The selection of a Competitive Intelligence software is a task much easier if we follow a structured method.
Before making such a decision within a company, it is essential to analyse and study the consequences for both the employees and the work process itself. In the case of Competitive Intelligence, the first question we must ask ourselves is what it can bring me and why I need a Competitive Intelligence software. Undoubtedly, the worst thing we can do as a company is to make strategic decisions without knowing the effect or the consequences, both positive and negative, that they may have, or to make them simply because we see that our competitors are doing it and we want to be one of them. Therefore, before making any decision, it is essential to carry out a prior analysis and to know what effects and repercussions it will have on the company's day-to-day business.
In the case of Competitive Intelligence, there are many benefits that specialized software can bring to the company's decision-making processes, being fundamental in some decision-making processes.
However, to ensure that the software provides the benefits and support we expect, it is essential that it is fully adapted to the needs and requirements of the company. Therefore, at Antara, as specialists in Competitive Intelligence software, we are going to reveal the keys to choosing the most appropriate software that best suits your company.
What to consider when choosing Competitive Intelligence Software
The selection of a Competitive Intelligence software differs little in terms of method from the selection of any other business software. However, in order to choose the software that best suits the needs of your company, specific particularities must be taken into account.
Step 1: problem definition
When defining the problem, there is nothing better than asking questions. These questions should be related to the medium and long-term objectives of the company. In order to ask these questions and make sure we are asking them in the right direction, it is useful to learn about the challenges of implementing the Intelligence Function, and the factors that determine success, such as the human factor.
Let's delve a little deeper into some of the basic questions that help us define the problem.
On our ultimate goal
When setting objectives aimed at achieving our final goal, it is important to consider information and ask ourselves questions about the type of decisions we intend to support in our company with a Competitive Intelligence Function, how to ensure the resilience or success of our innovation projects, how to provide the team with a strategic vision in the face of competition, what are the consumer trends or how technology watch can help us to improve production capabilities.
In addition, it is also important to consider what time horizon we want to set for the intelligence, whether we are interested in providing daily information to decision-makers at a departmental level, or whether we want to support the annual review of the Strategic Plan by the management team.
On the future scale
In terms of future business decisions, it is important to consider which departments or functions we want to involve in the Intelligence Function in the medium and long term, as well as how many people in the team should be informed of what is happening or will happen out there, and to what extent or how often. This information will help us to clarify how many of them are specialists in their field and can add value to the gathered information with their analysis.
About the team and the assimilation effort
One of the most important things within the company is to know about the team of workers who are part of it. In this way, we will be able to know which people could be responsible for leading the function, depending on their previous training. If it is a new function in the company, we should not expect that any member of the team, without training, can assume its leadership. Just as we would not make just anyone responsible for the financial management or talent management of the company, without the minimum training.
Let us also distinguish between the effort and training of the leaders of the Intelligence Function, and the minimal training - or none at all - that the rest of the people involved will need. Because one or two leaders can coordinate dozens of people generating value from their analysis.
Will these people be available for training? And once trained, will they have among their objectives the proper management of Competitive Intelligence, or will it be an "uncomfortable addition" to their day-to-day work?
In order to answer these questions, we recommend you to watch our webinar "The management of the intelligence team in the company", as it will help you to clarify these types of decisions.
Finally, will we be able to train new leaders ourselves in the future, once we have assimilated the knowledge and experience, and will the supplier provide us with the materials to do so?
Step 2: Choosing the assessment criteria
If you have never used a technology watch and competitive intelligence software, it will be difficult to list the possible assessment criteria and choose the most appropriate for your case. For this reason, at Antara we have developed a study with the data collected from different companies that had decided to implement a competitive intelligence solution, or were in the process of doing so.
Our analysis is based on knowing what they expected from a Competitive Intelligence solution and what specific pains they were looking to solve with it. We are sure that their answers will give you ideas that can be applied to your case.
In the guide we have published with the analysis we have carried out, only the contributions of the interviewees, all of whom are intelligence managers, or in charge of choosing the right software, are included.
Step 3: Prioritise the criteria
The companies surveyed voted on their most important criteria for the evaluation of Competitive Intelligence software. While this list does not necessarily apply directly to you, it can be a starting point for reflection.
