Archive for the 'Economic Intelligence' Category

Intelligence “R” US: Innovative Economic Development Practices in Mauricie, Québec

Published
by
Isabelle Poirier
on February 1, 2010
in Author-Isabelle Poirier, Economic Development, Economic Intelligence, Investment Attraction and Social Media Marketing
. 2 Comments

New economic development practices in a region is not the result of a sole leader. Changing the economic landscape of a region will be the work of individuals who collectively engage into innovative economic development practices.

Last week, I had the opportunity with my colleague Aicha Habiby to conduct the seminar, “Optimize Investment Attraction Strategy Through Information and Social Media Applications“.  Sixteen participants representing different sub-regions in the Mauricie Region gathered in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. Canada.

It was a busy day :-) Needless to say that because this course was computer based and we were more than happy to provide this training as a team. All participants agreed to start slowly but surely embraced social media tools to improve their regional investment attraction strategy and place their region on the radar of investors and site selectors. The process included achieving the following goals:

  • Establishing their “web identity” on social networks
  • Putting into place an information monitoring system
  • Improving their web researching skills by learning advanced research techniques using web 1.0 tools and sources, social media applications and real-time search engines
  • Generating “Intelligence” using specific analysis frameworks for investment attraction
  • Nurturing their virtual and real life communities by sharing information and knowledge
  • Being aware of key success factors and best practices for their future communication strategy

For quite awhile,  investment attraction techniques have included taking advantage of the web 1.0 however; it was just the beginning.  By tapping into the new applications on the internet,  the participants can now efficiently benchmark their region, target leads and promote their region.

If you want to know more about economic development opportunities in Mauricie, you can get in touch “within a click” with the following professionals:

At the end of the day, interesting opportunities are just one click or one phone call away from you… It’s yours to discover :-)

Search For Breaking News With Yahoo

Published
by
Ian Smith
on November 20, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith and Economic Intelligence
. 0 Comments

Here is a tip for those who can not get enough breaking news especially if it is related to economic development.

Yahoo now provides breaking news content in the form of videos, photographs and tweets.  Figure 1 illustrates the result’s page for the search query, “Obama”.

Figure 1: Yahoo Search Query For “Obama” With Latest News Tabs
Please Click On Image To Enlarge

You will notice that on the top of the page, Yahoo provides four tabs (highlighted in green) with the labels, “News”, “Photos”, “Videos” and “Twitter”.  Clicking on the “Twitter” tabs allows access to the tweets shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Results From Twitter For The Query, “Obama”
Please Click On Image To Enlarge

It is important to note that these tabs will only appear for breaking news stories. A test with the keywords “foreign direct investment” will just provide you with results as seen in Figure 3:

Figure 1: Yahoo Search Query For “Foreign Direct Investment” With No Latest News Tabs
Please Click On Image To Enlarge

Yahoo is available at www.yahoo.com

LeapFish: An Impressive Online Research Tool

Published
by
Ian Smith
on November 16, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence, Economic Intelligence, Internet tools and Web 2.0 Search
. 0 Comments

Here is a search tool that you may want to add to your bookmarks.

LeapFish is an application to conduct multi-media, real-time searches and share results with others.  The tool allows users to select the type of query that could be executed, specifically:

  • General Web Search
  • Real Time Search
  • News Search
  • Video Search
  • Image Search
  • Blog Search
  • Shopping Search

The following two images illustrate the search results for a real-time and blog search query for the keywords, “foreign direct investment”.


Figure 1: Results from news sources and Twitter


Figure 2: Results from the blogsphere

To share findings with a colleague, simply place your mouse over the result and click on “Share”.  LeapFish will provide you with the option to post on different Web 2.0 platforms such Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Delicious just to name a few.  Figure 3 shows the complete list of tools.

Figure 3: Web 2.0 sharing tools available on LeapFish

Other value added features of LeapFish includes adding the tool to your browser and customizing your homepage.

LeapFish is available at www.leapfish.com

World Bank Data Available Through Google Search

Published
by
Ian Smith
on November 13, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence and Economic Intelligence
. 1 Comment

Google just made life a whole lot easier for individuals searching for  information on the World Bank’s website.

Through Google’s general search interface, users can now access the 17 “World Development Indicators” from the international agency.  By simply entering queries such as “gdp of Australia” or “internet users in south africa”, Google will provide a thumbnail size image of the result at the top of the page.  Figure 1 illustrates the result given for “gdp of Australia” once the thumbnail image is clicked on.

