What is Competitive
Intelligence (CI)?
Competitive Intelligence
is the ethical gathering
and analysis of
competitor and market
information from open
sources. This analysis
is used by organizations
to make better strategic
decisions.
Why is CI important?
Competitive Intelligence
offers a real strategic
advantage for many
businesses. Some of the
largest corporate
organizations have a
dedicated CI department,
while smaller businesses
often practice CI on an
ad hoc basis by
informally collecting
information from a
variety of internal and
external sources, such
as the Internet, trade
shows or conferences,
networking meetings or
even customers.
Competitive Intelligence
is of importance to any
business that wishes to
make better-informed
decisions.
How is Competitive
Intelligence different
from Business
Intelligence?
These terms are often
confused. Competitive
Intelligence, while
often involving the
analysis of some
quantitative measures,
generally is more
focused on qualitative
information than
quantitative market
research data. It is
primarily concerned with
the scanning and
tracking of market and
competitive news and
information through open
secondary sources and
primary interviewing.
Business Intelligence,
on the other hand, is
focused gathering,
storing and analyzing
customer data and
in-depth analysis of
business statistics,
most usually a
quantitative exercise.
Sometimes Competitive
Intelligence is employed
to help gain insight or
hard-to-find figures for
Business Intelligence
initiatives, but most
often they are related
disciplines, both of
which help senior
management to make more
informed decisions.
Is Competitive
Intelligence related to
Knowledge Management?
Competitive Intelligence
is considered to be a
“sub-set” of Knowledge
Management. The volumes
of data CI analysts must
utilize means they must
have good Knowledge
Management systems.
Consequently, a
Competitive Intelligence
Software usually is a
derivative of a
Knowledge Management
system that has been
tasked to more
specifically address the
unique needs of a CI
analyst.
How is Competitive
Intelligence different
from Market Research?
Here again, although
Market Research and
Competitive Intelligence
overlap, Market Research
has a tendency to focus
on gathering and
analyzing consumer
centric information,
usually through the
means of large scale
surveys and relying on
statistical analysis
software such as SPSS or
Online Analytical
Processing (OLAP). The
market research
assignments handled by a
Competitive Intelligence
department are generally
more defined business to
business data sets, and
are usually focused
around strategic
business topics, such as
Market Opportunity or
Market Entry
Assessments.
However,
many Market Research
departments are also
responsible for
competitive
intelligence, so the two
disciplines definitely
go hand-in-hand.
Is Competitive
Intelligence the same as
Corporate Espionage?
No, Competitive
Intelligence is the
ethical gathering
of non-proprietary, open
source data through the
means of secondary and
primary collection
techniques.
What does a firm like
Cipher do? How can you
help my business?
Cipher can help
complement and improve
the efficiency of your
competitive intelligence
efforts if you already
have a CI department.
Alternatively, we can
also serve as a virtual
Information Desk for
your organization if you
would like a
fully-serviced option.
Cipher can help with the
following types of
strategic research:
We can also help you design
and implement a customized
competitive intelligence software to enable you to
better manage your in-house
CI function. Our
Award-Winning and Best In
Class enterprise Competitive
Intelligence system
Knowledge.Works™
is currently deployed at
over 65 global
organizations.
Have a look
here for more information…
