BI Toolbox - The Business Intelligence Blog

Competitive Intelligence vs. Espionage - An article from Thomasnet

2007-05-28T08:31:00.000-05:00

Business intelligence, corporate intelligence, manufacturing intelligence, industrial intelligence -- whatever you call it, we do it openly but prefer the target company be unaware. How do we pursue aggressive but legitimate competitive intelligence-collection activities without being liable for espionage?

In April, two former Ferrari engineers accused of stealing trade secrets were convicted of industrial espionage. And earlier this month, five Kia workers were indicted for selling car manufacturing technologies to China. Since last November, the five Kia workers allegedly delivered 57 corporate secrets, including the technology to assemble a certain sport utility vehicle and plans for new models, to a local consulting firm established by some of Kia’s former workers.

The National Intelligence Service said among the leaked Kia corporate secrets, files on welding, assembly and quality control were handed over to a Chinese automaker.

It’s pretty clear, thanks to the increasingly rapid occurrences of technological disruptions, that support and focus on innovation and invention play a huge role on profitability. Yet given a morass of uncertainty about how much to invest in R&D to generate new products, technologies and services, what do top managers do? They hire someone or outsource someone or some group to gather competitive intelligence (CI) — not corporate or industrial espionage.

The difference? Espionage by definition is using spies to obtain information about the plans and activities especially of a competing company. CI practitioners generally abide by local legal guidelines and ethical business norms. There is a strict code of ethics followed by reputable CI practitioners, laid down by the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP), the only global not-for-profit membership organization for everyone involved in the development and use of CI. The SCIP code includes the stipulations that CI professionals:

• Must abide by all applicable laws — whether domestic or international;
• Must accurately disclose all relevant information, including one's identity and organization, prior to all interviews; and
• Must provide honest and realistic recommendations and conclusions in the execution of one's duties.

Over the last several years, SCIP surveyed its members and, in its "State of the Art: Competitive Intelligence: A Competitive Intelligence Foundation Research Report 2005-2006", revealed that most respondents allocate their limited resources among the various components of the CI cycle (planning, collection, processing, analysis, dissemination), with the majority of their time spent on analysis and secondary data collection. For them:

• Internal employees are the most important primary sources of information; publications and Web sites are the most important secondary sources.

• Competitor analysis and strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) are the most frequently used analysis methods.

• E-mail has surpassed hard copy reports, personal delivery, and presentations as the most commonly used method for acquiring and disseminating CI. Competitive intelligence practitioners have many delivery options, and they need to know-how to determine the best method for selecting specific deliverables.

• Many tools and technologies are internally available to help collect information and report intelligence. Almost half of the survey respondents are confident they use the most appropriate technology.

Gathering competitive business intelligence is not so difficult as it may seem, and is far less glamorous than the popular Riley of the "Spies" TV series might lead us to think.

According to the namesake of international CI consulting firm Richard Combs Associates, in Chapter 3 of his “Competitive Intelligence Handbook”:

Some 80 to 90 percent of the information a project requires can usually be found through publicly available channels, and the rest often can be deduced or estimated.

Businesses are in a Catch-22. They want to provide as much detail as possible to persuade, with credibility, financial analysts that they are on the right track to improving profits, while not giving so much detail that they tip their hand to competitors. Of course, corporations are going to be freer with near-future plan details than with long-range plans.

For some specifics on where to find public information, a classic Fast Company editorial provides some sources used by experienced intelligence gathers, including the following:

• Conference proceedings;
• Fee-based information services;
• Chitchat with those operating trade-show booths;
• Company Web sites;
• Local newspapers (many can be found online); and
• Search engines.

Additions to this list can include:

• Government sources, (patents, court documents, environmental agency records, local building and zoning records);
• Interviews or surveys;
• On-site observations as during press tours or consumer tours;
• Academics who interface with or advise target company;
• Trade associations;
• Consumer groups;
• Other competitors;
• Suppliers;
• Distributors;
• Customers; and
• Media such as journals, wire services, financial reports and in-the-know blogs.

Many companies are concerned about keeping their practices above board. One of the ways to ensure CI over espionage is through internal training and providing employees with clear-cut, written policies (such as in an employee manual) regarding what is acceptable practice.

It isn’t necessary to use illegal or unethical methods in CI, says SCIP. In fact, doing so is a failure of CI, “because almost everything decision makers need to know about the competitive environment can be discovered using legal, ethical means.

“The information that can’t be found with research can be deduced with good analysis, which is just one of the ways CI adds value to an organization.”

