Intelligence Solutions Through the Use of Expert Tools_CIM_March_April_09

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global makts. Th abo sults clalyidicat that most Isali compaisthat ha CI fuctios a ot usigay CI xpt tool.

I Isal, a compay with $30-50 Millio i us is cosiddmdium sizd, ad high us

maks it a lag compay. I th SeTistalld bas, fi fims with $30-50millio i sals, 16 with mo tha$50 millio. SeT is cosidd usfulmaily fo lag fims i th localmakt, although w s th is also admad amog small fims.

CI uits i Isal gally cosistof a staff of o opatig udcosidabl pssu to dli sultswhil wokig with a limitd allocatio

of soucs. I th SeT istalld

bas, 16 of th fims had oly o CIpofssioal, ad oly fi had motha o. Th small siz of ths CIuits ga aso to bli that fistclass xpt tools might b wlcomdad would play a sigificat ol iimpoig thi pfomac. As w cas, how, th xpctatios w otmt.

THE SCOPE OF THE RESEARCHAs show abo i Tabl 1, 21 SeT

systms w sold i Isal btw2000 ad 2007. eight of th popli th compais who puchasd th

systm took a acti pat i thissach. Thos who optd out of thissach did so fo asos that a otlat to th study.

This sach was coductdpimaily though psoal itiws.Duig 2008, I mt ach of th CIpofssioals i th 18 compais addiscussd with thm th qustioaioutlid blow. Sio xcutisiold i th CI pocss w otdictly itiwd, but I lad of

thi iws though th CI pofssioalswho paticipatd i th suy. Ialso spok with CI pofssioals ofcompais that did ot puchas SeTto ha thi iws.

Question 1. Who initiate acquiring

the SET?

Results (18):

CI pofssioal (15)Sio xcuti (2)

Oth (1)

Th pupos of this qustio wasto fid out who iitiatd th pocss ofxploig th oppotuity of acquiigth SeT i ach fim. Th sults showthat it was usually puchasd at thiitiati of th CI uit. A follow-upqustio ald that sio xcutisw gally ot iold util thfial stag of th acquisitio dspitth ffots of thi CI staff to iol

thm ali. How, my impssio

was that th CI staff mad isufficitffots to cuit th xcutis fomth outst fo fa that thy would otsuppot th puchas pocss.

Question 2. What were the mainreasons for purchasing the SET?

Results (18):

GeneraldesiretoimproveCIcapabilitis (4)

CI pofssioals flt thy ddbtt tools (10)

Usatisfactoy sults fom CI tomt xcutis ds (4)

This qustio attmptd to

dtmi th mai motis bhid thdcisio to acqui th SeT. A follow-up qustio foud that it took quita log tim, i som cass up to sixmoths, to acqui ital appoalfo th puchas. Th sposs suggstthat th aso fo puchasig th SeTpoduct cam pimaily fom th CIstaff, who flt that thy could pfombtt by usig hacd tools.

Question 3. What was the overa

satisfaction with CI proucts inthe firm before instaing SET?

Results(18) (1=lowest, 5=highest):ratig 3 (10)ratig 4 (8)

This qustio was focusd odiscoig th ll of satisfactio withth CI fom th poit of iw of thxcutis as obsd by th CI staff.It appas that th CI dictos wssiti to th d to supply btt

d poducts ad flt that utilizig axpt tool would allow thm to dlihigh alu pots to thi italcustoms.

Question 4. What was the overa

satisfaction of CI users 6 to 12months after SET was instae?

Results(18) (1=lowest, 5=highest):ratig 3 (8)ratig 4 (9)

ratig 5 (1)

Industry Number of firms

Telecom 4

Food 2

Defense 2

Pharma 2

Finance 1

2

Energy 2

Advertising 2

Medicaldevices

2

Hi-Tech 2

Total 21

TABlE 2: SET SySTEMSINSTAllEd By INdUSTRIES

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This qustio sought to discowhth th istallatio ad us of thSeT xpt tools chagd th llof CI spos to th ds of thixcutis. Compaig th sults

of qustios umb 3 ad 4, it isappat that th ll of satisfactioattibutd to th CI poducts aftactiatig th SeT is high, but thchag is ot damatic. Ths sults acosistt with my cottio that SeTad pogams simila to it a mlytools ad CI has oth issus to addssfo btt pfomac, which w otcod i this suy.

Question No. 5. In our best

jugment, how much i SETcontribute to our CI performance?

This qustio attmptd toidtify how SeT has cotibutdto CI fom th poit of iw of thCI pofssioals. Th sults idicatthat th fomost impomt wasachid i th aalysis pocss, butth satisfactio ll with spct to thgathig pfomac of th SeT waslow. Usig th SeT, th CI staff bcammo ffcti whil thi pcptiowas that thi pofssioal putatio

had impod. A futh qustio

ald that all th spodts xcpto idicatd that its lack of a alywaig systm was sigificat. It mustb mphasizd that th high sco foimpoig KIT maagmt shows

that CI uits d tools that will hlpthm to fulfill may missios thy usimultaously.

