Business Intelligence and Competitive Intelligence in Business

Management Information Systems

Introduction

Working together, both serve an important purpose in today’s ever-changing and increasingly
competitive business environment. In today’s fast-paced business world, the sheer number of
terms (and their associated acronyms) is enough to baffle even the most seasoned
professional. It doesn’t help that many terms that sound similar are used interchangeably,
even when they refer to vastly different concepts.

Case in point? Business intelligence and competitive intelligence. On the surface, it seems
like they are the same thing – and in fact, they serve a similar purpose, in that they help guide
decision-making – but they actually refer to separate functions and types of data. Failing to
understand the difference between them could result in a great deal of wasted time and effort,
not to mention embarrassment if you present the wrong information to your boss or a client.

Many people use the terms Business Intelligence (BI) and Competitive Intelligence (CI)
interchangeably. Yet more people lump both terms in with nonsense business buzz-terms like
“synergizing a paradigm” that junior businesspeople are so fond of.

Part of this confusion arises because BI often penetrates all departments in a company, so HR
data analysis can look just like an HR function rather than a BI function. The often
clandestine operations of the CI department cannot help the definitional confusion either.

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 Discussion

A. Business Intelligence

Business intelligence is, largely, analysis of an organization’s internal data. It involves

collecting large amounts of raw data regarding all aspects of the business, from productivity
to profits and losses, and transforming it into actionable insights. Companies use business
intelligence as a means to identify and develop new business opportunities, and make
improvements to existing processes, products, and services.

One of the major benefits of business intelligence is that it allows companies to view
both historical and current data in context, which allows them to make better predictions. It’s
also vital to effective measurement; businesses that use performance metrics or benchmarks
as gauges for progress toward business goals rely heavily on business intelligence. Business
intelligence has applications across all levels of an organization, from product development
and pricing to staffing, strategic planning, and process improvement.

The term business intelligence is often used interchangeably with business analytics.
Some make a stronger description between the two, defining business analytics as the use of
quantitative and statistical tools, while intelligence focuses more on qualitative analysis, such
as asking questions and interpreting reports. However, most argue that business analytics is a
key function of business intelligence, and that true BI cannot be achieved without analytics.

1. Benefits of Business Intelligence

The role of business intelligence is to improve an organization's business operations

through the use of relevant data. Companies that effectively employ BI tools and techniques
can translate their collected data into valuable insights about their business processes and
strategies. Such insights can then be used to make better business decisions that increase
productivity and revenue, leading to accelerated business growth and higher profits.

Without BI, organizations can't readily take advantage of data-driven decision-

making. Instead, executives and workers are primarily left to base important business
decisions on other factors, such as accumulated knowledge, previous experiences, intuition
and gut feelings. While those methods can result in good decisions, they're also fraught with
the potential for errors and missteps because of the lack of data underpinning them.

A successful BI program produces a variety of business benefits in an organization.

For example, BI enables C-suite executives and department managers to monitor business
performance on an ongoing basis so they can act quickly when issues or opportunities arise.
Analyzing customer data helps make marketing, sales and customer service efforts more
effective. Supply chain, manufacturing and distribution bottlenecks can be detected before
they cause financial harm. HR managers are better able to monitor employee productivity,
labor costs and other workforce data.

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Overall, the key benefits that businesses can get from BI applications include the ability to:

 Benefits for Product Marketing: Product marketing can improve many parts of its
strategy with business intelligence. Most importantly, PM can improve product
launches and sales enablement activities, and better target their ideal customers. To do
so, Product marketing needs to analyze what has been done in the past such as product
launches, campaigns, and win/loss analysis, and take into consideration what worked
and what didn’t when planning future initiatives.
 Benefits for Marketing: Your marketing team can get a deeper understanding of how
their campaigns are performing, blog post metrics, and overall site traffic. By getting
a better understanding of these marketing metrics, your marketing team can figure out
where to invest more time, which campaigns to continue, and which pieces of content
to promote more.
 Benefits for Sales: For sales organizations, business intelligence is extremely
beneficial. By diving into sales numbers, you can get a better understanding of which
deals close the fastest, average sales cycle lengths, and which reps are performing the
best. With this data, you can better train your sales team and enable them to close
more deals.
 Benefits for C-Suite: Your C-Suite wants to know everything that’s happening in the
trenches of your company. Business intelligence can help your c-suite make informed
decisions about processes, investment, hiring, and greater business decisions.
 Benefits for Product: Your product team can gather a lot of valuable information
using business intelligence. Your product team can analyze overall product usage,
feature adoption, and see your most active users. This can help your product team
when it comes to building out the next phases of a product, and it can help identify
power users, which can be beneficial when it comes to Beta testing future versions of
your product.
 Benefits for Human Resources: Your HR department can analyze your past
employees and current employees as well as your culture overall. Some valuable
pieces of intel for HR are salaries, how long an employee stays, why an employee
leaves, and how your culture has changed over time. By looking at these pieces of
information, your HR team can ensure they are creating a strong internal culture and
making your business a place that people want to work.