Resources

Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals

F1 engineers plan appeal in Ferrari espionage case
by John Leyden
The Register, April 30, 2007

Industrial Espionage Reveal Problems at Kia
The Chosun Ilbo, May 11, 2007

State of the Art: Competitive Intelligence; A Competitive Intelligence Foundation Research Report 2005-2006
by Dale Fehringer, Bonnie Hohhof and Ted Johnson (editors)
Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, 2005-2006

The Competitive Intelligence Handbook
by Richard Combs
Scarecrow Press, April 1, 1993

Competitive Intelligence – Get Smart!
by Gina Imperato
Fast Company, March 1998

Source: By Fred White; http://news.thomasnet.com/mt/rst.cgi/1057

Are you gathering information or intelligence about competitors?

2007-01-22T12:01:00.000-05:00

Interesting Article by By Troy Janisch about the way of gathering Information:

Finding online information about your competitors is easy. The difficult part is finding meaning. When researching the competition, you can avoid pitfalls by seeking “intelligence” instead of “information.”

The differences between “information” and “intelligence” are purpose and process. Having a purpose and a process for gathering information ensures that the results will be useful — instead of merely informative.

A well-defined purpose allows you to search the Internet broadly and deeply without drowning in a flood of marginal information.

The process for gathering good competitive intelligence is straight-forward: identify industry/market trends and competitors, define your questions, find the answers, analyze the results, and act on them.

The process begins with a wide search of the Internet to define trends in your industry/market and competitors.

Use resources such as search engines, newspapers, business journals, trade press and online newsletters. Consider resources such as NewsIsFree and other topical news 'clipping' sites. PR Newswire and BusinessWire can be useful sources for news releases and competitive PR.

Beginning with a broad industry/market search decreases the likelihood that you’ll overlook potential competitors and non-competing businesses in the industry that may pose as sources of benchmarking, market insight and inspiration.

Once you’ve identified trends and competitors, you can identify the questions you want to answer about your competitors. Finding competitors’ identities, pricing, plans, strengths, weaknesses, suppliers and customers play a very important part in formulating an effective business strategy.

Finding answers often begin at a competitor’s own web site. When visiting competitor’s web sites look beyond product/service information. You can also learn by viewing a competitor’s employment opportunities, organization chart, supplier and vendor lists, and press releases.

Explore their news/press area. Often, you can download their press kit or add your personal email address to their email subscription list.

Search engines make it easy to find PowerPoint presentations, speeches and white papers. Use search terms such as .ppt, .doc and .pdf.

On Web sites, topics such as investor relations often include annual reports (even for private companies).

Forms that ask “How did you hear about us?” provide a list of locations where the company is spending marketing dollars

After you’ve explored a competitor’s Web site, use other sites to learn about the organization. Conduct keyword searches on search engines, public records sites, discussion groups and blogs.

Notable sites:

WayBack Machine — An Internet archive. Use this site to see historical versions of the company’s web site. It will help determine changes in branding and offerings.

F***edCompany.com — A site featuring company rumors and internal memos.

Alexa Obtain traffic information about the traffic ranking, page views, and reach of a competitor’s Web site.

US Patent & Trademark Office Conduct a basic patent search on competitors.

These represent only a handful of sites that are useful for gathering competitive intelligence. Based on your industry, competitors, questions and creativity, it is possible to find a wide selection of useful online/offline resources.

According to the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, more than 95 percent of information that is required for gathering competitive intelligence is publicly available from open sources.

Original Article Link: http://wistechnology.com/article.php?id=1242

Developing a Competitive Intelligence Program

2005-09-01T19:56:00.000-05:00

The purpose of the Destination Phase of the Competitive Intelligence process is to initiate or, in the situation where some CI function already exists, to conduct an audit in order to further develop a Competitive Intelligence capability within an organisation.

It doesn't matter how many resources are applied to the CI function, what is more important is how the resources are applied. For example, a CI unit may consist of a manager who coordinates the CI effort (a part-time function) assisted by an analyst who spends fifty percent of his/her time on CI and the remainder on marketing research.

There are two situations that can exist. One is a plain situation where a formal CI capability doesn't exist and the other is where a CI capability exists but further development is needed.

In the case of a plain site, the process of planning the implementation of a CI capability involves the ten major steps described below. Where a CI function already exists, the same steps take place but in the form of a Competitive Intelligence Capability Audit against best practice.

Overall, this ten-step plan consists of three parts:

Part A: Where do we want to be? (Steps 1 through 4)
Part B: Where are we at now? (Steps 5 through 8)
Part C: How will we get there? (Steps 9 and 10).

