Almost any business operates in a competitive environment. It is believed that availability is good for both the business and their customers. constantly encourages development. In order for an organization to work effectively in the market, it is important to provide it with proper information about competitors, partners, and so on. For these purposes, competitive intelligence is used.

What is Competitive Intelligence

Competitive intelligence is the collection of information for the effective decision-making of the organization. The purpose of competitive intelligence is to increase the competitiveness and efficiency of an organization or its individual units. There are also concepts of business intelligence, business intelligence, marketing, and others. In English, this concept is commonly referred to as Competitive Intelligence (CI).

Competitive intelligence can be used to study best practices from competitors. What are your colleagues in other organizations doing, what products are they preparing to launch on the market? What will be the prices and promotions? Having this information can help your organization operate more effectively.

Moreover, the study of counterparties is carried out not only within the framework of competing organizations, but also in relation to partners. Studying the reputation of a new client, checking counterparties is a normal business practice. This is an important step in order not to lose money with a shell company.

business intelligence can be made using different channels of information. You can, for example, act as a mystery shopper and find out the prices of your competitors. It is possible to collect information from open sources - the Internet, a corporate website, social network, blog on youtube and so on.

Competitive intelligence solves the following tasks:

search for favorable opportunities in the market;
analysis of possible risks and threats for business and taking countermeasures;
collection of information for effective decision making.

commercial intelligence may be tactical (operational) or may be strategic.

Business (competitive intelligence) uses legitimate means of collecting information and complies with ethical standards.

There is a fine line between competitive intelligence and industrial espionage. Competitive intelligence is legal, but industrial espionage is neither legal nor ethical.

Competitive intelligence in recruitment

Competitive intelligence is essentially the analytical work of a manager. When making any commercial decision, an entrepreneur must weigh the pros and cons. And, for example, when hiring staff - make inquiries about him from colleagues in the market. And at the interview itself, find out information from a potential employee about the companies in which he works or has worked before.

In a market economy, for effective management, the head of an enterprise needs objective and comprehensive information in the segment of the market he occupies about changes in the plans, strategies and behavior of competitors, and other data, including macroeconomic processes, fluctuations in supply and demand in the market, on the introduction of new technologies and achievements of science in industrial production.

Development of the information environment in Russian Federation, legal aspects of the availability of information and its use in the interests of entrepreneurship predetermined the relevance of the chosen topic: "Competitive intelligence is a feature of its implementation by modern Russian enterprises."

The role of information, its timeliness and reliability is essential for successful business. With the development of the structure of the business environment, new departments and directions for the provision of predominantly information services appear, which ensure the successful operation of the enterprise as a whole.

One of the areas for obtaining information in the interests of the enterprise is the activity of competitive intelligence. In my opinion, the main activities or tasks of competitive intelligence are as follows:

1. provide the head, who determines the company's policy, with objective, timely and complete information about the position of the enterprise in a competitive environment;

2. timely warning of the head of all adverse possible changes in the business environment so that, on the basis of any information worthy of attention, the head could make the only correct management decision;

3. search for new niches, opportunities.

In their activities, competitive intelligence officers are faced with the need to process a large amount of information of the most diverse nature. The ability to navigate the flow of new information and data in order to properly organize their activities is an extremely important element in the work of each structural unit.

The professionalism of the manager and his personal responsibility for management decisions largely depend on his awareness of the internal strengths and weaknesses of the company and his readiness and ability to optimally use competitive intelligence data in the context of the general situation.

One of the features of the activity of competitive intelligence is the fiduciary (personal-confidential), individual nature between the head of the enterprise and the executor. These legal relationships can be based on labor obligations, if the competitive intelligence department is located in the structure of the enterprise, or on another contract (usually on a contract paid provision services), if the contractor is an independent entity(or a private security company).

For a mutual understanding of the problem, it is necessary to imagine which factors can have the most significant impact on the subject that is currently being studied. The intelligence gathering cycle consists of four basic elements:

1. choose (determine) what exactly you need to know;

2. collect information and verify its authenticity;

3. transform the collected information into the final product (data);

4. Ensure timely delivery of this final product to those who determine the policy of the enterprise.

The information provided by the competitive intelligence unit should be able to predict the actions of competitors' enterprises. It should be taken into account that this information is subject to continuous rechecking in the dynamics of its development, taking into account changes in the competitive environment.

Competitive intelligence is an important part strategic planning. The activities of the competitive intelligence unit can be attributed to the mechanism that allows the company to make a good strategic plan and execute it, taking into account the constant changes in the business environment.

The key role of the analytical component of management based on preliminary and objective information was the prerequisite for activities related to the receipt, collection and processing of this information.

