Analysis Methods refers to formal market intelligence or competitive intelligence methods of analysis that can be applied in order to analyse a product, a service, a country, a market, a person, a company, a technology or any other aspect of the business environment.

Analysis Sources refers to the origin of information (databases, newspapers, industry journals, experts, products, etc) that can be used in order to provide input to the analysis that is used in market intelligence or competitive intelligence.

Beginngers refers to the level of intelligence according to the GIA Roadmap where the intelligence process is formally starting.

Benchmarking is used to understand similarities and differences between different organizations and competing products etc. The products or services supplied by a company to its customers are frequently benchmarked against their competitors.

Benchmarking Circles refers to a group of companies that are involved in a benchmarking project. GIA's Market Intellligence Benchmarking Circle is a project where companies form different industries meet in order to benchmark and improve their market intelligence or competitive intelligence programs.

Blog Monitoring refers to the continuous monitoring and collection of information from blogs.

Blue Ocean Strategy is the term used when identifying new business opportunities in uncontested markets as opposed to “red ocean” which is a highly competitive environment. It has a set of clearly defined methods in order to analyze and implement activities that will enable an organization "swim in blue oceans". From an intelligence perspective “blue ocean” intelligence activities is focusing on business opportunities to a great extent. Market intelligence or competitive intelligence activities in a “red ocean” mainly is focusing on threats and the strengths of the players in the existing industry niche.

Brand Monitoring refers to the process of continuously tracking the visibility of particular brands (either your own or those of competitors or both). Brand monitoring goes beyond media monitoring as it can incorporate primary research (interviewing distributors or end-users) and outdoor and in-store observation. Results can be both quantitative and qualitative in nature.

Business Area Reviews refers to the consideration of past and present development of a business area. Focus is normally on the value chain such as market share and size development, competitor activities, customer activities as well as macro issues having an impact on the business area.

Business Expansion Analysis refers to a business development analysis tool that is used to identify growth opportunities. Expansion can either be in form of product/service development or market expansion or a combination of these two aspects.

Business Process Integration refers to the need for market intelligence or competitive intelligence to be integrated into important business processes of an organization such as the sales and marketing process, the strategy process and the innovation process in order to be fully successful. Otherwise, market intelligence or competitive intelligence will mainly play an isolated role on an ad-hoc basis. This will make it difficult to reap the full benefits of intelligence.

Cause and effect analysis or cause and effect mapping refers to an analysis method where different causes are linked to one or more effects. Cause and effects analysis is a central concept in systems theory.

Commercial Due Diligence refers to a review of a company's commercial status prior to a merger or an acquisition or an investment by a 3rd party.

A Company Profile refers to a summary of a company or business unit in an accessible, easy-to-compare format. Company Profiles are collected from databases, company websites, news monitoring, company reports, filings, etc. and may include a description of general information, key figures, products & technology, operations, strategic objective, etc.

Competitive Benchmarking refers to a comparision of a business process or a product/service against the market or competitors, in order to identify best-in-class positions as well as improvement opportunities.

Competitive Landscape Analysis refers most often to a high-level overview of the competitive landscape. It begins with a review of the competitors' market presence by customer segment, along the value chain and/or by geographical market. Analysis of competitors' strategies may then be conducted in terms of products and services, strengths and weaknesses and growth models.

Competitor Deep Dive refers to the development of in-depth knowledge about the specific aspects of a competitor strategy, the operations, products or any other area of importance. Market intelligence or competitive intelligence is normally collected both from secondary information sources as well as primary sources through interviews, observations and reverse engineering, etc. The focus normally covers historical, present and potential future moves.

Collection and analysis of information about the competitors.

Media Analysis is carried out to acquire an understanding of advertising campaigns and product/company brand recognition. A Competitor Media Strategy Analysis helps to describe a competitor's media strategy by understanding the competitor's marketing channels, allocated resources, media recognition and geographical reach. It often combine primary and secondary source analysis to ensure comprehensive data coverage.

Competitor Monitoring refers to the regular collection of information about competitor activities for strategic or operational purposes. Competitor monitoring both improves current awareness in general and helps to identify direct business opportunities or threats vis-a-vis the competitor.

