Tag Archive for 'competitive intelligence'

Competitive Intelligence Groups On LinkedIn

Published
by
Ian Smith
on April 5, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith and Competitive & Internet Intelligence
. 4 Comments

Last month, we posted, “Economic Development Groups On LinkedIn” that provided a listing of LinkedIn Groups in the field of economic development.  To be fair to the competitive intelligence professionals who visit this blog every Monday, here are some related groups in the domain of competitive intelligence and strategic planning.

1. Competitive Intelligence Professionals - This group aims to be a forum for individuals focused on the three aspects of competitive intelligence: gathering, analyzing and sharing of information.  Recent discussions that have taken place in the group include:

  • Identifying an e-magazine focused around business and competitive intelligence
  • Which models of analysis that you use most at work in competitive intelligence?
  • Extracting and Interpreting Emissions in Competitive intelligence
  • Competitive Intelligence in India

Number Of Members As Of April 4th, 2010: 903

2. Competitive/Market Intelligence Professionals - This specific group is a great outlet to discuss current issues in the field of competitive intelligence.  In addition, it has a news section where members may post relevant hyperlinks to news items.  Recent discussions that have taken place in the group include:

  • I am a in charge of starting a CI function of a medium size Finnish mid-tech company.
  • Does any one know reliable third party information databases used for Aviation Power Systems
    other than Janes Information and Forecast International?
  • Competitive/Business Intelligence Analysis Tools
  • Can you recommend the courses of Academy of CI, or other (location does not matter much)?

Number Of Members As Of April 4th, 2010: 2,563

3. Corporate Planning & Global Industry Segmentation - This group is composed of executives and planning and marketing professionals seeking to discuss corporate plan development and global market segmentation.   Recent discussions that have taken place in the group include:

  • 10 Reasons Why Strategic Planning Fails/Pro-active Solutions
  • How to Get Buy-In for Strategic Product Decisions
  • What are you going to do in 2010 to re-motivate, re-inspire, and re-charge your recession weary leaders?

Within Corporate Planning & Global Industry Segmentation lies several sector-specific subgroups such as:i) Aerospace, ii) Health Care, Life Sciences & Pharmaceuticals, iii) Consumer Products Manufacturing and  iv) Retail Trade

Number Of Members As Of April 4th, 2010: 5,062

4. Future Trends - This group is composed of trend hunters, corporate visionaries and future thinkers representing a diverse cross section of industries. Recent discussions that have taken place in the group include:

  • Can Social Media Marketing Replace Advertising?
  • How to Compete in a Global Age?
  • Social Media Marketing: What Works and Does Not Work

The subgroups that members may join include:

  1. Future Trends in Family Marketing
  2. European Innovators
  3. Social Media Strategies

Number Of Members As Of April 4th, 2010: 33,197

5. Strategic Business and Competitive Intelligence Professionals -This group aims to share best practices and experience of professionals engaged in business and competitive intelligence globally.  Recent discussions that have taken place in the group include:

  • Business Intelligence in Medical Equipment
  • How Big Should the Business Intelligence Group Be?
  • Social Media Growing as Important Marketing Role

Number Of Members As Of April 4th, 2010: 7,203

6. The Strategic Planning Society -This group is dedicated to strategy professionals and academics who wish to share knowledge and promote strategic thinking. Key themes of the group include:

  • Strategic Planning
  • Corporate Planning
  • Business Planning
  • Business Development

Number Of Members As Of April 4th, 2010: 1,225

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Using LinkedIn Answers For Competitive Intelligence Research

Published
by
Ian Smith
on March 29, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence and Web 2.0 Search
. 0 Comments

Intelegia is always seeking out ways to using social media applications to gather information on sectors, companies, products / services and individuals.  LinkedIn is an efficient tool, if use correctly, to collect competitive intelligence data as seen in the posts, “Competitive Intelligence Research With LinkedIn - Who’s Hiring?” and “Using LinkedIN People Search To Profile A Company“.  Here is a look at applying LinkedIn Answers to access strategic information.

