Business Intelligence

What is Business intelligence?

It's a bird... it's a plane... it's business intelligence...

Cheesy, but got your attention....

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So, this week we were given the task of reading an article about business intelligence and writing a blog...

I chose an article called... Perspectives on competitive intelligence within business: A tactical tool for salespeople to gain a competitive advantage.

Long title but it brings a wealth of knowledge...

Here is what we know..

Businesses have vast wealths of knowledge, but few tap its true potential...

Here is a direct excerpt,

"Competitive intelligence has emerged as a mantra for success in today’s
competitive environment and the sales force has been recognised as a key
resource in this process. However, for many salespeople, competitive intelligence
remains a burdensome organisational process that offers little or no immediate
value to them. Past research has failed to consider competitive intelligence as
an instrument that salespeople can leverage to change their behaviours and
ultimately influence their levels of performance. A comprehensive literature review
suggests that conceptualisation of competitive intelligence has been limited to the
organisational level, and thus provides little foundation for investigations aimed
at the salesperson level. This paper explores this issue by approaching competitive
intelligence as a tactical tool that can be useful at the salesperson level. A review
of the literature concerning salesperson and competitive intelligence is presented.
A conceptual framework of salesperson competitive intelligence is developed and
research propositions are offered."

Competitive intelligence is a form of business intelligence where businesses study their competition and use it for a to gain a competitive advantage...

This includes but is not limited to,

                 -Product Knowledge
                 -Pricing
                 -Sales

You have often heard "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

Here is an example of competitive intelligence,

A few years I walked into Ford dealership... They had a Chevrolet and a Ford opened up with sticky notes all over it. The sticky notes indicated differences between the two vehicles. It was used as a sales strategy to point out exactly how Ford vehicles are different than Chevrolet.. This is a great example of competitive intelligence. If Ford did not know exactly how their product was different they would not be able to sell as effectively....

How does this relate to business intelligence?

Take for example insurance....

Insurance is not a tangible product... it is legal policy in the event something goes wrong..

Competitive intelligence would be surveying other insurance companies and finding out details about their product and showing how it compares to yours!

You can keep databases of this information and track how they change their policies over time. This can help your business grow and remain competitive.

More on this to come.. but this is week 1...







Agnihotri, R., & Rapp, A. (2011). Perspectives on competitive intelligence within business: A tactical tool for sales-people to gain a competitive advantage. Marketing Review,11(4), 363-380.