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Competitive Intelligence: Glossary PRG helps clients to develop CI capabilities and strategic processes, applying the latest CI tools and technologies. Part of our work involves an educational element, assisting client contacts to better educate and involve their colleagues and organizations in the concepts, methods, and processes utilized in effective CI. Therefore, as part of these instructional efforts, we have compiled a glossary list of frequently used competitive intelligence terms and their common definitions. Please let us know if you have any additions and/or modification to this list as it evolves. [Sources: SCIP; Fuld; CIR; PRG]A / B / C / D / E / F / G
/ H /
I / J / K / L / M / Analysis:
The process of sorting through and distilling information into intelligence. Application Service Providers (ASP): Artificial Intelligence:
computer systems that operate in a manner similar to that of human intelligence in that they can understand natural language, solve problems, learn, and reason.
Benchmarking:
a systematic process for evaluating products, services, operations, and/or work processes for organizational improvement by comparing them against leader organizations that are recognized as being most efficient and representing best-in-class.
Business Intelligence: Business Plan:
a detailed study of the current and anticipated future activities of an enterprise, and of all of the factors that will have a bearing on those activities. Brainstorming Applications:
Brainstorming tools help inspire creative thinking and convert tacit into explicit information or knowledge. These end user applications help categorize, organize and identify knowledge resources and are therefore useful intelligence creation tools.
Capital: Customer Capital: The value of an organization's relationships with its customers including the intangible loyalty of its customers to the
company or a product, based on reputation, purchasing patterns, or the customers' ability to pay; Human Capital:
The knowledge, skills, and competencies of people in an organization. Unlike structural capital, the individuals that have it (e.g. the tacit knowledge in each individual's head), rather than the organization own human capital. Human capital is the renewable part of intellectual capital;
Intellectual Capital: Knowledge that is of value to an organization - made up of human capital, structural capital, and customer capital; Structural Capital: the processes, structures, information systems,
and patents that remain with a company when employees leave. Competitive Advantage:
the particular elements within a company that give it an advantage over its competition in terms that facilitate greater revenue generation and growth, of differentiation and/or value-added. Often in terms of a pricing premium or lower fixed costs.
Competitor Profile: A means to capture and organize existing knowledge concerning competitor companies. Competitor Profiling:
comparative analysis of past and current resources, products/services, and strategies. Core Competencies:
those organizational capabilities (present or future) that are critical to a company's competitive advantage over time. Can be strategically significant and value-creating in that they (1) make a disproportionate contribution to customer-perceived value, (2) are competitively distinctive and unique, and (3) might be applied in new product arenas in the future.
Critical Success Factors:
Critical Success Factors (CSF) are a set of factors that are essential to the organization for gaining and maintaining a competitive advantage, or achieving success as defined by their goals.
Counter (Defensive) Intelligence:
Rather than protecting the physical and information assets of the company, counterintelligence involves anticipating what competitors may be learning about your firm and then devising responses to thwart their efforts.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM): CRM focuses on automating and improving the business processes associated with managing customer relationships in the areas of sales, marketing,
customer service, and support. CRM is both a discipline and a set of discrete software and technologies whose goal is to reduce sales cycles and selling costs, increase revenue, identify new markets and channels for
expansion, and improve customer value, satisfaction, profitability, and retention. Many CRM vendors are broadening their offerings to encompass all channels of customer interaction including telesales and Web-based
sales. Data:
Raw, unstructured, and unconnected pieces of information, which is at the level before it becomes evaluated and interpreted through analysis.
Database: a collection of interrelated, systematically organized data, used to develop particular applications. Data can be updated, searched, and retrieved. Database Management:
Software tools that allow you to enter, organize, and sort through data in any number of ways using specific categories, query commands, and information input. Data Mining:
Software that systematically analyzes large volumes of a firm's electronically accessible data (often transaction-oriented) stored in internal databases, with the aim of revealing patterns and relationships about customers, products, services, and other activities that can lead to new and more profitable business opportunities. Usually incorporates algorithms for performing
phrase-frequency analysis (reveals the pervasive themes of a database) and phrase-proximity analysis
(discloses the relationships among pervasive themes). Not usable with data from external sources or for unstructured/irregular stores of electronic information. Data Warehouse:
a repository of operational data (typically about customers, products, and services) from one or more sources within an organization that have been arranged into meaningful information and rendered easily accessible by non-technical staff to allow for effective decision-making.