The purpose of the study is to analyze the definition of the place and the role of competitive intelligence in ensuring the interests of business in the Russian Federation. To achieve this goal, the following tasks were set:

– to study the principles of competitive intelligence;

– to determine the ways of collecting, analyzing and processing information:

– display legitimate, ethical opportunities for collecting information in modern Russia.

The practical significance of the work lies in the study of questions about the activities of competitive intelligence:

disclosure of the principles of competitive intelligence activities,

the process of competitive intelligence activities (from setting a task to bringing information to the head of the enterprise)

features of obtaining information in the conditions of the Russian Federation,

This work consists of an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion and a list of references.

Theoretical aspects competitive intelligence

1.1 The role and place of competitive intelligence in the business management system

Obtaining information, including information related to the business environment, refers to intelligence activities.

The term "intelligence" in the broad sense of the word means, on the one hand, the activity of a subject (from a person, an organized group of people to a state as a whole) to obtain information about existing and potential threats to its existence and interests, that is, about an existing or potential adversary , and on the other hand, organizational structure, forces and means to carry out this activity.

There are many types of intelligence, but we are only interested in:

· Competitive intelligence.

· Business intelligence.

· Spying.

· Economic intelligence.

· Benchmarking.

· Business intelligence.

Competitive intelligence is a strategic management tool that allows top management to identify the main trends in market situations through planned actions to systematically and ethically collect, analyze and manage information about the external environment that can affect the implementation of the company's plans and its work as a whole.

Business intelligence is a management tool that allows you to obtain information:

A) for the successful survival and development of the enterprise in a difficult competitive struggle

B) to make optimal management decisions senior management of the company

C) about the intentions of partners, customers and counterparties, about strong and weaknesses competitors, their know-how;

D) about facts that influence the position of opponents during business negotiations;

D) about the possible occurrence of crisis situations;

E) on the progress of the implementation of concluded agreements and agreements reached earlier, etc.

According to L.D. Shared business intelligence includes the following areas: marketing intelligence, competitive intelligence, espionage, benchmarking.

Espionage - view unfair competition, the activity of illegally obtaining and eliciting information representing the production and business secrets of competitors, their trade secrets, from sources closed from wide access (and unauthorized persons) in the interests of achieving economic benefits and advantages.

Benchmarking is a type of activity for searching and obtaining information to compare the organization of business processes in one's own company with similar procedures in other, more successful enterprises.

The difference between competitive intelligence and industrial espionage is that competitive intelligence is carried out within the framework of existing legal norms, and its results are obtained through the analytical processing of a huge amount of various open information materials. The emergence of new information technologies(network structures such as the Internet, commercial databases, information retrieval systems, etc.) and the relative cheapness of access to information resources allow competitive intelligence analysts to prepare high-quality materials suitable for decision-making by company management. Methods of industrial espionage are focused on the use of all available means to obtain the desired information, including both direct violation of laws and unethical methods (deception, dissemination of compromising information, extortion, etc.). Business intelligence methods exclude the use of criminal means, and are more focused on civilized ways of doing business. However, the line between ethical and unethical methods of conducting business intelligence (albeit subject to observance in both cases existing laws) remains very blurry.

In today's Russia, industrial espionage and business intelligence exist mostly in an inseparable form, representing a kind of symbiosis of open, legally permitted and hidden, illegal methods of obtaining economic information.

Economic intelligence is a set of coordinated actions to obtain, interpret, disseminate and protect information that is useful for non-state economic actors and obtained legally and under the best conditions in terms of quality, timing and costs.

Economic intelligence is a narrower direction in obtaining and using information, since it does not consider the competitive environment as a whole. Competitive intelligence, on the other hand, is a strategic management tool. At the same time, economic intelligence protects information, which is not typical for competitive intelligence.

Competitive intelligence - marketing tool studying the competitive environment, which is a targeted collection of information about competitors for making managerial decisions on further strategy and tactics of doing business.

The concept of competition is a scheme of external factors of influence that carry both prospects and threats to business.

Therefore, the concept of competitive intelligence should be extended not only to existing companies that sell similar goods or services, but also potential competitors in the future, and also partly on suppliers and customers.

Information about counterparties can become a significant competitive advantage, and the extraction of insider information is a separate marketing task.

The purpose of competitive intelligence is only the actual extraction of information, and not its analysis. Analysis is present only as a tool for extracting the necessary information from indirect data.

Competitive intelligence tasks are an auxiliary information function of the add-on marketing analysis for the purposes of strategic management.

At the same time, it is always taken into account that counteracting a competitor is preferable to copying it, because the "outrun" strategy is more profitable in the long run than the "catch up" strategy. In addition, we must remember that each ruble taken from a competitor, in contrast to income from the development of unoccupied niches, brings not only extra income, but also takes away the income of a competitor, which weakens him in the competition. And competitive intelligence is aimed, most often, at strengthening the negative tendencies of a competitor, while the rest of marketing is looking for new niches.

