Clearly, the purpose of any Competitive Intelligence initiative is to collect reliable and accurate information, perform appropriate analysis, formulate or present options for action and/or disseminate the intelligence to those people that can make best use of the information.  The C.I. initiative must also be neutral or business unit independent.  

As a start point the business has some knowledge of its competitors and its CI needs - sometimes there is an absence of a definition information needs or the business may not be able to organize their resources effectively. To avoid these issues an organization may want to perform a detailed C.I. audit.  Effectively this entails a review of its C.I. practice and operations to establish what is in fact known about their competitors, their operations and the competitive environment.

AIM have developed a robust process for auditing the C.I. function, not as a tool to criticise but to provide constructive feedback and highlight blind spots or areas for improvement.

To discuss how a C.I. audit may help your organisation please contact AIM on +44 (0)121 314 4728 or e-mail us here