Decision Support: systems or processes that enable management to access and manipulate information so as to make better decisions. Decision Tree:
analytical tool that allows management to clearly identify its options, then visualize each options possible sequence, outcome, and the ramifications of the different decisions.
Economic Espionage Act (EEA):
Passed on 10/11/96 as code 18 U.S.C.§ 1831-39 to criminalize trade secret theft and transmission at the Federal level. A Trade Secret is defined as “all forms of financial, business and technical information that the owner has taken reasonable measures to keep secret and where the information derives an independent economic value from not being generally known or readily ascertainable through proper means by the public” (EEA § 1839).
Enterprise Information Portals: EIPs provide users with a single Web interface to corporate information scattered throughout the enterprise. EIPs can aggregate diverse content (inside and outside the organization), provide directories, search engines and pointers tailored to the needs of specific interest groups within the organization. EIPs fall into two main categories. A collaborative processing EIP helps users organize and share workgroup information, such as E-mail, discussion group material, reports, memos, and meeting minutes. A decision processing EIP helps decision-makers access corporate information for making key business decisions. Environmental Scanning:
involves continuous monitoring and collecting information on the whole business environment. A term coined in the mid-1960's by Harvard Business School professor, Francis Aguilar. Expert Systems:
specific artificial intelligence that solves problems through the use of the storage of relevant information and a set of reasoning techniques. Explicit Knowledge:
knowledge that can be easily articulated, understood, and codified without a great deal of contextual information and therefore transmitted easily among people. Often based on the operational aspects within a company (e.g., SFA, CRM, and ISO procedures/data). Michael Polanyi made the distinction between “explicit” and “tacit” knowledge in his 1966 book, The Tacit Dimension.
Filters: An analytical method that allows for screening out unimportant or distracting information. Framework:
Use of an analytical tool through which information can be filtered and sorted, with the ultimate purpose of creating intelligence. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA): Legislation passed by
Congress in the mid-1970's, allowing access to most government previously confidential archives. Each time an individual file is requested on the basis of the FOIA, the agency contacted places a copy of the requestor's
name on file, or notifies the company whose information is requested. An agency has 10 days in which to reply and may omit sensitive or confidential information originally filed, from the packet sent out.
The U.S. government is one of several countries with such an Act in place. Fudge Factor: refers to the margin for additional time, cost, or error that is added to a planned assignment or
project because of the uncertainty in planning and estimating requirements. During the course of CI projects, the direction, questions, and/or objectives may change, hence creating unforeseen additional requirements for
fact-finding. This extra margin - also known as the fudge or error factor - usually adds another 10 to 15 percent to the overall estimation. Gap Analysis:
A "Gap Analysis" is conducted to identify missing components, steps, or capabilities. It is used to identify the extent to which the pursuit of current strategies will or will not achieve results. And, identifying the gaps can highlight the need to alter or reformulate strategy. In developing a CI process, a Gap Analysis is used to determine the need for current or future resources to meet newly defined requirements.
Goals: Goals determine actions towards which an organization's effort is directed. Goals link "downward" to Objectives and every Goal should have at least one Objective. Groupware:
software designed to facilitate the location-independent coordination of work for such things as team-scheduling, online screen-sharing, group drafting, data/report sharing, data filing, retrieving, sorting, etc. Hard Information: (quantitative) facts, statistics, financial information, news, etc. Humint:
Human intelligence - what you learn directly from people as opposed to reading in documents. Implication:
Deriving the meaning from and action necessary in response to competitive insight. The very important “so-what” of analysis. Indicators:
That which is tracked and measured. Provides a means to focus your efforts and identifies what is really important about a market. Inferences:
An interpretation, based on logical reasoning, of known data and information. Information: Knowledge derived from a collection of studied data. Information Management:
the means by which an organization maximizes the efficiency with which it plans, collects, organizes, uses, controls, disseminates, and disposes of information, and through which it ensures that the value
and potential value of that information is identified and exploited to the maximum extent. Information Overload:
the existence of more information than can be effectively absorbed or processed by an individual. Information Technology: the acquisition, processing, storage, and dissemination of
vocal, pictorial, textual, or numerical information using computers and telecommunications. Intelligence:
information that has been filtered, distilled, and analyzed to the point where it can be acted on. It is the “implication” of organized information from which a decision can be made. Intelligence Audit:
An inventory of internal intelligence/expertise assets and resources, usually conducted at the beginning of the design and development of a company-wide intelligence program. Intelligence Assets
: those known and valuable information resources located within an organization, including internal experts, corporate databases, special collections of market studies. Intelligence Briefings:
an oral or written presentation designed to provide accurate, impartial, and timely intelligence - - together with an indication of its implications and recommendations for action, in a concise and
easily assimilated form. Intelligent Agents:
web-searching software which travels between sites and automatically finds, explores, alerts, and delivers to the user's desktop results from external databases and online sources matching the user's search profile. Agents enable the end user to specify the type of information he or she wants to receive electronically, thereby freeing them from the time required to continually monitor specific information resources. Still, too often what is collected is redundant, voluminous, or irrelevant information.