In some activities, the commercial collection of information about companies is integral part business process, for example, in marketing, journalism, consulting and recruiting.

Objectives of competitive intelligence:

Determination of the true strategy of competitors to adjust their own strategy

True strategy rarely aligns with the mission of the company. Understanding the direction of a competitor's trend line makes it possible to determine how successful competition will be in this field of activity in the future. Perhaps the project should be accelerated in the direction of the competitor in order to take this field first, or perhaps one should not start a certain project, but use resources to occupy another market niche.

Determining the potential of competitors (about their strengths and weaknesses) to adjust their own strategy

A company can do one thing and only one thing really well. Like it or not, the buyer believes it. So knowing what your competitors are really doing well is a warning against competing in that field and deciding to move your efforts in another direction. Knowledge of weaknesses is essential to discredit a competitor, especially if it is presented to them as competitive advantage.

Determination of organizational, financial, technical and other ways to provide competitive advantages for the purposes of possible copying or neutralization.

The way business is carried out can constitute a significant competitive advantage. Parts of a set of measures or tools that make the production of a product or service cheaper or better are most often copied, depreciating this very advantage. The list of these solutions is quite extensive and is called the common word "technology".

Assessment of the total market capacity through the sum of competitors' shares to assess the state of the industry by changing dynamics

A change in the overall market capacity allows us to understand the correctness of our own actions: if the market capacity grows, and our sales volume remains unchanged, then something is being done wrong, and competitors are potentially winning our market share. If the market capacity is reduced, and the volume of sales is unchanged, then it is growing in relative volume and we are doing everything right. The easiest way to determine the guaranteed market capacity based on the fact of the total sales of all market participants.

Assessment of the degree of profitability of the terms of cooperation with certain suppliers and buyers

Knowledge of the terms of supply and sales helps to correctly determine their own field of bargaining with both. This is the most popular subject of competitive intelligence and exists, in one form or another, in every company.

Tasks of competitive intelligence:

Competitive intelligence most often solves the problem of finding out very specific indicators and circumstances, most often in the form of instructions from the management "to find out - how can they? Why can they, but we can't?" ours, in three shifts without days off, by the forces of illegal emigrants, thus reducing different ways share of overheads in the price.

Identifying a Competitor's Key Unique Selling Proposition

In the head of the consumer, one, or at most two, associations of the trademark and the quality that defines it are fixed. If Windows is the most feature rich system, then competing in this field will require enormous financial resources. The USP can be partially neutralized by adding a second one, which is an inherent disadvantage, for example, “constantly hangs”, or by contrasting the quality in another plane - “Linux is free operating system". Not always the USP is widely known - it may not coincide with the declared one. The real USP of Windows is a wide range of compatible applications, provided by its monopoly position in the market. It is the clarification of the real USP that is the subject of competitive intelligence.

Definition pricing policy competitor

The most common marketing tool is monitoring competitor prices. The subject of intelligence is not a price list, but a table of discount coefficients for it. In the field of b2b, this is most often classified information, carefully camouflaged with a system of individual discounts and bonuses. The smaller the client market, the more difficult it is to find out the prices, the more unique they are for each of the clients. Competitive intelligence is especially important when participating in tenders.

Determining how to promote activities or products

The distribution method, the sales organization, can be copied, and the main and additional distribution channels can be "beaten off". The most successful payment schemes sales representatives, discount and reward systems, little-known distribution channels, new markets, the prospects of which have been proven with the funds of the marketing department of competitors - all this is a subject of interest.

Determining the line of development of a competitor

What direction is the competitor developing most actively and why, is it worth fighting with him in this field, what will he easily “surrender”, and what will he fight for “until the last bullet” - everything you need to know when planning your own development strategy. Perhaps you are just about to get into PIN vending machines, at which time staff has already been recruited in the same department of the largest Internet provider in your area. Does it make sense to fight?

Determining the range of real competitive advantages

Knowing the strengths of a competitor allows, at least, to avoid stupidity in discrediting a competitor, directing efforts to obvious advantages. They should nobly agree and exalt and improve the more important, from your point of view, benefits of cooperation.

Determining the range of significant shortcomings of a competitor

This knowledge, which is especially unknown to clients, impresses them when it is voiced. In addition, a competitor's weakness, especially if it is inherent, is a field for development and promotion of one's own advantage. "We have a shorter queue" - a classic parry of a small company against a large one.

