This is an approach when you use data gathered by someone else’s primary research. The use of secondary data can be very useful in terms of cost effectiveness. Before carrying out what could be a very expensive primary research, is there any secondary research or data that has already been done on the same subject matter? There are as always advantages and disadvantages to the use of secondary data. Some of the advantages can be the cost savings, its availability. A big advantage can be in the research of another organisation, data can be gathered on them without alerting them to research being done, for instance annual reports, details from company house and almost all companies now have web sites that contain a huge amount of data on them.