting might be different that the one you get as result, i.e., jack-up, jack up, jackup.
7) Company Specific Terms: Brand Names, Processes, Promotions, other initiatives taken by the company, et cetera come under this category. Annual Report, Previous Transcript, Press Release and SEC filings can be used as resources to mine this information. Site Search also helps.
8) Geographic Names: All resources used for Company Specific Terms can be used to mine this information. But the most useful site to get the Geographic Names of places you haven’t heard before is the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names Online. Please read the Search Tips below, it explains the wildcard search option built in the site.
Please note that Geographic Names do change over time. To be sure of what you get is the right result, do a Site Search. If you don’t get the desired result, do a Google Search for the name, it will surely give you the different variations used. You can use the Geographic Name after verifying through a Site Search.
9) General English Terms: The English Word Repository is growing day by day. Everyday new words are added. Nowadays even Indian words like Mantra, Guru, Pundit, et cetera are used in General English Usage. For a transcriber to know all the words, their variations and meaning is impossible. The best site to search for General English Terms that you have come across for the first time is OneLook.com. Here you can do wildcard search which is very useful even if you listen only part of the word.
Note: It is very important that you read the meaning of the word that you researched, and see whether it fits in the context of the sentence you are transcribing or editing.
E.g.: Mr. John [alluded/eluded] to the fact that we are going to increase our shareholding.
Allude means hint, suggest, refer; and Elude means escape, shun, dodge.
Thus ‘alluded’ makes sense when used in the sentence, and not ‘eluded.’
10)Analyst Names: This information can be verified either by the Company’s Analyst Coverage Page or Company Star Analysts List provided by Yahoo.
E.g.: HEI’s Analyst Coverage
Note: Both the Company Analyst Coverage Page and Yahoo Star Analysts Page are third-party sites with respect to analyst names, so it is always advisable to get the correct formatting and spelling of the Analyst Names by doing a Site Search for their name on their respective company sites.
E.g.: David Parker should be researched for at Robert W. Baird’s website.
Site Search, Relative Site Search, and Date Range
1) Google Site Search: You have heard about Site Search a lot of times, for sure it’s important. Let’s learn how to do it properly. Basically Site Search is done by putting the name of the website you want to search after the syntax “site:”
But if you browse the www.randstad.com site, you will realize that the Investor Relations’ section of the company website has a different URL that the company website, i.e., www.ir.randstad.com.
Now for a transcriber or editor, the Investor Relations section is where all the information can be found, as it contains the archives of all the press release of the company and other important data. Hence searching the IR site rather than the company website would be more useful to get the required information.
Note: Click on both the examples provided above, you will notice that though the number of results you get from searching the IR site is less, it is more targeted and accurate.
Many companies IR sites are managed by companies like EDGAR Online, SNL Financial, et cetera.
These IR site management companies cover various companies, and doing Site Search on these sites will churn out results that are not accurate and targeted. To get a more accurate result, all you have to do is insert the company name as query input.
2) Relative Site Search: This is an advanced type of Site Search, where you search for not only the query term but also words synonymous and other word variations of the query term. This is done by simply putting the tilde “~” sign in front of the query term.
Using the “~” sign before the query input acquisition gives results for merger, acquired, acquires, acquire, et cetera.
3) Date Range
Clicking on this will open up the sidebar with options for you to use.
Note: To understand this fully, do some Google Search and click on the various options to see yourself how this helps.
Happy Researching!
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