Determination of the circle and conditions of cooperation of contractors-suppliers of a competitor

Knowledge of prices, deferred payment, the amount of commodity lending, and similar conditions for cooperation makes it possible to achieve conditions for oneself no worse than those of competitors, or, at least, determines the edge of competitive opportunities

Determination of the circle and conditions of cooperation of counterparties-buyers of a competitor

The same is true for clients. Buyers often, if not always, exaggerate the merits of doing business with your competitors in order to get what they want, not what they can.

Determining the range and conditions of cooperation of counterparties of the competitor's service

Suppliers that serve the business of competitors, such as transport companies, provide communication, provide rent, affect the overall level of spending. Surely among them there are very successful solutions that you yourself did not expect.

Determination of a group of key counterparties of a competitor

Knowledge of a competitor's key customer group is essential when planning your own sales. Usually they "do not encroach" on them, because this is a war not for life but for death. But if the war suddenly broke out, this knowledge will also help to strike the strongest blow.

Identification of key persons of the competitor organization and their real status

It happens that the director of the company decides little, and the fifty-fifth deputy influences the policy of the company. The definition of top personnel can help predict the future policy of a competitor, based on psychological characteristics, helps to better understand the boundaries of a competitor's possible actions. The impact on "agents of influence" is sometimes technically simpler and more effective than on the management of a competing company.

Identification of external key supporters and the degree of their connection

Identification of personalities, supporting the competitor and providing him with administrative, financial and other resources, allows you to know the limits of the competitor's capabilities and makes it possible to weaken or even destroy these ties. It even happens that everything "rests" on them, it is enough to quarrel them for the complete destruction of a competitor. To do this, it is necessary to know the nature of this connection. The most stable ties are family ties, backed up by mutual financial obligations.

Determination of sources of current financing of a competitor

Source of occurrence initial capital and funds for development - bank loans, private loans, own investments - determines the margin of financial stability of a competitor and, as a rule, clarifies the previous point.

Assessment of the prospects for investment financial resources of a competitor

The ability to attract additional loans, loans, and investments determines the financial capabilities of a competitor, which makes it possible to predict its development. The possibility or impossibility of borrowing money on time can decide the outcome of both the battle and the entire war.

Determining the structure of income by type of activity or product

Determining the amount and structure of revenue allows you to judge the stability, priorities and main "food area" of a competitor. If the main income consulting firm bring audit services, it can afford the promotion of legal reference systems both at dumping prices, and calmly part with this direction in the future.

Determining the cost structure by activity and product

The cost structure allows you to judge how the competitor manages its own resources, and, taking into account the previous paragraph, compare them with your own, determine the amount of profitability of the activity and each of the competitor's products. Competitor pricing is easy to predict with this information. High fixed costs a competitor can thoroughly knock him down in a price war.

Determining the profitability of activities or products

The performance of products allows for comparative analysis to improve their own performance, and also shows the limits of competition. With a profitability of 15%, the competitor has the same discount threshold - then you know that he will work at a loss.

Determination of the mechanism and structure of creating added value in the context of the enterprise's economy

Knowing the nature and location of added value, you can easily predict what a competitor will fight hardest for, where you can do him the most damage if necessary. For example, the main income of many enterprises in the West is the "inflated" exchange growth of the enterprise's shares on the stock market, and not at all the profit of activity.

Determination of the structure of business processes for creating added value in the context of procedural implementation

Where and at what moment the greatest added value arises allows us to judge what the competitor will "hold on to", what is well organized, and where its weak points are. You may easily be sold an oil refinery, but not gas stations. It must be remembered that in business, unprofitable sites become unprofitable much more easily than profitable ones.

Definition of plans technical development activity or product

The detection of technical innovations, commonly referred to as industrial espionage, allows either copying or countering their introduction to the market. It is the theft of technical solutions, technologies and inventions that is most often called competitive intelligence.

Classification of methods:

Direct and indirect

Direct methods are called methods of obtaining information of direct interest. For example, getting sales volume from a quarterly report joint-stock company published in the media is a direct method.

An indirect method is a method of calculating an indicator of interest from others related to it. Most competitive intelligence methods are indirect because indirect data is more readily available.

For example, the amount of real profit is easily extracted from the official cash flow statement, because revenue data is most often reliable, and expenses can be determined from common sense by calculating the necessary organizational resources and their market value.

Surveillance and infiltration

Surveillance is called outdoor without contact with representatives of a competitor, as they say, at a distance. Any method that uses contacts with members of a competing organization is associated with an invasion of it. You can’t see much from afar, so most competitive intelligence methods involve obtaining information from employees of a competitor’s company under some plausible pretext, more or less common in ordinary business life. It is better, of course, to carry out penetration not by the forces of your own personnel, but by forces attracted by employees consulting companies, carrying out this kind of service, or acquaintances, friends and relatives, at worst. In especially serious cases - preferably residents from another city.

