Building a Competitive Intelligence System: An Infrastructural Approach

Abstract

Competitive intelligence is understood as the process of acquiring environmental data and transforming them into strategic relevant intelligence. To realize the activities in the four stages of the intelligence process (directing, collecting, analyzing and distributing), a so-called intelligence infrastructure is needed. This infrastructure consists of all the requirements (division of tasks and responsibilities, human resources, and ICT) to perform the intelligence activities. In this chapter we propose an infrastructural approach to designing and implementing a competitive intelligence system. In the infrastructural approach, it is acknowledged that ICT solutions are only a part of the total infrastructure, realizing the CI activities. Moreover, the infrastructural approach is characterized by a specific view on the development process. The different elements of the infrastructure are simultaneously developed and the design of the process is actually executed by the future users. The goal of this participative design process is to create user commitment by taking the interests and needs of the potential users into account. This commitment is supposed to be a necessary prerequisite for a successful implementation of a CI infrastructure. In this chapter, a case is described to illuminate how an infrastructural approach with respect to CI works.