Desk research, records compilation and structured reporting.
Network Northwest Limited is an independent information-services bureau working from Chorley, in Lancashire. A client brings a question its own files cannot settle. We work through the sources that can settle it, put the findings into an ordered and referenced document, and hand that document back in a form which can be read, checked and acted upon.
What the bureau does
Six kinds of work make up almost everything that passes across the desk. Most briefs combine two or three of them.
- Desk research
- A brief arrives as a question. We work out which public registers, published material and client-supplied documents are capable of answering it, read through them in a set order, and note where each finding came from as we go.
- Records compilation
- Loose material — spreadsheets, exported lists, correspondence, paper returns — is gathered into one ordered set. Duplicates are collapsed, fields are made consistent, and the set is arranged so that one row means one thing.
- Structured reporting
- Findings go into a fixed shape: what was asked, which sources were searched, what was found, and what remains open. Because the shape does not move between reports, two of them can be laid side by side and compared.
- Checking and reconciliation
- Where two sources disagree, the disagreement is written down and shown as it stands, with both readings kept side by side. The reader decides what to do with it, and can see exactly what the conflict was.
- Source referencing
- Every statement in a report is tied back to the material it came from, so that a colleague who was not part of the work can follow any single line back to its origin and satisfy themselves independently.
- Update cycles
- Where a body of information is expected to move, the same searches are re-run on an agreed cycle. The report that follows sets out what has changed since the previous pass, and what has stayed as it was.
How an engagement runs
Three stages, in order. Select a stage to read what happens inside it.
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We write the question down in one sentence and agree it with you before anything is searched. Alongside it we record what a useful answer would look like, which sources are in scope, which material you will supply, and what the report has to be able to support once it lands.
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The agreed sources are worked through in sequence and the results are compiled into a single ordered set as they arrive. Anything ambiguous is flagged where it sits instead of being smoothed over, and if the search turns up a reason to widen or narrow the scope, that comes back to you before the extra work is done.
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You receive the report in the structure set out above, with the source references attached and the open points listed plainly at the end. Where the compiled records are themselves part of the deliverable, they are handed over in an open, readable format alongside a short note describing how the fields are laid out.
Putting a brief to us
Enquiries reach the bureau by email, and a short message is enough to begin. It helps if you can include:
- the question you want settled, in your own words;
- what the answer will be used for, so the depth can be matched to it;
- any material you already hold and can supply;
- the date by which the work needs to be finished;
- the format the report or records should arrive in.
Registered office
NETWORK NORTHWEST LIMITED65 Lydiate Lane
Eccleston
Chorley
PR7 6LX
United Kingdom
Correspondence sent to the registered office reaches the same people who answer the email enquiries.