In lies, a sense of proportion must be strictly observed.

All contacts are best made with a tired intonation in your voice. Lazily slow speech makes it possible to hide interest and time for reflection if you are asked a question to which you have not thought out the answer.

Competitive intelligence techniques:

A list of fundamentally possible methods and techniques is given below without description, since they are so diverse and their number is so large that an entire chapter can be devoted to each of them. Therefore, in order to save printing space, the detailed description has been omitted.

Collection of information from open sources

Open sources - print media, the Internet, various professional meetings, industry reports, reports submitted to government bodies that are not commercial secrets. The larger the object of competitive intelligence, the more information about it in open sources.

Collection of non-public information

The less known the competitor, the less information about him in open sources. Most often, you have to look for information in the immediate vicinity of a competitor or directly from him.

Here a lot depends on the artistry of the "scout". The ability to inspire confidence, provoke not the best feelings, vanity, in the first place, provides more than half of the success.

Starting from this point, the implementation of techniques makes sense if "at stake" are very, very significant amounts. Only interests worth millions of "non-Russian" rubles can justify spending several thousand dollars.

Methods, starting from point 19, violate both the Laws "On Commercial Secrets", "On Banking", "On Police", "On public service", and the criminal code in terms of invasion of privacy, illegal entry into the premises, illegal access to information systems, abuse of power, illegal entrepreneurial activity, as well as more serious crimes related to recruitment - blackmail, threat of violence, bribery.

Therefore, these methods are given for cognitive and informational purposes, as well as the organization of counteraction and their use is strongly discouraged.

government bodies

information system

It should be noted that in order to recognize information as reliable, it is necessary to match it from two or three different sources.

This article is devoted to the practical application of competitive intelligence technologies and tools on the Internet. In the course of the study, the classification of information search tools on the Internet, which can be applied in order to increase competitiveness, is considered in detail. various organizations. As a result of a detailed analysis, the main tools of competitive intelligence on the Internet are identified and their distribution by groups is given. The correct selection of such tools contributes to the formation of a universal system that allows not only to assess the competitiveness of the organization at the current moment, but also to obtain an adequate assessment of the position of competing organizations in the market. In addition, such a system allows you to respond in a timely manner to rapidly changing operating conditions. Thus, a competitive intelligence system using the Internet should be customized to the specifics of the company's activities, and should also include flexible search mechanisms, prompt delivery data and qualitative assessment of information.

information

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1. Averchenkov V.I. Monitoring and system analysis of information on the Internet: monograph [electronic resource] / V.I. Averchenkov, S.M. Roshchin. - 2nd ed., stereotype. – M.: FLINTA, 2011. – 160 p.

2. Bogomolova I.P. Analysis of the formation of the category competitiveness as a factor in the market superiority of economic objects // Marketing in Russia and abroad. - 2013. - No. 1. - C. 25.

3. Vasyukova S.A. Economic intelligence and counterintelligence - elements of a modern market economy // Scientific session of MEPhI. - 2010. - V.3. - S. 177-178.

4. Martic A. Through knowledge - to the stars // Management of the company. - 2001. - No. 5. - http://management.web-standart.net/ article0$id!13211.htm.

5. LotusSoftware from IBM offers a new solution for knowledge management systems. – http://www.ibm.com/ru/news/nfolder/ 31_10_01_02.html (request date 04/20/2015).

6. Divnenko Z.A., Maslov D.G. Analysis of the categories “competition” and “competitive intelligence” as enhancing factors of enterprises’ competitiveness / Z.A. Divnenko, D.G. Maslov // Models, systems, networks in economics, technology, nature and society. - 2015. - No. 1 (13). – C. 8–12.

Modern needs for business intelligence and counterintelligence, ensuring specific aspects of business security have led to the development of an entire industry. New economic relations in Russia force the participants in this turbulent process to form effective development strategies.

Mostly useful information of an intelligence nature is obtained from secret sources, but in practice this is far from being the case. Sometimes up to 95% of information can be gleaned from open sources, you just need to properly organize their study.

As in any other activity, the effectiveness of economic (competitive) intelligence is determined according to the "cost-effect" scheme. For reconnaissance, three types of effect can be named:

1) profit;

2) cost savings;

3) prevention of material and moral damage.

Sometimes when low cost and high efficiency, it is possible to achieve significant results, preventing financial and moral losses of the enterprise. You can give an example of how, by paying about $500 and spending only three weeks, the security officers of an American enterprise prevented losses in the amount of $450,000. In a certificate prepared by employees after the reconnaissance, a recommendation was made to refuse cooperation with a company that offered a seemingly profitable deal, for the following reasons:

The firm exists only half a year;

Registered by "purchased" legal address, on which many other firms are registered;

The management of the company used to be engaged in a completely different kind of activity and suffered significant losses;

The firm has never entered into the proposed deals before;

The staff consists of only two people and occupies a rather modest office in a small town, etc. .