Part of a competitor analysis study or a competitor profile. It consists of a profile and often a SWOT analysis of the competitors' sales network with the purpose of identifying threats and opportunities for your own firm.

Research regarding one or more consumer groups in order to understand purhcasing behaviour or issues influencing purchasing behaviour.

Coordinators refers to the role of Market Intelligene Managers at level 3 in GIA's World Class Market Intelligene Roadmap concept. A major task is to coordinate the many activities that are going on within the Market Intelligene Program.

Counterintelligence is the approach of preventing other organizations from conducting intelligence operations targeting a company.

Country Analysis helps to provide an overview of the situation in the countries of interest. Also see PESTEL Analysis.

Country Profiles are in essence, factsheet about certain countries. They normally consist of the following information: macroeconomic situation, political situation, history, social demographic situation, major industries, key leaders, etc.

A Current Awareness System provides a continuous flow of information regarding the external business environment in order to generally update and increase the awareness of all employees.

Customer Alert refers to a warning or opportunity identification based on customer indicators being monitored, normally related to the present business environment and future issues. The process requires that an organization monitors these indicators, issues an alert when indicators deviate from the norm in an unexpected way, analyzes the indicators and makes conclusions regarding the new status of the strategic issue in question.

Customer Attribution Analysis is used to identify sales arguments based on attributes of importance (low, medium or high) related to competitive positioning. The process requires that you benchmark your product's position against the competitors for each attribute. The attributes that are strong compared to the competition are your sales arguments. This process is similar to Product Attribution Analysis.

Customer Focused Key Success Factor Analysis (KSF) helps to identify the factors that the customer perceives as valuable. This is then to be used in the sales process in order to position the service/product as effectively as possible. A Customer Focused Key Success Factor Analysis (KSF) involves the creation of a basic customer profile in order to understand basic strategy. Secondary source information is then collected in order to identify statements, press releases, etc. from the company regarding the specific area in focus. Interviewing industry experts and the potential client company would then be the next step in order to identify the most important KSF. Discussions with people who will or will not use the service/product are essential.

Customer Monitoring refers to the continuous tracking of customers in order to identify new business opportunities and threats related to the customers. It also function as a general current awareness method.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) refers a concept for managing customer information and share this information throughout a CRM system within the organistion.

Customer Risk and Opportunity Analysis is used to identify potential risks, based on the previous analysis or identify them from scratch in a Risk Analysis project, in order to analyze their probability and how they can be avoided. The process requires that you categorize the risks by organizational risks, financial risks, external business risks, technology risks and physical risks. Then you analyze the risks based on how they will impact on the organization and how likely they are to occur before identifying possible countermeasures to mitigate each risk. The analysis is often used an input to the strategy process and/or for testing established strategies.

Customer Scenario Analysis is used to identify possible future outcomes for your customers, the industry, a business unit or a product, etc. The results from PESTEL Analysis are an excellent source of input into the customer scenario analysis. The process requires that you first develop an uncertainty impact matrix, scenario lines for the most important uncertainties and hybrid scenarios by combining two uncertainties. Establish names for the four scenarios that have now been developed. Refine the scenarios by enriching the content ñ it could be written as a story, a newspaper article, etc. Verify the result by sending it out to stakeholders, or run another seminar. Match present and future strategy options with the different scenarios in order to find the most flexible and/or robust strategy.

Customer Theme Impact Analysis is used to provide an overview or deep dive regarding a specific issue that is of importance. The process involves someone first identifying an issue that requires further elaboration. Key intelligence topics and key intelligence questions are then developed to be answered. Information is collected from internal and external information sources and analysis of the information is conducted, which may also include conclusions and recommendations.

Customer Themes Review is used to determine whether strategic issues are developing as expected or if change is imminent. The process requires that you determine format of the review, i.e. content of the intelligence product and assign responsibility for the review. Ensure feedback is obtained from internal and outside experts before presenting a final version with the appropriate target groups.

A Customer Themes Workshop is used to elaborate on customer themes in a workshop. The process requires that you make an introduction regarding the background and present situation and conduct group work or group discussion regarding future development of the strategic theme. Agreed conclusions are presented and analysis/discussion about what impact the theme will have on the organization is made. Possible alternative courses of action such as further analysis, decision-making, etc. are discussed. Also see Customer Themes Review.

