4/26/2006
some competitive intelligence resources
I’ve mentioned before that I don’t get to do much competitive intelligence work at MPOW, that most of my requests take the form of trade or pricing statistics, but I do have one client who almost exclusively has me working on the kind of research that fits under the CI umbrella. Her requests are usually long and drawn out - financials and SEC filings, merger/acquisition information, news searches, literature searches - and obviously take longer than your average “trade statistics for Chinese LLDPE between 2000-2005, both value and quantity” request, which I’ve done often enough now that I can perform it with my eyes closed.
Since trade and pricing requests are things I can do with my eyes closed, I tend to read my blogs and newsletters with an eye for the rarer CI issues, as well as KM issues, which is also a major concern in my position. Here’s some I’ve found recently that I think are particularly good:
- Got Competitive Intelligence? Tips, Tools, Techniques for the Savvy Marketer by Donna Cavallini and Sabrina Pacifici. It’s recently been updated to include stuff like RSS, blogs, and news alerts. [PDF]
- LexisNexis signs up Newstex Blog on Demand Service by Bill Ives, who points out that LexisNexis is one of Newstex’s first customers. This means that LexisNexis subscribers will be able to use Newstex to track what blogs are saying about them - or, I presume, what blogs are saying about other companies they might be researching.
- Blogs, Keywords, Technorati, and RSS by Robert Berkman. Robert gives the gist of his recent training seminar on the use of blogs for business research, and shares his tips for combining keyword monitoring, Technorati, and RSS to research companies or particular subjects.
- Analyze This: The Evolution of Competitive Intelligence Products for the Legal Profession by Donna Cavallini, in which she reviews ALM Research Online. Donna calls this a “must-have tool” for legal librarians and researchers.
- Competitive Intelligence - A Selective Resource Guide - Updated by Donna Cavallini and Sabrina Pacifici. Truly invaluable.
- [Added 4/29]Company and Industry Specific RSS by Robert Berkman. He points out Moreover, an online site that does the work of putting together dozens of specific feeds to track companies and industries.
There’s some great stuff here, and I hope it’s of use to someone 
Filed under: Librarianship, Competitive Intelligence
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