LinkedIn Answers is a database of questions and answers by business experts that are on LinkedIn.  The questions and answers are organized by topic however; users can conduct a basic or an advanced search query.  Figure 1 is image of the index page of LinkedIn Answers.

LinkedIn Answers

Figure 1: LinkedIn Index Page

Case Scenario:

As a competitive intelligence researcher in the biopharmaceutical sector, you are asked to find the prevailing trends in the diagnostic kits market.

Solution:

As an alternative to conducting an extensive web search or purchasing a report, you may attempt a search using LinkedIn Answers to gather insights from industry experts.

Figure 2 captures the input process to query LinkedIn Answers using the Advanced Search function.

  1. Keywords entered:”diagnostic kits” and “trends”
  2. Keywords match in: Questions and Answers
  3. Category: “Marketing and Sales” -> “Business Development”

Figure 2: LinkedIn Answers Advanced Search Form With Keywords

Figure 3 is a screen shot of the result given by LinkedIn Answers.


Figure 3: Result For Keyword Search, “diagnostic kits” + “trends”

If the search application furnished more than one page of results, you are able to sort the results by:

  • Degrees of separation away from the expert(s) answering the question
  • Relevancy
  • Date

Clicking on the results will allow you to access the full text of the question and the 10 related answers. Figure 4 is an image of the initial posted question and Figure 5 provides a look at two answers.  (Please Note:For the purposes of this blog post, the names of the individuals that posted the question and answers are not revealed.)

Figure 4: Question Posted To Linked Answers

Figure 5: Answers Posted By Experts

As seen in Figure 5, LinkedIn Answers will highlight the best answer in green.  In the case above, the best answer was provided by a Business Manager, Sequencing and Microarrays, Roche Applied Science, Asia Pacific at Hoffmann-La Roche.    Reading further down on the page, other experts tackle other trends in the diagnostic kit market.

LinkedIn Answers is available at www.linkedin.com/answers

Thank You Readers Of Tools For Thought

Published
by
Ian Smith
on March 19, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence, Economic Development and Social Media Marketing
. 2 Comments

Last week, Intelegia published its 300th post.  From the first post, “Users of Wikipedia - Now Read This!!!” to “Competitive Intelligence Research With Google Squared? “, the objective of Tools For Thought was to provide readers with an outlet to learn about tools and practices for competitive intelligence research, social media marketing and economic development initiatives.

We are honored that we have such loyal readers from around the world.  In January 2010 to February 2010, readers came from over 75 countries, specifically, from approximately 800 cities as illustrated in Figure 1.


Figure 1: Locations of Tools For Thought Readers (January 2010 - February 2010)

From search tools to the use of Web 2.0 applications for economic development purposes, Intelegia looks forward to every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in providing its readers with the relevant resources to be efficient users on the web as a research or communication tool.

Some of the popular posts so far in 2010 include:

We welcome your feedback on each post that is placed online.  Feedback will be used as discussion points in future posts.  If you feel that we are not dealing with an important aspect of competitive intelligence research or economic development, please let us know.

Once again, thank you for dropping by Tools For Thought and your continued support.

Best Regards,

Isabelle Poirier and Ian Smith

Competitive Intelligence Research With Google Squared?

Published
by
Ian Smith
on March 8, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence and Internet tools
. 1 Comment

One of the most challenging aspects of competitive intelligence research is getting a grasp of a subject that we are unfamiliar with.  Many of us have dealt with clients who have given an online research mandate that is out of our scope of expertise however; it is matter of how much time that we are willing to dedicate to the task.

Google has created another application that may help out online researchers in a big way.

Google Squared is a tool that attempts to give some structure to results that are available via a typical search query.  Results are presented in a spreadsheet format instead of the conventional listings on numerous pages.  This enables researchers to assess results given the scope of the keywords entered in order to get basic facts about the subject that is being researched.

Case Scenario:

A client from the North American car parts sector is interested in expanding into Europe.  In order to make an informed decision on whether or not to go ahead with the market expansion, an industry profile is needed for Europe.