Customer Trend Analysis is used in market intelligence or competitive intelligence to identify present and future trends (general, company level, product level, BU level, etc) and their impact on business. The process requires that you identify trends that will affect the subject in a positive way or a negative way. Next, determine the strengths and the probability of these trends occurring. Conclude how the trends will affect the issue based on the categorization above and use the result as an input to the sales process planning in general.

Decision Point Intelligence refers to market intelligence or competitive intelligence that supports specific decisions in general and furthermore specific decision points for each decision process. For the innovation process, for instance, there are a number of decisions that need to be taken throughout the development process, to the point when a final launch decision is made. Different intelligence deliverables need to be provided for different decision points throughout this process.

Deep Dive refers to an in-depth, sophisticated analysis of a specific issue.

Directors refer to the Advanced level (level 4) of Market Intelligene in GIA's Market Intelligene Roadmap.

See Early Warning System.

A Early Warning System monitor developments to provide early indicators that enable proactive decision-making and action. An Early Warning/Opportunity System identifies a sequence of events (SOE) regarding a specific issue that requires warnings. The process requires that you first identify indicators for the various SOEs. (Example: Number of new patents for a new technology) and conduct indicator reliability tests to validate the indicators. Monitor the indicators through selected information sources and analyze deviations from the ìnormî or analyze which scenario likely to materialize. Notify the relevant parties by issuing a warning or an opportunity identification alert. Develop a decision-making process in order to act on the warnings. Update scenarios, trends or other applicable Future Watch or Industry analysis according to evolving events. A Early Warning System is used in the future monitoring and/or business planning phases of market intelligence or competitive intelligence, examples include the monitoring of trends, scenarios, technology monitoring and other strategic issues.

End User Analysis is used to identify, analyze and extrapolate trends, demand drivers and behavioral patterns of customers and end users. The analysis produces knowledge about said customer preferences, trends and demand drivers. End User Analysis may include macro and/or micro-analysis. Macro-analysis is based on a combination of trend analysis and market analysis. Micro-analysis is based on understanding how an individual user(s) uses the product or service. Interviews and focus groups may also be relevant activities here.

Firefighters refer to the first level in GIA's World Class Market Intelligene Roadmap. Market Intelligene is mostly focused with putting out fires, i.e. Conducting ad-hoc projects without much structure, tools, competencies, organization,etc.

Forecasting is used in market intelligence or competitive intelligence to estimate market development. Cause-and-effect analysis is the core technique used for modeling and factoring the problem into sub-problems. Statistical analysis is applied when there is sufficiently high-quality data available to make precise estimates. Judgmental analysis is used for qualitative portions of the forecasting problem. Gathering available analyst forecasts and consensus estimates can be a part of the forecasting project.

A Future Game is used in market intelligence or competitive intelligence to understand potential and probable actions by competitors and other important stakeholders in the business environment. In Future Gaming, the idea to ìbecomeî the competitors and use their mindset, their perspectives, etc. when doing the analysis. You first define the purpose for the future game. Create teams with comprehensive knowledge of the different competitors. Provide background information to the teams about the future game exercise as well as information about the competitor/s they have been assigned. Identify interesting future scenarios/events that the teams have to respond to. Let the teams present their responses to various scenarios as well as a business/product/marketing plan, etc. for the organization. Conduct post workshop analysis and verification of the result. Use the result as an input to the strategy process concerning possible actions and counteractions that the competitors will make based on your strategic intent. Also known as War Games or War Gaming.

Industry Landscape Review is used in market intelligence or competitive intelligence to provide a high-level overview of the industry. You start by first defining the appropriate scope of analysis (e.g. to focus primarily on the competitor landscape or to have a broader focus on the entire value chain or value net) and select applicable models. The process requires that you collect information and conduct analysis required by the selected models before synthesizing the findings. Normally includes industry analysis, value chain analysis, competitor analysis, customer analysis, technology roadmap analysis, market size and market share analysis.