2. Business Intelligence Techniques

Business intelligence technologies use advanced statistics and predictive analytics to

help businesses draw conclusions from data analysis, discover patterns, and forecast future
events in business operations. Business intelligence reporting is not a linear practice, rather, it

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is a continuous, multifaceted cycle of data access, exploration, and information sharing.
Common business intelligence functions include:

 Data mining: sorting through large datasets using databases, statistics, and machine
learning to identify trends and establish relationships
 Querying: a request for specific data or information from a database
 Data preparation: the process of combining and structuring data in order to prepare it
for analysis
 Reporting: sharing operating and financial data analysis with decision-makers so they
can draw conclusions and make decisions
 Benchmarking: comparing current business processes and performance metrics to
historical data to track performance against industry bests
 Descriptive analytics: the interpretation of historical data to draw comparisons and
better understand changes that have occurred in a business
 Statistical analysis: collecting the results from descriptive analytics and applying
statistics in order to identify trends
 Data visualization: provides visual representations such as charts and graphs for easy
data analysis

3. Business Intelligence Tools

Modern business intelligence systems prioritize self-service analysis, empowering

businesses to gain insight into their market and improve performance with comprehensive
data discovery tools, methods, processes, and platforms. Such business intelligence solutions
include:

 Ad hoc analytics: an analysis process designed to answer specific questions on the

spot
 Online analytical processing (OLAP): a computing method that enables multi-
dimensional analytical queries
 Mobile BI: software that optimizes desktop business intelligence for mobile devices
 Real-time BI: a data analytics approach that delivers real-time information to users by
feeding business transactions into a real-time data warehouse
 Operational BI: a data analysis approach that utilizes real-time business analytics to
automatically integrate real-time data into operational system for immediate use
 Software-as-a-service BI (SaaS BI): a cloud-hosted, subscription-based delivery
model for business intelligence software solutions
 Open source BI (OSBI): business intelligence software solutions that do not require
purchasing a software license
 Collaborative BI: the merging of business intelligence software with collaboration
tools in order to streamline the sharing process
 Location intelligence (LI): software that is designed to relate geographic contexts to
business data

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  Data visualization software: facilitates the detection of patterns and correlations by
providing visual context

4. Business Intelligence Platforms

A business intelligence platform enables businesses to utilize existing data

architecture and create custom business intelligence applications that make information
available for analysts to query and visualize. Modern business intelligence platforms support
self-service analytics, making it easy for end users to create their own dashboards and reports.
Simple user interfaces combined with flexible business intelligence backend software enables
users to connect to a range of data sources, including NoSQL databases, Hadoop systems,
cloud platforms, and conventional data warehouses, to develop a cohesive view of their
diverse data.

As artificial intelligence and machine learning continue to grow, and as businesses

strive to be more data-driven and collaborative, so too does business intelligence continue to
evolve, enabling users to integrate AI insights and harness the power of data visualizations.
Popular business intelligence platform providers include Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, and
Salesforce.

5. Examples of business intelligence use cases

In general terms, enterprise BI use cases include:

 monitoring business performance or other types of metrics;

 supporting decision-making and strategic planning;
 evaluating and improving business processes;
 giving operational workers useful information about customers, equipment, supply
chains and other elements of business operations; and
 detecting trends, patterns and relationships in data.

Specific use cases and BI applications vary from industry to industry. For example,
financial services firms and insurers use BI for risk analysis during the loan and policy
approval processes and to identify additional products to offer to existing customers based on
their current portfolios. BI helps retailers with marketing campaign management, promotional
planning and inventory management, while manufacturers rely on BI for both historical and
real-time analysis of plant operations and to help them manage production planning,
procurement and distribution.

Airlines and hotel chains are big users of BI for things such as tracking flight capacity
and room occupancy rates, setting and adjusting prices, and scheduling workers. In healthcare
organizations, BI and analytics aid in the diagnosis of diseases and other medical conditions

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and in efforts to improve patient care and outcomes. Universities and school systems tap BI
to monitor overall student performance metrics and identify individuals who might need
assistance, among other applications.

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B. Competitive Intelligence

While business intelligence focuses on a company’s internal data, competitive

intelligence focuses on the external factors that influence the operation. Competitive
intelligence means looking at the state of the market in which a company operates, to identify
trends, potential threats, and points of differentiation.