Intranets: An Intranet uses the technologies available through the Internet's IP (Internet Protocol) standard web and builds a private web for internal corporate use. An Intranet enables secure and low-cost access to and sharing of information; facilitates dialogue and allows virtual workgroups to disseminate and/or respond to assorted topics and projects; l inks external/internal information sources; provides real-time access to internal experts and information repositories. Knowledge: the familiarity, awareness or understanding gained through experience or study. Knowledge Base:
an organized structure of information that facilitates the storage of information or intelligence so that it may be retrieved in support of a specific act such as decision-making. Knowledge Management:
The systematic process of finding, selecting, organizing, distilling, and presenting information in such a way that improves an employee's or company's comprehension in a specific subject for effective action. knowledge maps / knowledge mapping: finding where information is in the organization as well as with how to structure knowledge. Not many firms have taken
the time to draw a detailed picture of the skills, expertise and information (both document and human-based) that make up their pool of knowledge. Learning:
any permanent change in a person's behavior as a result of experience. Literature Search: [M]
Market Research: Metadata:
("data about data") Layered information added to data that makes it easier to access and re-use content. Metadata is found in many different forms - key words
in software help systems, the document profile information attached to documents in a document management system, and the classification information in a library card catalog. Misinformation: Mission Statement:
statement of the purpose of an organization in terms of who it serves (market and stakeholders) and what specifically it targets to achieve. Describes
what the organization does (current capabilities), what needs it meets, and what makes the organization unique (identity and justification for existence). Models/Modeling:
graphically and quantifiably illustrates the relationship between the factors looked at. Used for (a) anticipating future actions/initiatives, (b) communicating a phenomenon, and (c) problem solving. (OLAP) Online Analytical Processing: compares data from two or more data dimensions representing corporate entities. For instance, quarterly regional sales
figures can be revealed and compared by comparing geographical, sales, and time dimensional data. Online Information Sources Open Source: Information in the public domain, such as news articles or non-secret
government documents. Objectives:
Objectives link "upward" to Goals and link "downward" to Strategies. An objective is a means of achieving a goal(s). Every Objective should have at least one Strategy.
Organizational Mapping: diagnostic tool that focuses on providing a representation (model) of an organization's entire operations from a systemic or strategic perspective.
This information is then used to improve organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Process:
Method of accomplishing activities, including all of the integral steps that are required. Productivity: Value added by the process, factored against the value of all labor,
capital or other resources consumed by processes. Patent Analysis: Personality Profiling: The analysis of the individual company decision makers (senior management) at a company to understand how they think about their market
and what decisions they are likely to make as a result of their experience and perspective. Portal: entry-point to the Web. Portals aggregate diverse content, provide directories,
search engines and pointers, customized to user needs. Provides a framework and business context for data warehousing interaction, drill-down, and comparisons across time. Primary Information Sources:
raw information acquired directly from a human source during on-site surveys, telephone interviews, win/loss analysis, etc; Process:
a systematic method, often repeated, generally involving a number of specific steps or operations. Proprietary Information: A legally defined term that describes the level of
confidentiality with which a document or information should be treated. Although what is considered proprietary may have different meanings and applications from company
to company, it generally refers to information or documentation that only a limited number of people are permitted to know or discuss. Push Technology:
Technologies that automate (“push”) the transfer of information to end users using better presentation, real-time updates, and applications as well as content. Qualitative Information:
A term describing textual or verbal information that is not number-based. Quantitative Information: A term that describes numerical (hard numbers) rather than textual information Re-engineering: the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of
performance such as cost, quality, services, and speed. Reverse Engineering: the process of dismantling a competitor's product so as to
reveal details of its design, manufacture, component materials, technologies, etc. This process enables the investigator to identify how a product/service was designed and
constructed, as well as to estimate the costs and quality. Rumor: Unverified information, often with no validated sources supporting IT. Sales Force Automation
: (SFA) Systems designed to improve sales planning and management, the servicing of customers, and more efficient use of critical resources.