This "CI-Plan" stands for designing and implementing a Competitive Intelligence capability within an organisation. The major steps in this process are:

Step 1: Gain Executive Management Backing

Step 2: Appoint a CI Manager

Step 3: Conduct a Stakeholder Analysis

Step 4: Determine the Purpose, Direction and Policies

Step 5: Conduct an Information Audit

Step 6: Perform a SWOT Analysis

Step 7: Perform a Force-Field Analysis

Step 8: Determine the Critical Success Factors

Step 9: Decide on Strategies

Step 10: Define the Action Plans

Gain Executive Management Backing

This step requires executive team education on what a CI unit can and cannot do for the organisation and what options are available. A CI capability can have different purposes: Defensive intelligence to avoid surprises; Passive intelligence to provide benchmark data; and Offensive intelligence to identify opportunities. Depending on the type of organisation, the focus of activity will be on the following environments: competitive, technological, economic, political and regulatory, and the social environment.

If the CEO is not behind the initiative, then the effort will be wasted. The end result is for the executive team to agree on what having a CI capability could mean to the organisation. Note that in the case of Motorola, the initiative for wanting to build a CI capability came from the Chairman at the time, Bob Galvin, with initial misgivings and lack of support from the executive team.

The form of this education will depend on circumstances. Ideally it requires a "champion" or "sponsor" at the executive level to determine the best way of conducting the education process - usually in the form of a briefing. But it also could involve some preliminary investigation and development of a formal proposal to present to the executive level. Or it could be as subtle as giving everyone on the executive team a copy of Larry Kahaner's book on Competitive Intelligence.

The outcome of this step is commitment from the executive level.

Appoint a CI Manager

If a CI manager is not already in place, appoint a person who will lead the development process. This person is there to coordinate the collection, storage, analysis, and dissemination of intelligence within the organisation and needs to be trained on what's involved in developing and running an effective CI capability within the organisation. This person should be an internal appointment; someone who is well respected at all levels of the organisation and possibly already a member of the executive team. This person needs to understand the industry and understand the organisation and he or she needs to have a good network of contacts within and outside the organisation. This person needs to be a good communicator, both written and oral, and be able to see the "big picture". Because the CI process extends beyond the CI team to impact the whole organisation, there is an opportunity for the CI manager to take a leading role in promoting organisational learning and acting as a change agent.

He or she will also be a good project manager by establishing clear objectives and directives for the CI function, match tasks to skills and interests of CI team members, and protects the team from distractions.

Conduct a Stakeholder Analysis

The initial responsibility of this CI manager (or CI director) will be to conduct a stakeholder analysis to determine who the key intelligence users are, what they will use intelligence for, when it is required, why it is needed, and how the intelligence will be used.

Usually this information is obtained by separately interviewing the individuals involved. It works better if two researchers are employed - one to ask the questions and one to record the answers.

Determine the Purpose, Direction and Policies

Given the identified requirements of users, the next step is to develop a statement of the purpose (who it is to serve), the products / services to be delivered, how it will be run (including communications and data collection ethics) and initial thoughts on resources required for the CI unit - including staffing, infrastructure, budgets, operations, security, etc. at a policy level.

Conduct an Information Audit

What information already exists within the organisation that is required to support the requirements elicited in 3 above and the environment (culture and facilities) existing to communicate this information.

Perform a SWOT Analysis

What are the strengths and weaknesses of this (proposed) CI capability in comparison to others (competitors or models)?
Is the CI manager and/or CI analyst a member of a professional body such as the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) or similar body?
What are the opportunities for achieving break-throughs in the way intelligence is used within the organisation?
What are threats to the successful launch and future viability of the CI function?

Perform a Force-Field Analysis

What human factors might assist or hinder the success of this unit? (Includes "knowledge is power" syndrome and change management issues).

Determine the Critical Success Factors

What must go well to ensure the success of the CI function?
- Top management involvement
- A focus on what is important to the organisation
- Be expert at analysis and communications
- Involvement of everyone in organisation
- Maintenance of ethical standards

Decide on Strategies

What are the strategies for establishing / developing the CI capability? What approaches are to be taken in regard to budgets, hiring, training of CI staff and company staff, managing the unit, ethics, communications, IT infrastructure, plus addressing inputs from situation analysis in points 4-7 above?

Define the Action Plans

What, who, when, to undertake the actions necessary to deliver the strategies? How and when will reviews take place?

The CI Process

2005-08-30T17:55:00.000-05:00

The Competitive Intelligence process is composed of six phases:

Destination Phase is the preparedness and the capability to perform the task
Demand Phase identifies the information needs and determines the approach to be taken
Discovery Phase involves seeking out and collecting the information sources by legal means
Development Phase produces a meaningful picture from the pieces of data that have been discovered and analysed
Delivery Phase communicates the resulting intelligence to the right people at the right time
Disengagement Phase involves debriefing clients and reflecting to improve the process.

