Getting the Mix of Market Intelligence Tools Right
What’s the right composition of Market Intelligence tools for information collection, analysis and corporate portals? How do you fit in RSS feeds, mobile devices, alerts through social media or dashboards?
We ask Hans Hedin, Vice President of Business Development at Global Intelligence Alliance and co-presenter of the webinar on Market Intelligence Key Success Factors - Tools for his thoughts.
What are some key benefits of dedicated Market Intelligence Tools?
“While the intelligence activity always relies on human processes rather than on technology, software tools are vital for the success of an intelligence program in that they greatly enhance the efficiency of storing and delivering the market intelligence that is being produced. Dedicated intelligence tools are the key to holding intelligence processes together. Functional intelligence tools help to automate the processing of data into information, regularly delivering the intelligence output to its users. They also serve as a searchable database of structured information.
Software tools are also something tangible, which make them a great marketing tool for the intelligence deliverables and the entire intelligence program.
Software tools are also essential for the continuity of the intelligence activity at times when either the producers or users of intelligence change. In addition, software tools facilitate a two- way flow of information by encouraging the user base to not only use intelligence but to produce content as well.”
Who are Market Intelligence Tools typically developed for?
“There are basically four categories of users of Market Intelligence tools:The Market Intelligence consumer, the analyst and functional head, the IT team, and the Market Intelligence network participants. They all have different perspectives, needs and working roles.
Things get complex when multiple Market Intelligence tools are needed in different geographical and business units or when a more generic Market Intelligence tool is needed for the whole organization. If your Market Intelligence program is highly connected from a regional and functional perspective, you would need to have Market Intelligence tools that are integrated too. Otherwise, you will end up with multiple islands of knowledge with little or no connectivity.”
What has been the experience of companies developing their own market intelligence tools inhouse?
“Despite the initial interest of many companies to tweak existing corporate IT tools to also serve market intelligence purposes, findings from the “MT Trends 2015 – The Future of Market Intelligence” survey by GIA suggest many have realized that developing and maintaining such in-house tools is so resource-consuming that the company’s internal resources are best used elsewhere.
Many companies believe that they can develop their own Market Intelligence tool based on Microsoft SharePoint. This is true but only to a limited extent. Developing a simple platform for document storing and sharing is of course realistic when Market Intelligence teams are only given a few months for development and launch.
Developing a comprehensive Market Intelligence tool from scratch is much more complex, time consuming and expensive.
Why should a Market Intelligence team spend 40% of their working time managing an IT project instead of focusing on important revenue-related Market Intelligence topics? That just makes no sense. You do not see the administrative or finance function developing their own software programs or R&D teams developing their own IT tools. So why should the Market Intelligence team focus on developing their own solution which cannot match the state-of-the-art tools that are available on the market?
This might have made sense some 20 years ago when the Market Intelligence tools market was not that developed, but now there is an ample supply of IT tools available off the shelf. Nowadays, companies are benchmarking the tools available on the market and the running pilot tests for a few months. This gives them a good start in setting up and running their own Market Intelligence tools in no time, compared to developing it in-house.”
What will this webinar cover?
In the “Market Intelligence Key Success Factors - Tools” webinar, we explain how the use of appropriate intelligence tools can reduce the complexity of intelligence processes. We also talk about how intelligence tools facilitate social networking and knowledge sharing and how scalable tools can support the growth and customization of intelligence programs. Luis Madureira from Heineken will demonstrate how the company is taking advantage of intelligence tools in their organization.”
Who is this webinar targeted at?
“Different companies are at different stages of sophistication in how they use market intelligence tools. In GIA’s World Class Market Intelligence Framework, “Tools” represent one of six key success factors and we describe the levels that companies are at by whether they are Firefighters, Beginners, Coordinators, Directors or Futurists.
This webinar is for anyone who is thinking of starting a market intelligence program or wishes to benchmark their existing program against world class best practices, particularly companies that consider themselves to be at the Firefighters, Beginners, Coordinators or Directors stages of world class market intelligence.”
World Class Market Intelligence Framework – Tools (by Global Intelligence Alliance)
| Stage | Level | Description |
| 1 | Informal Market Intelligence “Firefighters” | Email and shared folders as the primary means for sharing and archiving information. |
| 2 | Basic Market Intelligence “Beginners” | Corporate intranet is emerging as a central storage for intelligence deliverables. Email still in use for distribution. |
| 3 | Intermediate Market Intelligence “Coordinators” | Web-based Market Intelligence tool established that provides access to structured Market Intelligence output. Users receive email alerts about new info in the system. |
| 4 | Advanced Market Intelligence “Directors” | Sophisticated channeling of both externally and internally produced Market Intelligence content to the Market Intelligence tool. |
| 5 | World Class Market Intelligence “Futurists” | The Market Intelligence tool with its functionalities supports the intelligence process, and is being used frequently for end user collaboration. |
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