Techno-Watch and Strategic Alert

Summary

Introduction

In the information society, knowledge is increasingly considered a key corporate asset that enables organizations to maintain or enhance their market competitiveness. The concept of (strategic, technological or competitive) "intelligence" is still new and somewhat vague for many managers, but it is growing in importance in our knowledge-based society. And yet this is not a new phenomenon; market intelligence has always been a strategic issue for all nations. Throughout history, knowledge has often been equated with power.

Market globalization, the advent of the Internet and the development of information technologies have increased information needs and processing tools. In the past ten years, "competitive intelligence" proliferated in Europe, Asia and especially the United States where this growth has led to the creation of information services in companies and a phenomenal increase in the number of specialized consulting firms.

A study by the Futures Group found that, while 60% of large American companies have a strategic alert service, 82% of very large companies with annual sales of $10 billion or more have such a service.

Some Definitions

PT0 "All technological or other information identification, acquisition, analysis and evaluation activities for decision- or choice-making purposes. Competitive intelligence, as it is meant here, covers technological, competitive and commercial intelligence as well as other types of intelligence."
( Source: ministère de l'Industrie et du Commerce—MIC PT1).

PT0 "Continuous and largely repetitive activity for the active monitoring of technological, commercial and other environments with a view to anticipating their evolution."
(Source: Association française de normalisation-AFNOR, 1998)

PT0 "Economic intelligence refers to all coordinated research, processing and distribution for use of information that is useful to economic stakeholders. These various actions are conducted legally with all of the protection guarantees necessary to preserve an organization's corporate heritage, under the best possible quality, deadlines and cost." (Source: AFNOR; 1998).

Types of Intelligence

Technological intelligence: refers to scientific and technical assets (patents, publications, know-how), ongoing research activities, products and services (in their conception and design), manufacturing processes, materials and sectors, and information systems: Who does what, where and with what standards?

Competitive intelligence: focuses on present or potential competitors and the analysis of their strategy and competitive advantages; in the literal sense: it refers to competing companies; it can also be interpreted to mean competitive products or processes, e.g., plastic competes against wood, television competes against other recreational activities.

Commercial intelligence: concerns clients, markets, suppliers and the labour market.

Strategic intelligence: more long-term in nature, it focuses on firms' strategic planning matters: What decision should be made concerning a given line of development? What markets are opening up and what sectors are promising? What are the opportunities/threats?

Intelligence Levels

Corporate intelligence

Within firms, the implementation of an intelligence function requires an appropriate structure: either a service that combines a documentation team (researchers, observers, information specialists) and internal communication officers (scientific writers, analysts), or reliance on external partners (liaison or transfer watch centre) or a combination of the two.

Corporate intelligence is characterized by four main steps:

1. needs identification (corporate objectives, establishment of a team);
2. establishment of an access structure (setting up a team, identification of relevant formal and informal information sources, information gathering);
3. synthesis (analysis of raw data); and
4. dissemination within the firm.

A wide variety of information technologies are available to support the intelligence function within a firm: decision-making assistance systems, data depots and data mining in support of decisions, knowledge-based systems to capture and distribute knowledge, electronic data interchange (EDI) systems, client-server systems, imaging systems, the Internet, intranets and extranets.

Institutional intelligence

Several industrial sectors such as chemicals, plastics and wood products industry have developed joint technological intelligence services in order to provide them with information on the latest developments in their respective fields.

A competitive intelligence centre is a group of recognized partners in a given sector of economic activity. They include research centres, liaison and transfer centres, companies, universities, colleges and associations. These partners work together to generate new value-added strategic information that is specifically adapted to businesses in their sector, in order to enhance their market competitiveness. This service may be complementary to the intelligence function already within the company, which has the advantage of being directly targeted to the needs of the business.

Given the ever-increasing mass of information and the strategic need for this information to be processed quickly, an intelligence service can save a firm a great deal of time and money by providing it with information of vital importance in the making of decisions concerning its development, e.g., for new product launches, new market penetration, technology acquisitions, new research and development activity start-ups, and so on.

Financing Program

NRC Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP) - National Research Council (NRC)
IRAP provides financial contributions to cover up to 75% of eligible costs to a maximum of $15 000 for the establishment of intelligence activities within an enterprise (e.g., costs associated with consultant fees). For more information on IRAP, please call 1-877-994-4727 which will automatically connect you with the IRAP regional office nearest to you.

Association

Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP)
http://www.scip.org

Internet Reference Documents

Industrial Research and Development (by Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI))
http://www.nrc.ca/zone/cisti/special/hotlinks/indres_e.shtml

List of links (by Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI))
http://www.nrc.ca/zone/cisti/special/hotlinks/comint_e.shtml

Fast Company—Competitive Intelligence—Get Smart! (by Gina Imperato)
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/14/intelligence.html

Multimédium—Zones dédiées aux veilles technologique, économique et stratégique (available in French only)
http://www.mmedium.com/veille

Fuld & Company—What Competitive Intelligence Is and Is Not
http://www.fuld.com/Company/CI.html

Survey of Knowledge Management Practices—Statistics Canada (2001)
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/020321/d020321f.htm

Strategic Information Tools

Business information sites on the Internet

Strategis

Strategis is Industry Canada's business and consumer information Web site. Designed for consumers and small and medium-sized businesses, it provides rapid access to accurate, value-added commercial information. Strategis provides Canadian firms with access to a broad range of advice pertaining to management and to business prospects and data that will help them to develop new markets, create alliances and find new clients.

Infometre

This site provides an index of existing studies of information technology utilization as well as data to keep better track of information technology evolution in various populations.
http://www.infometre.cefrio.qc.ca (available in French only)

The Canada Economic Development Observatory

The Canada Economic Development Observatory is an economic watch mechanism that reads soci-economic trends; it is a site for analysis of the problems and needs of new economy players, a tool for the for the development and dissemination of advanced knowledge; and an information and knowledge marketplace.

Web Sites Monitoring

These tools, utilized for strategic intelligence, allow for the tracking of the evolution of a site, a stock quote, or recent news on the Internet. These tools search automatically by keyword or site address (URL). The results are sent by E-mail.
Examples of services provided free of charge, but not limited to:

Prepared by: Info entrepreneurs with the collaboration of the National Research Council (NRC) and the Canadian Technology Network (CTN).
Translated by : National Secretariat, Canada Business Service Centres