1. Destination Phase

This is the period of preparation to efficiently handle assignments and on-going monitoring. It includes training of CI staff as well as other people in the organisation. It is where the process to be used is developed and reviewed. It is also the period when systems are put in place - not necessarily computer systems - so the work can be handled efficiently. This is not part of the day-to-day intelligence activity but it is essentially a planning and development (double-loop learning) activity.

See CI-Action - Implementing a Competitive Intelligence Capability

2. Demand phase

This is where an assignment starts. Because there is so much data, it is vital that some boundaries or frameworks are put on the CI activity so as to focus on the most important areas of interest. There needs to be a statement about what it is you really need to find out and why. For example, "What is the answer to this problem . . . " or "What can we do to take advantage of this opportunity . . . ?". From this we need to identify the Key Intelligence Topics (KITs) and Key Intelligence Questions (KIQs) that need to be addressed by the CI unit.

Note that CI is much more than competitor analysis. CI examines areas that are fundamental inputs to the strategic planning process: the environment, competitors and markets. This data complements micro-environmental information available from internal sources about existing customer behaviour and trends. Usually called business intelligence, it often involves data warehousing and data mining to provide this information from internal databases.

3. Discovery Phase

Discovering information about what's happening in a market is not new. All businesses do this to some degree. However, particularly in small-to-medium sized businesses, this is usually an ad hoc and disorganised activity. It might occur after a company has lost a bid to a rival company. Or it might occur when there is a prospect of buying out another business and due diligence on information from external sources is required. So a key word in this definition of CI is process, meaning a structured way of gaining competitive intelligence. We need to ask ourselves, "What do we already know?", "What do we still need to find out?", "What information sources can we use?", and "How can the information be stored?"

CI practitioners rely on publications, suppliers and customers as the most popular sources of information, followed by company employees, industry experts, the Internet, industry conferences, and commercial databases. In fact an enormous amount of information already exists within a firm but it is usually ignored, unorganised and untapped.

4. Development Phase

Analysis is the means of making sense of the myriad of data available. It involves evaluating the data for usability by taking into account the relevance, truth value, understandability, sufficiency, significance and timeliness of the data. Information is then collated and synthesised according to the target and priorities set by users. The relevant questions we should ask ourselves are, "Do we have enough information to meet the needs of the set task?", "Is there superfluous information that can be left out?", and "How can we best combine the information from different sources?".

5. Delivery Phase

The filtered information is stored and disseminated to the relevant interested parties via written reports, or e-mails, or verbally. On-line facilities are often provided for users to access stored intelligence reports. The questions we should ask ourselves at this point are, "What will we do with this information?", and "With whom can we share this information?"

Two very different situations may be involved with the delivery phase. The first is where the intelligence function is separate from the decision making function, an example being where a CI unit may be asked to provide input to the board of directors who need to approve a take-over strategy. On the other hand, operational decisions are frequently handled by members of cross-functional teams who may also be involved in assessing and developing the intelligence. In this case, the intelligence function needs to be integrated with the decision making. An example is where a company may be come aware of an imminent new product announcement by a competitor, and as a result may decide to bring their own new product launch forward.

6. Disengagement Phase

This is an important element missing from the CIA intelligence cycle. Single-loop learning takes place through reflection on what occurred and by identifying ways to improve the process next time. We need to ask ourselves, "Did the results match the expectations of the initiator?", "Did we achieve our purpose?", "In what ways could the results be presented to improve communications?". This step ensures quality in the process. This step applies both in the case of on-going monitoring or in the case of a once-off assignment.

Although computers take a major role in CI systems, there is a large, necessary component of human involvement in all phases of the CI process.

Eyes Wide Open In this age of cost consciousness,...

2005-03-30T06:10:00.000-05:00

Eyes Wide Open

In this age of cost consciousness, proactively monitoring and managing strategic business apps is fundamental

For many organizations, determining a strategy for enterprise application management and monitoring has become critically important as the global recession forces businesses to constrain IT support dollars. The implementation of self-healing systems and low maintenance equipment across the enterprise is becoming a standard expectation. Today, executives aren't asking themselves, "Should I manage and monitor my strategic business applications?" Rather, the question is, "What is the cost of not monitoring or properly managing these applications?"

You don't have to look far for an answer; the indirect costs associated with downtime, which are scrupulously documented, can be staggering. Recent statistics from a New England research firm show that if just 33 percent of large business point-of-sale applications are unavailable for just one hour, the loss of revenues can range between $1 million and $2 million. If that isn't enough, that same research firm indicates that if 14 percent of large business CRM applications are unavailable for one hour, it will cause more than $1 million in lost revenues.

