Building a CI Platform: Ivory Tower or Direct

Democracy?Marcel Brussee

Competitive Intelligence Consultant

Agenda Overview Key Factors for a Speedy and Successful

Implementation Briefing Proposals Supplier selection Selected platform Deliverables and time line Costs Conclusion, lessons learned

Overview How it began

◦ Backgrounds & origins Briefing (RFP)

◦ Summary of identified requirements Platform/Supplier selection

◦ Specialised help◦ What to expect

Quick Start◦ Build up a global intelligence program in less than

one year

How it began Backgrounds & origins

◦ Identified backlog in information supply Continuous market updates needed Uneasy feeling our competitors may be 5 years

ahead Surprised by patent registrations

◦ Assignment Desire to close the gap Eagerness to return to leadership position

Competitive Intelligence solution

“A systematic program for gathering and analysing information

about your competitor’s activitiesand general business trends

to further the company’s goals.”

Key Factors for a Speedy and Successful Implementation1

Budget Dedicated staff member Tools follow products (content) follow needs

(KITs) follow stakeholders’ definition Sponsors Internal network Communications Big egos need not apply Quality control Key account management

1 Christian Frey – Creating a Lean CI Department in Just 18 Months, June 2011

Briefing (RFP) Summary of identified requirements

◦ Top down definition of◦ Key Intelligence Topics

Timing Budget Deliverables

Briefing (RFP) - details Business Objectives:

◦ “Close the gap in information collection and analysis to create insights for our (executive) management. Recent developments have made us realise that we have lagged in our market focus, and need to quickly polish up our competitive insights.”

Briefing (RFP) - details Research Objectives:

◦ A structured competitive monitoring (mandatory part) Competitive products Importance of attributes of competitive appliances (Dis)Satisfaction on innovation level Our comparison against the competition Which competitor is most threatening

◦ Continuous updates on what is going on in our market(s)◦ Technological developments◦ IP issues that may threaten our competitive advantage◦ New products in development◦ General developments in (future) products use

Briefing (RFP) - details Timing:

◦ Proposal expected within 2 weeks◦ Platform/Supplier selection within 1 week◦ Contract negotiations, agreement and signing

within 1 week◦ Project design within 2 weeks◦ First tangible results within 2 weeks◦ First “finished” product within 6 months

Briefing (RFP) - details Deliverables:

◦ A research proposal was requested which: would provide evidence of understanding our research needs would demonstrate the appropriateness of the proposed

methodology would provide a detailed breakdown of costings, including

estimations of expenses would provide details pertaining to any subcontractors to be

involved would provide a detailed time schedule would details the staffing and other resources to be made available would provide an indication of costings for subsequent research in

the target markets.

Proposals Five suppliers were approached

◦ Price differences◦ Level of support◦ “Look and feel” of user interfaces

Three suppliers were shortlisted◦ External advice for final selection

Kurt Kobel (Phonak, past president SCIA) long time experience with multiple platforms as such well versed in estimating CI manager’s

needs

Supplier selection Based upon

◦ Superior understanding of company needs◦ Superior understanding of CI manager’s needs◦ Superior ability to deliver at requested extremely

short delivery times◦ Superior analysts support◦ Superior flexibility to switch to different platform

backbone if so desired

now:

We help you to…

We offer relevant, timely external intelligence that helps make the right decisions, efficiently. We call it Informed Leadership.

…stay aware of all developments in your business environment

…understand what these developments

mean for you

…decide on your optimal strategy for

success

www.m-brain.com

Summary of identified requirements

Competitive products

Market developments

Technology developments

Product use developments

Threatening IP issues

New products in development

Counterfeit / Piracy

Opportunities business model

What does the solution provide?

• Identifying and meeting intelligence needs

• Monitoring services• Strategic analysis• Intelligence software• Intelligence best

practices

CI Processes integrated with decision making

TIME SAVING:

50 users x 6h/month = 300 h/month

DIRECT MONTHLY MONETARY SAVINGS:

50€/h x 300h = 15,000€

Project Timeline

Preparation phase Setup phase MI Launch

January

April June

• Kick-off project

• Dashboard, • bi-daily

newsletter

Roll-out, Launch in sales offices, Add topics

Communication torest of company

• Competitor profiles

• Geographical markets defined

• Patent watch started up

Workshop higher mgt.

Workshops local mgt.

Definition additional stakeholders and their KITs

Level Year 1

Goal Year 2

Costs

License fees for software platform:Up to 50 users: monthly fee 1,500 EUR Up to 100 users: 2,500 EUR per month

Analyst fees: 5,000 to 10,000 EUR per month, depending on scope and deliverables after pilot phase

Remember:

TIME SAVING: 50 users x 6h/month = 300 h/monthDIRECT MONTHLY MONETARY SAVINGS: 50€/h x 300h = 15,000€

Conclusions, lessons learned (1) Briefing can be drawn up very quickly by

approaching the right people (Ivory Tower) If you have time, interview stakeholders

throughout the whole organization (Direct Democracy)

Suppliers response turned out to be extraordinarily quick

First results can be available in an amazingly short time frame

Selling the project should not be extremely difficult

Conclusions, lessons learned (2) Users’ habits die slowly, very slowly At least one dedicated user should allocate

(enough) time to elevate insights Identify at a very early stage which users do not

log into the platform Feed them the information directly until they do Integrate internal information sources & reports at

an early stage to promote the use of the platform At every interaction, ask the users what they have

learned from the information and how they intend to use it

Finally The platform was very well received The users are very appreciative of the

information provided… …but are reluctant to give up their habits of

keeping local information to themselves Active participation should be made

compulsory by the highest hierarchical manager

Ideally, the sales force should be included in the collection of data/information

Thank you for your attention!

Marcel Brussee◦ marcel.brussee@bluewin.ch◦ http://ch.linkedin.com/in/marcelbrussee

M-Brain◦ www.m-brain.com◦ Dorotheenstrasse 1◦ 45130 ESSEN

Carsten Gayer◦ Managing Director M-Brain◦ carsten.gayer@m-brain.com