Solution:

Google Squared permits users to enter the subject into a search interface to begin building the square (or spreadsheet).  The interface is shown in Figure 1 with the keywords, “European automobile industry”:

Figure 1: Google Squared Search Interface

Once users click on “Square it”, Google will provide another input interface in which users must put their additional keywords (or items) to put some context to the search to continue building the square.   As seen in Figure 2, keywords such as “sales”, “trends”, “growth” and “competitors” are entered to obtain information for the elements of the industry profile.

Figure 2: Building A Google Square For “European Automobile Industry”

The square is finally created as users click on “Square it” as illustrated below in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Google Square For “European Automobile Industry”

The square is composed of the following elements:

  • Item Name (Keywords)
  • Image
  • Description
  • Price (If associated with paid content source)

The square can be modified to eliminate irrelevant content and sorted.  Figure 4 is a screen shot of the square sorted alphabetically and highlighted in yellow, data regarding sales growth.

Figure 4: Sorted Squared To Find Sales Growth Data
Click On Image To Enlarge

When the “Description” cell of the square is clicked on, a box with web results will appear (as seen in Figure 4) when users can actually access hyperlinks to the web pages with the information.

The final product of any Google Squared search query can be shared with others, exported in a .csv file or a Google Spreadsheet and saved to a Google Account.

Google Squared is available at www.google.com/squared

Interested in using different online search tools to be an efficient researcher? Attend Intelegia’s seminar, “Effective Online Research Strategies“

Making Advanced Online Searching Easier With Gdocu

Published
by
Ian Smith
on February 19, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence and Internet tools
. 0 Comments

Pop quiz….

Which of the following search statements will permit you to access information in a Microsoft PowerPoint document regarding trends in the North American automobile industry?

a) flietype:.ppt, trends + “North American” + “automobile industry”

b) trends + “North American” + “automobile industry”, .ppt

c) trends + “North American” + “automobile industry” filetype:ppt

If you have selected either a) or b), it is recommended that you continue reading.

The correct answer is c)

Although it maybe difficult for some to remember how to structure a search query for a specific file format, there may be an easier way to conduct an advanced search of the web.

Gdocu is a search tool that permits users to find information in a specific file format by entering keywords and clicking within a radio button.  Using such a  tool will assist in filtering search results to locate relevant information efficiently.

Why scan through a number of pages looking for an annual report when you can easily surf through just a few .pdf documents? Annual reports are often available in .pdf.

As of February 18th, the tool can retrieve the following types of document formats:

  • PDF
  • Word
  • PowerPoint
  • Other Formats (i.e., Excel, Design Web Format)
  • Only Websites
  • All The Web

Figure 1 illustrates the search interface of Gdocu.

Figure 1: Gdocu Search Interface

Case Scenario

You are interested in finding a spreadsheet (in Excel) that contains the export levels of petroleum of Canada in 2008.  Figure 2 presents the query that is entered to find the relevant data as specified.


Figure 3: Search Query For Finding Export Data For Petroleum In Canada For 2008

By selecting “Other Formats”, Gdocu will provide only Excel files (XLS).  Results for the query are presented in Figure 4, where the most relevant result is highlighted in yellow.

Figure 4: Results For The Query:: export + petroleum + Canada + 2008
Click On Image To Enlarge

As stated on their index page, Gdoc is NOT a Google product however; it has been created by the Google Custom Search application.

Although Gdoc is a very good tool to conduct advanced web searches however; it is just the beginning when attempting an exhaustive search of the internet.

Gdoc is available at www.gdocu.com

Looking to enhance your team’s online searching skills?  Attend Intelegia’s seminar, “Advanced Business Intelligence Gathering Approaches”

Google News Timeline Helping To Connect The Dots

Published
by
Ian Smith
on February 8, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence and Internet tools
. 2 Comments

Have you taken a look at what Google has in their product / service pipeline?

Google Labs provide users with the ability to test new search applications.  Here is a nifty tool that may interest competitive intelligence researchers and analysts.

Google News Timeline is an application that plots search results of news on a dateline.  News content may come in the form of articles and video clips.  Figure 1 illustrates Google News Timeline for the query: Kraft + Cadbury.

