German Companies to Invest Further in Market Intelligence
November 10, 2011. Top management and main decision makers in Germany’s large and medium-sized companies agree that their decision making has benefited from having systematic market intelligence functions. The Global Market Intelligence Survey 2011 which was conducted in March 2011 by Global Intelligence Alliance, showed that a large number of companies also plan to invest further in improving their market intelligence processes.
According to the survey, a majority of leading companies in Germany (86%) have a systematic market intelligence operation in place, while more than 50% of those currently without any want to launch one within the next 12 months. 73% agreed that their investments into market intelligence have already paid off and 63% of those with a systematic market intelligence operation claim to make decisions more efficiently.
Source: 2011 Global Market Intelligence Survey by GIA
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This strong commitment to Market Intelligence is above average when compared to other European countries and is also high when compared to other regions.
Source: 2011 Global Market Intelligence Survey by GIA
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Market Intelligence Set Up
Market intelligence in German companies is to a large extent positioned within Sales & Marketing or Strategic Planning and Business Development. These areas usually also form the biggest internal clients for the market intelligence team.
Source: 2011 Global Market Intelligence Survey by GIA
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In 97% of the companies surveyed there were just one or two organizational layers between the market intelligence operation and the CEO. This streamlined set-up is ideal for supporting strategic decision making efficiently.
On average, there are 13 people with market intelligence as their prime role. Also, they usually serve about 570 internal clients within their organization. Market intelligence teams do not work alone. There is usually a bigger network of contributors for gathering and analyzing information. The average “contributor’s network” in German companies rounds up to about 40 people as shown in the graph below.
Source: 2011 Global Market Intelligence Survey by GIA
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When it comes to the everyday work of German market intelligence teams, the survey shows that the majority of their workload consists of ad-hoc requests from their internal customers, with only 41% of work time being allocated to regular intelligence services (like newsletters, monitoring, etc.). Unfortunately, around a quarter of these ad-hoc requests cannot be fulfilled by internal market intelligence teams.
Source: 2011 Global Market Intelligence Survey by GIA
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Centralized or internal resources produce the intelligence deliverables needed by over half of the companies that have systematic market intelligence operations. But outsourcing routine work or ad hoc requests to third parties accounts for 13% of the intelligence deliverables, emphasizing the unbroken need for external partners.
Source: 2011 Global Market Intelligence Survey by GIA
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Market Intelligence Budgets
The average budget that German Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare and Technology & Telecommunications companies allocate to systematic market intelligence is high compared to European and other countries. With an average of 1.1 million Euros excluding human resources costs, it seems that these industries in Germany strongly trust their market intelligence, as shown by their confirmation of having made market intelligence investments that have paid off.
There is still need and room for improvement in market intelligence budgets in other German industries. Fortunately, 62% of companies surveyed overall intend to increase their investments in market intelligence in the next two years.
Source: 2011 Global Market Intelligence Survey by GIA
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For answers to how global companies run world class market intelligence functions, download the 2011 Global Market intelligence Survey white paper. Or request a presentation of the country results from the 2011 Global Market intelligence Survey by a GIA consultant today.
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