Often, competitive intelligence includes looking closely at a company’s competitors,

and looking for their strengths and weakness to identify potential opportunities. It involves
taking the information that’s been collected and turning it into actionable insights to gain
competitive advantage; for example, analyzing a competitor’s poor performance in a
particular market can provide a blueprint of what not to do, and some ideas of how to
penetrate that market more successfully. CI practitioners are quick to point out that in order
for data to be considered true competitive intelligence, it must be actionable. Simply having
knowledge of your market is not competitive intelligence; having knowledge that you can use
to improve your business’s position is.

It’s also important to make a distinction between competitive intelligence and

corporate or competitive espionage. Competitive intelligence is gathered using publicly
available information, and is completely legal. Corporate espionage, or gathering information
about competitors via questionable means (such as posing as a potential customer, hacking,
or poaching employees) is not only unethical, but illegal in many cases.

1. Benefits of Competitive Intelligence

 Benefits for Product Marketing: Competitive intelligence can help product marketers
in many ways. By taking a look at what your competition is doing, as well as
conducting research among your target audience, product marketers can enhance
messaging and positioning, create winning sales enablement tools, and execute
successful product launches that stand out and address the market’s needs.
 Benefits for Marketing: Marketers can drive a lot of value from competitive
intelligence insights. Marketers can take a look at competitors’ content strategy,
campaigns, social media posts, SEO rankings, and events that the competition is
attending. By analyzing your competitors' marketing efforts, you can incorporate your
findings into your own strategy, and find new ways to differentiate yourself from the
competition.
 Benefits for Sales: Sales needs competitive intelligence to successfully do their job
because, without it, they will have a hard time winning those competitive deals. With
the help of CI through tools such as battlecards or SWOT analyses, sales teams can
better position themselves against competitors and win more competitive deals.
 Benefits for C-Suite: By keeping a pulse on your competition, your C-Suite can stay
on top of funding announcements, partnerships, and can track overall market standing.
This will help them make decisions about where your company can go next when it
comes to funding, partners, and the general strategy for company growth.

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  Benefits for Product: Product teams benefit immensely from keeping a pulse on
competitors’ products. With the help of resources such as competitive matrices and
third-party reviews, your product team can see where you stand within the market. In
addition, your product team can take market feedback and competitor updates, and
use those findings to iterate on your own product.
 Benefits for Human Resources: With the help of CI, your HR team can better attract
and retain talent, build a positive company culture, and offer competitive salaries and
benefits. It’s not a common use case, but HR tracking your competitors' team and
culture insights is a great way to maintain a competitive edge within your industry.

2. Competitive Intelligence Techniques

Getting to know your competition is a must before developing any business or

marketing strategy. In the past, if a company wanted to know what their competition was up
to, they would have to go through their garbage or hack into their private networks. Today,
however, with online “footprints in the sand” left all over the web, getting competitive
intelligence is easier than ever. Here are six ways you can gather competitive intelligence
about your competitors. And be warned with these techniques are out there, they could be
something used against you to gather information as well.

 Become a Customer: Instead of watching their actions from afar, you could put some
money down to become an actual customer. This will allow you to live the customer
experience firsthand, while also informing you about pricing, sales techniques and
products, typically through their e-newsletter or a customer login site. If you really
want the low-down, buy from them numerous times.
 Websites: Some of your competitors will post not only product and sale information,
but also client lists, employee lists and supplier lists. Even the photographs used on
websites indicate to the type of work they are focusing on, or are targeting. By
observing the page titles (bar at the very top of the web page), you can also see what
keywords they are using to position the traffic they want to attract to their websites.
 Traffic Patterns: Data-consolidation companies track all traffic on the web, and allow
you to subscribe and use it. It’s possible to learn how much traffic your competitors
are getting, as well as the keywords they’re ranking well on and what is finding them
success online, simply by subscribing to tools like Moz and SEM Rush. Other
software such as Active Conversion and Leadlife Solutions inform a business who is
visiting its site and how often, so that sales calls and emails can be scheduled
accordingly.
 Social Media Sites: Many employees post online about where they are, and what they
are doing while at work, and what they’re working on. To track your competitors, you
might consider following your competitors online, liking them on Facebook and so
on. This can allow you to be the first to know what they’re working on, where, and
with whom. There is no reason not to do this.

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  Social Media Monitoring: Reputation monitoring and social media tracking tools exist
that allow you to stay in tune with what people are saying about you, and about your
competition. By tracking competing brands, you can learn which promotions are
running successfully, and garnering positive interest. Some good ones are Sysomos,
Radian6 and SproutSocial.
 Employee Profiles: Even if a company doesn’t list its employee’s names on its
website, this information will often be posted on LinkedIn, Twitter or other social
media streams. Thanks to this online transparency, you are able to examine the
resumes and backgrounds of key staff members and find out whether a company
actually has depth of experience in a given area.