Incorporates a series of application modules to (a) assist in prospecting and sales forecasting; (b) track customer through every stage of the sales relationship; (c) assist
in task scheduling and customer communications. Scenarios: a systematic study determining a number of plausible market outcomes
that could transform dominant industry or market patterns, such as technological breakthroughs or the rapid erosion of a long-standing market entry barrier. Developing
scenarios enables a company to extract the common features from the possible outcomes so that its planning processes can consider and plan for the widest contingencies in order to reduce their future decision risk. Secondary sources: selectively altered, filtered and/or published information, such the Internet, periodicals, annual reports, etc.; Signals:
Specific actions from which inferences can be derived concerning competitor's future intentions, motives, and goals. Soft information:
(qualitative) rumors, opinions, anecdotes, observations, complaints, customer feedback, etc. Found randomly and off the radar; not often used; enhances
hard information and objective insight; cannot always be documented or proven. Special Intelligence Briefings: a brief report that addresses one specific issue,
summarizes its key supporting analysis, and recommends a course of action. Stakeholder: Those individuals, groups, and parties that have a direct interest or
involvement in the success of an organization and that are directly affected by the outcome of any decisions. Strategy: the adoption of specific courses of action and the allocation of resources
necessary for carrying out the basic short and long-term goals and objectives of an enterprise. Strategic Intelligence: A phrase implying intelligence that has implications for the
long-term, usually looking one or more years out into the future. Strategic Planning: A process by which an organization formulates and implements
important decisions across different levels and functions of the organization to achieve specific outcomes. Concerned with the mission and objectives of an organization, the
resources to be used in achieving those objectives, and the policies/guidelines that govern the acquisition, use, and disposition of those resources. SWOT:
An analytical tool used to assess a company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats vis-a-vis the competition. The most commonly used analytical tool in CI. Tacit Knowledge: knowledge that is deeply rooted in people, gained experientially and therefore embedded individually, involving such intangible factors as personal
belief, perspective, and values. These are not easily articulated or explained, especially to inexperienced parties. A firm will acquire tacit knowledge through
experimentation and the accumulation of experience. In contrast to explicit knowledge, tacit knowledge is unstructured and dynamic, rarely recorded or shared in business organizations. Tactics:
strategy defines “what” is to be achieved, while tactics describe the “how”. Typically of short duration, narrow in focus, and more readily adaptable to changing circumstances. Tactical Intelligence:
A phrase implying intelligence that has implications for the short term, usually applied to sales and marketing objectives. Information about the
competitor's advertising, pricing, product positioning, etc., which supports sales and business winning activities. Tactical Planning: addresses the immediate timeframe, not more than one-year out
from the present time. Technical Intelligence: a subset of intelligence covering those technical activities that are concerned with translating research, technological, and/or scientific findings
and knowledge into devices, materials, products, processes, or services Threats: unfavorable events or circumstances that may hinder the organization and the achievement of its objectives.
Total Quality Management: (TQM) broad-based program designed to improve product/service quality and increase customer satisfaction. Trade Secret:
Any formula, pattern, device or compilation of proprietary information used in a business that is considered commercially useful and that gives the owner an advantage over competitors.
Vision Statement: Identifies where the organization intends to be in the future in order to best meet performance objectives. Incorporates a shared understanding of the
nature and purpose of the organization and uses this to move the organization toward a greater purpose. Used to establish a commonly held definition for organizational success.
War Game: A strategic planning exercise used to act out strategic possibilities with regard to the competition and the overall marketplace. War Room:
a location within a company where individuals can examine and analyze competitive information, in order to reach tactical and strategic decisions.
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