Should CI be a separate or integrated part of the product/commercial process within a firm? Is it better to outsource CI to an expert who can be objective, or set up an in-house CI department, risking being subjective when analysing competitors.
We are probably not the best people to answer this sort of question, as our vested interests are to encourage CI outsourcing. However we will try and be objective! :-)
The first thing to realise is that it is not the external CI expert who loses out if an organization's strategy goes awry. It is the organization's own officers and management who have this responsibility. So outsourcing functions should only occur where there are clear benefits to the organization.
In the case of CI a considerable amount of key intelligence will be held within the firm itself. This will come from the experience of employees and the contacts they make. Competitive information is likely to be picked up during the sales processes, for example. Thus there is a real risk that this kind of information will be lost when outsourcing CI to an external consultant, unless this consultant is seconded onto the staff, and works within the company on a daily basis. If this is the case, then why not employ somebody rather than use the consultant. (See question 30 for an FAQ on recruiting competitive intelligence analysts).
Having said this, there is always the risk that in-house people will be subjective in their analysis. This needs to be guarded against, and part of the role of internal CI staff is to be aware of corporate assumptions, and to challenge these and any industry myths or taboos that exist. This is one role where external consultants can add value, as they can give a reality check on what the in-house staff are doing.
Other areas where I believe external consultants should be considered is when specialist skills are needed which are not available in-house, or where there is a project with a tight deadline with insufficient staff available to satisfy the request in the time allowed. External experts should also be used when it is important to protect the identity of the client company. In this case it is crucial to insist that the expert concerned complies with ethical codes, and does not misrepresent themselves or their clients interests.
In summary, there is a role for outsourcing some CI, but CI is too important and integral a business function to be outsourced totally. It needs to be handled, to some degree, in-house. In this context, part of AWARE's mission is to help companies become more self-sufficient so that they can do most of their competitive intelligence research & analysis themselves. Rather than encourage clients to pass all their work to us, we prefer to train the client in the best ways of finding and analysing intelligence - passing to us only those aspects that they cannot do themselves for the types of reasons mentioned above. Hence we offer a range of training programmes and for clients without a CI department or with only a basic CI function we offer various services aimed at helping clients make their CI processes more effective.
Note: This FAQ was originally published in the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professional's membership magazine (Competitive Intelligence Magazine - Jul-Aug 2002)
