Global Insight is a platform for exploring economic and statistical databases, not a database itself. It provides access to data sources depending on the user's institutional subscriptions. The document outlines the steps to use Global Insight, which include logging in, selecting a data source and search terms or browsing files, choosing data series, setting date ranges, selecting an output format, and downloading results. Users can obtain time series data in various frequencies like monthly, quarterly or yearly from sources like Statistics South Africa.