Industry Structure Analysis refers originally to Porter's 5 Force model (new entrants, customers, competitors, substitution, suppliers) as well as his notion of the industry value chain. The purpose of the industry structure analysis is to compare different industries as well as identifying industry segments within an industry that might be worth pursuing.

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Analysis is used to identify and analyze the Intellectual Property Rights related activities and strategies of competitors or other companies of interest. Information sources such as patent databases and industry reports are utilized to provide input to the analysis. The analysis uses quantitative methods to study levels and focus areas regarding the innovation area in question. Patent analysis and patent citation analysis are examples of methods used.

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Monitoring refers to the regular collection and analysis of information related to intellectual property right issues. Also see Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Analysis.

Intelligence Audit provides a description or situation status review of the existing state of intelligence within a unit or a company. It may identify present intelligence activities as well as the need to further develop these. An intelligence audit is often the first step in an intelligence implementation project.

Intelligence Benchmarking Audit (as used by GIA) is a presentation of the existing state of intelligence in an organization and benchmarked against peer companies and global average according to GIA's Global Market Intelligence Survey results. This provides an in-depth description of the present situation according to the GIA's Market Intelligence Roadmap.

Intelligence Culture is the glue that keeps the entire intelligence operation alive, and it obviously cannot be sourced externally. Perhaps the most important element in building an intelligence culture is senior management's articulated support to the activity. Other important building blocks of an intelligence culture are demonstrated benefits of the activity as well as internal training and marketing efforts. This is one of the six success factors for GIA's World Class Market Intelligence Roadmap.

Intelligence Cycle refers to the market intelligence or competitive intelligence process and how intelligence is created. The standard intelligence cycle has the following parameters included: information needs analysis, information collection, analysis and communication of the output of the cycle process, i.e. the end result of the project. The intelligence cycle was first described by the CIA as a method for intelligence operations.

Intelligence Deliverables refer to the concrete output of the intelligence process. Deliverables may be tangible ìproductsî such as regular review reports, company profiles or continuous news monitoring, and they can also include workshops, discussion forums and management briefings that facilitate knowledge sharing and insight creation based on which decisions will be made. This is one of the six success factors for GIA's World Class Market Intelligence Roadmap.

Intelligence Desk® is a customized market monitoring solution from GIA that provides immediate industry and market insights for decision makers. It combines user-friendly _multi-channel intelligence delivery_ with customized content and dedicated analysts. Email briefings and analytical reports are personalized and sent regularly to intelligence users across your organisation.

Intelligence Development refers to the improvement of established intelligence programs. GIA uses the Market Intelligence World Class Roadmap with its six key success factors and 5 levels of maturity in order to further develop intelligence programs.

Intelligence mentoring refers to the support that a Market Intelligence Director or Market Intelligence Manager can receive from external or internal mentors.

Intelligence Organization refers to the structures that combined, make the intelligence process happen. Appointing someone as the owner of the corporate intelligence activity is typically the starting point for forming an intelligence organization, but the person needs both internal and external networks to support their work: Internal network of intelligence users and contributors from different parts of the organization, as well as an external network of intelligence sources that may include outsourcing partners, news databases, industry consultants, research report providers, and so forth. This is one of the six success factors for GIA's World Class Market Intelligence Roadmap.

Intelligence Plaza® is a robust and scalable enterprise software developed by a team of market intelligence specialists and software specialists at GIA, that enables full control of the intelligence process. It allows you to bring structure to your enterprise-wide intelligence operation with a user-friendly and reliable tool that automates routines and organizes your data in one storage repository, while automating information sharing and delivery to your end users.

Intelligence Process refers to the process of gathering, analyzing and reporting information about the specified topics to its different user groups. The intelligence process should always be anchored to the existing corporate processes (strategic planning, sales, marketing, product management, etc.) in which information will be used. This is one of the six success factors for GIA's World Class Market Intelligence Roadmap.

Intelligence Providers are the people whose task it is to provide market intelligence or competitive intelligence to the relevant users and decision makers.

Intelligence Scope refers to the definition of the user groups and timeframe (past / present / future) of market intelligence or competitive intelligence activities and the specific intelligence topics on which each user group needs information. Issues under the scope may include e.g. customers, competitors, political developments, technological trends, or macro-economic issues. This is one of the six success factors for GIA's World Class Market Intelligence Roadmap.