Figure 1: Result For The Query, “gdp of australia” - Line Chart
Please Click On The Image To Enlarge

Once users have accessed a chart as seen above, comparisons can done by ticking off the box associated with the name of other countries. The list of the countries is located on the left-hand side of the page. Figure 2 presents a comparison of GDP for Australia, Canada and Greece for 2008.

Figure 2: Comparison of GDP for Australia, Canada and Greece
Please Click On The Image To Enlarge

Once the end-product of the search and comparisons is completed, users can easily share their findings by clicking on the “Link” button in the top right-hand corner of the page.  Google generates a hyperlink which can be sent in an email, messaging platform (ie, IM, Facebook chat) or posted on a blog.

Customize Google News Sections For Economic Intelligence

Published
by
Ian Smith
on November 9, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith, Economic Development, Economic Intelligence and Internet tools
. 0 Comments

In September 2009, Intelegia published, “The Many Faces Of Google For Economic Intelligence“, a series of posts dealing with how to use the different Google applications to find information for economic development purposes.  One key application, Google News, has been modify to make life easier for the online researcher in economic development agencies.

Users of Google News can now create and customize their sections and share them with others.

Once logged on to Google News with an username and password, users are asked to complete a form with details which Google will use to create the section.   Details such as a name of the section, search terms, type of edition, source location and the permission to publish the section must be filled out.  Figure 1 below illustrates this process for a customize news section for “foreign direct investment”.

Figure 1:Creating Google Customized News Section
Click on image to enlarge

When users click on the “Create” button on the bottom of the page, the section will appear with the default sections that comes along with Google News.  Figure 2 shows the appearance of the “Foreign Direct Investment” section on the left hand side of page highlighted in dark blue.

Figure 2: Listing of “Foreign Direct Investment” Section
Please click on image to enlarge

This new feature is only available for Google News editions for Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Google Customized News Section is available here

Site Selection Intelligence With Bing Maps

Published
by
Ian Smith
on October 29, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence, Economic Intelligence, Internet tools and Investment Attraction
. 0 Comments

A few weeks ago, we introduced Google Street View as a means to collect information for site selectors in terms of location details of possible sites.  To provide a balance view of such mapping tools, here is a look at Bing Maps.

Using Bing Maps is pretty straight forward.  Simply plug in the address that you are interested in and let Bing Maps do the rest.  Bing Maps will first provide you with a general map overview with the specific location identified with arrow as seen in Figure 1.

Figure 1:A general map overview for 6100 St. Jacques in Montreal, Quebec

Bing Map gives you 5 different option in which to view the specific location on the map such as:

  • Road
  • Aerial
  • Bird’s Eye
  • Labels
  • Traffic

Figure 2 illustrates the bird’s eye view for 6100 St. Jacques in Montreal, Quebec.

Figure 2: Bird’s eye view for 6100 St. Jacques in Montreal, Quebec.

Similar to Google Street View, Bing Maps offers navigational control toolbox to move around the map.  The toolbox is located  in the top left hand corner of the page.

Tools such as Bing Maps and Google Street View are handy to have especially on a website that is dedicated for investment attraction.  This kind of functionality would allow site selectors to conduct online research regarding available locations to expand in a region with the surrounding infrastructure.

Bing Maps is available at http://www.bing.com/maps

Conversation Search With BackType

Published
by
Ian Smith
on October 19, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence, Economic Intelligence, Web 2.0 and Web 2.0 Search
. 0 Comments

Search engines such as Google and Bing have been late arriving to the party when it comes to real time search capabilities.  Time will only time on whether or not these big players will buy up little niche players such as Samepoint or itpints when it comes to web 2.0 search applications.

In the meanwhile, online researchers can be content with another conversational search tool called BackType.

BackType allows users to find relevant content on blog applications and others social networking websites in real time.

Figure 1 presents the simple search interface of BackType.

Figure 1: Index page of BackType

Using the keywords, “foreign direct investment” to test BackType provides the results as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Results for “foreign direct investment”
Please click on image to enlarge

Highlighted in yellow are the number of relevant tweets that BackType has found on Twitter.

As of October 13th, 2009, the advanced search function for the tool was not online.

BackType is available at http://www.backtype.com

The Importance Of Monitoring Capital Investments in Your Industry? – Case 1

Published
by
Ian Smith
on October 16, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence and Economic Intelligence
. Closed

Last week, the notion of tracking capital investments in your industry was introduced.  An abundance of details can be collected about the sector, competitors and various investment projects.  To demonstrate this, consider the following case scenario.