If you're an IT or business executive, taking a detailed look at your enterprise support organization can be very enlightening. You can discern some potentially alarming metrics by reviewing system management tools that record outages, in addition to reviewing help desk logs for reported system problems.

With distributed applications and networks as complex as ever, keeping networks and data secure and reliable is extremely important. Keeping applications tuned for optimal performance is also important; to keep them running at peak efficiency, change control and change management processes must be well defined to stop rogue application or operating system installs and upgrades that may affect application performance. Furthermore, to ensure the stability of applications, you must automate deployment strategies to ensure consistency and avoid errors caused by manual processes. Adhering to these processes (such as change management) will provide stability, reliability, supportability, and most important, manageability.

Defining Service Levels

Defining service levels for your strategic business applications is a good idea, regardless of management and monitoring. Your organization must have representatives for each business unit set the appropriate service levels for their strategic business applications. For example, is it imperative that PeopleSoft is available 2437? What are the maintenance windows for J.D. Edwards servers? Questions along this line must be asked to determine what service levels to define.

Service levels have been around for ages, but many enterprises hesitate to develop and track them because they inherently require time and resources. Even so, service levels are crucial for both internal and external systems. Without them, business users, IS staff, and other personnel will each assume and expect different levels of availability for specific systems. Furthermore, service levels provide visibility into the service provider, and as more and more strategic business systems run in application service provider mode, they become an invaluable tool for the enterprise.

Along that same line, Web services are dictating well-defined service levels as they are, by nature, susceptible to potential performance issues. Think about it: With Web services, you're taking an application and "Web-ifying" it to support B2B, partner, and other general communication from off-site users. By doing so, you're adding additional layers that incur the overhead of transport technologies, such as the popular SOAP protocol. Those additions can lead to performance problems if you're not careful. How do you combat this problem? Service levels, service levels, service levels.

You can define a service level as either an SLA or service-level objective (SLO). The former is a signed contract between the business user and the internal or external provider of the service. In contrast, with the latter, there's no signed contract but the provider agrees to ensure specific service levels. An SLA is typically used for guaranteeing service levels with external providers, while SLOs are used with internal service providers. SLAs give the IT organization a level of insurance. Typically, the customer and service providers negotiate SLAs to a point where each party benefits and allows for financial compensation if services aren't delivered as promised.

In fact, Gartner Group has proposed a "services investment" model, based on the various factors that cause downtime. For example, under this model, committing 20 percent of available IT funds toward service contracts, monitoring, and redundancy can provide the business with an insurance policy to protect it from loss of revenue.

SLAs include terms and conditions of services including specific metrics, responsible parties for service delivery, exceptions, financial adjustments, termination clauses, and general objectives. If SLAs aren't well defined, they can create disagreements between the parties that develop into failed delivery, contention, refunds, or disagreement on terms of service. To prevent these problems, you should discuss SLAs with your legal staff for external service providers and with internal executives for internal services. The business or stakeholders of the service should be part of the contract negotiations. If multiple business stakeholders are involved or associated with the same SLA, they should also be involved in all aspects of the contract negotiations to validate their interests are represented accordingly.

The Technical Challenge

Next, your organization must start with a basic framework to identify the standards, such as using the SNMP protocol, against which the applications will be monitored. The framework process starts by bringing the appropriate technology managers together. Many organizations use outside firms to facilitate this process as they can provide expertise in specific areas (hosting systems, legal services, industry regulations, and so on).

When assembled, the team must determine the key elements of the framework, such as whether there will be common processes across the enterprise applications or common protocols and data formats, ultimately deciding on a set of common processes/protocols for the framework. The discussion must take into account not only the applications, but also the infrastructure where these applications reside (including internal and external networks and systems). Furthermore, three key items must be discussed as part of the framework: how to monitor systems without incurring significant additional costs, measure the downtime with respect to cost, and diagnose problems in a common manner across the enterprise.

The framework must take distributed applications into account and how to correlate events when external partner networks or applications are involved, when databases residing in different geographic regions exist, and disparate systems are interfaced. These complexities must be reviewed as the data elements that are captured for end-to-end monitoring are discussed. This review is imperative, because without appropriate data, root-cause analysis will be impossible.

When this committee has agreed on a framework, the process of selecting a set of tools to monitor the strategic business applications and enterprise can begin. Ultimately, a central repository for the data must be the goal of this phase. Here are the steps involved:

Review the framework; make sure you're planning on monitoring every component of your strategic business applications.
Perform a product assessment, taking shareware tools such as Multi Router Traffic Grapher into account.
Inventory existing tools to determine if any are suitable for the framework (such as HP OpenView, Computer Associates' Unicenter, and IBM Tivoli).
Determine the protocols for communication into the central repository.
When decisions are finalized, procure software as necessary.