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Figure 1: Plotting Results For News Search, “Kraft” + Cadbury
Please Click On Image To Enlarge

The timeline that is provided can be navigated by clicking on the arrows located on the top left and right hands side of the page and as well as the Window sidebar.

Although the application is in the beta testing phase, it could be useful in profiling competitors’ past, present and future strategic initiatives.  By having the ability to view important strategic intelligence on a timeline, analysts can be able to anticipate a specific strategic move and how it will be implemented.

In the case of Kraft, researchers can discover that on December 19, 2009, Kraft hired an acquisition expert from Heineken.  By profiling, Jean-François van Boxmeer, competitors of Kraft can have an idea of his strategies that was used in the past and what could be put into place for the Cadbury acquisition.

Google News Timeline is available at newstimeline.googlelabs.com

Website Monitoring Using Google Reader

Published
by
Ian Smith
on February 3, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence and Internet tools
. 1 Comment

Here is a quick tip for those who are interested in setting up a website monitoring system.

There are plenty of website monitoring services on the web however; some come with a cost.

Thanks to Google, internet users can now be alerted whether content has been modified on a webpage.  All that is needed is a valid Google Reader account.

Once logged in,  be sure to follow these 4 steps.

Step 1: Select or highlight the address of the website or webpage that you wish to track.  (In this case example, we have selected, The Northern Lights Mining Network Facebook Fan Page.)

Step 2: Copy the hyperlink - http://www.facebook.com/NLMNpage

Step 3: In your Google Reader account, click on the “Add a subscription” button highlighted in yellow in Figure 1:

Figure 1:Google Reader - Adding a subscription
Click On Image To Enlarge

Step 4: Click on the “Add a subscription” button and paste the url of the page that you wish to monitor.  Figure 2 illustrates this procedure.

Figure 2: Adding The URL Of The Website That Will Be Tracked
Click On Image To Enlarge

Step 5: Click on the “Add button” to place the site as one of your subscriptions as seen in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Viewing Subscriptions and Associated Alerts
Click On Image To Enlarge

Once new content appears on the Facebook Fan Page, the subscription feed is updated where the most recent content is posted  on top as highlighted in yellow in Figure 4.

Figure 4: New Content Displayed On Google Reader

Needless to say, this application can be used efficiently to monitor social networks for economic development.

Learn more internet tools for economic intelligence gathering at Intelegia’s seminar, “Economic Intelligence For Foreign Direct Investment Attraction”

Competitive Intelligence Research With Thoora

Published
by
Ian Smith
on January 25, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence and Web 2.0 Search
. 1 Comment

News search tools are rapidly changing.  With the advent of Web 2.0 platforms such as blogs,  Facebook and Twitter, news and analysis can be available within a matter of clicks from various search tools.  A tool such as Thoora aggregates popular news content and provides a couple of other value added features.

The results from Thoora are broken down into three distinct sections.

1. Current Popular Stories

In this section, users have access to the relevant articles based on the keywords that are entered.  Figure 1 illustrates the results for the keywords, “Kraft” and “Cadbury“.

Figure 1: News Results For Kraft and Cadbury on Thoora

Along with initial results, the tool gives users access to links to related articles and blog posts.  Results can be sorted by time period (i.e., 24 hours, 2 days, 1 week)

2.  Search Stats

This section provides information regarding search queries for the keywords for news and blogs postings for the past seven days.  Figure 2 presents a look at the search stats for “Kraft” and “Cadbury” by category breakdown.

Figure 2: Search Stats For Kraft and Cadbury

3. Twitter Results

The third section of Thoora contains results from Twitter feeds.  Figure 3 below shows the results for both keywords on the popular social network tool.

Figure 3: Results From Twitter For The Keywords, Kraft and Cadbury

Thoora, a real time search engine, allows competitive intelligence researchers to conduct a news and Twitter feeds in one place on the web.