The system of competitive intelligence of an enterprise gives a kind of multiplicative effect, combining the interests of providing economic security enterprises with the solution of marketing issues, since on its basis an effective economic policy of the enterprise is developed.

Information is the most expensive commodity in the world. States are creating formal structures to ensure timely receipt and storage of information, enterprises feel the need for modern technologies information analysis, constant updating software tools ensuring security and maximum integration of the entire system of analysis, processing and application of constantly updated information of various kinds.

The level of competitiveness of the enterprise is largely ensured by a well-organized collection system business information which forms the basis for making managerial decisions, strategic planning, marketing research and PR companies.

Competitive intelligence - essential tool minimizing risks and ensuring profits, since in a certain sense it is an “early warning” system about the intentions of competitors, possible turns and changes in the market, and the possible results of the impact of political technologies on entrepreneurial activity.

A great help for an effective system for increasing the competitiveness of an organization is the creation of a single integrated data bank using modern computer technologies, where all information from open and confidential sources is accumulated.

Due to the rapid development of the global Internet and the strengthening of its influence on the activities of enterprises and organizations, an increase in the number of information resources It is competitive intelligence on the Internet that has become the most important function of modern management and the main condition for the dynamic development of business.

Knowledge of the principles of competitive intelligence on the Internet and the practical application of special search engines are necessary in the work of any enterprise.

The existing means of searching for information on the Internet can be divided into several groups:

Catalogs;

Information retrieval systems;

Metasearch systems;

Monitoring and content analysis systems;

Extractors of objects, events and facts;

Knowledge management systems (DataMining, TextMining);

Specialized competitive intelligence systems.

The catalog is a hierarchical system that provides information classification. Catalogs do not work with indexes, but with descriptions of Internet resources. They are filled with Webmasters or special editors who view the information resources of the Web. A typical example of using the catalog is the need to find a group of information resources on the Internet on a certain insufficiently narrow topic, for example, sites that provide contact information for organizations. The most developed directories today are Yahoo!, OpenDirectory, Yandex.

An information retrieval system (IPS) is a system that selects, indexes, and searches for information based on an index. Search engines should be used when it is required to find information on specific topics or to ensure complete coverage of resources. An example of the use of information retrieval systems in the search may be the requirements to find the site of a particular organization or give an answer to a question. The leading ISs are Google, Yandex, MSN and others.

Metasearch engines are add-ons for search engines and electronic catalogs, which do not have their own database (index) and, when searching according to the user's search prescription, independently form queries for several external search tools, and then analyze the results and issue a list of links in the order determined by the ratio of response ratings for several search tools at once.

The most significant metasearch engines are MetaCrawler and MetaBot.ru. Their main advantage lies in the ability to send queries entered into them to other systems, and then summarize the results. This guarantees the "objectivity" and "completeness" of the results obtained, however, given the differences in approaches to the processing of terms by different systems, the result may not always be relevant to the query. Metasearch engines are most effective on early stages information search. They help localize search tools that contain information about the information the user is looking for.

Monitoring and content analysis systems provide regular search and "download" of information on given topics and from given sites, as well as analysis of the content of the received documents. Such systems generally have a developed query language, which allows you to significantly detail and specify queries in comparison with conventional search engines. Also, such systems store in their databases the full texts of source documents, which ensures the safety of these documents in time and the possibility of their processing and content analysis both in the current time and in the future. A significant advantage of such systems is that complex queries, consisting of tens or hundreds of search words and expressions, once compiled by an expert analyst subject area, can be saved as a cataloged query or rubric and later called automatically or manually from the saved list for search or content analysis.

If monitoring systems can extract known objects put on monitoring from the information flow, then extractors of objects, events and facts are able to extract previously unknown objects, events or facts from the information flow that correspond to a certain predefined type.

Knowledge management systems are designed to automatically analyze and find relationships between documents, people and information throughout an organization.

Knowledge management refers to a set of strategies and processes for identifying, acquiring, disseminating, using, controlling and sharing the knowledge necessary to ensure the competitiveness of an organization.

These systems are able to identify new knowledge and patterns. For example, the system can independently, without human intervention, draw a conclusion about the fact of acquaintance between people, based on the data available in the system about their graduation from the same school and the same class in the same locality. Examples of knowledge management systems are KnowledgeDiscoverySystem and SharePointPortalServer.