Th dlops of th SeT haadmittd that th stogst capabilityof th systm was i th aalysis, whilgathig was cosidd lss ffcti.Thy flt that th pimay challgof CI lis i th aalysis ad this iswh CI is xpctd to gi maigfuladdd alu. Thy took th ifomatiogathd i this study ad itdto impo th systms gathigcapabilitis.

Question 6. Has the SET fufie

our initia expectations?

Results (18):

Ys (16)Modatly (2)no (0)

This qustio attmptd to fidout th bottom-li pspcti ofhow satisfid th CI staff was with

th SeT. Th sults show that th

CI staff faod th SeT, thoughwith som satios, as idicatdi th sposs to Qustio 5. Thxpctatio that th SeT would dlopito a mo adacd tool was oly

patially mt.

Question 7. What was the reason

for eciing not to purchase SET?

Results (12):

Lack of soucs/ too xpsi (5)not impotat ough (5)Did ot mt ou ds (1)Ha aoth solutio (1)

This fial qustio was askd ofth twl CI dictos of compaisthat ultimatly dcidd ot to buy thSeT. Thy had all s pstatiosof th SeT ad had gi siouscosidatio to bcomig quippdwith this systm.

It appas to m that th is adict colatio btw th lack ofsoucs ad ot impotat oughsposs. My pspcti is that if thtool was foud to b impotat ough,thy would ha foud th soucs tobuy th systm.

Total 5(Highest)

4 3 2 1(Lowest)

18 - - 3 5 10 Improved gathering process

18 - 528%

844%

528%

- Improved analysis and final CIproducts

18 - 3 15 - - Improved CI dissemination

18 8 10 - - - Improved KIT management

18 - 9 9 - - Improved CI efficiency

18 2 8 8 - - Improved CI reputation

TABlE 3: SET CONTRIBUTION TO CI WORk



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CONClUSIONSSic th mid-1990s, Isal has

b cogizd fo its outstadig

softwa poducts i a wid ag ofidustis sold succssfully woldwid.expt tools fo CI ha also acquid astog putatio, as dmostatd byth ct Fuld ad Compay softwapot.

My 2006 pap idicatd that thpictu gadig th adoptio of CItools i Isal was mo complicatdtha oigially thought. Whil CIhas had slow but stady gowth, itssuppot tools ha suffd fom alimitd distibutio. Th apid gowthof th softwa idusty i Isal hasaffctd th dlopmt of spcificCI solutios, but ufotuatly thdmad has b low tha xpctd.

Th SeT poduct did ot gaimomtum o bcom a cotioalitlligc solutio fo th localCI makt ds. Th gap btwth high xpctatios of SeT ad itslow sals sults was ot oly a gatdisappoitmt; it also discouagdffots to futh dlop this solutio.

This focusd study ald thatlocal fims w ot ppad to isti w CI tools that would abl CIpofssioals to pfom btt. As asult, most CI pofssioals ha tocotiu usig gic tools lik Offic,which offs usatisfactoy solutios tothi CI pogam ds.

My discussios with th compaisald that may xcutis didot suppot thi CI staff mmbs

qusts to puchas SeT, possibly as asult of ot udstadig CI dsath tha a lack of soucs. Thishas implicatios fo th isio of thpottial alu of CI.

This study shows that th high llCI solutio has ot achd its pottialtagt makt du to a lack of suppotby sio xcutis who did ot s itas citical to mo CI fowad i thifims. A tchological solutio caotbcom a stadad i a idustywithout big cogizd as such bythos who a makig th dcisios adallocatig th soucs fo this pupos.

Fially, whil th SeT was otth pfct solutio, it was a toolthat impod CI pfomac ith compais that implmtd it.This obsatio poids additioalcouagmt to cotiu pstigCI discipli, its busiss alu adds i xcuti dlopmtpogams ad acadmia, ad to makducatio o this subjct a itgalpat of th actiitis of y CIdicto.

REFERENCESBaa, A (2005). Lik aalysis as

a tool fo comptiti itlligc.Competitive Intelligence Magazine,v8/4 4 July-August.

Baa, A (2006). Isal studyo comptiti itlligc.Competitive Intelligence Magazine,v9/2, Mach- Apil.

Baa, A (2006). Why stat-up compais fail to adopt CI.Competitive Intelligence Magazine,v9/1, Jauay-Fbuay.

Baa, A (2007). Why is CImthodology still bhidCItchology tools? CompetitiveIntelligence Magazine, v10/3, May-Ju.

Fuld, Load (2008). IntelligenceSoftware Report 2008-2009http://www.fuld.com/Products/ISR2008/HomePage.html.

Avner Barnea is a former senior memberof the Israeli Intelligence Community.He holds a MA from the HebrewUniversity of Jerusalem and graduatedfrom the Top Executive Program inMarketing Management from the TelAviv University Graduate School ofBusiness Administration. He is a strategicconsultant in the field of competitiveintelligence and business strategy in Israeland abroad. A lecturer on competitiveintelligence in the MBA program of the

Ono Academic College, Avner is also aguest lecturer on competitive intelligenceat the Hebrew University of JerusalemBusiness School and in various businessexecutive training programs. He hasextensive experience in the integration ofcompetitive intelligence systems in Israelicorporations. Avner can be reached at:[email protected].


Intelligence Solutions Through the Use of Expert Tools_CIM_March_April_09

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