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What’s Up in MI? – Recent developments
in the field of Market Intelligence

GIA MI Survey 2008 to Look Into the Current State of MI in International Organizations – Participate and Share Your Own Views!

Dear Reader,
You are kindly invited to take part in the GIA Global Market Intelligence Survey 2008, the most extensive global research project that has so far been conducted in the field of Market / Competitive Intelligence (MI / CI).

The survey results will reflect the current state of Market Intelligence in international companies, and will uncover, among other things, ways in which Market Intelligence output has been put into use in organizations, and gains that have been witnessed for the invested resources. It will also be possible to make comparisons between MI in different industries based on the survey data.

We would strongly encourage you to take a few moments of your time to include your input in the survey results.

You can access the survey here

(If the link does not work, please copy-paste this address to your browser command line: http://www.webropol.com/P.aspx?id=211017&cid=9835218)

Your participation is much appreciated.

Survey Results to be Published as a GIA White Paper, to be Released
in a Webinar on May 7, 2008
We would also suggest that you take note of the date for the release of the results: The results, coupled with analytical conclusions, will be published under the GIA White Paper series in a launch webinar on May 7, 2008 at 9.30 EST (3.30 CET).

Best Practices LLC study highlights the importance of combining formal CI operations and intelligent tools

A recent report from Best Practices LLC, "Managing the Competition: Turning Competitive Intelligence into Strategy", states that the secret to Competitive Intelligence (CI) success is rooted in the function's structure, effective communication and organizational empowerment. Specifically, it is a combination of formal CI operations and intelligent tools - with support from internal stakeholders - that serves as the key to developing a powerful CI team.

The report comprises of interviews of 30 competitive intelligence executives at 19 companies, taking a look at structure, information gathering, communication and information use.

Abstracted from Research and Markets press release, 6 February 2008   

Web 2.0 market trends predicted for 2008, SharePoint collaboration products expected to steamroll the market

In its recent report “Web 2.0 predictions for 2008”, Forrester Research analyst and report lead author Oliver Young comments on the expected trends for this year. Based partly on a survey of enterprises and small businesses in North America and Europe, these include:

• Web 2.0 will make it big in the enterprise.
• Businesses will be more willing to buy social networking platforms.
• Midtier vendors, rather than start-ups, will pour into the enterprise Web 2.0 market. 
• Enterprises will have more choices of consultants and systems integrators. 
• The Web 2.0 market will eventually undergo some serious consolidation, but no major acquisitions predicted to happen 2008.
• In addition, the report predicts that Microsoft's SharePoint collaboration products will continue to steamroll the market in 2008.
  

Abstracted from CIO Asia, 4 February 2008

                                                                                                                                    

Comment on the Articles: From tools to processes to cultures

Over the last few years, the business information news scene has been dominated by releases of tools and platforms that make it possible to coordinate flows of information more efficiently than ever before.

More recently, making use of the coordinated flows of information through defined processes has stepped to the forefront.

The above newspieces are excellent examples of both phenomenons: Tools and processes are essential building blocks of efficient management of business information.

But how to create a culture of sharing business information for the entire organization’s benefit?

“Effective communication and organizational empowerment” were underlined in the Best Practices LCC study, and the very same issues were also brought up in interviews with MI executives in the latest GIA White Paper: MI for the Strategic Planning Process – Case Examples.

If Market / Competitive Intelligence has a time slot on the management team’s regular agenda, it doesn’t necessarily mean that a strong culture of sharing information exists in the organization – but it’s a good indicator.