Specialized systems for competitive intelligence may include one or more of the search tools listed above, specially "sharpened" for these specific tasks. In addition, the needs of competitive intelligence suggest as information sources, in addition to full-text documents from the Internet, also databases available on the Web, own documents, tables and databases belonging to the structure, as well as formalized and non-formalized documents and databases obtained from other sources. .

Specialized systems include systems that search for:

Files (for example, FileSearch.ru, Files.ru;

News in electronic media (for example, Yandex News, moreover);

Goods in certain types of stores (book or computer) (for example, Yandex Goods, Torg.ru);

People (for example, People on the Web, Russia White Pages, Yahoo! PeopleSearch;

Information in music archives (for example, MP3Search);

Pictures (for example, Yandex Pictures, Google Image Search);

In catalogs of regional resources (for example, Yandex Regions, Bryansk Weblist of Emel, etc.).

After analyzing the main competitive intelligence tools on the Internet, the following groups can be distinguished:

1. Mention tracking tools (Google Alerts, SocialMention, Marketing Grader).

3. Analysis and monitoring keywords(Competitive Research & Keyword Research Gadget, Google Keyword Planner, Monitor Backlinks, SEMRush, SpyFu, The Search Monitor, iSpionage).

6. Checking the link mass, backlinks and likbilding (Majestic SEO, Ontolo, LinkProspector, OpenSiteExplorer).

7. Universal tools (SimplyMeasured).

Properly selected competitive intelligence tools on the Internet form a universal system that will allow the company's management to quickly respond to changes in the market situation, assess risks and opportunities, predict them and, as a result, make the right management decisions.

The main purpose of competitive intelligence systems is to Information Support transition from traditional intuitive decision-making based on insufficient information to management based on reliable forecasts and knowledge.

According to the information processing cycle in the classical scheme of the information intelligence cycle, the system we are considering must independently or with the participation of the operator provide:

Choice of topics and areas of intelligence interest (target designation);

Selection of information sources (websites, blogs, forums, etc.);

Automatic search and download of information in the specified areas of monitoring and specified sources according to the planned schedule (planning and data collection);

Processing the collected data and turning it into information;

Content analysis and synthesis of information - its transformation into knowledge;

Timely delivery of information to end users.

Of course, a competitive intelligence system that uses the Internet as one of the sources of information should be adjusted to the specifics of the company's activities, and should also include an appropriate classification, flexible search mechanisms, prompt delivery of data and qualitative information assessment.

Recently, the arsenal of competitive intelligence methods has been significantly enriched, which makes it possible, if necessary, to conduct a comprehensive comparative analysis of performance indicators and business processes with the selected competitor in order to improve work management company. Information about the results of other people's applied and fundamental research allows you to save your own strength and money and focus all your attention on production and marketing. The further development of the scientific and technological process, the increase in the flow of patents and the tightening of competition as a “war of all against all” makes the development of a competitive intelligence system more and more relevant.

Modern approaches to the study of the essence and methods of competition are embodied in new concepts strategic management when various ways to achieve market leadership are developed and put into practice. These aspects of competition theory may be of interest to Russian companies which are at the stage of strengthening their positions in the global and regional markets.

Reviewers:

Vinnichek L.B., Doctor of Economics, Professor, Head. department "Organization and informatization of production", Penza State Agricultural Academy, Penza;

Khrustalev B.B., Doctor of Economics, Professor, Head. Department of "Economics, organization and management of production", Penza State University architecture and construction, Penza.

Bibliographic link

Maslov D.G., Tuskov A.A., Divnenko Z.A., Yudina E.S. COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE ON THE INTERNET: TECHNOLOGIES AND INFORMATION SEARCH TOOLS // Fundamental Research. - 2015. - No. 5-3. – P. 631-634;
URL: http://fundamental-research.ru/ru/article/view?id=38312 (date of access: 02/27/2020). We bring to your attention the journals published by the publishing house "Academy of Natural History"

BUSINESS (COMPETITIVE) INTELLIGENCE

As a result of studying the chapter, the student must:

know

basic concepts, role and place of business (competitive) intelligence in the field of economic activity of the enterprise;

be able to

Differentiate the basic principles of collection, accumulation, processing and analysis of intelligence information;

own

the basics of the methodology for studying competitive markets, goods, works and services, using linear and non-linear methods of analysis;
basic methodology for studying the external environment of an enterprise in the interests of solving production tasks and strategic development business.

Relationship between marketing and business intelligence

Terms such as “marketing intelligence”, “industrial espionage”, “business, competitive and business intelligence” often appear in the business literature. What is it - the transfer of military methods to business, synonyms for the same concept or different types activity? In fact, no unambiguous approach to these issues has been developed so far. Most likely, approaches to this issue in most cases, they are related to the profession of a researcher, his positioning within the business. Marketing and business (competitive) intelligence systems are usually offered by experts in marketing, risk management and security. And this is natural, because representatives of these professions are called upon to study the external business environment in all its diversity.

