Business intelligence (BI) involves analyzing a company's internal data to make better decisions, while competitive intelligence (CI) analyzes competitors and market data. Both are important to get a complete picture internally and externally. BI must be collected, analyzed, and presented clearly. CI provides an overview and specifics of the market and competitors to allow for predicting trends and informed decision making. Having defined processes for gathering both BI and CI internally and externally gives the most informed view for decisions.

1. BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
VERSUS COMPETITIVE
INTELLIGENCE
For additional information about Competitive Intelligence
please visit www.Intelligence2act.com

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It is important to understand that both business intelligence (BI) and
competitive intelligence (CI) have their place in the organization that
wants to be successful.
The difference lies in the definitions of BI and CI. BI is the management
of a company`s internal data, so that it can make better decisions based
on its own historic information and other internal information, whereas
CI is the management of its competitors data as well as the marketplace
data, so that it can make more informed decisions.
Here in lies the necessity for both to have the most complete picture of
what is going on internally as well as externally.
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For business intelligence to be valuable it has to be collected, analyzed,
and then presented in a digestible format.
A well designed business intelligence process will allow the decision
makers to have access to intelligent information so that they can make
more informed decision based on the company`s past performance and
possible future trends.
The BI report should also include all of the relevant information
regarding skill sets, technologies, applications, and proprietary
information that it has available.
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Competitive intelligence is valuable to give your company an overview
and specifics on the market as well as all of your close competitors.
Making decisions with intelligent CI is best accomplished when the data
is interpreted correctly. Tracking this data over time will yield the best
results as you can extrapolate the information into trends that could be
used to predict future behaviors of both the market and your
competitors.
It is important to note that CI gathering is a legal means of getting the
information and does not conform to corporate espionage techniques.
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CI can be put into the broader definition of business intelligence but it
can be easier to manage these separately as they are internal and
external information gathering techniques.
The specific techniques use to gather, analyze, and interpret the
information can vary considerably, especially if the competitors
information is hard to come by.
Having a defined process for both competitive and business intelligence
will help you to gain the best picture of what is going in both inside and
outside the company for the most informed decision making possible.
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For the most use out of your CI and BI information gathering it is best to
not only develop a strong process but it is also important to continually
be upgrading the skills of the staff that are gathering the information.
Making sure that they information is distilled into a report with
actionable details will give the decision makers the best possible
overview of what is happening inside the company, at the competitors,
and in the marketplace as a whole.
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7. For additional information about Competitive Intelligence
please visit www.Intelligence2act.com