3. Competitive Intelligence Tool

Competitive intelligence tools can turn the luxury of custom market research into a
regular practice for many small and medium businesses. Hiring a dedicated analyst or
ordering a ‘state of the industry’ report can be a heavy burden for such businesses, so the best
competitor research solutions can prove to be a smart alternative.

 Crunchbase: allows you to access information about private and public companies,
review market and industry trends, and spot hot newcomers entering your space. With
Crunchbase, you can evaluate the data about competitors you already know about.
 Craft: you can unlock historic insights about companies. From growth over time,
social presence, and brand trends to market positioning, and latest news, Craft lets you
review how a particular competitor of yours has been growing and gaining market
share.
 SEMrush: only requires a company’s website to start researching the whole market.
After you enter the domain, Market Explorer makes a list of the corresponding
industry players and organic competitors
 Owler: allows you to view a snapshot of all the key details for your top competitors
and compare them to easily identify indirect and emerging competitors in your
market. Owler surfaces stories on your company, competitors, customers, prospects,
partners, and vendors keeping you ahead of the game. You can subscribe to daily
email alerts on the companies you want to follow and stay up to date on their latest
news and announcements.
 Sprout Social: has in-depth competitor analytics tools for data and intelligence with a
strong basis in social data, including social listening. This competitive analytics
platform can tell you a great deal about what people are saying about your
competition, along with helping you to keep an eye on what they’re up to. You can
also glean access into information about their top performing social posts, overall
engagement, and see their growth on social.
 Moz has a strong competitive research suite of tools, offering detailed information on
their keyword usage, domain authority, position ranking, and more. Their analytics

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 tool is one of the big ones, and it’s well-established in the industry. Its audit
capabilities can give you plenty of data on what’s happening on your site (technically
and strategically) and what’s going on in your competitors sites.

4. Where to Find Competitive Information

The biggest question people usually have when they first consider competitive intelligence is
where to find their sources of information. Competitors aren't actively going to make public
the type of information you want to know. However, there are a wide variety of sources that
can provide the information you need, including:

 Competitors
o Collect their brochures and other marketing materials.
o Buy your competitors' products, and analyze them.
o Read competitors' websites.
o For public companies, look at shareholder reports and notices.
o Where possible, visit competitors' stores, and talk to people there.
o Put yourself on competitors' mailing lists, and subscribe to their publications.
 Customers
o Survey customer satisfaction with your products versus competitors' products.
o Create scorecards for customers based on your critical success factors .
o Ask customers why they might buy from your competitors, and not from you.
o When speaking to your customers, note any comments – good or bad – that
they make about competitors.
o Put yourself on customers' mailing lists, and subscribe to their publications.
 Suppliers
o Attend events, conferences, and presentations sponsored and/or attended by
suppliers, and see which ones your competitors attend.
o Consult supplier websites for any mentions of your competitors, current
customers, or potential customers.
o Put yourself on suppliers' mailing lists, and subscribe to their publications.
 Industry associations – Join associations and business groups that are related to your
industry.
 Conferences – Attend conferences and other events in your industry.
 Trade journals – Subscribe to publications from your industry, regulatory bodies,
business associations, local business groups, and so on. This will help you stay up to
date with the latest industry information. If you don't want to spend the money on
these publications, many community and university libraries will have this material.
 Online – Search relevant websites, blogs, and social media channels.

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 Conclusion
Business Intelligence is a set of processes, architectures, and technologies that
convert raw data into meaningful information that drives profitable business actions
and Business Intelligence systems help businesses to identify market trends and spot
business problems that need to be addressed. Data analyst, IT people, business users
and head of the company can use business Intelligence technology. Business
Intelligence system helps organization to improve visibility, productivity and fix
accountability. The drawbacks of Business Intelligence is that it is time-consuming
costly and very complex process.
Competitive intelligence is a critical resource in knowledge-based economy
and knowledge management without competitive intelligence could be dangerous. It
is imperative now for corporations to do well in competitive intelligence in order to
prosper in global business. Doing business without competitive intelligence is like
flying a jet without radar.

Reference
Taufiqurokhman. 2016. Manajemen Strategi. Jakarta: Fakultas ilmu sosial dan ilmu
politik Universitas Prof. Dr. Moestopo Beragama

David, Fred R., Dkk.2016. Strategic Manajement. Jakarta: Salemba Empat

Malhotra, Yogesh; Competitive Intelligence Program: An Overview; URL

http:/www.brint.com/papers/

Mc Leod Jr, Raymond; 1998; Management Information System; 7th Edition, Prentice
Hall Inc., New Jersey

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