The CI Process

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.