This second book (part 2) is dealing with the problems directly related to the use of Competitive Technical Intelligence in industry. The two first chapters present the information society and the knowledge society as a new asset for the corporation. Starting from this point the various points dealing with Competitive Technical Intelligence are considered. The information typology, formal and informal, the cycle of intelligence which relates the main steps of Competitive Technical Intelligence follows. Then, a particular effort is directed to the information system for companies or institutions with various examples dealing with the palm oil industry and the Internet. In these two chapters, the sources of information are detailed and examples of strategies and information uses are presented.
But, the work of the experts the dissemination of information necessitates a system generally based on human skill and workflow technology: the platform to build up knowledge. This aspect is presented with various examples dealing with free access platforms, to help people to practice before taking their final choice.
After these general aspects of Competitive Intelligence, we focus on a more practical subject: the pole of competitiveness. Many countries try to aggregate companies of various sizes working in the same domain. In our example, we developed the pole related to RFID industries (from Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur in France) with the analysis of the companies present in the pole, starting from patents, commercial databases and the Internet.
Because of the complexity of such large clusters, we extended our presentation to the e-enterprise and the intelligent networks which can be develop around them, from customers to co-opetitors, to CRM, call for tender, etc… these networks are now an integral part of the management functions of a company.
The three final chapters of the book deal for one of them with the strategic industrial protection (not on the Intellectual Property point of view, but on the various strategies able to protect an industry), with two main case studies from Indonesia (case of Rattan) and from Philippines (case of geotextiles). For the second we indicated the main steps necessary to create a Competitive Intelligence Unit in your company, with the levers and brakes, and the attitudes to push or to avoid. The last one will presents a global information system (because information is one of the most important part of the Competitive Intelligence Unit, not only for retrieval and dissemination, but to create an actionable knowledge with experts) as a case study.
We hope that these various presentations of the Competitive Intelligence aspects, from the theoretical point of view, to the creation of actionable knowledge, will help the readers to understand why Competitive Intelligence is a stake for most of the countries, regions, institutions and industries. We hope also, that these two books will; be a good guide to facilitate the development of Competitive Intelligence units in various environments.