I just received an email this morning informing me that Cormac Ryan passed away last Friday after a battle with cancer. Cormac was a long time, active member of SCIP and I had the opportunity to speak with him several times during various events at SCIP, including SCIP08 and the 2007 European Summit in Bad Nauheim. I always enjoyed speaking with him.
A memorial service will be held this Saturday, May 17, 2008 at Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas.
Arik Johnson provided a comprehensive write up of his take on SCIP's 2008 conference over at the CI "Ning" site, and commenters on his post are providing their own take as well.
Arik's brother Derek is the co-conference chair for SCIP09 so I'm sure he'll be paying attention to the feedback available on Ning and elsewhere.
Alacra announced the addition of Wright Investors Service to their Premium and AlacraStore.com products.
From Knowledge is Power:
According to best selling author and consultant Kevin J. Clancy, Ph.D, 84% of marketing programs disappoint the creators and that the Marketing Science Institute found that advertising had to be doubled to increase revenue by 1%. Dr. Clancy spoke to the annual joint meeting of Boston chapters of SCIP and the Association of Strategic Planning on March 26, 2008.
Why are marketing returns so low? “Decision making based on intuition—a habit that dies hard.” Also, “using competitors to guide decisions.” While these two reasons may appear to be contradictory, they both result from poor use of information.
Read the rest here.
AlacraBlog asks an interesting question: what do you do about integrating blog content and RSS feeds in your info delivery system?
Fuld posted the results of their most recent war game, The Battle for the Wireless Internet. One of the findings that makes a lot of sense when you think about it, but probably wouldn't occur to you (or at least you wouldn't admit that it did):
Adult content may become the “killer app” for launching the wireless Internet. As suggested by one of the judges in response to team discussions on applications, adult content is already a significant presence on the Internet and will likely have the same effect on the wireless Internet when launched.
Some things never change.
Dan McHugh is posting on his CI blog again and those interested in competitive intelligence should be thankful. Posts like his EDS on War-gaming are the reasons why. Apparently Dan hasn't been posting to his blog because his new gig at Microsoft has kept him a little busy. Don't you hate it when the day job gets in the way of a good blog?
From the Comintell press release:
STOCKHOLM, Sweden--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Comintell today announced the release of Matrix Analyzer 3, a patented and unique software tool for searching and visualizing unstructured information. The tool can be used for creating competitor comparisons, SWOT analysis, competitive intelligence reports, media analysis, trend spotting and much more.
“Matrix Analyzer is the first of it´s kind – a software tool that brings powerful and dynamic analysis to the world of unstructured information, something that has previously only been associated with structured databases,” says Jesper E. Martell, CEO at Comintell. “Matrix Analyzer allows you to twist and turn your information as if it were held inside a cube, which often leads to new, unforeseen discoveries.”
About Matrix Analyzer
Matrix Analyzer automatically categorizes incoming content feeds and displays this information in a dynamic matrix format. The new version enables users not only to change the topics presented in the x-axis and y-axis, but also the overall scope of the Matrix. Matrix Analyzer is web-based and requires Microsoft Windows 2003 and Microsoft SQL server database.
The new solution will be show-cased in Comintell’s booth 410 at SCIP08, the annual conference of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP). The conference will take place in San Diego, USA, between April 14-17th, 2008. For more information please visit www.scip.org.
From Global Intelligence Alliance's press release:
With a fresh approach to organizing corporate Market Intelligence operations, Global Intelligence Alliance (GIA) is expanding its customer base in the Netherlands. GIA is very proud to announce that both De Telefoongids BV and Royal Vopak have recently adopted its Market Intelligence solutions.
De Telefoongids BV, the market leader in directory services in the Netherlands, has adopted GIA’s unique Intelligence Desk™ service. Intelligence Desk™ is a market monitoring concept that combines an optimized information source portfolio, a customized web interface, and professional analyst resources to monitor the external operating environment of the customer’s organization. Eric Knibbe, Manager of Marketing Research at De Telefoongids comments: “We are receiving many enthusiastic reactions from our end users regarding the Intelligence Desk™. The co-operation with GIA has proved to be very successful. We've made a big step within De Telefoongids in the field of Market Intelligence. We are looking forward to continuing this partnership.”
Royal Vopak is the world’s largest operator of tank terminals and has adopted the GIA Intelligence Plaza™ software for managing and distributing Market Intelligence content in their organization. States René Loozen, Business intelligence Manager at Vopak: “Intelligence Plaza is a very user-friendly and well designed intelligence platform. It helps us to ensure an efficient and effective process of sharing information and knowledge”
In the Netherlands, GIA is being represented by DeskResearch Nederland, a Member in the GIA Network since 2003. DeskResearch Nederland, founded in 1998, is an independent business research company that delivers tailor-made Market Intelligence and information brokerage services. Based in Amsterdam, DeskResearch Nederland works for an international clientele in a broad range of industries.
For more information and to request a free demo of the Intelligence Desk™ service or the Intelligence Plaza™ software, please visit the Global Intelligence Alliance website at www.globalintelligence.com, or send email to info@globalintelligence.com.
Over at Confidential Resource Richard McEachin takes exception to an amateurish attempt at CI (quote is from a post on B2B Sales Pipeline):
Adam…asked a pricing question about an application component that could not be purchased alone…
…this question doesn’t pass the “Smell Test”…
Called him anyway…Cell Phone, with no company name provided…
…search Adam’s name in LinkedIn. Lo and behold - Adam works for a competitor. I called the competitors office, asked for Adam, and let him know that I would love to chat with him, since it’s always good for competitors to get to know each other. At the time of this posting, Adam has not called me back, and has likely joined the witness protection program.
After reading Richard's post I went to the source and found this:
So here’s my point - Competitive Intel is King, so how can you get it?:
1. Act like a Prospect - Note to Adam’s boss - Get him acting lessons, because if he’s as bad of a sales support engineer as he is an actor, you should probably cut him loose.
- Make the Cover Story fit - In the era of Google, it’s probably a bad idea to name a company that doesn’t exist
- Pretend to be someone else - With resources like LinkedIn, Spoke and JigSaw, you probably shouldn’t use your real name.
- Ask relevant questions - Back to the Mercedes example - You should probably ask questions about the solution as a whole, and sound like an educated prospect (”After looking at the BMW, I feel this Mercedes is the better buy because it has Leather, Sunroof and Heated Seats for the same price…but I’m curious about the drivetrain?”).
2. Research on the Internet - Again, in the era of Google, you should probably just search for your the information you seek.
3. Post-Mortem Follow Up’s - Talk to your customers who you’ve won during a competitive procurement, or wrap up with prospects you’ve lost. Always preface with - “I don’t want you to cross any ethical lines, but…..” Satisfied customers can provide insight about the competitive landscape, and prospects who didn’t select your solution can tell you why they went with someone else.
In the end - Adam - I love your moxie. You did the right thing, but you aren’t getting any Academy Awards from me.
Item one on the list pretty much puts him in conflict with the ethical standards set forward by SCIP. To wit the third item on SCIP's Code of Ethics: "To accurately disclose all relevant information, including one's identity and organization, prior to all interviews." I guess it doesn't matter if you view the SCIP Code of Ethics as an irrelevant nicety, or if you don't even acknowledge it, but if you're with a company that acknowledges it and purports to adhere to it then this would be no small matter.
For the record I have no idea if the author of the post is a member of SCIP but the point is that if you're engaged in competitive intelligence you may want to check the recognized standard of the association of CI professionals to make sure you're in adherence with accepted ethical standards.