Thoora is available at www.thoora.com

Need to improve your online researching skills?  Attend Intelegia’s seminar, “Effective Online Research Strategies“

Monitoring Social Networks For Economic Development

Published
by
Ian Smith
on January 11, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence, Economic Development and Web 2.0 Search
. 4 Comments

As of January 8th, 2010, results for the keyword search, “economic development” on Facebook yielded 396 hits for fan pages. These pages are not only built for promotional purposes but to share information with the city’s or region’s stakeholders.   As a result, the pages become as a public source of information in which competitive intelligence data can be gathered for economic development purposes.

Search Results For “Economic Development” On Facebook For Fan Pages

With the use of Google, some think that there is no need to monitor content on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.  An argument can be made that tracking information via these platforms may contribute to a region’s economic development strategy by providing strategic intelligence.

How you may ask? Consider the following:

  • Facebook Fan Pages serve as a compliment to websites and hence provides information on a frequent basis.   The pages are easier to update than websites and enables agencies to maintain the resource within a matter clicks.
  • Twitter pages can be used as a tool to push relevant information to interested individuals.  Information such as local or regional news, analysis reports or details on financial assistance programs can be available.

The motivation to “Become a Fan” or “Follow” is simple to understand from competitive intelligence point of view.  Individuals with accounts for both social networks can have a steady stream of information on regions and/or cities that are competing for investment dollars from around the globe.

Strategic intelligence for economic development purposes that can be gleaned on Web 2.0 can be in the form of:

  • Success stories in the region
  • List of key sectors / companies in the region / cities
  • Successful incentive programs
  • Regions’ value propositions

To learn more about monitoring social networks for economic development, attend Intelegia’s seminar, “Optimize Investment Attraction Strategy Through Information and Social Media Applications“.

Northern Light Search Tool

Published
by
Ian Smith
on January 8, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence and Internet tools
. 0 Comments

Here is an internet research tool that is very valuable but does not come to mind when discussing search tools.  Northern Light Search portal is a handy tool to find information efficiently.  Figure 1 presents the index page of the research portal.

Figure 1: Index Page Of Northern Light Search
Click On Image To Enlarge

By default, the index page is composed of the following sections:

  • Quick Search
  • My Favorite Research
  • Most Popular Search Terms
  • Most Popular Articles
  • Most Mentioned Venture Funded Companies
  • Most Mentioned Business Issues

For the purposes of this blog, the “Quick Search” function was used with the keywords, “foreign direct investment”.  The results are presented in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Results For Keywords, “foreign direct investment”
Click On Image To Enlarge

Once the results are provided, they are different options that users can benefit from such as:

  • Save this Search - Save a query for future reference or use.
  • Edit this Search - Modify a query to add or remove keywords or operates.
  • Sort by Date - Sort results by publication date.
  • MI Analyst - MI Analyst combines the power of Northern Light’s best-in-class free-text searching with advanced text analytics developed specifically for Market Intelligence applications.
  • Toggle Your Search - Select where you would like your results to  come from. (i.e.,  blogs, national news sources, regional news sources, white papers)
  • Analyze Your Search - Identify relevant results by Northern Light text analysis application.

Figure 3 illustrates the “Toogled National and Global Search” for “foreign direct investment”.

Figure 3: “Toogled National and Global Search” for “foreign direct investment”
Click On Image To Enlarge

What is interesting about the Northern Light tool is the search interface page.   The page is divided into two parts: I) General Search & II) Expert Search

I) General Search

Figure 4 presents a look at the search interface for the General Search function.

Figure 4: General Search Interface On Northern Light
Click On Image To Enlarge

The General function not only allows you to search the web but specifically:

  • Online publications
  • Websites if you enter a web address in the URL field
  • News, blogs and white papers

II) Expert Search

The Expert Search permits access to online sources for subject-specific information found by internet research experts.   There are 10 subject-specific directories that are offered on the page.  A sample of the directories can be seen in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Expert Search Interface On Northern Light
Click On Image To Enlarge

To benefit from the full compliment of options, an username and password can be obtained for free.

Northern Light Search is available at www.nlsearch.com

Learn about additional internet research tools in Intelegia’s seminar, “Effective Online Research Strategies“.