When a tool is in place to efficiently monitor your strategic business applications, the next step is to build subprocesses in which these tools communicate with the organization's problem and change management system. This approach closes the loop and builds the foundation for more proactive communication across the business - now your enterprise help desk is contacting your CRM team when disk thresholds are exceeded in the system or subsecond responses are exceeded on the network communication to the ERP system. When a monitoring framework has been developed and the tools are selected and implemented, you're ready to go to the business to promote the end-to-end monitoring environment.

Review Your Applications

If you find yourself reading this article and thinking about Band-Aids or stop-gap measures to get some insight into the health of your strategic business applications without building frameworks, creating committees, or designing SLAs, stop right there: You're in luck. It's possible to improve the monitoring of such apps without deploying tools and enterprise frameworks.

If you've recently started your position as CIO or have been put in charge of providing health and performance information for your strategic business applications, put on the tactical hat and start prioritizing. Determine your risk and exposure based on the level of financial importance your applications carry in the organization. When you're done, determine if you should pick off the low-hanging fruit first and how and when you'll get back to planning your enterprise monitoring strategy. In the short term, utilize your current tools and put manual processes in place to monitor your applications.

It's not imperative that you invest in a full monitoring and management strategy for your organization the first day on the job. However, you must be cognizant of the fact that you will spend more in the long run if you don't invest in a strategy and build a foundation for your organization to effectively manage and monitor all systems within your organization.

Put Your Feet Up

If you've designed and implemented your management and monitoring strategy, you should now be able to sit back and put your feet up. Congratulations: The result of your new monitoring strategy for these strategic business applications will be savings for your organization. What's more, you probably saved your job for another day.

How to Implement a successful CRM System This met...

2005-04-18T13:30:00.000-05:00

How to Implement a successful CRM System

This method assumes that you have already chosen a solution, and you want to proceed with an IMPLEMENTATION.

If you haven't already decided on a particular software product, then you will have to insert the RFP, Demo and Acquistion work into a phase following my Phase I below.

Phase I - Requirements Analysis

This portion of the project begins with a planning meeting where high level business/project objectives and scope are reviewed and agreed to. Subsequent to that, the business processes of the compsny are analyzed in great detail. The results are then mapped to the software and a plan for the actual implementation portion of the effort is created. This phase results in an agreed to design and a firm of set of plans and budgets.

Individual tasks include:

- Meet with Management, Review Objectives. Identify Barriers & Opportunities
- Review & Document Current Business, Sales & Customer Service Processes
- Map Business Requirements & Processes to CRM Software Functionality
- Identify Needed Reports & Inquiries, Document Format, Timing & Distribution
- Identify Gaps and Improvements, Prepare Solution Approach, Secure Customer Approval
- Identify & Document Points of Integration to other Systems (if any)
- Identify the Needs of Remote Users for Access & Synchronization (if any)
- Conduct User Interface Design Meeting, Document Required Personalizations
- Asses Current Technical Environment, Prepare Purchase/Upgrade Recommendations
- Gather Info regarding Data Conversion Requirements
- Define the depth/breadth & delivery format of the required end-user training
- Document User Acceptance Testing Scenarios & Requirements
- Define Post-Deployment Support Requirements
- Prepare/Deliver Scope Documentation, Final Project Plan & Budget, Secure Approval

Phase II - Personalization & Prototyping

The purpose of this phase is to install the software and personalize it per the customer's requirements. This phase also includes testing, data migration, and the integration of any other software systems. The deliverable in this phase is a comprehensive Customer Relationship Management system that meets all of the firm's business needs in that area.

Individual tasks include:

- Step Up Hardware, Databases & Communications
- Install Software & Complete Organization Set-Up & Initial Security Settings
- Complete User Interface Personalizations, Table Population, Process Workflows
- Prepare/Adjust Reports & Inquiries As Needed
- Perform Any Necessary Integration Programming
- Test Software Application & Secure Customer Approval.
- Test Data Migration Tools & Results
- Test Remote Access Capabilities & Synchronization Routines
- Prepare End-User Education & Training Materials
- Prepare User Acceptance Scenarios & Documentation

Phase III - Deployment

In this phase, the software application is moved into a production environment, end-users are trained, data is migrated and all deliverable acceptance forms are completed.

Individual tasks include:

- Delivery of End-User Education & Training
- Revising Internal Operating Procedures
- Executing a Conference Room Pilot/User Acceptance Testing
- Make Go/No-Go Decision & Prepare Cutover Plan
- Develop Support Plan, & Introduce Support Team & Mechanisms
- Perform Final Data Migration & Cleansing Work
- Execute Cutover Activities
- Perform As-Needed Follow-up During First Two Weeks After Cutover

Phase IV - Post-Implementation Audit

This effort is typically performed about 60 - 90 days after the go-live date.