For example, the well-known marketing specialist Philip Kotler introduced the concept of “marketing intelligence” into business use - everyday information about research in the marketing environment that helps managers create and improve marketing plans. At the same time, many understand marketing as advertising and sales, while others understand it as a set of activities aimed at meeting the needs of customers. In any case, for successful sale of its goods, works and services, the company must understand the preferences of its potential clients, know the market situation and have information about the forms and methods of market behavior of their competitors .

Large and small research companies operate in the market for such information, they provide the data necessary for marketing research on a wide range of issues. For example, Dun & Bradstreet, one of the largest companies in this market, sells information about the share of branded goods in the markets, retail prices and stores offering goods of various trademarks. System Info Act Workstation provides an opportunity at the workplace to receive electronic data from three sources: Retail Index(sales of consumer goods and their storage conditions), Key Account Scantrack(weekly analysis of sales, price elasticity and product promotion efficiency), Homescan(list of new consumer goods). Services named and others international agencies are currently providing the market with over 500 legitimate databases. In our country, there are state databases that are open to users. For several years now, there has been an institute of credit histories, which allows confirming the reputation of borrowers and accumulating extensive information about individuals and legal entities in individual bureaus.

Risk management specialist Benjamin Gilad believes that in an uncertain business environment and dynamic industry markets, some of the daily events can significantly affect the state of the business, the amount of income and the amount of unexpected losses. Some corporations, while paying significant attention to the financial vulnerability of business, overlooked the serious problems of increasing industry dissonance. Such situations really necessitated the monitoring of industry markets in terms of key parameters in order to form a corporate early warning systems .

It should also be taken into account that marketing in various fields of activity has its own industry characteristics, its own prioritization, its own specifics of the study of the marketing environment. At the same time, in the microenvironment of the enterprise, which is the most important for it due to the presence of consumers, competitors, suppliers and other contact groups in it, research is carried out using well-known methods.

So, the method of M. Porter (Fig. 11.1) allows you to calculate the competitiveness of a company based on a number of the following factors:

1) external competitive advantage - based on distinctive qualities, product differentiation, which create value for the buyer and can increase market power;

2) internal competitive advantage - is based on the superiority of the firm in the field of production costs, which will create value for the manufacturer, i.e. allows you to achieve the cost of goods, less than that of another manufacturer (competitor).

Rice. 11.1.

Oligopoly is a market situation characterized by a small number of competitors or a few dominant firms, which creates a strong interdependence. In this case, the relationship between competitors is stronger, the lower the product differentiation.

Monopolistic competition is characterized by a large number of competitors whose forces are balanced and whose products are differentiated. In such a market, a company can create a competitive advantage based on one of two alternative strategies, as discussed above: differentiation and cost advantage.

The features of competition are also influenced by the characteristics of each industry market. A special place is occupied by such types of marketing as marketing in the consumer market, industrial marketing, marketing of services, insurance and banking marketing, marketing of information and reference resources. At the same time, as studies show, in any known markets, their participants are affected by five competitive forces - competitive pressure: 1) market power; 2) other industries in the struggle for the best position; 3) potential competitors who can enter this market and have an impact on its participants; 4) buyers; 5) suppliers.

Business (competitive) intelligence, although similar to marketing in terms of searching and analyzing market information, is a different area of business activity, namely, observing competitors, collecting, delivering, processing, evaluating and disseminating actuarial information about the strengths and weaknesses of competitors ; discovering, identifying, analyzing and predicting their true intentions; warning about dangerous points in a mutual clash of rivals, up to receiving proactive information about possible attempts to commit aggressive actions.

Marketing intelligence is designed to study the marketing environment in order to develop tools for promoting the enterprise own works, goods and services in competitive markets. Business (competitive) intelligence is designed to collect and analyze information that helps protect the interests of the enterprise from the risks and threats of the external environment. Business intelligence is not always competitive, since its forms and methods of activity are used not only in the sense of competition in the external environment of the enterprise. In some cases, business intelligence tools are used to search for and study potential partners with whom various long-term alliances are assumed. business relationship. The range of studying possible partners is much wider and deeper than in the case of standard procedures for studying potential counterparties.

Kotler F., Armstrong G., Saunders J., Wong V. Fundamentals of Marketing. N4.; St. Petersburg; Kyiv: Williams, 1999. S. 355.
Gilad B. Competitive Intelligence. St. Petersburg: Piter, 2010, p. 21.
Kotler F., Armstrong G., Saunders J., Wong V. Fundamentals of Marketing. S. 347.
Mkhitaryan S. V. Industry marketing. S. 14.