Intelligence Set-up refers to the first implementation of an intelligence program in a company or business units. Set up projects often include a) an Market Intelligence Audit b) an information needs analysis and c) an Market Intelligence implementation project plan.

Intelligence Skill Set refers to a broad set of skills and competences needed in order to be a good intelligence professional. Examples of skills are: analytical mindset, curiosity, presentation skills, people skills, helicopter perspective, neutral, honest, open-minded, etc.

Intelligence Tools refers to dedicated software tools that help keep the intelligence process together by serving as searchable databases of structured information. Intelligence tools also help automate the routines of processing data into information and regularly delivering the intelligence output to its users. This is one of the six success factors for GIA's World Class Market Intelligence Roadmap.

Intelligence Training refers to competence development focusing on market intelligence or competitive intelligence. This could be in depth training for intelligence professionals focusing on e.g. analysis methods, information sources, communication methods, etc. It could also mean training for intelligence users such as the sales force in order to make them more aware of the importance of intelligence and in order to make them more participative in the intelligence process.

Issue Resolution is used to address and solve ad-hoc questions that arise. Someone identifies a need where the market intelligence or competitive intelligence function needs to collect, structure and analyze pertinent information and then communicate the results.

Key Intelligence Topics / Questions is an approach to discuss and determine market intelligence or competitive intelligence needs for a certain project. One starts by determining the key intelligence needs. Each need is then broken down into key intelligence topics. Each topic is in turn then broken down further by identifying key intelligence questions that will reveal the situation of each topic.

Lead Generation is used to identify potential customers that meet the requirements identified in the planning and market segmentation phases, such as market presence, market size, product needs, previous purchase patterns, etc. Secondary source research using global or country-specific company databases is normally the first step in this process in order to obtain a list of potential companies belonging to specific segments of interest. These companies may then be targeted in different forms of marketing campaigns. In a business-to-consumer (B2C) industry, potential customers are often selected based on age, income level, address, areas of interest, etc.

Analysis of the macroeconomic environment. Analysed aspects can be both on country and industry level. GDP development, fiscal policies, political issues, import/export restrictions and other macroeconomic issues may be analysed.

Continuous collection and analysis of general macroeconomic information as well as tracking of specifice key indicators for a specific issue. Examples of key indicators are, GDP development, GDP/capita development, tax level, etc.

Market Attractiveness Analysis is used to define attractive market segments in old and new markets. First prioritize markets/segments to be included in the analysis and carry out regional, country or segment focused research to support the evaluation of opportunities in the selected market areas. Contents of the analysis may include e.g. macro environmental facts (see PESTEL), industry structure, market size, distribution channels, presence of competitors, local production & trade, pricing. After the external analysis is completed, evaluate the resources needed to obtain a preferred market position. Decide which market/segments should ideally be focused on.

Market Entry Analysis refers to the review of a market in order to understand if an investment is interesting and in what form a company should enter a specific market. It often includes macro analysis, industry analysi, customer potential analysis and competitor analysis.

Market Forecasts are future oriented assumptions about how specific markets are most likely to develop. It normally consists of a prediction regarding market size growth but can also be more detailed and include market shares and other measurements or activities for any given market.

A Market Intelligence Portal refers to a central storage and delivery software for Market Intelligence content that stores the information in an organized manner and makes it accessible to its audience at different locations.

Market Monitoring to the collection and analysis of information related to markets of interest. Focus can be on existing markets as well as markets where the company is considering a market entry.

Market Monitoring Deliverables refer to continuous, standardized information that the intelligence team produces for the organization to stay on top of the relevant developments in the company's business environment.

Market Profiles are descriptions of existing market. Aspects of the description can be market size, growth, market share distribution, competitors position, customer segments, suppliers, distributors, legal and political issues.

Market Research refers to a structured information collection and analysis regarding a specific market. Market research generally refers to the study of customers or consumers.

Dividing the market into several segments and sub-segments related to the composition of the market. Market segmentation often refers to the customer situation, but a market can also be segmented along other variables such as technology, level of competition, etc.

