Advantages of Competitive Intelligence: costs, sales and innovation

The advantages that Competitive Intelligence and Technology Watch bring to any company are numerous. Let’s look at some of them.

Reducing costs

First of all, with good competitive intelligence software we will reduce the cost of being well informed, by capturing differentiated information and integrating all the sector’s information and news providers. But the real cost reduction comes from minimising risk through early warnings, and from making the most of opportunities. For example, anticipating disruptions in the supply chain, or detecting risks in customers, can save many costs. Anticipating and tracking market trends will also allow us to prepare our plans in good time. Arriving late is very expensive. Another example is identifying suitable potential partners to develop our projects. Choosing the wrong partner because we did not have the right information can be very costly.

Strengthening sales

It is common to hear that “the sales team is very busy” and does not have time to monitor the market or carry out market intelligence. However, any expert salesperson knows that market monitoring is essential to strengthen sales. For example, to identify sales opportunities, or to reinforce their arguments—whether technical, sustainability-related, or of any other kind. Not to mention the major impact of Competitive Intelligence when preparing to attend trade fairs or on market-prospecting missions.

Some sales leaders are very clear about these advantages: just two days ago, Lee R., Category Sales Manager at a multinational company, wanted to subscribe to alerts from all the other areas of the company that were using Antara Mussol. He wanted to receive key signals on innovation, regulatory monitoring, sustainability, and news from other product categories, because he was convinced that any relevant information in those areas would help him strengthen his sales strategy. I had to persuade him to narrow his eagerness to stay informed a little, because an excessive volume of information is counterproductive for the effectiveness of the Intelligence Function.

Driving innovation

Innovation and R&D are critical in an increasingly competitive and agile market. Technology watch is key to developing robust innovation in times of uncertainty. We should not launch any mid-term development project without incorporating a technology watch task throughout the whole development. With technology watch we can detect and incorporate new components or technology into our product or into the company’s internal processes. Monitoring technology not only from our competitors, but also from suppliers or new market players, is essential for our innovation project to achieve its objectives as efficiently as possible. Beyond focusing on technology, strategic watch will allow us to identify and analyse new business models that could cause disruption in our market.

Competitive intelligence and technology watch are the largest and most qualified source of innovation ideas for the company

Improving decision-making

According to a global survey by the consultancy Frost & Sullivan, CEOs ask Competitive Intelligence to be able to integrate employees’ knowledge when making decisions. There is no point in seeking and bringing in the best possible talent if that knowledge is not then used in the form of strategic intelligence to support strategic decision-making. To achieve this, we need to rely on collaborative Competitive Intelligence software that brings the team together.

By integrating the team and its ability to interpret the market, one of our clients has calculated a positive impact of more than EUR 1 million in the first year of using Antara’s solutions, having correctly reoriented an investment decision.

CEOs demand to be able to integrate employees’ knowledge

Conclusions

The positive impact of the Intelligence Function can extend to any area of the company, strengthening all of them with key information and early warnings that improve the performance of individual people and of the whole organisation as a whole.

However, it is not advisable to roll out Competitive Intelligence across the entire organisation all at once, but rather to develop it step by step.