Individual tasks include:

- Execute System Use Audit
- Identify Additional Opportunities for Improvement
- Prepare Plan and Approach
- Meet with the Management Team to Present Findings & Recommendations

1) Concentrate on user needs, not corporate needs.
2) Work in smaller phases. Get them successful and then expand.
3) Get user feedback and buy in.
4) Get clear buy off - from senior execs - on success criteria for each phase.
5) Get the senior execs to understand that this not really an IT project. Technology is secondary!

Customer Relationship Management is a philosophy, a strategy and a process. The CRM System is something else, and it will not work if the company doesn't get the CRM part right first.

Make sure that you have plenty of time to plan and design the system to meet your needs. Then train, train, train. We actually are doing our CRM implementation in phases. Sales and Marketing first, followed by our Implementation Department (all customized)..then Customer Support.

Remote users are going to be your greatest challenge. It took a whole month for our Sales Force to just load their data CD and then another month for them to input their funnel...and they are just now starting to enter data.

My biggest advise would be to start SLOW and have executive sponsorship!

Step-by-Step Approach to Market Research The fol...

2005-05-27T18:56:00.000-05:00

Step-by-Step Approach to Market Research

The following Steps will guide you to the process of a simple market research. Maybe this description is helpful if you are a newcomer in that - otherwise this will be a little bit too simple. Important is the fact that you need excellent sources to get useful data for the analysis. Keep an eye on the sources and find out which are worth to trust on. The wrong data will make the decisions worthless.

Step 1. Find Potential Markets

Obtain trade statistics that indicate which countries import your type(s) of products.

Perform a thorough review of the available market research reports in the country(ies) and industries in question to determine market openness, common practices, tariffs and taxes, distribution channels, and other important considerations.

Identify five to ten large and fast-growing markets for the firm's product(s). Analyze them over the past three to five years for market growth in good and bad times.

Identify some smaller but fast-emerging markets where there may be fewer competitors.

Target three to five of the most statistically promising markets for further assessment. Consult with an Information Professional of your choice

Step 2. Assess Targeted Markets

Examine consumption and production of competitive products, as well as overall demographic and economic trends in the target country.

Ascertain the sources of competition, including the extent of domestic industry production and the major foreign countries the firm would compete against.

Analyze factors affecting marketing and use of the product in each market, such as end-user sectors, channels of distribution, cultural idiosyncrasies, and business practices.

Identify any foreign barriers (tariff or nontariff) for the product being imported into the country and identify any Export controls

Identify U.S. or foreign incentives to promote exporting of your product or service.

Determine whether your product is price competitive after you've figured in packaging, shipping, marketing, sales commissions, taxes & tariffs, and other associated costs.

Step 3. Draw Conclusions

If the company is new to exporting, it is probably a good idea to target 2 or 3 markets initially. An Information Professional provide the valuable insight into your "optimal" market opportunities.

Any market research pro will give you advice if you need any help.

Understanding Market Research

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Market Research ... What would you do if you woke up one morning and everything appeared blurry? You would go to an ophthalmologist, who would conduct tried and proven tests upon your eyes in order to find an eyeglass prescription to suit your needs. It wouldn't matter how much you spent on a pair of spectacles; if they weren't tailored to your eyes, they wouldn't improve your vision. The same is true in marketing your business. You must know your market in order for your business to succeed. In order to do so, you must conduct sound market research.

According to The World Book Encyclopedia, market research is "the study of the probable users of a product or service." The object of any business is to identify potential customers so that they may be addressed and informed. Market research can tell you who is interested in or in need of your product or service, what their income level is, where they live, their age, their occupation and so on. Conclusions from this data can help you to identify your target market. Once you know who these people are, you can then begin to tailor a marketing campaign.

Not long ago, businesses of every type would hire outside firms to gather such data. These firms would conduct surveys, place phone calls and wait weeks for information via mail. Today, you can do it yourself, nearly instantaneously: it can all be accessed at the click of a mouse. The world we live in offers numerous outlets from which to gather your materials, from the library to the Internet. Market research is always changing too. Customers' needs shift with the world around us. You have to know your clientele and get to know your prospects, and address both.

Thus, it is important to stay in touch with what your market dictates.The following is an introduction to understanding market research, from the various sources from which to gather information to the specific types available. Once you have assimilated this information you will be prepared to conduct the research needed to help your business grow.

Types of Market Research

There are two main types of market research that businesses conduct in order to make more qualified decisions on topics such as advertising, improving service, introducing new products, pricing, etc.

Information About Your Consumers.