Market Size Analysis / Market Share Analysis is used to identify the size and market share for various market segments. The process starts with an analysis of historical market size figures and historical market share figures and requires that you estimate the future market size growth based on demand and supply related scenarios, trends and forecasts, before estimating future market share based on competitors' objectives, strategies and strengths. Secondary sources as well as expert insights gathered through interviews are key sources of information.

Market Sizing is the process of analysing the size of a given market or market segment. Accurate market sizing is a prerequisite for a solid market analysis.

Media Monitoring / Media Analysis is used to understand events that affect organizations by monitoring both news in the general press, the business press and on the Internet and databases. The first step is to identify what is the first thing that should be monitored, such as customers, competitors, suppliers, etc. The next step is to identify possible sources to monitor and finally to set up a process to obtain information from the sources.

Megatrends are global macro trends that have a fundamental impact on a global scale. Examples of macro trends are: workforce globalization, global terrorism, religious fundamentalism, connectivity, megacities, BRIC counties development, etc. Megatrends analysis refers to the attempt of analyzing the megatrends in order to understand its impact on a market or a focal organization.

Mergers and Acquisitions Analysis is used to provide decision-making support regarding issues related to merger and acquisitions. It can be undertaken in any part of the M&A process. The focus and methods of the analysis will differ in each phase. The process requires that you determine future targets requirements and potential target companies, screen/analyze potential targets and select the M&A targets. The process includes rounds of discussions, due diligence analysis and decision-making.

See M&A Screening

Mergers and Acquisitions Monitoring refers to the continuous collection and analysis of information related to M&A in an industry.

M&A Screening or Merger and Acquisition Screening refers to information collection and analysis of a number of companies in order to identify the most suitable M&A candidate. Aspects of analysis may be: financial situation, product portfolio, market share situation, organization, ownership, strategic intent, core capabilities and other aspects that are important to understand.

Mystery Shopping is used to understand how the sales process is conducted in your own company by your sales agents/distributors and/or by competitors. In Mystery Shopping, you purchase the product or service and identify how the product was marketed and sold. By acquiring this knowledge, you can improve how you make sales and thus out-perform the competitors.

Partner and Supplier Monitoring refers to the continuous collection and analysis of information related to a partner or a supplier. The purpose is to identify new business opportunities or threats with regards to the partner or supplier.

Partner Screening & Analysis refers to the identification of potential business partners and analysis of the same in order to identify one or several interesting partner candidates.

Patent Monitoring refers to the regular collection and analysis of information related to patents. Also see Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Analysis.

PESTEL Analysis is used in market intelligence or competitive intelligence to identify trends and critical issues in the external environment and includes in-depth secondary and primary research to foresee significant changes in the business environment. The importance of different trends from the company point of view can be assessed e.g. through a trend impact matrix showing most influential and probable trends. PESTEL is an abbreviation for: Political, Economic, Society, Technical, Environmental and Legal issues. Facts, trends and uncertainties regarding these issues are analyzed and as a result, the impact on proposed business plans is then better understood.

Portfolio analysis is focusing on understanding the product portfolio of a company or business unit in relation to the competitors.The Boston Consulting Group's matrix and the McKinsey matrix are examples of portfolio analysis methods.

Positioning Analysis is used to show how companies or products differ across a range of aspects. The positioning analysis is beneficial in that the results immediately highlight the differences. Positioning Analysis uses benchmarking data in order to visualize how companies or products differ from each other regarding certain variables in a matrix model.

Price Monitoring refers to the continuous collection and analysis of information related to prices for a specific commodity, product or service.

See Customer Attribution Analysis.

Product Life Cycle refers to the roadmap of a product from its beginning to its end. The following stages are commonly used to describe the product life cycle: idea, prototype, launched product, post launch and finally death.

Product Profiles are used to understand other products on the market that compete within your market segment. In Product Profiling, you first define which characteristics should be profiled and conduct secondary research on the selected subject areas. Typically, many specifically product-related issues are not public information or are hard to uncover, especially pricing information, which probably requires primary research.

Profiles are used in market intelligence or competitive intelligence to provide basic information regarding a phenomenon / issue / company / person tjat is necessary as input in a benchmarking process. The process requires that you first form the basis for the information collection process by determining the profile content. Next, you collect and structure the information according to the profile content. Analysis is conducted and profiles are presented in a report, PowerPoint presentation or database, for instance.