In a VUCA (volatile, highly uncertain, complex and ambiguous) environment, being able to model complex information needs, and to do so dynamically, is surely a priority. And the desirability of leveraging distributed knowledge across the organisation to support better decisions will drive you to look for software solutions that make people collaborate as a team. If you agree, perhaps you're not so far from the conclusions of the study we conducted...
When choosing Competitive Intelligence software, you will need to define which of the evaluation criteria are most important for you. To facilitate your task, we have prepared an evaluation template in which you can express your own criteria and weightings.
You should take into account the training and software requirements of each candidate solution, as well as its costs. First of all, distinguish the learning effort for the system leaders or administrators, which is not as important as that required for the rest of the participants in the information analysis.
Beware of taking the easy way out at the beginning: software that is easy for administrators to learn may indicate that it has far fewer functions than the rest. Feature-rich software, even some that you had not considered, may incorporate the experience of many other heavy users, and be prepared for future challenges that other companies have faced before you.
On the other hand, you will need software that easily on-boards new team members from any department. Software that requires little training for them, but also makes life easier for you as a leader when it comes to assigning them their permissions, their topics of interest, etc.
Step 4: Mapping alternatives
When considering market alternatives, you will need to search for and evaluate them.
To search for them, apart from "googling", there are obviously other complementary methods to identify software solutions. The Intelligence Function is not something that companies usually trumpet in public, so you may need to ask people you trust in your industry. Perhaps at a forum of Chief Innovation Officers or Chief Marketing Officers, even if it is multi-sectoral, or at your Chamber of Commerce.
Make some initial discarding, and ask for a first brief demo from each supplier. To approach them, prepare your questions around the assessment criteria you have chosen. In addition, you may have the opportunity to ask them for references, which do not have to be from your sector, but perhaps from the same type of organisation, or of the same approximate size.
At Antara, we have asked the companies that have contacted us to share their list of alternatives. We have also obtained, though not from all of them, tables of ratings according to the guide's criteria. Without altering the data and with the aim of clarifying your decision-making process, we have compiled their Competitive Intelligence software ratings into a multi-factor matrix which is available for download.
Develop the first version of your valuation table, and choose a shortlist. Evaluating all alternatives in depth simultaneously is likely to require more resources and time than we are willing to invest. Therefore, narrow down the selection to two or three alternatives according to the most important evaluation criteria for your company. If you find any basic shortcomings later in the screening process, you can always retrieve the next solution from the discard list.
Schedule a second round of demonstrations with the short-listed solutions. Demonstrations with more depth and therefore duration, and involving a purchasing jury. Perhaps you can involve someone from the IT department, the final decision-maker and a colleague who will be a user of the software.
In these demonstrations, always keep in mind the priorities you have defined, because you may decide to reformulate these priorities as you learn more about the solutions on the market.
Steps 5 and 6: Choosing the best solution and testing the choice
We have grouped the "test" and "choose" steps together because they are closely related. Of course, if the demos have made almost everything clear to you and/or you have the right references, there may be no need to invest in a test, which will take time and effort. So all that remains is to choose the best software solution, in coordination with the rest of the purchasing jury.
If alternatively, you want to carry out a test, this can be done after the jury has provisionally chosen the best solution, pending confirmation of the impressions with a test.
Although it is not usual, you can also carry out tests with the two or three finalists. Simultaneous or not, keep in mind that you should involve at least those members of the jury who are potential users. Or even potential users who are not part of the jury.
Again, during the tests, we will keep the evaluation criteria in mind, and we will be updating our evaluation template.
Step 7: Review the decision or launch the action plan
If the jury does not agree, if the finalist's evidence does not convince us, or if there's any other reason, we should review the decision. Or even the prioritisation of the criteria. There is no need to start the whole process again. The information gathered may be sufficient to make an alternative decision.
But if the decision has been made, the action plan should be launched. This plan should be designed together with the supplier, who has experience in the implementation process and is sure to provide valuable guidance.
If you would like some ideas on how to design your action plan, do not hesitate to consult our Competitive Intelligence Academy.
We hope these tips will help you when choosing a Competitive Intelligence software. If you have any doubts or, on the contrary, you are ready to see first-hand all the advantages that Competitive Intelligence can bring you, at Antara we will be happy to accompany you in the process. Contact us!