Obviously you must know who is interested in your goods or services. This begins with demographics. Study the region where your business is located. What's the population? How does it break down by age, gender, income, vocation, marital status, and anything that might be relevant? Take into consideration other factors: Is it a warm weather climate or generally cold? Are people fairly active? Is it a conservative area? What do the residents do for leisure? How much money is generated through tourism? Is it an industrial region? Get to know these people. Find what makes them tick.

Information About Your Competition.

Do your homework. Find out how many other businesses there are like yours, offering similar goods and services in a fifty-mile region. Study the literature of these businesses, i.e., their brochures, advertisements, press materials, and most importantly their website. Is your pricing competitive? Do you offer the same quality of goods? Who are they targeting with their advertising? What kind of promotional offers are they making? Capitalize on other people's successes and failures. Learn what is working for them and what isn't. This data points to trends in your market. By staying on top of these trends you will be better equipped to forecast what will work and know what will not. No matter what size your business is, you can benefit from this.

Terminology

Many factors come into consideration when fleshing out your prospective market. The World Book Encyclopedia defines prospecting as "the process of identifying possible customers, who are called prospects." In determining your target market, it is essential that you look for individuals who comply with a list of prerequisites: the need for your goods and/or services and the buying power to do so.

Prospects.

The group of individuals who make up your target market. These are the people most likely to purchase your goods or services. They meet some or all of your general prerequisites. They live near your business, have the means to buy, and possess the common need for what you're providing.

Buying Habits.

Study past buying records of your target market. What did they purchase in the past? Why did they make this choice? This information is invaluable, as it will help you to set your pricing and appeal to them with your advertising and promotions.

Attitudes and Opinions.

What are the prevailing views and notions regarding your business, your competitors, the goods and service you offer amongst your target market? Wouldn't you love to know? Sure you would. By finding out more about your target market, you can begin to divine this information.

Sales Trends.

A trend is the general course or prevailing tendency; what the majority of people are doing or buying. What is working right now? What is selling? What are your competitors having success with? What is selling in the rest of the nation? Do what works. Find what the trend is and capitalize on it. Make it work for you.

Forecasting.

This is the attempt to determine what the next trends will be. This is, it is trying to determine what the market will dictate six months from now. What will your target market be buying next summer and why. The only way to do this is to stay on top of things, stay informed.

Demographic Profiles.

The raw data concerning your target market: median age, income level, marital status, number of children, education level, location of residence. General information about them so that you may know who they are, what they are interested in.

Regional Statistics.

These differ from demographic profiles in that regional statistics contain broader information about everyone in the region, not just your target market. In the long run, studying this information can help you expand your market.

Degree of Demand.

Information that identifies the need of your goods and services to your market. Is the market already saturated? Is there a need or desire for your goods and services in this particular region? For example, the region of Southern New Mexico rarely gets any rainfall, less than 10 inches a year. Thus, you probably aren't going to be able to sell these people too many umbrellas.

Purchasing Power.

The factors that make up the purchasing power of your target market include age, income level, and their number. Are you hitting a large group or a minority? Is your target audience wealthy? Concerns like these determine the target market's purchasing power. For example, the target audience which is middle class, ages 12-24, has strength in numbers and collectively a lot of money to spend - all factors that add up to great purchasing power.

Monitoring Competitors

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Monitoring is an important key to analyze the actions of your competitors. You can produce regular analysed reports detailing the activities of your competitors as indicated by both published information, or through our custom research services, unpublished (but public domain) information - with your own experts or with experts abroad. The information you need is not strict but will need a good research plan to find your needs. Some examples are shown as follows:

Some Databanks (e.g. Dialog / NewsEdge / Profound / LexisNexis ) offer a wide variety of information and give you access to thousands of different news sources you can report on:

Press releases
News stories from national, local and trade press
Market analyst reports
Product reviews
Product launches
Recent contracts
Senior Management Information.

In addition to this you can monitor and report on other competitor / market activity:

Changes to share prices
Financial reports
Other financial activity (e.g. interim financial statements, M&A news)
Patent filings indicating R&D activity
Price changes
New appointments

You also can monitor on-line for information:

Changes to a competitor's web pages
Newsgroups and blogs to see what people and pundits are saying
Email discussion lists.
Search engine ranking.
Reciprocal links
Online advertising.
Online recruitment.

Finally, there are many other areas that can be monitored. The examples above focus on those involving secondary research, but you can also conduct primary research and can include customer / supplier and other interviews on a regular basis to continually monitor service levels, competitor morale and other similar aspects.

This gives a sample of the type of information that can be tracked. There are many other areas that can be looked at - planning applications, trademark filings, customer testimonials.... The Reports should be produced weekly, monthly or as regularly as required.