Public Tender Monitoring refers to the continuous collection and analysis of information related to public tenders. It is normally part of Market Monitoring.

Rapid Response Research refers to industrialized ad hoc research capability that enables the delivery of market intelligence results reliably despite a tight schedule.

Regulatory Monitoring in market intelligence or competitive intelligence refers to the continuous collection and analysis of information related to regulations that impact an organization.

Report Monitoring is the continuous collection and analysis of information found in publicly available reports related to a company, a market, an industry or a country.

Risk Analysis is used to identify potential risks in order to analyze their likelihood and ways of avoiding them. The process requires that you first identify risks based on previous analysis or from scratch in a Risk Analysis project. Next, you structure the risk according to organizational risks, financial risks, external business risks, technology risks and physical risks, and analyze the risks based on how they will have impact on the organization and the likelihood of occurrence. Identify possible countermeasures for mitigating each risk and use the analysis as an input to the strategy process or/and for testing established strategies.

ROI is a financial description of Return On Investment meaning how many times you get the invested amount back. If you can calculate a positive return, the intelligence operation has been successful. Such calculation is often difficult to conduct since many variables will have impact on any given issue. Many of these variables may be outside the concept of intelligence. In a broader sense, on can talk about the benefits of intelligence where the following methods exists: positive case examples when intelligence has lead to a positive outcome, negative case examples where the absence of intelligence has lead to a negative surprise, usage data (how much are the intelligence reports used), satisfaction studies (how satisfied are the decision makers with the intelligence products, and lastly actual ROI calculations where cause and effects are possible to distinguish.

Sales Leads Monitoring refers to the analysis of information related to sales leads. Identifying new companies in a given market segment is one example of sales leads monitoring.

Scenario Analysis is used to identify possible future outcomes for the industry, a business unit, a product etc. It helps to identify present and future uncertainties in the business environment. The results from PESTEL Analysis are excellent input for this analysis. The process requires that you develop an uncertainty impact matrix, scenario lines for the most important uncertainties and scenario crosses by combining 2 uncertainties. You can develop names for the four scenarios that now have been developed. Refine the scenarios by enriching the content as a story, a newspaper article, etc. Verify the result by sending it out to stakeholders. Match present and future strategy options with the different scenarios in order to find the most flexible and/or robust strategy.

Scheduled Analysis is used to provide regular analysis to summarize developments and identify changes in the business environment. The first step is to decide on the content of the analysis. Examples might be a broad Industry Landscape Report or a more focused Strategic Themes Analysis Report. Input to the report is then taken from the continuous monitoring activities or the more ad-hoc oriented methods described for the Product Llife Cycle process.

A Scheduled Bulletin provides a short executive summary of key points from the market intelligence or competitive intelligence process in say, a hardcopy or e-mail format. It can include news from the monitoring solutions (media, IPR, price, etc) that are first evaluated and shortlisted for the bulletin.

Scientific Papers Management is used to keep the organization up-to-date on the latest scientific publications of relevance to the industry. First, the information sources in the form of various publications need to be identified. These publications then need to be constantly monitored and documents (reports, news articles, conferences, etc.).

Social Media Monitoring refers to the continuous monitoring and collection of information from blogs, wikis, tweets, networking social media sites and discussion groups.

Strategic Analysis refers to the capability of the intelligence team to serve as a trusted advisor to decision-makers, delivering thoroughly processed analysis in a consultative manner.

Strategic Theme Analysis is used to study the impact of particular events or issues and the affect that they might have on the industry, the company and the proposed innovation. In Strategic Theme Analysis, you collect and analyze information regarding the issue at hand and highlight the effects of industry changes by using Industry Structure Analysis or Value Chain Analysis models.

Strategic Theme Impact Analysis is used to provide an overview or deep dive regarding a specific issue that is of strategic importance. Someone first identifies a strategic issue that needs to be further elaborated. The process requires that you develop the key intelligence topics and key Intelligence questions to be answered, and then collect information from internal and external information sources. You then analyze information and include conclusions and recommendations. Strategic issues should be reviewed during the planning process.