As one of several competitors in the energy sector, you are interested in knowing the level of foreign direct investment flowing into Canada from specific countries in 2008 and 2009.

Using information from E&B DATA’s Information Observatory, the following details are available:

Within the past 22 months, foreign direct investment in the energy sector in Canada originated from the following top five countries.

  • France
  • Germany
  • Spain
  • United Kingdom
  • United States

Figure 1 presents that the majority of the investments in the sector came from the United Kingdom with 46%.


Figure 1: Source of FDI in Canada for energy sector in 2008-2009 by percentage

Drilling down further into the data reveals that some of the investments from the United Kingdom were made by TCI Renewables Ltd. and REG Ltd. (Renewable Energy Generation) via their Canadian subsidiaries - Air Energy TCI, Venterre and AIM PowerGen Corporation. Below is a sample of the announcements made by these investors.

These companies were contacted to validate the amount of the investment that was made and the number of jobs that were created.

Next week’s case:  As a major competitor to Xstrata, you would like to investigate the number and the type of investments (ie, new facility, expansion, modernization) that the company has made during the past three years.

Site Selection Intelligence With Google Street View

Published
by
Ian Smith
on October 15, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence, Economic Intelligence and Investment Attraction
. 0 Comments

Here is a practical tip for site selection professionals and key decision makers for finding a location a new facility when it comes to investment attraction.

Google Street View is a neat tool that allows you to see images at specific address and the surrounding area from a street level view.  The images provided by Google are fairly recent.

The application is very easy to use and can be done in 4 steps.

1. Log onto Google Maps
2. Enter the address of the location that is under investigation. (Be sure to add the city along with the address)
3. When Google provides a general map of the area, place your mouse on the orange stick figure located in the top left hand corner and drag the mouse to the point on the map indicated by the red balloon labeled with an “A”.  Figure 1 and Figure 2 illustrates this process for the address 6200 St. Jacques in Montreal, Quebec.

Figure 1: Stick figure highlighted in yellow to be dragged to Point A on the map, highlighted in green.
Please click on image to enlarge

Figure 2: A street view of 6200 St. Jacques in Montreal, Quebec
Please click on image to enlarge

4. Once you have accessed the image, you are able to zoom in and out to have 360 degree view the existing infrastructure around the specific location.  This is done by using the navigation tool highlight in blue in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Illustration of the navigation toolbar of Google Street View

The idea of using Google Street View for site selection purposes will no doubt provide professionals with a time saving tool and a key resource to gather location information without stepping outside whether it to go across the street or around the world.

To begin using Google Street View, please click here

The Importance Of Monitoring Capital Investments in Your Industry?

Published
by
Ian Smith
on October 9, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence and Economic Intelligence
. 0 Comments

One of the effects of an economic downturn is the change of the level of capital investments from around the globe.  With the shortage of credit made available to companies looking to grow via building new facilities, expanding operations and modernizing equipment, investing a significant amount of money has slowed down until conditions improve.

Announcements of billion dollar projects may be a source of pride for some companies however; it is a source of strategic intelligence for competitors, if used correctly.  Such raw investment intelligence may be collected as a larger part of a competitive intelligence monitoring system.  Being able to manage such a system and produce meaningful intelligence on an ad hoc basis is a definite plus for any company.

E&B DATA, a source for capital investment information in Canada, has been monitoring capital investments since 2000 via its Investment Observatory.  The company is well aware of the importance of tracking capital investments within any given sector.

Over the next five weeks, five real life cases will be presented to demonstrate the use of the database of capital investment information.  In particular, the posts will discuss cases such as:

Case 1 - As one of several competitors in the energy sector, you are interested in knowing the  level of foreign direct investment flowing into Canada from specific countries.

Case 2 – As a major competitor to Xstrata, you would like to investigate the number and the type of investments (ie, new facility, expansion, modernization) that the company has made during the past three years.

Case 3 – What is the level of greenfield investments that has been made in the pharmaceutical sector in the province of Ontario in 2007?

Case 4 – You are interested in the amount of capital investments made in the clean technology sector in 2007-2008.

Case 5 – As a small automobile manufacturer, you would like to discover which of your large competitors are receiving financial support from various levels of government.

E&B DATA Tracking 5000+ Capital Investments in Canada Since 2000

To learn more about E&B DATA Investment Observatory, click here