A Strategic Themes Alert is a warning or opportunity detection notification based on the indicators monitored. Strategic Themes Alert first identifies the indicators for the strategic themes and monitors these indicators. The alert is sounded when indicators are deviating from status quo in an unexpected way. It is helpful to analyze the indicators and make conclusions regarding the new status of the strategic theme in question.

Strategic Themes Review is used to determine whether the strategic issues are developing as expected or if change is imminent. In Strategic Themes Review, you need to first determine the update intervals of your strategic themes. You determine the format of the review, i.e. content of the intelligence product, assign responsibility for the review and ensure feedback loops from experts are included before presenting a final version to appropriate target groups.

A Strategic Themes Workshop is used to elaborate on strategic themes in a workshop fashion.

SWOT Analysis is used to identify strategies on a company or product level. SWOT Analysis focuses on an organization's or product's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and risks. Strengths and weaknesses are internal to the organization and opportunities and risks arise from outside the organization. Ideally, primary and secondary source research needs to be conducted.

Tender Monitoring is used to continuously monitor tenders. It features databases listing future tenders in various industries that can be monitored. Contact with the purchasing departments of present and potential clients is also a method of ensuring that you do not miss out on any tenders. This tender monitoring should naturally be included in your customer relationship management and current awareness system.

Collection and analysis of information from trade shows. This is a form of primary information collection with the purpose of identifying business opportunities or threats before they have been communicated to the market through other sources.

Trend Analysis is used to identify present and future trends and their impact on business. In Trend Analysis, you must first define the subject of the analysis (general, company level, product level, business unit level, etc) and identify trends that will affect the subject in a positive and a negative way. Determine the strengths and the likelihood of these trends to conclude how the trends will affect the issue based on the categorization above.

Continuous collection and analysis of information related to important trends that may have an impact on the industry or a specific company. Normally a company should both monitor megatrends that have a major impact on a macro level as well as trends related to the value chain.

User Studies are used to understand how customers are actually using the product or service. A key aspect to actually see how the customer is using the product or service or allow them to describe how it is used.

Value Chain refers to all the activities that are needed to create a product or service and all activities that are needed in order to distribute this product or service to the end customer. The value chain can include commodities sourcing, production, competition, sales, distribution.

Value Chain Analysis refers to the analysis of all activities that are needed to create a product or service and all activities that are needed in order to distribute this product or service to the end customer. The value chain can include commodities sourcing, production, competition, sales, distribution.

VIRO Analysis is used to identify unique strengths and capabilities so that the sales strategy and sales arguments can be focused. In VIRO Analysis, you look at each strength and try to verify the uniqueness by asking 4 questions: 1. Is the strength Valuable from a customer perspective? 2. Is the strength Rare from a competitive perspective? 3. Is the strength difficult to Imitate? and 4. Is the strength efficiently Organized? Sustainable competitive advantage is possible if the answer to each question is Yes.

War Game normally refers to a workshop framework that helps an organisation to understand present and future behaviour of its competitors by playing a game as if they were the competitors. The groups playing the War Game then descibe how they would react in different business settings.

A War Room is a room with intelligence information displayed so that it is possible to get a good overview of the intelligence situation. It can both mean a physical room where intelligence information is displayed. It can also relate to the display of intelligence information in a computerized way. A War Room can be very valuable during a War Game or for a specific project where competitor products and solutions are displayed alongside market activities and company strategies.

Win & Loss Analysis is used to understand the reasons for losing or winning a deal in order to improve future sales activities. A structure for analyzing why a deal was lost is normally included in a customer relationship management (CRM) system which states possible reasons for losing/winning a deal, such as: price, product features, service, existing relationship, not meeting request for proposal (RFP) requirements, etc.

The World Class Market Intelligence Roadmap by Global Intelligence Alliance divides each six Key Success Factors of market intelligence development into five levels of maturity, where the levels range from “Firefighters”, the beginners, to “Futurists”. Futurists refer to the most advanced organizations with regards to the level and maturity of their intelligence activity. It finds its base in a vast pool of GIA’s consultative experience, and also relies on several extensive research studies on how hundreds of large organizations conduct intelligence activities on a global scale.